20 years worth of memorabilia on display in the heart of Halo country.
Where can you find a preserved supply of Halo 3-branded Mountain Dew Gamer Fuel, the life-size Master Chief armor used in a live action short film, and more Halo toys, figures, and statues than you ever knew existed? (The headline might be a giveaway). 343 Industries has been in charge of the Halo series for a decade now, and in that time it's built up quite a collection of Halo memorabilia in its Redmond, Washington office. There may be some diehard fans out there with even more stuff on-hand, but none of them give you a sticker that says "I visited the Halo museum," so this is basically the place.
Between interviews, 343 took me on a tour of the Halo museum, which keeps taking up more space on the studio's first floor. Once the Halo TV series comes out, who knows how much more space they'll need. Here are some of the highlights from the collection.
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The Halo museum at 343's office, full of collectibles, statues, and rare swag. Some of it was donated by fans, who collected materials Microsoft didn't hold onto. Some other rare items were only given out to employees.
A Japanese cloth print advertising the original Halo's release in Japan, among other Halo 1 memorabilia.
The museum has a piece of the diorama used for the Halo 3 "Believe" TV ad campaign. It was apparently huge: Bungie still has the centerpiece with Master Chief, while the rest of the diorama is at the main Xbox studio. 343 doesn't have room for all of it.
A great Easter egg hidden in the diorama. Grunt crossing!
Artwork of "Mr. Chief," a character started by Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor when he previously worked at Bungie.
A detailed collectible of Master Chief made for Halo 4.
A space battle between the Covenant and UNSC playing out in miniature. Halo Wars 2's art director painted ships from the Halo: Fleet Battles tabletop game and laid out the battle the night before the game's launch party. The table was originally a prop used in the short series Halo: Forward Unto Dawn.
A Brute costume used in the 2009 "We are ODST" commercial. Someone wore this! Unfortunately it spent several years in storage and the "skin" has deteriorated, but now that it's on display 343 hopes to repair the damage.
A model of a Brute spiker.
More cool costumes. I believe these UNSC suits were from the Halo 5 prequel series Halo Nightfall.
Life-size Master Chief and Cortana, built for Halo 4.
Legendary...
Mr. Chief and Locke pins, made for 343 employees.
Megablox made this model of a Halo 5 map, including the interior details. Zoom in for the easter egg of a mini spartan on top of tower.
I bet Breaking Benjamin played on this.
This statue of Jorge, from Halo Reach, makes the rest of the Spartans look small (except for the enormous Master Chief helmet beside him).
There can't be too many of these Halo 3 beta testers shirts out in the wild.
Apparently professional football and basketball players tend to try to pick up this to-scale, very heavy Brute hammer replica. It's not a good idea.
Lil' Chief?
343 did an art series at Comic-Con with professional artists painting helmets. This one is rad.
This super detailed Brute from Halo Wars 2 stands guard in the 343 lobby.
Behind these doors, 343 is hard at work on Halo Infinite and the Master Chief Collection.
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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.
When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).
