Triceratops at Peartree bridge in Milton Keynes - 2010

Triceratops in 1980 © Inter-Action MK

Triceratops in 1981 © 2010 Megashorts

Milton Keynes Triceratops

The Triceratops at Peartree Bridge in Milton Keynes was created by local artist Bill Billings in 1979. To celebrate it’s thirtieth birthday the iconic dinosaur received a makeover which was unveiled on the 25th May 2009. The design was chosen from over 200 colourful ideas which were put forward for a dinosaur design competition, people were then asked to vote for their favourite. The winning entry was submitted anonymously into the competition. The dinosaur was then painted by Inter Action MK; a community arts group which is based in a building nearby the Triceratops.

The artist Bill Billings initially had the idea to build the Triceratops in Linford Wood in the north of Milton Keynes but the city would not give him permission; however he was awarded £250 for his project. Bill made the sculpture from concrete and chicken wire and it’s rumoured that he slept in the belly of the dinosaur during its construction. Bill sadly didn’t live to see the thirtieth anniversary as he passed away in December 2007.

Having grown up in Milton Keynes it was one of the first mascots I became aware of and no doubt had an influence on my interest in art and 3D characters. I’ve included a few photos of the triceratops documenting a few of it’s many makeovers. Milton Keynes is a city perhaps more famous for another sculpture; ‘The Concrete Cows’. However, the triceratops is by far my favourite mascot, landmark and sculpture from my home town.

© 2010 Living in Monrovia

© 2010 egazelle

© 2010 Scorpions and Centaurs

© 2010 vistavision

Lawn Jockey

The first Lawn Jockey shown on the left was found outside a hairdressers in Ginza. His extended arm has been used to hold a sign for the salon. A long way from home the Lawn Jockey hails from America and was once a popular lawn ornament. Originally the figure was modelled on an African-American with exaggerated features. The controversial statue is now more often found with pink skin but old versions can still be found as seen in vistavisions photo shown at the bottom of the page

The story goes that at the time of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, a 12 year old African American Joque Graves was at camp, a groomsman for Washington. He wanted to make the crossing with the army; however, Washington, aware of the danger, ordered him to stay on the Pennsylvania shore, and shine a light, so upon return the company would know where to come to retrieve their horses. After the surprise attack on the Trenton barracks, Washington returned to find Joque had frozen to death, guarding the horses, the lantern still ablaze and frozen in his hand. moved by the boys devotion, Washington commissioned a statue, ‘The Faithful Groomsman’, to stand in honor of Graves at the General’s estate at Mount Vernon.

By Bob Bankard

The Lawn Jockey can often be seen holding a lantern, horse whip and even a restaurant menu. For more on the history of the lawn Jockey read the Wikipedia article.

Samezu, Tokyo

Yokosuka, Kanagawa

Really really near my place in Samezu, Tokyo. Like most Tokyo parks it's depressingly small. This guy brightens the place up though

© 2010 grooble Komagome, Toshima, Tokyo

A unusal triple elephant slide in Toyonaka City, Osaka Japan. © 2010 matsuyuki

An old american slide from the 1950s found in Hartford, Wisconsin. © 2010 Nels P Olsen

© 2010 Balloon cat

© 2010 Jef Poskanzer

A more unusual example that defies the convention of using the slide in place of the trunk © 2010 Ed.ward

Elephant slides

In parks all across Japan and indeed the world the elephant has provided park designers with one of the best ideas for transforming a boring park slide into a thing of awesomeness. I previously showed a small collection of park animals from Japan but I’d like to look more closely at this one type of character which is commonplace in parks around the world.

To see more elephant slides check out our Flickr gallery. Previous elephant entries on Idle Idol include Elephant and Castle and Elephant Parade.

Tokyo Park Animals

When it came to editing Idle Idol we ended up removing a whole section called Park attendants. They didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the mascots but it was really hard to get rid of such great characters from the book.

All over Japan these creatures brighten up small parks with slides made into elephants, wobbly seat pandas and some animals just there to brighten up a small corner of fun.