McFarlane Halo 4 Deluxe Knight Review

For those not familiar with Halo 4, the Promethean Knights are the head honchos and badasses of the Promethean ranks.  While I myself hated the bastards in the campaign (especially the ones with Binary Rifles), I was really excited to get my hands on the Deluxe Scale figure by McFarlane Toys.  It’s got some shortcomings, but overall, this is something that all Halo fans will definitely want to add to their Promethean Army.

 

The Knight’s headsculpt seems to be pretty accurate to what we see in the game, although I think a little more detail could’ve been a good thing, especially in the mouth and eyes.

The Knight also has some articulated “normal arms” in the front, and while these things kind of creep me out in a way, I was surprised how articulated they are.  There is a little bit of ball-jointed movement in the shoulder joint, followed by hinges in both the elbows and the wrists.  The Knight’s larger, weapon wielding arms have a bit more articulation, as they plug into the torso via a ball-joint, and also feature a ratcheted hinge joint for lateral movement.  The removable Scattershot and Promethean Energy Sword plug directly into a ball-joint that’s connected in the ratcheted elbow hinge.  The box advertises the Scattershot as removable, so I thought it’d be pretty cool to give it to Chief.

The Promethean Knight has a swivel in the waist for rotation, and while the hips do feature ball-joints, there isn’t a whole lot of movement unfortunately.  I don’t think that’s not a slight against McFarlane by any means, I just think the design of the Knight kind of restricts that.

The knees have some good articulation thanks to a ratcheted hinge joint and swivel, but unfortunately it’s hard to really use this to the figure’s advantage.  If you’ve seen the Knights in action in Halo, you’ll know that they’re not the most dynamic bunch, especially in the lower body.  While I won’t complain about articulation, it’s just a weird place for the Knight to have so much.  The ankles do have a bit of articulation, but it’s really a nonissue since the horrendous, clear braces are needed for the Knight to stand most of the time.  Speaking of the clear braces, they’re really a huge pain in the ass to get situated.  While they do their job pretty well, I can’t get over the fact of how awkward they look.  Having said that though, I’m glad McFarlane did decide to include them, instead of giving us a figure that has no means of standing upright.

 

Now onto the bittersweet Watcher gimmick.  I was pretty pumped that I’d be able to actually plug in my Watcher figure into the Knight, just like how they deploy in the game.  I was sooo anxious to finally try this out, and when I did, I couldn’t believe how bad McFarlane dropped the ball on this.  First off, I spent a good 5-10 minutes trying to figure out how to put the Watcher figure in the back section of the Knight.  After getting frustrated, I decided to look at the instructions.  Little did I know, there weren’t any.  Not a huge deal though, as the gimmick was shown on the side of the box.

“Watcher’s Head and Torso Fit Inside Knight!”  The head and torso?  After I took a closer look, I found out you actually have to disassemble most of the Watcher to even get it to fit.  And it was a huge pain in the ass to do.  McFarlane really dropped the ball here.  This could’ve been something awesome, but instead it’s a massive task.

Overall, while the Knight does have its shortcomings, it’s still a really neat figure for Halo fans.  If you’re a sucker for big figures like me, I think you’ll love this guy, especially if you’re looking to amass a Promethean army.  I’d like to see some of the other versions of the Knights made into toys, but this one will hold me over for a good while.