Just wanted to let you guys know that the majority of our usual Olympics coverage has moved over to our sister blog, Stay-at-Home-Yeti. It’s not that I don’t love y’all anymore, it’s just way too hard to juggle two blogs, a toddler and NBC’s wall-to-wall coverage of this year’s Summer Olympics.
So, for now, if you wanna read my take on the events in London…click here.
Filed under See
Yesterday, our friend and fellow Olympics-nerd, James, mentioned on his Facebook page that the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England are due to begin exactly two years from now. Hooray! I know it’s a little early to set up a season pass on our Tivo — seriously, I would if I could — but, it’s never too early to start talking about the latest Olympic mascots!
Introduced to the world back in May, the official mascots for the London games are a pair of strangely-hideous, one-eyed blobs named Wenlock and Mandeville.
And while they are not nearly as cute as the Fuwa Friendlies from the Beijing games, or the epically-cool Quatchi and friends from the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Wenlock and Mandeville do have a pretty interesting origin story, and the animated clip explaining it all (below) is even cooler!
I won’t spoil it for you by giving any of the plot away, but, their names do carry great meaning for folks in the UK and the story behind how they were “born” is really kinda cool. And on top of all that, the clip holds up very well on repeat views. We’ve watched it dozens of times already on YouTube — Greta is obsessed with the rainbows! — and I still get misty-eyed at the ending every time.
Anyway, though I probably won’t be dashing across the pond to buy plush figures of these new mascots (if they even come in plush!) when the games begin, I do heartily approve of them in concept.
So, check out the first of what I’m assuming will be many videos celebrating the world’s next big Olympic mascots…and by all means, let the countdown to London 2012 begin!
As we say goodbye to yet another amazing, emotionally-charged Olympic Games this weekend, I think it’s only proper to pay tribute to what were probably the coolest Olympic Mascots of all time. That’s right, amigos, I’m talking about Quatchi, Sumi, Miga, and their adorable little sidekick, Mukmuk!
As luck would have it, my brother Ryan was in Whistler this time last year and managed to score Greta a boxed set with all four of those plush beauties in it. And while those groovy Nagano Snowlet Owls were cool, and the Beijing Mascots kicked butt, I gotta hand it to Vancouver for including a freaking cute-ass Sasqautch in their bunch. Grrr…Yeti like!
Now, let’s see London try and top these guys in 2012!
make. see. eat. do. 