2012 Olympics mascots revealed to mixed reviews

Which creatures have just one eye and are made from drops of steel? Wenlock and Mandeville, the 2012 Olympics mascots, unveiled earlier this week in London. They are magical, androgynous figures, fashioned from materials used to build London’s Olympic stadium.

Their appeal is not yet widespread, but could they actually grow on us over the next two years? John Ryan, animation director for Dagnabit in Atlanta has some insight into this problem. He was the designer of the maligned Olympic mascot, Izzy, from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.