Today we welcomed Borobi, the blue, surfing koala, who arrived by helicopter this morning to the excitement of a few hundred dignitaries, Gold Coast locals and mascot enthusiasts. And who isn’t one really.
Given some of the mascots unveiled for some sporting games, and with a world that tries to be too smart for its own good, expectations were set low. But the winning design, created by a normal person like a school teacher, not some marketing think tank is a welcome addition to the family of mascots. It should be a good seller too, hopefully the school teacher gets a cut off that merch.
Here is the said new Mascot Borobi.
You can read a more professional and thorough story from the ABC, we just want to get to the best and blurst of other mascot quickly.
It should be no surprise that the Commonwealth Games mascot was of a high standard, as their previous efforts have been OK too. Well, if you stay with a simple theory – a cute animal that has something to do with the country. It is when a mascot that needs an accompanying explanation is when you start getting in trouble, like you’ll see later.
Here’s a collection of the simple, good, mascots from Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Dehli, and Kuala Lumpur.
And then there’s one of the best, local bias aside, from the 1982 Games in Brisbane. Matilda was giant Kangaroo who motored around QEII Stadium, and what a simpler time when the cutting edge technology was the giant wink from the oversized marsupial.
The Gold Coast also have previous for excellent sporting mascots. The former NRL mascot Captain Charger was one of the best.
And our favourite macot? How about the cleverly named Warren Z Vaughn of the now defunct minor Canadian Ice Hockey team the London Werewolves. Aroooooooooo.
But what about the bad? Well, it can be this simple, if it needs an explanation it usually means it is rubbish and has had far too much time wasted on those with marketing degrees justifying to themselves how clever it would be to have a mascot that no one likes, and that very few can relate to. It doesn’t need too much of a back story, just needs to be a mascot.
This had been creeping in for a while, with the Atlanta Olympics mascot from 1996 one of the first that required an explanation.
There was a similar effort with Ice Cubes at the Winter Olympics in Italy too.
But the grand prize for most elaborate, with back story required (as good as the back story is, it is complete overkill) came from the London Olmypics with Wenlock and Mandeville. Two characters that looked like Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons in flashy underworld tracksuits. Judge for yourself below, but it feels the most unlikeable mascot of all time.
But is it the worst mascot ever? Probably not, because you could argue the following mascot from Scottish Footbal club Partick Thistle is right up there.
Could we do better, of course not. Although old mate above wouldn’t have taken more than a few crayons, and a six pack of MF Lager to come up with.
