Waldi, Amik, Misha, Sam, Hodori and Cobi had been integral to the success of the Olympics in the last 40 years, even though they never won a gold medal. They all added colour and fun to the Games as mascots.

Even though athletes remain central figures at the Games, the event will lack fizz without the characters and rituals that make the Olympic experience so memorable.

People who are old enough to remember the 1982 Asian Games will fondly recall the stellar role mascot Appu played in popularising the event staged at New Delhi. Appu, the playful and charming elephant calf, radiated positive energy wherever it appeared. Symbols, slogans and pictures have always been useful tools to create awareness about mega sports events.

Even though technological explosion has changed the face of the world in the 21st century, iconography hasn’t lost its relevance. That’s why the launch of the logo and mascot is eagerly anticipated before every Olympics.

The Olympics is already the owner of one of the most recognisable symbols in the world: the five inter-locked rings. Profound meaning blended with stunning simplicity to inspire the brilliant design. It is impossible to delink the five rings and the Games. But the rings represented the Olympics as a whole and not a particular edition.

So from 1972, the International Olympic Committee permitted the local organisers to come up with a mascot. Waldi, a long-haired Dachshund breed common at Bavaria, became the first official mascot of the modern Olympics.

Montreal also stuck with an animal, choosing Amik the beaver to be the face of the 1976 Games. Moscow’s Misha — a cute bear — became a huge hit four years later.

A bald eagle, christened suitably Sam, was the mascot of the 1984 Games. The national symbol of the United States wore a smile instead of its customary scowl to appeal to children. The animal pattern continued in the 1988 Games with Seoul selecting an amiable tiger, Hodori, to succeed Sam.

Spanish artist Javier Mariscal veered from the beaten path as he designed Cobi, a tidily dressed surreal dog, for the Barcelona Games. It took time for people to warm to the abstract animal.

Computer forayed into mascot generation in 1996. The hybrid creation was first called Whatizit only to be renamed Izzy by Atlanta children. Sydney, Athens and Beijing professed faith in proliferation. The Games in 2000 and 2004 had two mascots each while the 2008 Olympics had a record five.

London 2012 will have one for the Olympics (Wenlock) and another for the Paralympics (Mandeville). The names sprouted from history. The 19th century Much Wenlock Games at Shropshire was a precursor to the modern Olympics and the inspiration for the Paralympics came from a competition held at Stoke Mandeville in 1948.

According to the IOC website, Wenlock was created from the last drop of steel used for the construction of the 2012 Olympic Stadium. The abstract figure has a single camera eye to capture everything it sees.

The light on its head is similar to the lights on London’s ubiquitous black taxis. Three projections on Wenlock’s head refer to the podium where Olympic medallists stand. The sale of official merchandise carrying the London mascots is expected to cross $1 billion, according to one estimate.