We’ve been in the mascot business for over 45 years, and in that time we’ve made some of the craziest mascots in existence. Plenty of fierce tigers, honorable knights, and adorable unicorn mascots have been brought to life on our floor, but every once in a while we get something that stops you dead in your tracks. This blog is dedicated to the mascots that are either the epitome of mascot craftsmanship or push the boundaries of what a mascot suit is capable of. Without further delay, let’s get into the craziness!
In the mascot business, we get a lot of orders for animals, shapes, humans, etc. But as you can see, Moko Jumbie doesn’t really fit into any of these categories. So, what exactly is he, and what makes him so special?
Moko Jumbie was made for a customer based in the U.S. Virgin islands. Most Americans know the Virgin Islands as a prime vacation spot for its tropical weather, beautiful beaches, and delicious cuisine. But this chain of islands is also home to vibrant Caribbean culture, and one of the coolest traditions of this culture is the Moko Jumbie. A Moko Jumbie is a stilt walker or a dancer, and they attend every festival and holiday on the islands. The tradition was brought over from West Africa by the Maasai people. “Moko” is a god who watches over the village, and due to his tall height, is always on the lookout for danger and evil. “Jumbie” is a West Indian word for “Spirit” or “Ghost”
So yes, he may look a lot like a mystical mushroom you’d find on an enchanted forest floor, but he is actually inspired by a god in the sky!
#4 on our list was too cool to leave out. Robot, Lips, and Sandwich were all part of FOX’s ‘The Masked Singer’. The Sandwich and the Robot were both featured on Season 3, while Lips was featured on Season 4. We’ve made several mascots for The Masked Singer over the years, but these were the ones that really blew our minds.
For those unfamiliar, The Masked Singer is a TV show with a captivating blend of mystery and music, where celebrities don elaborate mascot costumes to perform anonymously. At the end of the performance, the crowd and the judges guess the identity of the performer before they’re unmasked.
The Masked Singer is known for their unique mascot costumes. As a result, all three of these mascots required clever design, advanced mold work, and fabric trickery. Luckily, our most mascot technicians are always up for a challenge. Each of these mascots came out beautifully, and it was exciting seeing them worn by some of the most talented singers in the nation!
Most people when they think of Toyota they think of cars. Like many other large corporations, they produce products for all sorts of industries. Toyota’s Material Handling branch makes a huge selection of forklifts for companies across the globe. Gusto the forklift mascot takes its inspiration from Toyota’s robust fleet of internal combustion forklifts.
By itself, this mascot is certainly unique in its subject, but what really makes it stand out is the amount of electronics and features this mascot suit has on the inside. The back of the mascot features a flashing and rotating light complete with a speaker that plays the iconic *Beep Beep* of a reversing forklift. The coolest part of the costume though, is in the front. The pallet arms of this mascot costume use a small electric engine to move up and down. The engineering of such a feature is relatively simple but fitting it into a mobile mascot costume is quite a feat!
Perry is not an Elephant, nor is he a Mammoth. Perry is a Mastodon, a specific mastodon in fact. Perry was the name given to a North American Mastodon’s skeletal remains found during the excavation of a pond in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The skeleton was donated to Wheaton College in 1974 where he remains on display to this day. Not many colleges can boast about having a prehistoric elephantine mammal in their science center!
It’s no secret that this mascot was going to have to be huge, but there was no way one mascot performer was going to have the strength (and limbs) to operate such a beast. It doesn’t take a paleontologist to figure out that this costume was going to require TWO dedicated mascot performers. Perry required more than double the amount of fabric we normally use for a mascot. At just over 20 cubic yards of fabric, this fluffy giant is the largest mascot we’ve ever produced. He was so large that he didn’t fit through any of our regular sized doorways and had to travel through our garage doors in order to make it to our shipping bay. Don’t even get us started on the size of that box!
Huggy Wuggy is a fictional character from the survival horror video game series, Poppy Playtime. In the game, Huggy Wuggy is one of the central antagonists, often lurking in the shadows and hunting the player as they navigate through the game. He’s known for his ability to stretch his arms to great lengths, which he uses to capture his prey.
This Huggy Wuggy mascot is special for two different reasons. For starters, he was made for a private collector. Most of the mascots we make are for schools, businesses, and sports teams, it’s very rare that we have an individual reach out to us for a personal passion project. Usually, mascots made for an individual find their way to entertainment expos and conventions. We’ve seen a few of our creations at Comic Con and Anime Expo, which is always a treat!
However, the real reason he’s at the top of our list of Craziest Mascot Creations, is because he is 12 feet tall. This extreme height was made possible by the 3-foot stilts that the performer operates while walking around. Huggy Wuggy TOWERS over the rest of our list, even Perry the Mastodon looks tiny in comparison. It took us a huge amount of fabric to completely cover him, and when it came time to test the mascot out for the first time… well… it went about how you’d expect…
As you can see, these last 5 decades have given us the opportunity to create some of the craziest mascots in the world. It seems that every year we get projects that push the mascot industry beyond what we previously thought possible. As our customer’s mascot ideas grow bigger, so do our capabilities, and we’re excited to see what the next 5 decades will bring to our doorstep!
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