A Walking Jet Mascot For Winnipeg?

This is something I touched on in previous posts with my Winnipeg Mechs design, but I thought I’d write a dedicated post now that the Winnipeg team is going with Jets as their name.

True North Sports and Entertainment, the owners of the Winnipeg Jets, admitted to wanting to forge ahead with another name, likely using Manitobe in place of Winnipeg. This would have been a fresh start for the franchise. It also would be a burgeoning revenue stream as fans would have needed to get new jerseys and merchandise that reflected the new name.

Fortunately TNSE went with the ‘Winnipeg Jets’, and will likely do a lot of business when they unveil their new logo and jerseys later this summer.

One revenue stream that could be very lucrative is a line of merchandise based on the team’s mascot. Especially if that mascot was a robot along the lines of a Transformer or a Gundam - a walking jet. The possibilities for merchandise would be ten-fold compared to a typical mascot.

A line of toys, comics, and other products where robots can reside (practically everything) would be a huge revenue stream, especially if the mascot’s design was well-executed. You could even forge a large back-story with many other characters to expand the line.

Some of the toys would be pricier to produce (like a transforming robot), but not impossible. I’ve seen many toys that incorporate NHL licenses, and these are sold at a premium. A Winnipeg Transformer would be no different.

In the past the Jets used “Bennie”, a dog named partly for the owner and that famous song by Elton John. Nostalgia may resurrect Bennie, but he was a generic animal mascot. Using a robot mascot would be somewhat unprecedented and would have much more consumer appeal than a dog. As a compromise the robot could be named BENN.E!

If the team really wanted to knock it out of the park, they’d license Starscream from Hasbro as their official mascot. Not only is the character well-known and has a huge following, but he sports the colors of the Winnipeg Jets too. This would be pricy, but he’d be the coolest mascot in all of history.

In summary, I nominate a walking jet robot to be the mascot of the new Winnipeg Jets. The possibilities for this mascot are astronomical.

UPDATE: here is a basic mascot design. He would normally feature the team colors and logo (which have yet to be revealed), which is why he is plain: