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Halo - SDCC07 Wizkids Scarab, McFarlane Toys, and Master Replicas
With the big release of Halo 3 coming up September 25th, the release of the ever increasing amount of Halo merchandise and promotional tie-ins has also been creeping up. At the San Diego Comic-Con some of the upcoming goodies from Wizkids, McFarlane Toys, and Master Replicas were shown on the show floor, some for the first time anywhere. The biggest of this merchandise was easily the Halo ActionClix Scarab which had its big unveiling at the 'con. Not only was this the debut of the Scarab ActionClix, but also the first look at what the Scarab will look like in Halo 3. Measuring 24" x 24" x 20" the Halo ActionClix Scarab is the biggest "miniature" that Wizkids has produced. Although, I'm not so sure if you can really call it a miniature anymore. The reason it's so huge is that it is in-scale with the rest of the Halo ActionClix figures and vehicles. The Scarab on display was surrounded by various Halo ActionClix figures and one of the Warthog vehicles. Seriously, this thing is freaking massive. You could probably eat dinner off of it if you were so inclined. The Scarab available at the show was the battle-damaged version and was a show exclusive. There were only 500 available, each individually numbered. Those that wanted to purchase it needed to get to the Wizkids booth early in the day to get a ticket. A few hours later Wizkids drew the winning ticket numbers. Those that had a winning ticket didn't win the Scarab; they won the opportunity to buy the Scarab. Priced at $250, some winners probably thought that it was just a bit too expensive. Hell, you can buy half of an Xbox 360 for that. Wizkids obviously figured that some winners would either not want to spend the cash, not check if they won, or completely forget that they had won. At 5:00 pm each day (3:00 pm on Sunday) any remaining Scarabs were free game for anyone that wanted one. These same "buy it quick or lose out" rules also applied to the exclusive brown Fin Fang Foom HeroClix figure that cost $90. Fin Fang Foom was pretty cool and if you bought it you could easily bend some rules to have it fight the Scarab in some super ultimate battle of awesome. Those that did give in to $250 of supreme Halo action temptation were told that the Scarab would be shipped to them free of charge in 6-8 weeks. They were also given a tiny version of the Scarab's box to tempt them with for the next month-and-a-half. As an added bonus, purchasers were given two of every regular-sized exclusive Wizkids had at the show. It was nice of Wizkids to thank people for dropping an ass-load of money by giving them a bunch of free stuff. For anyone that didn't get the SDCC exclusive, a retail "undamaged" version of the Scarab will be available in November, but without the battle-damage and numbering. It might also cost the same, so count yourself lucky if you got one at the 'con.
The retail debut of the Halo ActionClix is September 19th. It was also announced that if you pre-order Halo 3 at Target, you'll receive an exclusive two-pack of Halo ActionClix when the game ships. On a different part of the floor, the McFarlane Toys booth had some of their upcoming Halo goodies on display. The oversized prototype sculpts for the Master Chief figure and the die-cast Warthog were on display in all their unpainted glory. Though unpainted, you can see the incredible detail in them. There were also some package mock-ups with packaging for Master Chief and Brute chieftain as well as the die-cast Brute Chopper and Warthog. The packaging is much more compact than McFarlane Toys' usual Spawn and Sports lines, making it possible for more Halo figures on a store shelf. Todd McFarlane's Halo art Xbox 360 controllers were on display and once you saw them for yourself, they actually didn't look too bad. The controllers were accompanied by an army of the Master Chief miniatures that come packed with each one. Both the assault rifle and shotgun-toting Chiefs were on display, but a few of the figures were painted black. I'm not sure if the black versions are rare repaints or just some kind of special thing. Since they should be available on September 19th, I'm sure we'll find out soon. More Halo 3 stuff was found at Master Replicas' (or maybe I should say Corgi's) booth. The final, packaged, six-inch battle rifle and Covenant carbine were on display. Elsewhere at the 'con were the life-sized Halo 3 Laser Pursuit guns, but our limited time at the show prevented us from seeing them first-hand. The Laser Pursuit guns will be available at Hot Topics in October with the energy sword to be released next year. It's certainly an expensive time to be a Halo fan. More Halo 3 merchandise images of the packaging, mini figures, Scarab, and Master Replicas follow below. - Shawn - 07/31/07
Photos by Shawn. |
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