Mascot Mayhem Custom Contest
Many organizations and products have a special person or entity that serves as a highly recognizable symbol to the rest of the world. The goal of this challenge is to bring one of those mascots to life in customized toy form.
- Mascots can be people, animals, or things. While most participants will likely choose to do a figure of some sort, don't be afraid to pick something that's more abstract or unusual.
- Your mascot can come from ANY media, past or present. Sports teams, political parties, insurance companies, food products, internet sites, etc. (pretty much anything you can think of) are all fair game. In addition to real world examples, fictional mascots are also legal subject matter.
- To the best of your abilities, your custom should resemble the mascot you've chosen. In other words, don't dress up the Michelin Tire Man like Deadpool or turn Captain Crunch into a zombie--make them how they're supposed to look. We all understand that changes/concessions sometimes have to be made in order to make a custom work, but, at the same time, try to stay true to the essence of the character/thing.
- You MAY NOT invent an original mascot, your custom must be based on an existing one.
- You may utilize whatever base bodies, parts, materials, and tools you like to bring your chosen icon to life. Which mascots will outshine all the others and obtain the juicy gold, silver, and bronze endorsement deals (a.k.a., Figure Realm trophies)?
Please remember to follow the
Contest Rules and to
Vote Fairly.
Contest Winners:
1st
2nd
3rd
Please wait...
What are the rules of the contest?
- Please use the form here to submit your custom figure.
- At least a paragraph description is required with your entry. This paragraph, at a minimum, should answer the following questions:
- How was this custom customized?
- How does the custom fit into the contest theme?
- You may submit up to three different entries for the contest.
- Please only submit figures that were created for this contest. Do not submit old figures from the Showcase or previous contest entries.
- Your entry should not be posted on this website, any other website, or anywhere on the internet until the contest is completely over.
- The pictures for your entry will remain hidden until the contest ends and the voting begins.
- Your identity will remain hidden until after the voting completes.
- Do not include names, logos, signatures or anything on the pictures that will give you away as the creator of the custom. We want to keep the customizer's identity a secret until the contest is over.
- Don't wait until the last day to submit your entries. If your internet is down, or something happens beyond your control, you will miss the contest! Also keep in mind how many customs you can submit in one day. You may not be able to submit all your entries in one day.
- The contest is purely for fun... well... and bragging rights!
How does the contest voting work?
Anyone can vote for their favorite customs in the contest, you don't even have to submit anything to the contest! You do have to be logged-in to your Figure Realm account though so we can keep track of the votes. Only appointed Figure Realm staff can see the votes, so anonymity is guaranteed. Voting begins once the entry deadline is met and lasts for a week.
It's hard to choose just one custom to vote on when there are tons of great entries, so Figure Realm has a unique voting system where you can vote on ALL the customs! When you click on an entry to view, there's a bar with buttons on it that lets you give the custom anywhere from 1 to 5 Stars. 1 Star means you think they could have done a better job on the custom while 5 Stars means you think they did a perfect job. The votes for each entry are added up when voting is closed and averaged-out to determine the winners. Also, don't abuse the system. Don't give your own custom 5 Stars and then give everyone else 1 Star to boost your rating. Remember, the votes are monitored.
Some points you might consider when casting your vote: Is the figure well-made? Is the paint smooth or crusty? Are there noticeable fingerprints on the sculpted parts? Is it an original custom? Is it accurate to the source-material (comics, photos, description in a book)? Are the pictures clear enough to see the details? Did the creator take the time to include a back-story or recipe? Is the custom so unbelievably awesome that you'd trade your dog for it?
Craftsmanship and creativity are major factors to consider, but ultimately your vote should depend on how much you like the custom, and how well you feel it fits the contest theme.
What is the contest schedule?
| Begins: | Contest Closed |
| Ends: | February 28th, 2014 - Last day for submissions. No exceptions! Cut off is at midnight Central Standard Time. |
| Voting: | March 1st - 7th. |
| Managed By: | Patraw |
Example Pictures for Ideas
View Contest Entries 
User Comments
Let's say, for example, you wanted to make a 3-dimensional target symbol to represent the Target chain of stores, that'd be fine as an entry, as would be the Target Dog, but if you took a superhero base body and painted the Target logo on his chest and called him "Target Man" or something similar, that'd be taking things too far, because you'd be inventing an all new mascot in the process.
...So...even the 'mascot' for this contest wouldn't count, as it is 4 cereal mascots that have been made into wrestlers. Which is a great custom by the creator but, likely, would not be allowable in this contest.
Sorry, just playing devils advocate!
Why would I select a photo of cereal character customs to represent this challenge if I didn't think that they fit the theme? And, so far as I can tell, LuvNidleness' descriptions of those four customs contain no references to wrestling, so, unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure where you got the idea that those four cereal mascot customs are wrestlers. I would have no problem with the Tony the Tiger, Lucky the Leprechaun, Cap'n Crunch, and Toucan Sam figures, nor the Matty Collector custom at the top of the page, as submissions (although, because they've already been posted on Figure Realm, by default, they're not eligible as entries).
Maintaining the focus of the contest's theme, while at the same time allowing customizers to exercise their imagination/creativity, can be quite a juggling act. If you're too liberal, some people will say that you're letting customizers submit whatever they want instead of sticking to the challenge's theme, and, conversely, if you're too strict, then others may feel that they have little in the way of creative freedom. I'm not perfect, but I do my best to find the middle path when I write the rules and answer questions/concerns.
Another thing to keep in mind is that some companies/franchises simply don't have an official mascot at all, even if they do have a stable of highly recognizable characters.
If Mario is considered a mascot, would Luigi, Link, Donkey Kong or even Samus?
Also, in the case of McDonalds, do ANY of the McDonald Land characters count as a MCDonald 'mascot'?
Thanks in advance for any clarification!
I agree that it can get tricky/confusing when a given company has several highly recognizable characters. Most people wouldn't dispute the big names as being the "faces" of their respective brands, but when you start moving on to secondary or tertiary characters, that's when things get messy.
I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it's your job to tell the voters how and why your custom fits any given contest's theme. If you can't come up with a good reason why the character you want to make belongs in a custom contest, then it probably doesn't.
The Toucan Sam, Lucky the Leprechaun, Tony the Tiger, and Captain Crunch custom figures pictured above all look more fierce/serious than their normally jovial cartoon counterparts, which is fine.