|
REVIEW:
And in the action figure line from Joyride Studios, there's also been Orange, White, Steel, and Purple Spartans, and those are just the non- battle-damaged versions. Even more colors exist if you want some Spartans that are a bit dinged up. Personally, I don't. A Tan Spartan is expected in Series 6, and there's the totally transparent "Active Camo" Spartan that was offered at this year's San Diego ComiCon (and which I'd love to have for myself). But -- PINK?!???! This was just weird enough that I had to have it. The Halo 2 PINK SPARTAN was exclusive to an online store, specifically DieCastExpress.Com. What a store calling itself "Die Cast Express" was doing with an exclusive action figure I wasn't entirely sure, but perusing the site -- to whatever degree they might have started out as just offering die-cast vehicles of various sorts, they've obviously branched out, and to a sufficient degree to arrange for an exclusive Spartan. Whose decision it was to choose pink as its color, I don't know, nor do I especially care to. I'll eschew some of the obvious jokes -- like wondering if the Spartans have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in place, but I have to admit it's hard to take this particular Spartan seriously. Oh, he's derived from the same excellent design and set of molds that have brought us all the other colors of Spartans in the Halo 2 line. He's nicely sculpted, well- detailed, superbly well-articulated. But -- that -- COLOR! This is very, very pink. It's not magenta. It's not some sort of Barbie package neon pink (good thing, too, since along with "Hot Wheels Blue", Mattel has that color copyrighted). It's not any sort of eye-popping pink as one might expect it to be. I can't imagine what would compel a Spartan warrior to wear this color, unless he thoroughly expects to confound the enemy. "What!? What the heck was that? Yeah, I saw it, too. Looked like one of those Spartans, but what the heck color was he wearing? Was that what I thought it was? He's gotta be kidding!" And by the time they get over being stunned by the color of the armor, he's cutting loose with the firepower. But the armor isn't just pink. The striped trim on the arms, legs, and helmet is purple. Okay, I can live with that. There's an entire Purple Spartan out there (see separate review) that while weird, I think is actually pretty cool. The striped trim isn't the factor that puts the Pink Spartan over the top from weird into downright strange. It's the insignia on the shoulder plating. All Spartans have these, and generally speaking, the symbology is either obtuse enough so it doesn't really look like much of anything, or it looks enough like something recognizable so you can discern it as something mean and tough -- just like the Spartans themselves. The insignia on the Pink Spartan is a white heart with red lip-prints in it. Make your own jokes, friends. Anything I could say beyond that wouldn't live up to the imagery. Now, the Pink Spartan does come with a generous amount of weaponry. This is understandable. If you're going to walk around in pink armor with an insignia like that, you'd dang well better be well-armed, because you're probably just as likely to be facing some "friendly fire" as anything. You'll at least need to have some sort of response for all the sarcasm that's going to be heaped your way. So, the Pink Spartan comes with Dual SMG's, an Energy Sword, and a Magnum Pistol. The Energy Sword is an interesting piece of work. I don't recall this being made available with any prior Spartan. This is no lightsaber. It's a dual-bladed device with an arc of energy near its hilt. It looks like it could cut through just about anything. The SMG's have an interesting feature, too -- a sliding stock. I was trying to figure out how to get the figure to properly hold this weapon and sort of made the discovery by accident. Nice touch. Let me say one word about DieCastExpress.Com. I'd never dealt with them before, so I honestly can't say if what happened with me is typical for them. But it took me a good bit longer to get my Pink Spartan than it should have. The Web Site rather specifically stated "4 to 7 business days". I waited a full two weeks and then contacted them. I received back a semi-form-looking e-mail that said my order had been shipped THAT DAY and included the tracking information. My Pink Spartan arrived a little less than a week later. So my advice in dealing with DieCastExpress.Com for the Pink Spartan or anything else is -- "patience" -- plus not hesitating to remind them to send your stuff! So, after all the jokes, do I still recommend the Pink Spartan? Well, surprisingly perhaps, yes, I do. The Halo 2 Spartans are excellent action figures regardless of the color of their armor. Anyone who's been collecting the Spartans will want to add the Pink one to their collection, and he's not one of the "battle damaged" versions, or I wouldn't've bothered with him. And, you've got to admit, if you stand him alongside all the others in the series, he's bound to start a conversation when one of your friends sees him standing there. So yes, the HALO 2 PINK SPARTAN is weird. He's strange. But in his own way, he's also cool, and I definitely recommend him to any HALO fan! |
