Others say...

"A Little Less Than I Hoped"
Previously I had ordered a Master Chief from the series, and I was very pleased with it. The Series 2 Arbiter...not so much. Sure it looks great, but its points of articulation are the big disappointment. It's hard enough to stand it upright, let alone putting it in any pose you want.

"despite being only 5.5 inches tall, he's head and shoulders above the competition"
okay so i have to admit, after joyride's whole series of poorly articulated elites, i had sworn off ever buying any elite aciton figure again
ever
and so f course fate conspired to spite me and my mom's boy friend got me this
first off, just like to get these two points out of my system
GAAAAAAA, HE'S FREAKIN GOLD, HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE SSILVER
GAAAAAAA, THERE'S NO CARBINE, WHY DO THEY ALL ONLY COME WITH ONE GUN?!?!?
ah
that's better
now then
his sword is awesome
every other rendition of it i've seen, from the joyride elite version to the actionclix active camo arbiter version, just fail epicly
the're either too bulky, or they're bent in odd and impossible angles because of the gel-plastic used to make them see thru
this one
not so much
it just works
and forget any fears of not being able to hold the darned thing, his hand has a peg to attatch it and his fingers close so tight around it you need a pencil to pry em open (don't worry, there's no cahnce of damgaing him i do it all the time with my guys when their hands just don't wanna let go)
his articulation?
so insanely good you would almost think he would start running around the room shouting wort wort
the only caveat is his hands
one holds the sword incredably well, but it's a small pain to switch out weapons
the other is just a teensy bit too open to hold any weapon reliably
and just a quick note the scaling on all these guys is exact, i went in game and checked
so, overall, if you can get past the gold armor, this guy is the best arbter you can buy, and i am now seriousl looking foreward to the upcoming combat arness elite

"Faithful Recreation"
Unlike the pictures, Arbiter's armor is gold on the figure.
He also seems a little small next to to Chief. (Although I suspect it's because Chief is a little too large, if you're using the Brutes as a reference point.)
These complaints aside, the sculpting is spectacularly accurate.
And while I initially thought the sword appeared short, comparing it to the game showed that it was indeed to scale.
Finally a worthwhile representation for us Arbiter fans.


"The Arbiter"
The Arbiter quickly became one of my favorite characters in the Halo storyline back when he debuted in Halo 2. He's one of the bad guys who eventually comes to realize he's been working for the real bad guys, and in turn has been betrayed by the Covenant. The story for this character was great in Halo 2, but Halo 3 left me wanting more for him (the fact that he seems to just "tag along" with the Master Chief does seem to diminish things a bit for him).
Despite everything, he still is one of my favorite characters, and thus I got him to complement my Master Chief figure.
One of my initial thoughts about this figure simply is that this is not a childs' toy. I can imagine damage with some heavy play wear, and on top of that, his energy sword (his sole accessory) is quite sharp.In fact, I'm amazed how sharp it is with todays toy laws.
For the rest: The Arbiter is a well detailed figure with a decent amount of posability. He has a dark brown, bumpy skin with dark blue bands running here and there in between the segments of his gold armor. He boasts 18 points of articulations, although I am slightly irked with some of the (elbows for instance), since they don't bend as much as they could. But this may be intentional, since bending too much might rub on the pieces of armor. The armor itself is nice, with plenty of detail matching the game, although I think in the game he had a more tarnished gold look, not this complete gold look here. Stiil, it looks nice.
The head was also very well done, with his four individual mandibles spread out giving one the impression that he's about to chomp down on something Alien style (indeed, the mouth portion of the Elite design reminds me of the Predator). In fact, teeth can be seen on EACH mandible, and inside the mouth too! My only complaint with the head is that the helmet seems pushed ahead of the head itself slightly too far. Or maybe it's just me. It seems that you can't see he eyes as well as you should from the side of the figure.
The sword itself is another nice feature. It's cast in purple and pink translucent plastic, and as I mentioned before, is quite pointed at the tips. Not a kids toy, but as a display piece, it looks quite deadly in his hand.
The ability to store the sword is also boasted on the package, but does not seem to be actually fully employed with this figure. Like Series 1 Master Chief, there is a hole on the back an right leg, but there is no plastic pin to pin to put in there to store the weapon. In fact, the sword handle itself has a hole to be used to fit on a peg sticking out of his palm. I prefer to display the sword in his hand (since in the game, when he's not using the sword anyway, the energy blade is off anyway), but if I decide to, I might make a custom peg to fit it on.
All in all, a nice figure. I just don't recommend a lot of rough play.

"Not exactly as Advertised..."
Unfortunately, Amazon still has this item posted to come with the sword AND carbine, but it in fact was only released with the sword.
Also, the right hand of the figure comes closed, and makes it difficult to 'install' the sword... If you are REALLY careful, you can insert the sword into his hand and then close his hand back up.