Now that the MCX design team is receiving early production samples, it is a good time for a behind the scenes peek at how this character pack came about.
20 years is a remarkable achievement for any franchise, and it is worthy of being celebrated. In 2021, with Halo primed to make headlines with the launch of Halo Infinite, it was important to the Mega team that Halo’s big year be celebrated. From the start, the team decided that 20 characters for 20 years was a fun approach. Initially, the idea was to offer a series of twenty individual Halo Heroes to collect. This evolved into one single figure pack for several reasons. One of them being that the team felt that one $50 pack is a better value than 20 individual $5 figures.
We tried to pick 1 or 2 characters to represent each main Halo game. We wanted to include fan favorites that have been released before but that are now hard to find as well as some new ones that fans have been asking for. A wide range of characters were discussed for inclusion – From Jul ‘Mdama, Dr. Halsey, Sgt. Forge as well as Tartarus, Spartan Alice-130 and the list goes on. At one point, there was a discussion about changing the direction completely and including only army builders like various Promethean troops, Elites and Marines. In the end, we kept our original concept and decided on the following characters to represent each game:
Halo CE: Sgt. Johnson, (mini) Cortana, 343 Guilty Spark
Halo 2: Captain Miranda Keyes, Sesa ‘Refumee
Halo 3: Rtas ‘Vadum, (Gold) Arbiter, (Gold) Cortana
Halo Wars: Spartan Jerome-092, Prophet of Regret
Halo 3 ODST: Captain Veronica Dare, Michael “Mickey” Crespo
Halo Reach: Spartans Emile-A239 and Carter-A259
Halo 4: Master Chief
Halo 5: Spartan Linda, (Gold) Spartan Locke
Halo Wars 2: (Gold) Atriox
Halo Infinite: (Gold) Master Chief
The idea of including Mister Chief came about while the design team was tossing around ideas for characters. We were not sure at the time if it would be possible to include him in the pack, so we were thrilled when all approvals were given, and he could be included. Since the figure is based on sketches and drawings, the team opted to use our Wonder Builders figure as a base. It has simple lines, smooth surfaces and the cartoon/drawing feel that was needed to best translate the character.
One final note, from the Fall 2021 wave of sets onward, Elites, Jackals and Brutes will use different hand parts than previously. This change was made to make these figures even more accurate to the source material. There was one exception made, for production reasons, for Sesa ‘Refumee in this set. However, if he were to reappear in a future set, the change would be applied then.
20 years is a remarkable achievement for any franchise, and it is worthy of being celebrated. In 2021, with Halo primed to make headlines with the launch of Halo Infinite, it was important to the Mega team that Halo’s big year be celebrated. From the start, the team decided that 20 characters for 20 years was a fun approach. Initially, the idea was to offer a series of twenty individual Halo Heroes to collect. This evolved into one single figure pack for several reasons. One of them being that the team felt that one $50 pack is a better value than 20 individual $5 figures.
We tried to pick 1 or 2 characters to represent each main Halo game. We wanted to include fan favorites that have been released before but that are now hard to find as well as some new ones that fans have been asking for. A wide range of characters were discussed for inclusion – From Jul ‘Mdama, Dr. Halsey, Sgt. Forge as well as Tartarus, Spartan Alice-130 and the list goes on. At one point, there was a discussion about changing the direction completely and including only army builders like various Promethean troops, Elites and Marines. In the end, we kept our original concept and decided on the following characters to represent each game:
Halo CE: Sgt. Johnson, (mini) Cortana, 343 Guilty Spark
Halo 2: Captain Miranda Keyes, Sesa ‘Refumee
Halo 3: Rtas ‘Vadum, (Gold) Arbiter, (Gold) Cortana
Halo Wars: Spartan Jerome-092, Prophet of Regret
Halo 3 ODST: Captain Veronica Dare, Michael “Mickey” Crespo
Halo Reach: Spartans Emile-A239 and Carter-A259
Halo 4: Master Chief
Halo 5: Spartan Linda, (Gold) Spartan Locke
Halo Wars 2: (Gold) Atriox
Halo Infinite: (Gold) Master Chief
The idea of including Mister Chief came about while the design team was tossing around ideas for characters. We were not sure at the time if it would be possible to include him in the pack, so we were thrilled when all approvals were given, and he could be included. Since the figure is based on sketches and drawings, the team opted to use our Wonder Builders figure as a base. It has simple lines, smooth surfaces and the cartoon/drawing feel that was needed to best translate the character.
One final note, from the Fall 2021 wave of sets onward, Elites, Jackals and Brutes will use different hand parts than previously. This change was made to make these figures even more accurate to the source material. There was one exception made, for production reasons, for Sesa ‘Refumee in this set. However, if he were to reappear in a future set, the change would be applied then.