OPEN THE HUSHED CASKET

Following my recent post on the Halo Scorpion Tank, Iv'e just picked up the man himself, Master Chief, in figure form. Once more, a discount store special, the six inch figure is meticulously detailed and features the Chief sporting the Mjolnir VI powered battle armour (Halo purists will forgive me if I get the version slightly wrong here..) from Halo 4.

From his spectacular entrance in Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 on the first Xbox platforms, Master Chief has become iconic amongst video gamers and has a massive cult following. Partnered with a holographic AI which manifests as a svelte, almost naked female figure named Cortana, the Chief has taken on the might of the Covenant forces and the virtually unstoppable flow of mutagenic, parasitic, lifeforce known simply as The Flood.

Master Chief himself is the product of secret genetic and surgical manipulation of human children, taken by the savant scientist Dr Catherine Halsey, whose radical ideas gave birth to the first super soldiers, or Spartans. At seven to eight feet tall, with superhuman strength augmented by the powered armour and carrying Cortana, riding shotgun as co-pilot and intel advisor, Chief shows no signs of slowing his advance almost 15 years after his initial foray onto consoles across the world.