Halo Spartan Collection Arbiter (Guardians) review

Everyone who is a Halo fan should know the unexpected focus put on Arbiter Thel ' Vadam during the second game; while his gameplay wasn't as refined as that of his Spartan bestie, fans later grew to appreciate his role in the series as he goes from atoning his failures as a military commander to eventually allying with humanity to stop the Halo rings from being activated. Plus, it's great seeing him form that aforementioned friendship with Master Chief. Sure, it's not them being buddy buddy with each other and we don't see them together much in Guardians, which is where we get the design for the Arbiter, but this non-human dude knows how to redeem his kind with a faction of his own, the Swords of Sangheilios. And without a chance to see him interact with Chief again after dealing with the remnants of the Covenant for Infinite, it's time we give some spotlight to Arby for this review before we reunite him with The Chief.

Here we have the Arbiter in-hand, based on the armor he wore during the events of Halo 5: Guardians. I know most fans would rather see him in his prior appearances but this still works great for his arc from an enemy of humanity to eventually forming an alliance with his own group of warriors. The Arbiter's armor is richly sculpted in details that give him an almost regal look, and the alien aesthetic also completes that look with a design that feels like a part of his alien culture; yo have asymmetry with one arm having the armor plating while another remains bare, likely as an acknowledgement to his own roots of the Covenant or his species. I wish the paintwork could be done better since it's either decently applied or unusually chalky. The deco for the arms is especially where things get odd with how it's applied; due to how far down it extends on the shoulder, the V-shape deco breaks up and looks even more disjointed than any costumes with painted details on two separate parts of a figure. Thankfully, proportions aren't a concern given the Arbiter's alien physique, unlike some Master Chiefs that have either a longer neck or hips that stick out a bit more than normal.

The helmet once again has some great detailing etched throughout as a way of making the character appear medieval in a space colony context, yet the paint job can be executed better than it currently is. Sure, I'm not expecting a prop-replica level of accuracy, but it comes off looking a bit average in execution. Not helping is that the figure is more expensive than the Spartans we usually get, even if some of the Master Chiefs representing the Bungie era have brighter shades of green than the Infinite version. I also apologize for the flash lighting on the second pic, but it's to help show the face underneath his helmet. Makes me wonder if anyone could customize him to be closer to his Bungie era design, though that will require using newly made armor from scratch. His articulation consists of a neck hinge as well as a swivel to tilt his face quizzically (however, no proper turning left and right motion), swivels at the shoulders for moving front and back as well as hinging in and out, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, wrist swivels as well as inward/outward hinges, a ball jointed diaphragm, hips on ball joints, thigh swivels, double jointed digitigrade knees, ankles that hinge as well as pivot, and toes that bend downwards. Now, many have complained about other Spartan Collection figures for having loose joints, but the Arbiter has it worse due to the size of the figure. Out of the box, his diaphragm joint and his hips are very floppy, and combining that with his weight will cause him to topple over unless he's standing carefully.

His accessories include 5 alternate hands, including two fists, two right-sided accessory holding hands, and this left hand that has a finger curved inward like an accident. He should get that checked on, but thankfully, distinguishing the hands is easy since they correlate with any arm either lacking or containing the armor. As for why he has two right-sided accessory holding hands: Arby doesn't seem to be ambidextrous, and the handles for his carbine and energy blade. The former looks nicely painted even if the grey could look more metallic like the blue.

As for the latter, it's a whole lot less saturated than it appeared in-game, looking more like it's power source is severely depleted. The blades also appears a bit more flexible than it should be, but if the coloring was more like a bright orange while the part meant for stability was colorless, maybe it could look better.

Since Halo Infinite hasn't reunited these two, and we won't likely see them together again due to the focus being on a soft reboot via Campaign Evolved, here we have Arby n the Chief together. I'm not sure if the Arbiter would change armor like his favorite demon, but if he stays the same then it works for me. The copper on the former Covenant rep further helps contrast the green on the militaristic space soldier. However, while I love the characters we have here, the Arbiter could have been more finetuned before getting shipped at retailers. I love the design, and the accessories are generally good, but I wish he had a better paint job than he currently has while his joints were tighter. If those were alleviated, then maybe the neck issue would have taken a small amount of points off. As it stands, I am somewhat mixed on how he turned out. You could probably paint him up better and tighten the joints if you're able to prove that it were so easy to make it a better action figure, though as I always say with fixing stuff out of the box: we shouldn't have to.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