Here are my new LEGO Halo 3 Marines (5/2/2008), as represented by the

Firefly/Serenity characters who voiced some of them in the game.
Unfortunately, LEGO came out with some new Indiana Jones sets that include
the officer hat in sand green (the perfect color) RIGHT after I took this
picture. Gah! Well, I'll switch to the new color if/when I ever get around
to making that Hornet I'm always talking about...

And here are my improved Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST "Helljumpers")
for Halo 3. The one with the red shoulders, I assume to be the squad
leaders.

And here they are alongside my personal Halo fan fiction character, Dustin
Echoes (the one with the ONI emblem on his chest). I made some minifigs of
Dustin a while back for the LEGO comic sign-up topics on my forums. Here
he is in his two outfits:

Master Chief

Here is how my LEGO Master Chief over the years...

When I first started making my Halo LEGO creations in 2003 or so, I knew I
had to do some minifigs. I had already made some using decals for Metal
Gear Solid, so I saw no reason to deny Halo the same tribute. The first
fig to make, of course, was the Master Chief. I began by taking a chrome
gold astronaut visor from one of the older sets and cutting the top off to
give it more of a cool, sleek look like in the game. Since I did not, at
the time, have any solid green helmets, I was forced to use my green
helmet with the flame design on top from the old Xtreme Team sets. I took
the flame design off the top by scraping it of with a fingernail file (on
my pocket knife). I then painted a small design over the visor to give it
a bit more detail, and used the fingernail file again to flatten the front
of the bottom of the helmet, to make it match the game better. The result,
after adding my custom decal, was a simple but recognizable and effective
LEGO Master Chief.

Halo 2 came out soon after that, so in 2004, it was time for a new Master Chief. Due to abundant online competition,
I heavily decaled this little guy, tossing in as much detail as possible.
I also cut him a new visor that was less dented and a brighter golden
color. At first I thought I had perhaps tried to put too much detail, but
he has been extremely popular, so I guess I did a good job.

Three years later, in 2007, it was time to improve the Master Chief again,
so I made this version for Halo 3! I've beefed up my Chief considerably
using a modified set of green knight plate mail from the Knights Kingdom 2
line. I've also modified my decals considerably to fit this new body, as
well as to make the design look more in tune with Halo 3. Credit goes to
Brian
Kescenovitz (Mondaynoodle?) for originally having the idea of cutting
up a LEGO vent for use as a "belt" to make the fig look taller.

A scale comparison showing the Chief next to a Marine, to prove that he is
about the right size to scale with regular LEGO minifigs.

A female SPARTAN (Kelly? Linda? Nicole?) showing off how the armor and
helmet are modified.

The Marines

My original design for the Marines from early 2003 was simple: a green minifig
wearing dark grey Samurai armor and a Rock Raiders helmet or dark grey
hat.

Later that year, a website reader named Doyle Nelson suggested I change to a
more Olive Drab shade of dark green, but LEGO did not make any at the
time. Luckily, this guy had the answer: a Chinese LEGO knock-off brand
produced a line of military sets that matched perfectly and featured
OD-colored minifigs. He even had a few extra ones he was willing to send
to me. Thanks, Doyle!

This shot shows a head I *finally* found that matched Sergeant Johnson in
a satisfactory manner. So the guy in front with the mustache is supposed
to be Sgt. Johnson, the constantly-resurrected Sarge NPC from Halo who
became a full-fledged character in the sequel. Before you fuss at me for
using a yellow instead of a brown minifig: it's my policy. If I ever
started using brown-skinned figs, I'd start using peach-skin figs too. But
since I prefer classic yellow, I take the old-fashioned LEGO approach and
make EVERYONE yellow.

When I started making my Halo 2 creations in 2004, I used the same old
marines at first. The only new creations were these Orbital Drop Shock
Troopers (ODSTs or "Helljumpers"). I made
the ODST helmets out of the same piece as Master Chief's visor, except in
chrome blue instead of gold. Luckily LEGO made some chrome blue visors for
the "Life on Mars" line, so this option was available. The helmets I used
are from the old LEGO "Explorien" series.

Next year, in 2005, I made these guys while building my Spectre: the Halo
2 Marines. I used decals for my Marines this time, and packed in the
detail. The most inaccurate part of them are the helmets, since Halo 2's
helmets were not nearly as cool, advanced, and sci-fi looking as the ones
the Marines wore in Halo 1. But then, nothing was. I just used the old
helmets because I like them better.

