Halo Pro Shell Kit - Modern plastic, tooless design

[screwloose45]

https://shop.gisportz.com/products/empire-halo-pro-shell-kit

[Evan4366]

These are a very nice upgrade if you still rock a halo. They only work for the 4 battery pack versions, but you should be able to modify the compartment to fit the 6 pack pretty easily if you want to run a predator or v35 board.

[Toestr]

This thing sits in the uncanny valley of looking like a Halo, but just different enough that it doesn't look quite right.

[Trbo323]

If I wanted to put a shoe on top of my marker, Adidas and Nike make better options

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[martix_agent]

Are people still using the Halo? I figured those all got thrown out when nobody had shells to replace the cracked ones with for the last 15 years.

Halo was a good design, other than the shells. If anyone still have the guts to one, this would be a pretty good purchase.

[Frmrspec]

You’ve always been able to buy the halo too shells from empire.. replacements were like $25 and didn’t have the same cracking issues of older halos

[TF_Aloha]

A lot of speedball teams use them for "sponsorship" reasons. If they want a deal with Kore, which is often the only way to get reasonable prices and decent treatment at Kore fields, they need to use a certain amount of Kore gear and for the loader it's either a HALO or a Triad.

[Frmrspec]

Personally I’m sad they didn’t do a little more with the catch cup system… I would have loved to see it brought up to current hopper standards with an easily removable feed tray (board, battery, catch cup/drive system. And I’m not a huge fan that they won’t just sell it complete with internals installed and save me time and a little money

however after the unreliability of my rotors, I’ll definitely be using this for all my closed bolt markers

[Cdn_Cuda]

I have a handful of Halos but all still have decent shells. These seem a bit expensive, but if you had cracked shells it’s cheaper than a whole new hopper. Halos seem to eat batteries faster than newer hoppers though. And it is pretty ugly. The old Hybrid Suicide shells looked a lot better

[nerdcore]

Hybrid Suicide shells were the bee's knees for Halos. But i suppose these new shells are good for the KORE-porate crowd out there. But why stop there? Why not release new Vlocity shells?

Better yet, new Evlution shells? Think of all the marketing possibilities with the US egg shortage!

[Psycho91]

Kinda ugly, but the halo has never been known for its looks lol

[Trbo323]

Are people still using the Halo? I figured those all got thrown out when nobody had shells to replace the cracked ones with for the last 15 years.

Halo was a good design, other than the shells. If anyone still have the guts to one, this would be a pretty good purchase.

Sure, the halo too. And those shells, as long as you got the matte black were nylon infused so they lasted really well. The problem is people wanted their hoppers to look pretty so they started selling the too with the colored and clear color shells. Those break and everyone forgot about the matte black shells.

It was $70 last it was being sold with the matte black shells. For a budget hopper that's pretty good if you ask me. Not great but good.

On the market today new players are being pushed towards a $325 etha 3m, a $100 virtue and a $200 tank. Add any decent mask at another $100 and you have spent $725 before you even hit the field.

The sport seems like it's forgetting about the new players

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[Sdawg]

I have been using one for a couple weeks now. The main selling point is affordability. But another fun part of the halo is that parts for it remain cheap and plentiful. They never stopped production for the last 20 years. I have had an issue with competing popular loaders that go out of production and do not have replacement parts. That will not be a problem for the Halo.

I upgraded my Halo too internals with an OG sprung drive cone, and it works as well, if not better, as many more expensive loaders. The shell kit makes it up to modern standards. Yes, it lacks convenience features, but at the price, you can buy two halo pros for the cost of one spire five and still have money left over for paint.

The size of the loader is an issue. It is noticeably taller than the CTRL2, for example. A shorter feed neck could help, but I am not about to break out a hacksaw, yet.

[Sdawg]

PS - believe they will be selling the complete Halo Pro this year in the $100 range, which is an incredible value.

[Trbo323]

, but at the price, you can buy two halo pros for the cost of one spire five and still have money left over for paint.

I don't really think that's a fair comparison though. The 5 is the most expensive hopper on the market and most players would agree, overpriced.

Look at the spire ir for a better comparison. That way both hoppers are meant for players on more of a budget and are at least in the same price ballpark. In that race, sorry but the ir is the better hopper. I'm not saying there's nothing the halo is better at but those are only a few things.

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[cfos00]

I just grabbed one. I'll let you all know my thoughts on it.

As for comps, I think it heavily depends on what you are shooting. If you're shooting a normal mech or something with eyes, Spires are great. If you're shooting a fast mech---they can really suck. They aren't fast. At all. And for what I shoot, I literally cannot use one. They just don't keep up and lead to jams and breaks. They advertise speeds that they do not touch on a consistent basis. I have Rotors, and they're generally really solid IMO. They have issues when it comes to small paint, which unfortunately can sometimes be a bit of an issue. I am hoping for this to fill that gap and to see how I like them in general.

[Sdawg]

I don't really think that's a fair comparison though. The 5 is the most expensive hopper on the market and most players would agree, overpriced.

Look at the spire ir for a better comparison. That way both hoppers are meant for players on more of a budget and are at least in the same price ballpark. In that race, sorry but the ir is the better hopper. I'm not saying there's nothing the halo is better at but those are only a few things.

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

The original spire IR is out of production. If you need a replacement part, you could be SOL. the IR2 could meet that same fate. Not an issue with halos. That was my main points. I have used IR2s and trust their performance, but virtue has had supply issues in the recent past.

[Trbo323]

I just grabbed one. I'll let you all know my thoughts on it.

As for comps, I think it heavily depends on what you are shooting. If you're shooting a normal mech or something with eyes, Spires are great. If you're shooting a fast mech---they can really suck. They aren't fast. At all. And for what I shoot, I literally cannot use one. They just don't keep up and lead to jams and breaks. They advertise speeds that they do not touch on a consistent basis. I have Rotors, and they're generally really solid IMO. They have issues when it comes to small paint, which unfortunately can sometimes be a bit of an issue. I am hoping for this to fill that gap and to see how I like them in general.

Yeah, I said there's a few spots the halo has an advantage. I'm not saying the ir is a perfect hopper or anything. I keep a rotor around because my spire can't keep up with my mag when I have an RT in it. That's literally the only reason though. I recently went to an indoor reball field. That rotor stayed in the bag.

The original spire IR is out of production. If you need a replacement part, you could be SOL. the IR2 could meet that same fate. Not an issue with halos. That was my main points. I have used IR2s and trust their performance, but virtue has had supply issues in the recent past.

Like what parts? What can you not get for the original ir that is original ir specific? As far as I'm aware it's pretty much interchangable with the IR2.

I have been running a spire 3 since it came out. I have yet to need a single part for it. I can't say the same thing for the same time span for a halo when I was using them

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk