What is wenlock and mandeville made out of

Wenlock, named after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock that helped inspire Pierre de Coubertin to launch the modern Olympics, and Mandeville, inspired by the Buckinghamshire town of Stoke Mandeville, where the Paralympics were founded, will become very familiar in the next two years.

The chairman of the London organising committee of the Olympic games Locog , Lord Coe, said the mascots were aimed squarely at children and designed with the digital age in mind. He said they had the most positive reaction in workshops to road test them. Among the designs rejected at the start of an open pitch process were anthropomorphic pigeons, an animated tea pot and a Big Ben with arms and legs. Children will be encouraged to interact with the characters, inviting them via Facebook, Twitter and the web to visit their school and, said Coe, inspiring them to take up different sports.

Young people will be able to decide where they go, what sports they pick up. Two alien-looking characters representing the Olympic and Paralympic Games, respectively , each with a single massive eye made of a camera lens, the pair is likely to fascinate fans far more than the mascots of Olympics past, simply by virtue of their appearance. Add in the ability for anyone to make fully customizable versions of them, or read their engaging back story, and you've got a pretty good diversion to check out between events.

Iris was one of a multitude of agencies, companies, and even studios including Pixar, among others that responded to the Olympic committee's call for mascot submissions, and made it through a grueling month process -- which was also highly secretive -- before finally winning the commission.

True to Olympic tradition, the characters have characteristics that pay homage their native country: The mascots are made of steel "representing the steel and mining industries in the U.

The characters also come complete with a fully-realized origin story -- which "War Horse" author Michael Morpugo formally fleshed out -- in which Wenlock and Mandeville, who are forged from the steel from the last girder to go up in London's Olympic stadium by a soon-to-retire steel worker, and then brought to life by a rainbow. Creative agency iris has unveiled Wenlock right and Mandeville, the mascots for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The two characters are based on blobs of steel used to make the girders for the Olympic stadium, and feature headlights derived from the hire light on London taxis. Wenlock above , the mascot of the Olympic Games, is named after the English town of Much Wenlock, which inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin to found the modern Olympic movement. Mandeville above , the mascot of the Paralympics, is named after the town of Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

Above: Wenlock. See full-size image here. Above: Mandeville. Here's some text about the two characters from the London website followed by text from iris' website:. I mean, look at the success of Take That since they reformed. And you've got to admire how the Chuckle Brothers made that comeback with Tinchy Stryder. Maybe one day. I don't think the world is quite ready again for our unique brand of larking about and falling over at children's parties.

And maybe we've lost the knack. But never say never. Their star may have faded, but be under no doubts: we haven't seen the last of Wenlock and Mandeville. While Seb Coe, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Clare Balding have all now slipped into obscurity, our plucky mascots still sparkle in the imagination — the greatest ambassadors of this or any other age.

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