The Man Behind The Mascots

September 25, 2015 10:39 AM

The man behind the mascots is a character, too. Jean-Claude Tremblay is a 68-year-old Quebecois whose company, Creations JCT, makes 100-200 mascots per year. The article includes a slide show of the mascot-making process, as well.
posted by kevinbelt (14 comments total)

"You cannot give a kid a cup."

But you can give them a traffic cone.
posted by jenny76 at 10:46 AM on September 25, 2015

These pictures make me realize that I now find mascots creepy. Five Nights at Freddie's has done to mascots what Stephen King did to clowns.
posted by painquale at 10:52 AM on September 25, 2015

I'm pretty sure these people, like just about every manufacturing concern in Quebec, have appeared on How It's Made.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:05 AM on September 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

There's a final, afterlife-esque stage of mascot-making not included in the slideshow: when the arena floods and some poor person finds a horrifying mud-encrusted mascot head.
posted by Copronymus at 11:06 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of a few months ago when Monocle Magazine covered Japanese mascots (yuru chara) and the largest company that makes them.
posted by FJT at 11:09 AM on September 25, 2015

There was also a 99% Invisible episode about mascots, mostly focused on Bonnie Erickson, who designed Youppi!, the former Montreal Expos mascot among others, and had worked for Jim Henson's workshop (she designed Miss Piggy!).

I know the Youppi! thing is digressive, but upon seeing this story, I found it sort of jarring that this man was from Quebec but hadn't designed Youppi!!*

*the extra exclamation point is my own added grammar, rather than a part of Youppi!'s proper name.
posted by dry white toast at 11:57 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

How It's Made: Mascots
posted by Splunge at 12:09 PM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

A Muppet connection is inevitable for mascot makers (for anyone who doesn't want to be the Ed Wood of the field), and any second-tier TV channel that would want to cash in on the (so far) success of the new Muppets show might be interested in doing "The Mascots".
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:45 PM on September 25, 2015

Wow, the Canadian(?) narration on How It's Made is bland and horrible. Tony Hirst is a thousand times better.
posted by pipeski at 2:54 PM on September 25, 2015

The US narrator is one Brooks Moore. What he brooks more of I dunno <-- so funny because nobody ever said that before.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:12 PM on September 25, 2015

That was a lovely read, thanks for posting it. Jean-Claude reminds me so much of the many Quebec craftspeople I know, right down to the golf and the house in Florida. I have a childhood picture of myself with Youppi at an Expos game and this brought back fond memories.
posted by third word on a random page at 10:44 PM on September 25, 2015

FJT: “This reminds me of a few months ago when Monocle Magazine covered Japanese mascots (yuru chara) and the largest company that makes them.”

Hiromi Kano was featured on Rising on NHK World last week, but I can't find it on YouTube to link to it.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:45 PM on September 25, 2015

Our college mascot has a really nice mane. I do not know its origins.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:42 PM on September 26, 2015

This weekend, I hung out with a bunch of amateur mascot enthusiasts, and freelance mascot creators. One of them even showed me current progress of the mascot costume she's working on for me. I am speaking, of course, of a furry convention.
posted by egypturnash at 8:22 PM on September 27, 2015