mellohyelloh wrapped // 2025 favorites

render under all my annoying text by @BB12_fx

     OH MY GOD IT'S THE HOLIDAYS AND IT'S BUSY!!!!!! Hi everyone I wanted to do a little blog (i love doing these) now that 2025 is wrapping up! Being in the halo community has been so much fun and I wanted to share some of my favorite things from this year with all of you!!! I'll include some videos, music, and whatever other junk i wanna throw in I don't know I'm only starting this RIGHT NOW!!!! 

     Let's start by looking back on mellohyelloh this year! We had 2 layover videos and 2 full episodes out this year - alongside starting to experiment with some (not pictured) shorts! I'm honestly very happy with every video we put out this year, Yelloh Refrigeration and Mangler Horse  are both really dumb ideas that I think came out really funny and we've been referencing both a lot behind the scenes since we made them. 
     Episodes 7 and 8 of Flying By Wire were both big labors of love and a TON of work went into both, and I personally think paid off really well! Episode 7 even got featured in the Halo Spotlight alongside our Last Stand short which was very very cool!!! I think that it's also my favorite video of the year, shooting the action sequences was so much work that really really came together in a way that worked perfectly. Also I got to use a ska song in that episode so 
     Now being critical of myself, I would've loved to have uploaded more this year. 4 videos and 4 shorts really doesn't seem like a lot, but I appreciate that you all stick around despite our non consistent upload schedule! I struggled with a lot of writer's block this year and just overall scheduling, but I'm starting to hit a bit of a stride with Flying By Wire's main episodes and hopefully we can get a few more videos out next year! 
     We also got up to almost 1500 subscribers this year, which was a really nice surprise! As we don't upload often, I never really expect the subs to go up that much, but we've been kind of steadily growing all year which is REALLY COOL!!! THANK YOU!!!!

    We have also been continuing our somewhat consistent livestreams over on Twitch! It's been super fun to have a place where it's so easy to chat and connect with the community, and often get them involved by either joining the game and playing alongside them or having them throw their own custom games at us to make us all scream. We also had the big Ranked Squad Battle stream this year with a bunch of other Infinite creators, and it was a LOT OF TALKING OVER EACH OTHER! But also very FUN!!!!

     Featured here are a few of my favorite clips from the year - this above one being from that very Ranked Squad Battle Stream!! I think you get a pretty good idea of how it went just from watching that.

     Most of the time it's just me, but you'll occasionally see appearances from our other mellohyelloh cast members and other friends!! If you're interested in checking the streams out - mellohyelloh was taken on twitch so go to www.twitch.tv/yellohmelloh!!!!!!! We got a bit of a story arc going on right now in those streams watch to find out more!!!
 OK OK ENOUGH ABOUT ME LET'S TALK SOME MORE ABOUT ME BUT IN A DIFFERENT CATEGORY!!!

     in the spirit of sharing my favorites, I wanted to include a little section of some of my favorite music I've been listening to over the course of 2025! Of course mellohyelloh isn't anywhere near a music channel or anything, but I am CONSTANTLY basing tones and ideas for flying by wire and other things off of music I listen to. DID YOU KNOW WHAT SONG I CONSIDER TO BE THE MELLOHYELLOH THEME SONG???? maybe you do!!! I've played it a lot!! (it's commutilation! by kudrow)
     So here is a little playlist of the songs that have been stuck in my head for all of 2025! I listen to a BUNCH that isn't on streaming services (cuz i'm cool and underground like that) so I made this on youtube for easy access! There's A LOT of Bomb The Music Industry/Jeff Rosenstock SORRY!!! I LIKE THAT GUY A LOT!!! and also shoutout to HaloBoxStudios for showing me This Modern Love by Bloc Party that one really carried November for me!! There's also a few songs by The Kid Kung Fu, my BROTHER!!! He also played Vorkyis in that one episode of Flying By Wire with the brutes, remember that one? Did you know that Brute could RAP?
     CHECK OUT THE PLAYLIST HERE (and i embedded it right below here, you see it?)

     OK OK ENOUGH ABOUT ME FOR REAL THIS TIME!!! The REAL reason I wanted to do this blog in the first place was to feature some of my favorite machinimas that came out in 2025! It's VERY VERY awesome to be part of this community, and one of my favorite parts of it is seeing the stuff my friends make, the community makes, or just someone giving it a try for the first time!! It's so so so cool to see people get into this hobby I love so much!!! So here I'm gonna feature some that I really liked!!! I PROMISE I'M NOT IN ALL OF THEM!!!

