Turns out that official Bungie homebase Bungie.net posts some neat features from time to time, and a newly posted one is a look at the packaging construction for the super-deluxe version of Halo 3 for Xbox 360, in an article called 'A Legend in the Making'.

As explained in the intro: "As you know by now, Halo 3 will come in three flavors later this year, ranging from the standard game, to the super deluxe "Legendary Edition." The Legendary Edition comes packaged with a collectible Spartan helmet, two bonus discs and an exclusive cinematic storyboard booklet. I’ve seen the final helmet first hand I can honestly say it's totally awesome. The end product is the result of all the blood, sweat and tears that so many people have poured into this project over the past two years (yes, you read that right, this project started over two years ago!)." Blimey - there's lots of pics of factory workers toiling on 'legendary construction' tasks, too.

Microsoft's Craig Carlson explains of his work on the v. swish helmet: "I first got involved in this in an all day, Saturday planning meeting here in Redmond in June of 2005. We looked at wax-resin, cast-resin and injection molding as design and manufacturing solutions before settling on injection molding. The next challenge was RFQ’ing this and finding suppliers with both the capacity required as well as the capability. It still amazes me that we ended up using our largest Keyboard supplier, but since I launched 8 keyboard and desktop products with them while working in MS PC Hardware, I was convinced that they gave us the best chance for success in the end." [Via halo.bungie.org.]