Eggshell Clothing

It's the latest in hats this season.

A creature only partially hatches from an egg, and walks around with the remaining eggshell on him/her as though it was normal. It could be as little as wearing part of the shell as a hat, or as much as an egg with feet poking out.

Reasons for this are usually either Rule of Funny or Rule of Cute.

A Sub-Trope of Art Major Biology, Appropriate Animal Attire, and Improvised Clothes.

Contrast Removable Shell (the shell that's supposed to stay on can come off).

Examples of Eggshell Clothing include:

Anime & Manga

• Togepi of Pokémon. At first glance, Vullaby as well, but it turns out that's not an eggshell... it's a human skull.
• Many Digimon; Digitamamon takes it to the extreme, with a complete eggshell body and cracks for legs and eye slits. (In case you're wondering, Digitamamon has a pocket universe in there.)

Comics -- Books

• A character in the (pretty dark) comic book series Gaspard de la nuit is an unhatched egg save two duck-like legs sticking out from holes in the bottom. The character at one point explains that it hasn't fully hatched because it is afraid of the world outside.
• One-shot villain Baby Bird from Empowered. See also the WMG.

Comics -- Newspapers

• Sheldon of U.S. Acres, which was spoofed in an episode of Garfield and Friends, where Sheldon finally hatched, into another shell just like it.

Films -- Animation

• He didn't stay this way of course, but Mumble in Happy Feet cracked through his shell with just his feet, and wandered around in this way until he slipped and the rest of it broke.

Puppet Shows

• Baby Sinclair from the pilot episode of Dinosaurs.

Video Games

• The eponymous hero of Ivy the Kiwi.
• In Sonic Adventure 2, your chao can wear eggshells as hats.
• Mario series:
  • Jr. Troopa from Paper Mario.
  • The first boss in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
• Initially, the Moon Hamachao from the "Moonfish" sidequest of Skies of Arcadia: Legends—until you feed it enough Moonfish that it grows out of it.
• Togepi from Pokémon. Vullaby may also look like this at a glance since it's a baby bird, but it's actually wearing a skull as a diaper.
  • Togepi is weird because its evolved forms match the colors/patterns of the eggshell rather than Togepi's body.
• Egbert from World of Warcraft is a pet you can get in the game. The egg covers the center part of his body. See http://www.wowhead.com/item=32616

Western Animation

• Done in a couple of Looney Tunes short. In one a turtle egg gets separated and wanders around trying to hatch, and when he does he complains that he's still in a shell. In another it's a duck egg trying to find a place to get warm. The mother duck finds it and saves it from being boiled; as she picks him out of the pot, the duckling hatches and shouts "Aw, ma! Just when I was getting warm!" and jumps back in.
• In The Penguins of Madagascar episode "Paternal Egg-stinct", the duck egg the penguins are taking care of sprouts legs and wanders around the zoo.
• In Dexter's Laboratory, DeeDee mistakes a turtle for one of these, and then a bird that is one of these for a turtle.
• One of the "Buttons and Mindy" sketches from Animaniacs has a Stone Age Mindy chasing a baby dinosaur where only the legs had hatched out of the egg.
• The eponymous hero chick of Calimero (pictured above) wears his egg shell as a hat. He sometimes takes it off to put it to other uses (like an improvised raft).
• Abby, the baby in Birdz, uses an eggshell diaper. Also, Mr. Nuthatch wears one on his head as a hat.