idleidol.net

Competition Winners

whatwhated — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:57:11 +0000

Competition Winners

We had lots of great entries to the Idle Idol competition but have finally decided on the winning three.

Third place went to Kim Papa (buffalok08) for ‘Popeye’ an amazing mascot from the border of Thailand and Burma. The character represents a burger and pizza restaurant called Popeyes. What a great colourful shot and fun pose.

Second place went to Warren Lynn (wplyn) for ‘Hodag Attack’ found in Wisconsin. An unusual and very large Idle Idol.

First place went to Trent Clarke for his shot ‘They could be Twins’ taken in Den-den town, Osaka. One of the earliest entries, we particularly liked the twin reference and the pose of the friend and Kamen Rider.

Well done to you all, we hope you enjoy the prizes which should be arriving soon. Thanks to everyone else who entered, we’ve included the runners up below. We particularly liked Big Ed with Gorilla, looking slightly uncomfortable but as though he’s pretending to be friends with the large ape.

Astro Boy

whatwhated — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:45:52 +0000

Astro Boy outside an antique toy shop in Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku

Astro Boy in the Tokyo Anime Center in Akihabara, Tokyo

Also in the Tokyo Anime Center

Old Atom Toys at the Tin Toy Museum in Yokohama

Astro Art at the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum

Astro Boy through the ages

Astro Boy

Atom, or Astro Boy as he is known in the West, takes the front cover of Idle Idol, so we thought it was about time we had a look at the different designs of this iconic character.

The hugely popular robot-boy was created by manga artist, producer, animator and licensed physician Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka, often called “the father of manga,” introduced Atom in 1951 with a manga called Captain Atom. Astro Boy looks like a human child who is about ten years old, but he’s really a robot with special powers. His powers include incredible strength, an amazingly powerful computer brain, rocket-boots, magnified hearing, the ability to send light beams from his eyes, enhanced sight, the ability to shoot lasers from his finger tips, the ability to sense whether someone is good or evil and a machine gun hidden in his bum. In the manga, Astro Boy was created by the lonely Doctor Tenma who wanted to create a replica of his dead son. The Doctor became annoyed with his creation for not growing up like a normal boy, and so gave him to the Robot Circus. Later, kind Professor Ochanomizu discovered him. The Professor called on Astro Boy to solve problems and to help bring peace between humans and robots.

The character has remained an icon recognisable to today’s youth as much as those who grew up with the early manga. However the studio was worried his popularity was waning with the young. Tezuka studios collaborated with artist Lily Franky and created a fish faced fat Astro Boy which has drawn complaints from fans. If you want to see a very cool fat Astro Boy check out Youngsun Kim’s wonderful painting. In 2009 a CGI Atom was released, the slightly more Caucasian looking Astro Boy was the result of much discussion and compromise between Tezuka Productions and Imagi Animation Studios who animated the movie.

There is much fan inspired Astro Boy art and commercial products which develop or change his iconic image. I’ve seen a cute baby faced Astro, a scary fur suit Atom, graffiti Astro and a lovely knitted toy.

A number of people have noted the similarities of Astro Boy to Big Boy. Here’s an illustration which combines both characters. What do you think, do Astro Boy and Big Boy look similar?

Milton Keynes Triceratops

whatwhatjohn — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:34:23 +0000

Triceratops at Peartree bridge in Milton Keynes - 2010

Triceratops in 1980 © Inter-Action MK

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.

French Fry Guy

whatwhatjohn — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:50:29 +0000

French Fry Guy

The garish colours and exaggerated features make the French Fry Guy a bizarre and intriguing mascot. Probably the most unusual aspect about him, apart from the dodgy eye which could actually be an attempt at a wink is the fact that he’s eating a chip from his head in what maybe considered self-cannibalism.

The ‘French Fry Guy’ is a mascot I’ve seen more than any other but it’s history and origin aren’t well documented. The first time I saw the character was in 2003 at the Glastonbury festival, it was a mini-version which stood on the counter of a van selling chips and burgers. I soon started spotting him on travels around Europe and to seaside towns in England. After contacting the ‘Food Museum‘ I was told he originated from either Belgium, The Netherlands or Northern France. In these countries a typical fast food dish is a cornet of chips which were bought at shops called a friterie (Belgium & Northern France) or frietkot (Netherlands). It was customary to have a sign outside the shop usually of a chef holding a cornet of fries. To simplify the sign the chef was dispensed and the cornet of chips was turned into a character. The next logical step was to turn the character into a 3d fibreglass mascot, thus the ‘French Fry Guy’ was born.

