The Halo 3 Legendary Edition helmet was so small that few cats wore it

In 2007 the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 for Xbox 360 came with a Master Chief helmet replica. Unfortunately, the helmet was too small for most human heads. This, of course, meant that some cats wore this helmet. These are their stories.

As for the guilt for humiliating these cats, the answer might be Bungie’s own Luke Smith. In 2006, Smith was a game writer for 1UP, describing the Legendary Edition helmet as “Cat head size. ”Other people ran off with the joke afterwards. Joystiq and Engadget write “Katzenhelm” in their headline, quote and link to Smith’s impressive phrasing and illustrate it all with a photo of a cat. Wired’s report The helmet is similarly called “kitty-size”. Fan forums everywhere called him “the cat helmet”.

In the mid-2000s, cat photos were the main type of content on the internet, so the trend made sense. Many fans at the time also expected the helmet to be a life-size replica that a human could wear, so it was a cute way to call the helmet a “cat helmet” to dampen their disappointment. However, when the helmet was finally in the hands of the fans, disappointment returned.

As IGN In an article titled “Cats Denied Chance to Be Master Chief,” the bottom of the helmet had an oddly shaped rectangular opening that made it almost impossible to wear. In response to my recent call for stories about the cat helmet, Twitter user billieberserk took a picture the bottom of their helmet to illustrate the problem:

In 2007, however, the internet’s hunger for photos of cats wearing Master Chief helmets had to be quenched. Some intrepid fans, like those of the Nerds Trozobudos blog, have apparently found cats with heads small enough to make it work:

Image: Nerds Trozobudos

Others have simply photoshoped the helmet on cats to illustrate what could have been, as is clear in articles below player and IGNRealizing the problem, “After months of trying to tape their Legendary Edition Master Chief helmets to their cat’s head, people have accepted that they won’t fit. Cats and small dogs are still happy everywhere. “

This was also a time when internet jokes weren’t forgotten after a week or two. The cat helmet joke lasted years. In 2010 Weta Workshop started selling Spartan miniature helmets. Joystiq described these as cat helmets. Other outlets like player and Player frontshared the joke.

In recent years, the cat helmet meme has been forgotten. My request for stories from fans about their under-sized Spartan helmets received many responses, but few came from people who attended this meme during its heyday. At least one fan, author and former game journalist Christian Nutt used Photoshop back then:

Jessica Lachenal, my former employee at The Mary Sue, told me that she put her spartan helmet on her cat but didn’t take a picture (to shame!). Last week, Polygon reader Tsuki Tenicela took a photo of her helmet near her cat (pictured above). Several other Polygon readers sent me photos of cats who refused to wear Spartan helmets.

The saddest story of all comes from Nic Weinberg, who got the helmet at the age of 13 but didn’t get the memo about its tiny size. “For months I dreamed of opening this big, beautiful box, removing the helmet from the base and putting it on so that I could finally – after all these years – end the fight,” wrote Weinberg. “After cycling awkwardly home with that absurdly huge box, I quietly crept into the basement so I could begin my ritual in solitude. Of course, like many people, I discovered the truth … the helmet was not made to carry. “

Unfortunately, Weinberg’s tragic story didn’t end there. It ends … in blood. “Days later, I read online that people were unscrewing the bottom of the helmet case to remove the slot on the game case so it could be worn,” Weinberg continued. “Strangely, when I tried it myself, I found that my head was actually too big to be Master Chief. But … I had a little dog. Shadow was a 12 year old Havanese who really, really despised me. Unfortunately, I tried anyway, and although I have no pictures, I still have a discolored scar on my left hand that reminds me of this whole affair. ”(Weinberg attached photos of the scar and the helmet, which he apparently still has Has.)

Memes come and go so fast these days it’s hard to imagine a promotional helmet being discussed so much in 2021. And still I wonder what would have happened if Halo infinite had reintroduced this concept – except that this time the helmet was specifically made for cats. (I asked Microsoft about the decision behind the creation of the cat helmet, but I didn’t get any details.)

Given how much my own cat hates wearing the bow tie I bought for her, I don’t think that’s a good idea. But it would have announced Halo infiniteTrying to suppress the feeling of a simpler time – and more importantly, it would have resulted in some very good imagery.