Halo Reach: Kat B320 Noble 2

Presenting from McFarlane Toys: Lieutenant Commander Catherine: Spartan B320, more commonly known as Kat, call sign Noble 2 from the hit-X-Box video game, Halo: Reach.  She is the first, to my knowledge, female SPARTAN character in the Halo series.

If you've played the game, then you know that Lieutenant Commander Kat was the tech-savvy second in command of UNSC Special Warfare Command Group Three AKA Noble Team, an elite-Spartan-Commando team that was a critical fighting force during the Fall of Reach.

Kat Noble 2 lost her right arm in a mission that saw the death of Spartan Thom-293, the original Noble 6 - his death creates the gap that allows the entry of Spartan B312 whom you play in the video game.

Kat Noble 2's prosthetic bionic right arm does not seem to impede her performance throughout the game.

Unfortunately, Kat Noble 2 dies most ingloriously during Noble Teams retreat from New Alexandria as a Sangheili Field Marshal is able to penetrate her shields and armor in a single shot to her head with a needle rifle. If you've played the game, then you know that while a kill-shot to the head is possible with a Type-31 needle rifle, it is only possible on unshielded characters. Kat Noble 2's shields should have prevented her death. Supposedly Kat Noble 2 had failed to activate what should have been an automatic feature of her MJOLNIR armor.

Halo: Reach's only "NO FREAKIN WAY!" moment.

Dumb story writing at its best.

Kat Noble 2 comes dressed in a sky-blue MJOLNIR Mk V armor with silver and black highlights. Her accessories include an Assault Armor (AA) Helmet with FC-I command network module/external hardened uplink sans the visor; MJOLNIR AA FJ/PARA variant shoulder pauldrons, and; MJOLNIR AA Mk V G Variant knee pads. I purchased Kat Noble 2 at the last Philippine Toycon for PhP 450 (US$ 10.22). She is available on Amazon for US$ 11.40  plus shipping. 

Kat Noble 2 comes armed with a M6G Magnum. It would have been great if she had another one for dual wield purposes. I'm not really too happy with her weapon of choice because it  screams "She's a girl so she gets the girl gun" or the alternative "Hackers don't need heavy firearms" which seems to be the norm in the toy industry but doesn't make sense in reality - a hacker should still be able to defend or attack. Also she uses an MA37 Assault Rifle in the game, not a Magnum.

What's to like about Kat Noble 2?

Well it's a female Spartan. You don't gotta love having a female SPARTAN. At first glance though it's hard to tell the difference between male and female SPARTANs because of all the armor. Physically she's smaller. You might even mistake her for a Halo 3 character who got lost - but she isn't. And after you have the opportunity to examine the character, you get to realize that that's not additional armor on her chest plate. Kat Noble 2 also does have quite a striking figure.

Articulation is still excellent despite having the prosthetic arm - though you will find that the wrist joints are gone (It is a bone thin attachment so the complex wrist joints would have been difficult).  Still Kat Noble 2 is articulated enough to grasp her weapon with both arms.

Kat Noble 2 comes with a single hand-grenade, but because Carter-A259 cannot attach his grenade to his armor because of the ammo pack on his back-side, you can give the spare to Kat Noble 2.

What's not to like about Kat Noble 2?

Well other than McFarlane's decision to give her the Magnum because Kat Noble 2's a girl, her armor is not as weathered or beaten up as the armor of Carter-A259 or the rest of the senior members of Noble Team - again with the exception of Noble 6's mint armor. Personally I think this is further proof of McFarlane's  sexist treatment of Kat Noble 2 - or because she's a tech/hacker who doesn't engage in combat (Which does not make sense).  

But just so the story sounds good, let's just suppose that when the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command gave Kat Noble 2 a new arm, they decided to fix her armor. 

Also as with the rest of Noble Team, Kat Noble 2 can't kneel.

Still Kat Noble 2's a wonderful figure to have, especially if you can grant her a spare weapon from one of the generic SPARTANs and a lovely figure to modify if you want to add Kat Noble 2's hacking gear to her uniform.