The French Fry Guy isn’t the only chip mascot around, I’ve included a few of my favourites which I’ve found on flickr; including the long legged, armless chip-man and a moustached monstrosity! If you’d like to see more photos of the character there is a small flickr group dedicated to him called the crazy french fries guy, there are also two other groups that collect self-cannibalistic mascots; scary beings eating themselves and cut me, wicked servant.

It’s not unusual for mascots to be used in art, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Takeshi Murakami and many other contemporary artists have all referenced characters in their work playing with ideas of commercialism and pop culture, mixing high brow with what many consider low brow. On a recent visit to Tate Britain I saw the ‘Rude Britannia’ exhibition. One of the most compelling, fun and bizarre pieces of art on display was a sculptural piece titled ‘Death to the Fascist fruitboys’ by artists Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson. In the sculptural piece the main subject is none other than ‘French Fry guy’ or as the artists call him Chipboy. I recently sent an email to Shaun and Mally and asked them a few questions.

Can you tell me about the idea behind the sculptures?
Death to the Fascist Fruitboys is a sequel to the original Fascist Fruitboys of 2005 in this piece Chipboy (that’s what we nicknamed him!) is getting a good kicking by a bunch of skinheads (fruitboys being a play on bootboys) made from fruit and veg. The idea for the sculpture came from a place mat bought from a poundstore with images of heads made from vegetables but rather badly done, this appealed to our aesthetic – we saw them as poundstore Archimboldos! At the time much was being made in the media about five a day fruit and veg consumption, Jamie Olivers’ school dinner crusade, the demonising of the dreaded turkey twizzler and the scenes of school children desperately handing money through the school fence for mothers to buy them bags of chips in some kind of fucked up parody of a refugee or concentration camp…

In the Tate piece Death to the Fascist Fruitboys the Chipboy is getting his revenge and coming to the aid of his ‘Sausage-Boy’ friend based on another mascot also seen on the streets of Holland, the sausage piece has quite overt sexual overtones and looks fairly perverse lying in a pool of his own ketchup

When and where did you first see the ‘French Fry Guy’?
We first spied him on Old Compton street with his slightly wonky winking face (i do find him a tad creepy), as an advocate of fast and unhealthy food he seemed to be the ideal adversary for the Fascist Fruitboys. We managed to combine our interest in the high and low brow, youth culture and social comment into one piece of sculpture, since then we have spied our fry guy friend in different countries, he seems quite popular in the low countries. We have also seen small versions that sit on the counter notably in my mother in laws’ local chippy in Stoke-on-Trent.

Thanks to flickr user farmsoundracer for the thumbnail image.

Lawn Jockey

whatwhated — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:17:39 +0000

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.

Win a Signed Copy of the Book!

whatwhated — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:18:19 +0000

Edward with Nyanta

John meeting Crayon-chan

Win a Signed Copy of the Book

Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot is officially out and to celebrate we’re offering the chance to win a copy of the book. All you have to do is take a photo of yourself or a friend with your favourite mascot. The entries will be judged by ourselves based on the awesomeness and bizarreness of the mascot and how cool the pose of the individual is.

The Prizes:
1st Prize: A signed copy of the book with a goody bag including Kero-chan and Koro-chan finger puppets, a Satoko-chan mobile phone strap and two badge sets.
2nd prize: A signed copy of the book with a badge set.
3rd prize: A badge set of your choice.

How to Enter:
There are four different ways to enter. Please also let us know where the photo was taken when submitting your entry.
1. Email your photos to comp@idleidol.net.
2. Join the Idle Idol facebook group and add your photo.
3. Upload your photo to flickr, post it to the Idle Idol flickr group and tag it with “idleidol”.
4. Follow whatwhatjohn or whatwhated on twitter and include a link to your photo along with #idleidol in your tweet.

We look forward to seeing your photos. Winners will be announced on the 22nd July and the winning entries will be displayed on the website.

**UPDATE**
The competition has now closed. The esteemed judges will carefully select a winner and the results will be announced very soon. Thanks to everyone that entered.

Elephant slides

whatwhated — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 06:01:05 +0000

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

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.

