"When I was a young Warthog..."

Master Chief: "You told me there wouldn't be any cameras."

Sergeant Johnson: "And you told me you were going to wear something nice!"

- Halo 2

Today, Karli and I paid a rare visit to Walmart in search of the perfect shower curtain ring - we'd purchased a new shower liner at Bed Bath and Beyond, but Karli didn't like their hardware options for hanging it, so we decided to look elsewhere.

While we were wandering around the store, I did a quick pass through their toy section.  Walmart stores often have a surprising range of movie and video game related toys, and I always like to take a look at their shelves to see what's on display.

This time, I was surprised to see a boxed Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicle from the Bungie Studios Halo gaming franchise, on sale at half price: twenty dollars rather than the original $39.99 sticker price.  Generally I'm much more of a browser than a buyer, but in this case I decided to add a Warthog to our shopping cart - what's life without the occasional spur of the moment purchase?

The Warthog comes in several pieces, with some assembly required, as toy package labelling cliché would have it. It's not terribly challenging - you snap the tires onto the ends of the axles, mount the tribarrel machine gun into the socket on the back of the vehicle and connect the ammo feed, clip the four red fuel cans onto the rear storage rack, and you're good to go.  The Master Chief figure which is packaged with the vehicle fits snugly into the driver's seat - it's unfortunate that there isn't a second figure to man the tribarrel, but I acknowledge the manufacturer's inevitable desire to make a buck by having you buy a standalone figure or two to fill up the crew.  

My purchase clearly illustrates the difference between what we'll refer to as play-grade and collector-grade toys.  The Warthog mold is detailed and comprehensive, and the body finish has been given some manufacturing equivalent of dry-brushing* for a more weathered look.  However, I feel that a collector grade toy would have more moving parts than just the wheels. The undercarriage is glued together rather than a single piece, but there's no articulation for the suspension, winch or axles, and the tribarrel mount isn't really designed to rotate, which is kind of a shame. The tribarrel itself also seems to be a less sharp mold than the rest of the pieces.

The 3 3/4 inch Master Chief figure doesn't have a lot of detail, although it does have reasonably good joint articulation, which, admittedly is probably better for play time than the opposite. And that's a key element regarding the comments above: a plastic toy made with extra moving parts and realistic suspension probably wouldn't last a day in the destructive hands of a playful 9-year old.

Ultimately, I recognize that it's just a toy, and as such it's definitely a fun little piece of shelf decoration that wasn't too expensive - if you'd like one for your bookshelves, I encourage you to hurry on down to your local Walmart while supplies last.  Oh, and Karli strongly recommends their shower rings, in case you feel that you need a more adult excuse to do some shopping.

- Sid

*  For readers not involved in miniatures and modelling, dry brushing is a painting technique in which almost all the paint is wiped off the brush, and then the remaining paint is lightly applied to a basecoated model to accentuate details and edges, which gives the model a more realistic appearance.