NEW LEAK - HaloBoxStudios

     I genuinely can't believe this video came out this year. I'm gonna try and keep this list to one video per creator, so while there were a ton I loved from HaloBoxStudios, I had to go with this one. Making this video I feel like really solidified our little Infinite creator group, and it was just a really fun way to play a little joke on the wider Halo Community. I remember the lead up to this coming out people were DMing Box begging him to tell them what the leak was after he tweeted something cryptic about it. 
     Being in the live chat for this premiere was such a treat and for the most part people found it very funny and played along with the bit after realizing what was happening. Others were VERY MAD!! But let's be honest that only made it funnier!!!

L.E.N.S - CHAPTER 1 - SPYLENS

     It will never not be CRAZY to see how fast Spy was able to catch onto Blender and start doing insane things like this. Starting off L.E.N.S with this twist on The Arbiter scene was so cool and it looks INCREDIBLE the entire time. Not to mention how it tied in Retcon from HaloBoxStudios, it was just a taste of the universe that was about to launch off and I HAD to feature it because of that. Another video I can't believe came out this year!

NINE TO FIVE E1: SHEP OF THESEUS - SPITE BOX STUDIOS

     Now, I could've chosen so many videos from Spite Box, who were really on top of uploads this year!!! So many cool things to choose from like RED LINE or GUARD DUTY but I had to go with the first episode of their newest series NINE TO FIVE!!! The animated opening sequence is one of the coolest things I've seen for a Halo Machinima, and the show really carves it's own tone and atmosphere right from the start. I also screamed really loud for this one! Very excited to see where the rest of the series goes!!!

THE HALO SHOW | EPISODE 4 - ZERO_GLITCHES

     I was loving these Halo Show episodes Zero Glitches was doing in the early part of 2025, The animation mixed with machinima is so much fun, and I love the Eric Andre type bits and random killing as well as trying to adhere to the Talk Show format. Bringing in so many guests from the Machinima sphere is always fun, even when they seem to not exactly be there willingly. Episode 4 started to introduce a deeper story arc, that was implemented really well and hopefully we'll see a continuation one day!

MACHINIMA NEWS EPISODE 3 - STERBEN STUDIOS

     What a cool idea Machinima News is! It's really nice to see someone rounding up all sorts of Halo Machinimas and giving them some more exposure in a fun, chaotic, loud, and entertaining video. Going so far as to even spoof some of the videos included really shows the amount of effort they put into making what could've been a very simple video listing other machinimas into it's own thing. They also include some videos from the spanish speaking side of the machinima community, which is very cool to see as someone who never sees those videos since I don't speak spanish! (yeah i know i'm not a very good puerto rican but at least my mom speaks it!)

HIGH GROUND, NEW HEIGHTS - COUCH COMBAT

     A short but sweet video from Couch Combat, this is just picking a good bit and pushing it all the way. I love the various games we see him jump through and the little B plot of the Grunt singing is just a nice little extra joke to throw on right at the end. Proud of that Grunt for going to Therapy and working on himself!!!

RECRUITMENT - COBALTTUX

     This one's SERIOUS! I typically watch more comedic focused machinimas, but it's always really cool to see one that really matches the tone of the Halo Universe like this one did. Just a simple story of a solider being recruited into the Spartan program, it really uses every second of it's short runtime to the fullest. Reach really is such a great game for these types of tones, and the cut to Infinite right at the end really is the cherry on top!!

RESPAWN EPISODE 2 - DUAL WIELD

     Something cool about Halo Machinima, is despite everyone using the same exact medium and having the same limitations, there's really no stopping anybody from making something of any genre - and Dual Wield proves this with their series Respawn! Episode 2 really starts to unfold the overarching plot with lots of cool, interesting characters and interesting superpowers that are very fun to see how they portray using Halo Reach. Check it out if you like superhero stuff!

VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER - THAT COBALT SPARTAN

    Always fun to see who from the community will end up in a Cobalt Spartan video, I just loved the simple idea of hearing the vehicle's perspectives - the punchline of the Spartans just hearing a ton of honking is a great bit and the cut just works really well! Another short and sweet one that uses it's premise to the fullest. Also M4RKM4DNESS' singing in the outro is beautiful.