In fact, I like the original Halo's marines SO much better that later, the
NEXT year (2006), I built THESE guys:

These are, as you can see, the Halo 1 marines... but this time they are
made with decals and packed with detail. I even made face decals with
communicators and those awesome little holographic HUD "eyepatches" they
had. Everything about the Halo 1 marines was just so much cooler and more
futuristic than Halo 2's that I couldn't resist making these eventually.

Here's a comparison shot... without the face decal. I chose to make the
Halo 1 marines "sand green" in color instead of Olive Drab (dark green)
simply because it's more accurate to the original game. The color they
wear is somewhere between grey and green, so sand green is the obvious
choice. Besides, it goes nicely with my Scorpion Tank.

I also built a few more guys, like this Marine in fatigues. You see these
boys running around sometimes in Halo 1 without their armor.

And then there's also these guys, which were noticeably absent from Halo
2: the navy crewmen of the Pillar of Autumn. They come in various assorted
candy colors and run around with their pistols shouting "Help me! Help me
help you!" like Jerry Maguire.

Oh, and here's a pilot... as seen briefly in Halo 1 before crashing your
Lifeboat into the surface of Halo. I'm not sure if the ones flying the
Pelican in Halo 2 look the same or not.

The Guns

Here's MC showing off my array of Covenant weapons. I was very satisfied
with my Plasma Pistol design, although the Plasma Rifle could use a bit
more work. The Fuel Rod Gun, while not a playable weapon in Halo 1 for the
Xbox, was available for use in multiplayer mode on the PC version, along
with...

The Flamethrower! I remember when I first used this online in Halo PC. My
PC wasn't all that great at the time, so I had to really crank down the
graphics settings in order to play the game. One of the special effects
that went away entirely with the low settings... was the flame being shot
out of the flamethrower! So I ran around torching people with invisible
flame. The thing was, it worked out quite well for me. I could still see
quite clearly with no flames in the way, but people were still dying just
as fast. And let me tell you, it's a great short-range weapon...

Here's the Spanker (SPNKr) ... the rocket launcher, also known as the
inevitable Bazooka, a game found in just about every FPS game. I tried to
build it detailed but compact, since it's really not that big a weapon in
the game when the Master Chief is holding it. The way it's built, the
tubes can be removed for reloading just like in the game.

And here's the sniper rifle. Not my best work, but meh.

The energy sword was one weapon I simply could NOT think of a good way to
make. I tried every method I could imagine, including the popular method
of sticking blue lightsaber blades in the eye-holes of a pair of
binoculars, but none of them satisfied me. Then, I finally thought of a
method, though it was risky. But it turned out so good that I decided not
to reveal the method on my site, to keep people guessing. Many did guess
it. Others BEGGED me to tell them what it was. It's probably the number
one question I STILL get asked about over e-mail.

Well, you guys have worn out my resolve now, so here's the answer: I cut
it out of the back of a LEGO windshield using my pocket knife. This is the
type of windshield I used:
http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2483 I noticed that a minifig could
hold the bumpy part on the back in their hand, so I took out my knife and
just started sawing. Eventually, after much cutting and sculpting by
shaving off piece after little piece, I came up with the right shape. I
then finished the job by etching the right design on the surface of the
sword with the tip of my knife blade. So there's your answer. Be careful
if you try it at home though.

I wasn't going to limit myself to one color of SPARTAN super-soldier this
time! So here's my blue Spartan (NOTE: the Needler is digitally edited to
look purple... it was actually red)...

... and of course a red Spartan!

Now it is possible to reenact that classic conflict of video gaming... the
eternal war of RED VERSUS BLUE!

In this case, it is inevitable that red should win. After all, it's my
favorite color. GO RED!

Of course, red and blue are actually good buddies. Because in this case
they are me and Ryan. Notice the arm-patches, if you can make them out (an
R and a scorpion). Together, we are unstoppable.

And thanks to the Knights Kingdom 2 line, which featured light blue and
purple knight minifigs, it is possible make these colors as well!

"Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep 'em from
gettin' their filthy claws on Earth... but we stumbled onto somethin'
they're so hot for, that they're scramblin' over each other to get it!
Well, I don't care if it's God's own personal anti-S.O.B. machine,
or a giant hoola hoop, we're not gonna let 'em have it! What we WILL let 'em
have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in!
Am... I... RIGHT, Marines?!" - Sergeant Johnson (Halo, if you're man
enough to play on Legendary)

The minifigs shown here were made using DECAL (STICKER) designs custom-drawn by me. I now provide a printing service for these decals HERE.