FIRST Robotics - Mascot Corner

I can't help it.  I like mascots.  It's not that I would enjoy dancing around in a silly costume.  In fact I am sure I would not.  But they make me happy.  Perhaps I should not look for deeper meanings.

FIRST robotics combines high technology with a bit of the gaudy carnival.  Teams always have shirts and signs.  Some have banners to wave.  A few have their own cheering squads.  Perhaps a quarter have official mascots.

With my team doing well under my cunning strategy of leaving them the heck alone I had ample time to wander here and there looking at things.  The glaring stadium lighting and constant motion did pose some photographic challenges but here's a few pictures that made me smile.

I used to make robot costumes like this for my kids at Halloween.  They are not easy to walk in.

FIRST tournaments all have a "Mascots Corner" where these serious enthusiasts can go crazy.  You should see it when the inter match music is some kind of Polka or "The Macarena".

FIRST is not Battlebots.  The robots are, under strict penalties, not allowed to mix it up.  Mascots, like Jesters since time immemorial, get a bit of latitude. This of course was good natured fun between old friends.

Why did this make me think of a grown up Calvin?  I would like to think that there is enough whimsy in me that I would be able to see Hobbes when others might not.

Even the smaller pit sized plush toys are picturesque.  Here I could at least use the flood lights to show off the frizzy hair on Einstein/Von Frankenstein/Care Bear.

I liked these hats.

You get the most intimate view of things in the quiet moments.  The crowd has moved over to the competition side to watch the finals.  Team 3206, done for the year, has packed up their big fuzzy Husky (?).