TRLegosfan shows some love for Halo 4 with a colorful diorama depicting the inner surface of the Shield World of Requiem. The aesthetic of the Forerunner world – tall, angular structures upon artificial landscape overgrown with alien vegetation – is shown beautifully in the bricks.
Introduced to the Halo universe in Halo 4, the Mantis shook up the vehicle gameplay with a mech carrying immense firepower and capacity for celebratory crouching. ZiO Chao presents a LEGO version of this UNSC powerhouse in incredible detail. His accurate model is fully poseable, with flexible legs, cockpit, and armaments.
The minifigure-scaled mech comfortably seats a Spartan minifigure at the controls.
See more photos, including some progress shots, on ZiO Chao’s Flickr.
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of both Halo: Combat Evolved and Microsoft’s Xbox console. Halo has had a massive impact on console first person shooters, game storytelling, multiplayer, and sales of the Xbox, but today we’re looking at another aspect of Halo’s influence. We’ve rounded up a small selection of the amazing builds the adventures of Master Chief has inspired LEGO fans to create. Pause your sixteen player LAN game on Blood Gulch and explore some of the best of LEGO Halo.
“That… is another Halo.”
First up is Catsy [CC] with his microscale model of the ringworld itself, spanning nearly 5 feet across.
Ever since I had the chance at Brickworld Chicago 2011 to wear my good friend Ben’s LEGO Master Chief helmet, I wanted to construct a helmet myself. It was far more difficult to build than I expected, and was nothing like building other 1:1 scale builds. I’ve attempted this project before – first time in late 2011, and second in mid 2015, both failing. Finally, in 2016, I found a frame solution that worked well, and now I can present a wearable LEGO ODST helmet from the Halo series.
Sean Cassidy induces nostalgia for the often overlooked Halo 3: ODST with his diorama of the final stand at the entrance to Uplift Nature Reserve, New Mombasa. Having fought many campaign playthroughs and firefights on this particular area, it seems Sean’s layout is near perfect. His choice of colors and techniques for the entrance, overlook, and planters fit the New Mombasa style of a believable yet futuristic city.
There are all kinds of vignettes within the overall massive diorama to find, shown on Sean’s Flickr. My favorite is the face-off between gravity hammer wielding Brute Chieftain and rocket launcher wielding ODST. Yes, that much firepower is necessary against a Chieftain.
While the Halo license for building bricks is, unfortunately, in the hands of Mega Bloks at the moment, that doesn’t mean that Halo and LEGO fans haven’t been building iconic creations from the series in the superior brand. Proving that point today is Velocites with the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX Armor Defense System… or UNSC Mantis to save time. While it uses only official pieces (save for the bullet chain), this isn’t a purist build as the military olive colour here is done with paint.
In the interest of comparison, here is the Mega Bloks Mantis. For a $33 set, we must admit that Mega Bloks actually did a good job, but this LEGO version blows it out of the water.
I may be a bit biased here, considering 1) Halo 3 is my all time favorite video game, and 2) these two vehicles are my top favorites in the series, but these vehicles by BrickTechStudios are pretty darn good builds. First up, the Hornet — a single pilot VTOL. Olive green is a great choice, perhaps the most accurate fit to the green of most human vehicles in Halo 3. This color is limited in parts selection currently, but looks like it wasn’t an issue here! Great parts choice all around make this Hornet instantly recognizable by any Halo fan.
Next we have the Brute Chopper. All Halo vehicles can run over players on foot, but the Chopper can also run over other vehicles! The Chopper, and the Brute aesthetic in general, is comprised of metal plating, taped/strapped components, and oversized blades. The builder uses light gray, brown, and flat silver pieces to distinguish each of these design elements. I like the prominence of the vehicle-shredding tusks in front.
See more LEGO Halo on BrickTechStudios’s Flickr.
My passion for LEGO and gaming has resulted in quite an expansive arsenal of gaming weapons, and now I present the most massive of them all: the classic dual-tube rocket launcher from the Halo series in full 1:1 scale. I chose to build the most recent iteration featured in Halo 5: Guardians. It came down to small details when I chose this iteration: the orange highlights, the classic lettering of the “SPNKr” moniker, and the bulky grip section were all my favorite.
At 50.5 inches in length and weighing in at 24 pounds, it’s made from approximately 6,000 LEGO pieces, and initially I thought there would be no working features at all! However, there is one: you can open the launch frame and remove the launch tubes, just like how a Spartan would reload it in the game. Watch this demonstrated in this video:
Of all the new weapon variants introduced in Halo 5: Guardians, Nornfang, Spartan Linda-058’s custom sniper rifle, is my favorite. The camouflage and lone wolf designs applied to the classic Halo sniper body was inspiration enough to get building. My LEGO replica of Nornfang measures 54″ long (that’s 171 LEGO studs), weighs 9 pounds, and features a moving trigger, sliding bolt/charging handle, and removable box magazine.
See more photos on my flickr page.
I’ve been playing a LOT of Halo 5 recently – it’s a welcome return to form for the series after the slight let-down of Halo 4. As a result, I’m embarrassed I missed this stunning build until now. Cody Fowler took 3 years to put together this excellent recreation of UNSC Infinity, the spaceship star of the Halo franchise…
Cody has managed to perfectly capture the ship’s lines — no small feat when it’s such a collection of angles. I’m sure he was pleased, but also slightly nervous, when the latest game featured the Infinity so prominently on its loading screen. If you’re building a model from a source with such a rabid fan-base, you’re going to have to get the details right!
Beyond the shaping and the impressive scale (134 studs long), the blue LED lights within the vessel really add to the feel of a working starship. But for me, the little touch that sets this model apart is the attention Cody paid to the base. Often big spaceship builds like this are supported on ugly stacks – a functional afterthought detracting from the appearance of the model as a whole. Here, Cody has gone the extra mile, lavishing the same attention to detail on this element as the main ship itself. Great stuff.
Nick Jensen is well known for his recreations of iconic science fiction weaponry. His latest definitely doesn’t disappoint! This gun features a see-through scope, working trigger, removable magazine and a sliding charge handle. So this isn’t just a beauty queen, meant to grace a wall or shelf. It is meant to be played with! Nicely done, Nick, nicely done.
After herculean effort, Mark Kelso (Amhakia) finally unveils the massive Halo universe SHIP he began four years ago. No less impressive than the effort itself, the final product more than manages to live up to expectations.
Seven feet long and with every inch superbly detailed, this build is truly a labor of love. Head on over to the MOCpages gallery to read Mark’s thoughts on completing this marathon of a build, or head over to his flickr if you’re inclined to scroll back to the first work in progress shots from 2010.