     There's so many more great videos that came out this year, but this is just a few I could think of and find quickly while writing up this little blog post. I'm just one mellow guy, there are a few community people out there who gather MUCH MORE comprehensive lists of machinimas, so don't feel afraid to go explore! Go out and watch a video from someone you haven't seen before, I try and search around YouTube occasionally just to find new creators and see what the wider community has cooking up! With Infinite wrapping up and no confirmation of the next multiplayer game, it seems like a great time for machinima makers to really stretch their creative muscles in 2026, and I hope to see more cool stuff just like these videos above!!! I LOVE HALO MACHINIMA!!! (and also I fear having anymore videos on one blog post will break the website WE'LL SEE!!!)

MESSY SKETCHES BY ME! MELLOHYELLOH!

     Finally, I'd just like to feature some really really cool fan art we've gotten over the year! We don't get a lot, but it really does mean the world whenever I see a new one pop up and I just wanted to feature a few here. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH THIS IS LITERALLY THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD I AM SO GRATEFUL TO GET TO INCLUDE THIS SECTION!!!!!!!!

BY @JAXBEETLE!!!!! THANKS!!

     I simply MUST start with this insane one by JaxBeetle, it makes me laugh literally every single time I look at it and I have been thinking about it since it was first sent. Yelloh devouring his son, Excelled.

BY @SYPSART THANK YOU!!!!!!!

     We complete the Spite Box side of things where I join the honorable Box Studios' of Halo Machinima YouTube like Spite Box Studios and HaloBoxStudios. 2026 presents an opportunity for YellohBoxStudios to exist - and we have the perfect logo thanks to Syp!  

BY @THATCOBALTSPARTAN THANK YA THANK YA!!!!!

     Next, we have a fancy little logo design by That Cobalt Spartan! In another universe, you open up YouTube and see this starting off all our videos! And I probably wear a little top hat or something too.

BY @SPYLENS THANKS SPY!!!!

     Spy continues to make me look cooler than I ever have been in real life in this very cool render of us back to back!! One day I'll try to learn Blender but for now I'll leave it to people like Spy!!!

     Next, we have a few by Zero Glitches featuring a whole bunch of other creators from the Machinima Community! Yet another person I'll leave Blender to I got no idea how you guys do this!!!! I'M DUMB!!!

BY @ZERO_GLITCHES AGAIN THANKS!!!!!!

     I also wanted to include this one separate from the slideshow because I love it, Zero recreating a shot from Episode 7 of Excelled dead on the ground! Also the TECHNICALLY the first Dr. Petalbrook fanart which my girlfriend was very happy about!

BY @EXCELLEDNOVA THANKS... I GUESS?

     Speaking of Excelled, next we have this very.. avant-garde picture that Excelled himself made. I'm just happy he's being creative. Please tell him you liked it. He also gave me one more piece of art he did that he really wanted me to include in this. It's not Flying By Wire related, but his birthday is in January so I figured I'd include it for him.

BY @EXCELLEDNOVA HOPE YOU'RE PROUD

     Again, I told him this was like a Flying By Wire/MellohYelloh fanart section, but he was VERY adamant that I include this. So here is fan art of his favorite character, Big Chungus, by Excelled. He told me to include a caption he wrote as well. 

​"67" - Excelled

     OOOOOOOOOOOKAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! I THINK THAT'S ALL I GOT FOR THIS ONE!!!! Time to get all ready for the incoming holiday season!!! I wanted to try to get a Christmas video or something out to wrap up the year, but honestly I have just been too ENDLESSLY BUSY recently!!! So I decided to do this little blog to at least have some version of a little end of year thank you thing for the community. 
     Next year should be very exciting for everyone! I'm hoping to get a bit more of a lock on getting some sort of videos out more consistently, whether that be episodes, layovers, or shorts - and then we have the CE Remake to look forward to as well. And if you ask ME, PERSONALLY, NO BASIS AT ALL, I think we'll get an announcement for at least the next Multiplayer game next year at some point. Whether that be Halo 7 or something else I DON'T KNOW I JUST MAKE YOUTUBE VIDEOS!!!!
     And I've said this an annoying amount already but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who have been watching our stuff, the videos, shorts, or livestreams - it's super super cool to have our own little community. Next year I hope to use our discord a bit more and plan out some actual not last minute game nights and other things, so if you want in before those start happening make sure to join here - MELLOHYELLOH NATION DISCORD!!!!!!!! - AND WE'LL MAKE SURE TO SAY HI SOMETIME!!!
     OK FOR REAL THIS TIME I THINK THAT'S IT!!! Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc, etc! Hope to see you all in 2026!! LOVE AND PEACE!!!

- YELLOH // LOGAN