At the beginning of the motorcycle era, the decorations were made in the fashion, which were called mascots - from the French word Mascotte, which means "Talisman". The mascots were small beautiful figures for the decoration of the front of the hood. Therefore, in English they were called: "Hood ornament".
At the beginning of the history of cars in the front of the hood, the massive lid of the radiator, which herself asked to be decorated with something. Then the designers refuel the radiator under the hood completely. But the sacred place is not empty. And at the front of the hood began to fasten the macot decorations.
Usually they were made of stainless steel, chromed and polished. It turned out bright, attractive, modern.
Maskota figures most often did not correlate with the official logo of the company. Is that on the car "Pontiac" Maskot often was the head of the Indian, because the real Pontiac himself was the leader of the Indians, and not at all peaceful.
And the Maskot of the car company "Desoth" was the head of Conquastador, which was Hernando de Soto (1498-1542). On the hoods of "Lincoln", "Bewiks", "Chryslers" settled a whole animal: quick wolves, jaguars, swans, eagles, pelicans. In addition to animals, cars adorned speed symbols: wings, airplanes and rockets, as well as gods and goddesses.
Sometimes branded sculptors were inspired by mighty male and elegant female figures. The most famous mascot, which still bangs on the "Rolls Royce" hood, is also a female figure and is called "Ecstasy Spirit".
This mascot, which has been more than 100 years old, perhaps the only one who has survived to our time. Others went into non-existence for three reasons.
- First, the fashion is fleeting, and at the end of the 1950s, buyers stopped believing the blambes on the hood.
- Secondly, vehicles of cars dramatically grew, and outstanding piercing-cutting decorations began to inflict serious damage to pedestrians when colliding.
- Finally, beautiful toy attracted the attention of dashing people who tried to remove them in the absence of the owner. Most often in order to return back for a modest fee. After all, the mascots were not considered spare parts and did not sell in stores.
Why we are all about abroad! Have we had mascots in the Soviet Union? Historical fact: were. This is the fact that is undoubted, as well as the Soviet car industry really existed, although it is not real now in this. And moreover, Soviet auto plants produced cars.
These cars, however, mostly copied some foreign samples, which programmed delay to a decade in everything. Even in such trifles like mascots. In the labor workers and the bourgeois bureaucrats of bourgeois excesses were not supposed. But on the Government limousine ZIS-110, modest maskot already had. They became a red banner, which later, changing a slightly changed, was placed on the hood of GAZ-12 (WES), and on the hood "Moskvich-407".
After the war, when in the west fashion for mascots began to leave, they appeared in the USSR. The first in 1945 decorated his cars in the figure of a mighty bear Yaroslavl Automobile Plant. This plant released heavy trucks "YAAZ-200". The bear approached the mascot of these machines for two reasons. First, as a symbol of strength, and secondly, as an animal depicted on the coat of arms of Yaroslavl, where he stands and keeps the sequir on his shoulder.
Initially, in such a standing position, he wanted to depict on a statuette, but it turned out badly. Then, one of the first Soviet automotive designers Yuri Aronovich Dolmatov took one of the first Soviet designers. He put the bear for four paws, closed his mouth and simplified the outlines of the Maskota to make its production easier. In this form, I liked the bear. Drivers of Yazov proud: the mascots were only on their machines.
But since 1951, heavy trucks according to the drawings transmitted from Yaroslavl began to produce in Minsk. The new car was called MAZ-200, and instead of the bear on the hood lid put the figure of the mighty bison, which he developed the same Yu. A. Dolmatovsky. In the late 1950s, the bison was moved to the sidewalls of the hood, where "lived" in the form of fire. The main reason for the abandonment of mascots was that beautiful bison elementary stew.
Jaza was produced until 1956, and then the automotive factory was repurchased into a motorized building. The production of heavy trucks was transferred to Kremenchug, where, naturally, no bears on the hood cover were not installed.
And the most famous Soviet Maskot is, of course, the rigging deer with the Volga GAZ-21. The car was made at the Gorky automotive factory from 1956 to 1970, and the deer piled on the lid of his hood until the beginning of the 1960s. The horse is quite deserved. After all, deer was depicted on the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod, which in 1932 was renamed bitter. The author of the figure was the "Volga" designer itself GAZ-21 Leonid Yeremeyev.
But then the deer was removed. For the factory, the production of the mascot - slow, unproductive, in fact manual - it was unprofitable. And the owners think, sighed with relief. After all, they accounted for a beautiful deer on the night and carry home.
As we unscrew it, for example, the crooks are craft, coward and balbes in the film "Caucasian Captive". These guys knew exactly that a hunter always finds an elegant mascotics. By the way, where did the deer come from their car, the German "Adler Triumph Junior"? Of course, surf.
Author - Mark Blau
Source - Springzhizni.ru.