And I’d say the same thing certain applies to BrickArms and some of Will’s sci-fi weaponry that HALO fans have always found very useful. The accessories in these sets look as bad as the rest of the sets, and like you said, when fans realize just how accurate and useful custom items are for building in the HALO theme, they’ll want to add some to their collection!

Speak of custom vendors, in regards to how this line might affect custom vendors that offer similar items, looking at these figs and their accessories, I’d have to say these sets won’t affect custom accessories one bit. None of the accessories appear to be compatible with TLG minifigs, and those that might be are not in keep with the scale and aesthetic of TLG minifig accessories.

If builders are looking to equip their figs with these types of weapons and accessories, I think they’ll still know the places to go for compatibility and quality!

Bungie originally made games for Apple computers starting 1991. HALO was actually being devoloped for Macs when Microsoft acquired Bungie and tied them to the X-Box platform. Bungie left Microsoft in 2007 to pursue broader interests with Microsoft retaining ownership of the HALO franchise.

First, I believe Bungie owns Halo, not Microsoft (Halo was already in development when Microsoft acquired Bungie). Although Microsoft retained a share in Bungie and Microsoft Games Studios remains Bungie’s primary publisher after the two companies went their separate ways in 2007, Microsoft no longer owns Bungie.

Second, in much the same way that Harry Potter’s licensing is handled by Warner Brothers (rather than J.K. Rowling or her book publisher), the Mega press release (which I didn’t bother linking to) indicates that the licensing agent for the Halo franchise is Twentieth Century Fox.

@Tananavalley: You definitely have a point — a point I’m inclined to agree with.

Andrew>LEGO stopped being “appropriate” a long time ago. I have always been sad LEGO went from space exploration to “kill all Martians”.

The Batman line introduced us to realistic modern firearms for those 7-12 year olds.

The Star Wars line is base on enjoyable but very violent movies with LEGO producing characters who commit mass murder.

Now before someone misunderstands me, I like many of these new sets, but lets not pretend LEGO is something that it is not. Their supposed moral high ground dissapated when they went from swords to flintlocks and then on to uzis.

I understand that conflict is a major element to play design that goes into these sets, and HALO would fit very nicely alongside all their other lines. Not all LEGO sets use violence as a play theme of course, but I feel there could be less.

I purchased a old classic space set for my son so he could see when LEGO first ventured into space, it was for exploration. The play design of human curiosity was plenty for me when I was 8 years old.

However, it will be quite interesting to see what kinds of awesomeness nnenn unleashes with the new parts.

Although, I suppose, TooMuchCaffeine’s worries are valid. A good amount of Brickarms’ income probably does come from their Halo lineup, and even though I, personally, am fond of brick-built weapons, I would hate to see Will’s business get hurt, and the occasional Brickarms part is always nice.

I think I’ll be buying some for my kids. I would like them to not develop the kind of brand adherence that I have come to know. As far as quality goes, Lego may be a step above, but these days, not by much. We have shown Lego that we will continue buying their product even as the quality continues to plummet.

Then again, maybe I won’t buy them, but my reasoning stands.

Whilst I’ve never bought Halo customs, I figure Forge/Arms make a fair bit of their cash out of it. I’d be disappointed if any run-in with Megabloks caused them to lose out and put the stuff I do or might buy in jeopardy.

Is the Forge/Arms Halo material small enough business that Megabloks will let it slide, or will the custom producers stop voluntarily? They might reckon that any Lego Halo fan has bought their stuff already by now if they were going to?