Meet The Halo Fan Who Built A Life-Size Warthog In His Garage
Peter Walczak didn’t identify as a “car guy,” which makes his hobbyist superproject of choice all the more surprising: building a functional life-size version of the iconic Warthog jeep from the Halo games. By his own admission, the retired Navy test pilot has poured untold hours and thousands of dollars into this amazing prop, which he hopes to feature in Halo fan films someday in the future.
Walczak grew up playing video games, but his interest in the hobby waned as he got older. However, when a coworker told him about a hot new video game console called the Xbox in the early 2000s, he decided to pick one up. His primary interest wasn’t Halo, though–it was Steel Battalion, an obscure Xbox exclusive that required its own intimidating secondary controller, which featured two joysticks and three pedals. “It was an awful game,” Walczak says. “At that point, I thought, ‘I might as well get this stupid Halo game that everyone’s talking about.'”
Like many others, Walczak quickly fell in love with Bungie’s groundbreaking console shooter; he cites its beautiful levels and sci-fi story as two of the major reasons why. He even ended up playing with his coworker online, going head-to-head in beloved maps like Blood Gulch. The franchise ended up reigniting his love for video games. Walczak was stationed in Hawaii when Halo 2 came out, and while his compatriots were exploring the island and going to the beach, he was sitting inside an aircraft carrier, playing the new game on a washed-out 12-inch television. “It was the peak of that gaming era for me,” he says. “Nothing comes close.”