What's with the 2012 Olympic Mascots??

Two very distorted teletubbies, that's what comes to mind when I see Wenlock and Mendville the two mascots of the 2012 London Games. Neither are they cute, nor are their names catchy like Syd, Millie and Ollie from Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Ok fine, so they're not cute, fancy or catchy but they must have an interesting story behind their creepy appearance, right?

Two drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton (A town in greater Manchester). Yep that's about it. As for their names Wenlock refers to the town 'Much Wenlock' which became a forerunner for the current Olympic Games. Mendville also refers to a town called 'Stoke Mendville' where the first Paraolympics were held.

Out of everything in London they had to pick these two. Ok fine, it has the names have that historical factor behind the mascots, then just keep the names or create nicknames even. Such as Wenlo and Mendo, that's sounds 10 billion times better. Maybe it's just an Australian thing to shorten anything too long, whilst the rest of the world prefer to talk in mouthfuls.

Seriously, imagine a little kid at the games saying to their parent, whilst pointing at a squishy toy; "please, please please buy me a Wenlock daddy!!" in that typical nagging tone, that kids can so easily muster. It sounds dirty even.

Enough about their names, now what about their appearance? Does it remind you of teletubbies or the aliens from the simpsons perhaps.

Yes, we in the modern world are very Tech savvy and Sci-Fi driven people and movies such as Avatar and the Star wars series are very popular. But this creepy one eyed looking thing (apparently representing Taxi headlights) as the mascots for an ancient human warfare, called the Olympics. well not warfare, i'm exaggerating but you get the point.

There's even a storyline for these drops of steel called 'Out of a Rainbow', youtube it if you want.

When I think of London I think of Double decker buses, that Giant ferris Wheel called the London Eye and Mr Bean's Yellow car.

Maybe i'm just reaffirming the stereotypes and not embracing this new wacky 'modern' creature. This new unisex creature can even be symbolic of our modern values, especially towards sexuality. Maybe Castor Semenya does have a real place in our world after all?

I'll end on an Avatar note

Jake Sully "i'm a warrior of the .... Jarhead Clan"