Brute Major

December 7, 2012 | By More


 

At a glance, the military ranks in the alien Covenant from the Halo series of games is quite simple. While the ranks system of the Elites and the Grunts tends to get cluttered by very specific specialties, the Brutes seem to do fine by just going with Minors, Majors and Chieftains.

 

Of these ranks, the Brute Major was absent from the Halo: Reach toy line right up until Series 6, the last one before McFarlane Toys made the shift to the X Anniversary and Halo 4 lines.

 

Brute Majors wear a bit more protection than the Brute Minors, but not as much as the Brute Chieftain. The figure is designed using pieces from both of the aforementioned Brute classes, with the majority of the pieces coming from the Brute Minor figure and extra armor pieces glued to torso and limbs.

 

The sculpted detail is excellent all over the figure, consisting of realistic fur textures over the creature and nice, sharp line work over the armored bits. The face of the Brute has a fierce expression that can be slightly changed by adjusting the movable jaw.

 

The articulation is fairly well integrated into the character design, and consists of:

 

• Hinged jaw

• Barbell jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Lower biceps swivel.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Barbell jointed wrists.

• Barbell mounted torso.

• Barbell jointed hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Barbell mounted ankles.

 

Of course, due to the bulk of some of the pieces and the asymmetric distribution or the armor pieces, the movement range is somewhat limited and uneven, with the lower left leg having much less freedom of movement than the right one.

 

McFarlane really delivers great paintjobs on these figures. The predominant color on the armor is bright gold, with a few accents done in dull silver and a few touches of red. The skin looks very realistic and has a nice organic texture enhanced by a very thin shading wash, as well as spots of pinkish discoloration that denote old scars or spots of newly produced epidermis.

 

The Brute Major has a removable helmet and comes armed with a Spiker and a plasma grenade. Even though the removable helmet is more than fine, certainly, I would have hoped for a more interesting weapon than a Spiker to be included with this figure.

 

I mean, the weapon is well crafted and I’m sure it is as close to the digital model used for the game as possible, but the hands of the Brutes are not really designed to grip them firmly and Brutes have nowhere to carry the plasma grenades, other than their open mouths. I would have liked it better if they included another Gravity Hammer with the Major, if McFarlane didn’t want to give us something entirely new, like a Brute Shot.

 

Still, despite these small complaints, the Brute Major is a really good action figure and definitely worth picking up.

 

 

Errex Score: 90/100

 

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Category: Featured, HALO, Toy Reviews, Video Games

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.