Is that really what the Metal Crest Helmet looked like? Well, yes… But also no. If you download V1 and crack it open, you’ll see it’s actually the mesh data for the Order of the Golden Crest.
61888621_V1.txt (279.3 KB)
Cool as it is to look behind the scenes, updating over it with an actual hat was the right call. Roblox games which let players load in avatar items from the catalog might break when trying to handle obscure edge cases like this. Up until being replaced, nearly every player saw this as a broken hat with a broken thumbnail.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160215121616/http://www.roblox.com/Metal-Crest-Helmet-item?id=61888621
From what I remember, Roblox only reused avatar item IDs which were never visible to the public. While an ID was reserved with an item ready to release, it wouldn’t show up on the website.