I was once again passing by the store when I quickly noticed a new Sato-chan mascot outside. This design marks the latest in a long line of alterations since it’s inception in 1955. The earliest model I’ve found is from 1965 and is my favourite.
There are over 250 elephant mascots dotted around the city of London and each one is painted/designed by a different artist or celebrity such as Marc Quinn, Paul Smith, De Beauvoir Primary School in Hackney, Years 4 & 6 and many more.
The red elephant sits proudly at the entrance to a shopping centre in South London with a castle perched on it’s back. The Elephant and Castle is not only a mascot but a road, a tube station, a roundabout, an area and a shopping centre!
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 remove such great characters. All over Japan these park animals brighten up small parks.