Kat (Series 6)

February 1, 2013 | By More


 

One thing that stood out for me from the Halo: Reach game, was the inclusion of female Spartan soldiers with distinctly female sets of armor. Sure, there is only one such character in the game, but that didn’t prevent McFarlane Toys from producing a generic pink Spartan as well as a couple of versions of Lieutenant Commander Kat.

 

For the sixth series in the Halo: Reach line, Kat was released with her bare head instead of her Air Assault helmet, keeping the rest of the figure the same as it was from her series 2 release.

 

Kat is different from other Spartans because she is a right-arm amputee, so her armor also provides robotic arm prosthesis. The bare head sculpt is pretty nice, although not quite as close to the digital model of the character as I would expect.

 

Kat has short-cropped hair and a decidedly feminine face, not a beauty, but soft enough to look nice despite the assorted scars sculpted across her cheeks and nose. In fact, she immediately reminded me of the vintage G.I. Joes, the ones without beards, as if they were related.

 

Since this is one mold that has not seen much use in the line, all of the detail appears to be as sharp as ever, and the articulation remains as tight as it was in the earlier releases, although the articulation in the robot arm design differs slightly from the type of joints found on the left arm. Kat has the following:

 

• Barbell jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders

• Hinged elbows with swivels above and below the joint.

• Hinged left wrists with swivels above and below the joint.

• Barbell mounted torso.

• Swivel hips.

• Barbell mounted upper thighs.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Hinged ankles with swivels above and below the joint.

 

Kat’s robotic arm lacks lateral movement at the wrist, and the hand turns at the swivel placed near the elbow joint, while the joints on the left arm are pretty much the same as in other Spartans. The female Spartans also lack the jointed toes and the range of movement from the waist down is slightly less extensive than on the males, but Kat still has a good enough range and actually better stability.

 

The paint applications on my Kat figure are actually neater than in the Series 2 release, and the weathering looks also less haphazard. There are a lot of small markings painted in white and yellow ranging from caution stripes to UNSC insignia all over the armor, and the paint applications to the face are really good, from the discrete lip color to the clear gray gaze.

 

On the other, un-helmeted members of Noble Team released thus far, they either had uncommon weapons one would not mind to have extras of (Jun’s sniper rifle and Jorge’s mini turret) or had an entirely new accessory (Carter’s Spartan Laser), so it is somewhat of a disappointment that Series 6 Kat comes simply armed with her trusty Magnum pistol and one fragmentation grenade.

 

Her pistol comes with a black plastic peg to affix the weapon to either one of her thighs and the grenade has a hole that connects to the pegs sculpted at the back of her waist for such purpose.

 

 

It is generally difficult to recommend figures such as this to non-fans of the line or the games, because in most cases people will prefer to get the helmeted versions, even if in the cut-scenes the members of Noble Team seem to spend as much time without their helmets than with them, but Kat is a pretty solid all around figure and I like the paintjob so much better that I am actually considering buying a second one to switch heads with my older Series 2 Kat.

 

Errex Score: 85/100

 

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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.