I Can't Quit You, Quatchi! #5

Hard to believe it's been four years since Eliza and I began Quatchi Watch, our blog celebrating the cool Sasquatch mascot created by Meomi for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. (Quatchi's co-mascots Miga, Sumi and Mukmuk made guest appearances too.) And it's been well over two years since I've had any Quatchi news on my personal blog. So, with the 2014 Winter Olympics now in full swing, it's high time for another Quatchi update...

Our biggest Quatchi scoop came from poking around the Museum of Vancouver's searchable online database -- he was originally named Zooni (!?!), he had no feet, and his brown, ovoid nose was instead represented by a pair of tiny nostrils, as seen up above... Below, Zooni sports eyebrows as well, something Quatchi never had...

This next one shows how Mukmuk (not Miga) seemed to be Zooni's original partner in crime...

As for the Quatchi we've come to know and love, here's a blurry color guide...

Going back even earlier is this preliminary Zooni/Quatchi sketch...

Typing "Quatchi" into the Museum of Vancouver database search returns 211 results, a big chunk of which are collectible pins. Says the MOV: "We have become well versed in the surprisingly elaborate backstories of Quatchi, Miga, Sumi, and Mukmuk. This is in addition to charting their evolution from simple line drawings to 3D renderings to officially licensed Olympic merchandise and full-sized costumes." I found these two...

The detailed physical descriptions in those costume links are particularly interesting -- I'd love to see a Quatchi "Bound Costume Performance Manual"... The larger-than-life-sized mascots also wore this hockey jersey (follow the link to see the accompanying goalie stick and pads)...

One of the Quatchi costumes, as well as those of Miga and Sumi, were on loan to Vancouver's BC Sports Hall of Fame when I visited in February 2012. Here we all are...

Elsewhere in the Quatchi-verse, the handful of other Quatchi-related sites and blogs have mostly petered out, save for QuatchWatch, where Sammers and her fuzzy companions continue to travel everywhere, bake up a storm, and explore their Toronto home, like at this David Bowie art exhibit...

Quatchi also still appears in regular comic-strip form on the Homeless Quatchi Project, a site that raises awareness about Vancouver's homelessness problem. For whatever reason he's blue instead of brown, maybe because he's cold. Here's a sample...

And a cool .gif...

On TV, our favorite masquatch (to coin a portmanteau) was mentioned in an $800 answer on the November 9, 2011 episode of Jeopardy!... Spoiler alert! The contestant got the correct question -- see for yourself at the 6:37 mark in this video...

Check out this faux horror-movie trailer for Quatchi and the Ghost, featuring a killer homemade costume...

And here's a very short computer animation of Quatchi moseying along...

The most expensive Quatchi item currently on eBay is this four-foot fiberglass figure, listed at $19,999 (plus $799.99 shipping)...

That's about it for now. For those catching up, here are my previous Quatchi updates, from February 12, 2011, February 28, 2011, June 6, 2011, and November 27, 2011, as well as everything on my blog with a Quatchi tag. As usual, there's always more Quatchi stuff to be found on flickr, Pinterest, Pingram, Tumblr, YouTube and so forth. Finally, there's this Facebook page called Long Live Quatchi, which pretty much says it all.
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