Zakumi – World Cup Mascot

whatwhated — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:16:29 +0000

Zakumi – World Cup Mascot

The 2010 World Cup is under way in South Africa so we thought we’d take a look at the official mascot. His name is Zakumi and he’s a leopard with green hair. His name comes from “ZA”, which stands for south Africa and “kumi”, a word that means ten in several African languages. Zakumi’s green and gold colours matches the uniform worn by their national football team. Apprently his hair is green so that he is better camouflaged on the football pitch.

Zakumi was born on the 16th of June 1994 the date coincides with Youth Day and the year is when South Africa became a democracy. He is a cheerful and sporty animal, he loves football and proud to be South African. The official Fifa site says this about him;

Zakumi is a jolly, self-confident, adventurous, spontaneous, and actually quite shrewd little fellow. He loves to perform and always follows his instinct and intuition, yet sometimes has the tendency to exaggerate a bit. You will often find him fooling about and teasing people but not in a mean way. He is warm-hearted and caring, and wants to make as many friends as possible.

Also on the Fifa site you can read a comic about the mascot, watch videos and see photos. If you’d like to make a cool looking papertoy Zakumi visit design on the rocks.

Special thanks to Ballacorkish for his two great Zakumi photos. To see another Idle Idol of the Korean / Japan mascots; the Spheriks click here. At the bottom of the page you’ll see all the world cup mascots. I think Zakumi is a great football mascot however my favourite is World Cup Willie but perhaps I’m being a little bit biased. Let us know your favourite world cup mascot in the comments. To find out more about the past world cup mascots click here.

Now Available In All Good Bookshops

whatwhatjohn — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:28:05 +0000

Idle Idol at Tate Modern Bookshop

Now available in all Good Bookshops

My first sighting of the Idle Idol book happened at the Tate Modern bookshop on the weekend. The book was proudly on display alongside the equally awesome Drainspotting by fellow MBP author Remo Camerota.

Idle Idol will be available at all good bookshops, and if it’s not stocked I’m sure if you ask them nicely they can order it in for you. Alternatively you can order it online at Amazon.

Ronald McDonald

whatwhated — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:56:38 +0000

2010 Goofygoof - Fur suit costume designed by Ron English

Ronald McDonald

Donald McDonald as he’s known in Japan first arrived in Ginza, Tokyo, in 1971. McDonald’s was experiencing a period of spectacular growth and had stores in every American state and five other countries. Den Fujita, who was amazed at the efficiency and popularity of the chain decided to introduce the restaurant to Japan. A brilliant businessman he dominated the hamburger market but he wasn’t without his controversial attitude. He famously declared, “The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skin is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years.” Going further, he said, “If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white, and our hair blonde.” Despite a downturn in popularity in other countries the burger chain recorded net profits of ¥12.81 billion in 2009.

According to one survey, 96% of all school kids in the United States of America recognize Ronald. However a recent survey by Corporate Accountability International say that 47% of people they asked think it might be time for him to retire. Alfred David Klinger a retired physician and member of the group said “Ronald McDonald is a pied piper drawing youngsters all over the world to food that is high in fat, sodium and calories,” The organization has spearheaded a “Retire Ronald” campaign critiscing the company for targeting young children with their mascot. When asked would McDonalds be dropping Ronald, CEO Jim Skinner gave a defiant “no” and described their character as “a force for good”. Some people think the blame shouldn’t be placed squarely on Ronalds shoulders and that parents should take responsibility Robert Stutler, 26, said where and what children eat is ultimately up to their parents, not the character in the yellow suit.

Ronald McDonald first appeared in 1963 on a television commercial. The scary clown was played by Willard Scott who claims to have “created Ronald McDonald” according to his book Joy of Living:

At the time, Bozo was the hottest children’s show on the air. You could probably have sent Pluto the Dog or Dumbo the Elephant over and it would have been equally as successful. But I was there, and I was Bozo… There was something about the combination of hamburgers and Bozo that was irresistible to kids… That’s why when Bozo went off the air a few years later, the local McDonald’s people asked me to come up with a new character to take Bozo’s place. So, I sat down and created Ronald McDonald.[1]

Japanese people love to dress up, so its no surprise Ronald has provided inspiration for costumes, check out two great photos here and here. In the video at the bottom of the post you’ll see a sexy lady Ronald who appeared in 2005 advertising the Tomato McGrand. A recent campaign involving the character Mr James wasn’t as well revived and caused protests from vocal foreigners living in Japan.

Ron English regularly features an obese Ronald in his paintings and billboards, he even made some vinyl figures and a fur suit costume shown below.