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Page last updated at 12:34 GMT, Wednesday, 19 May 2010 13:34 UK

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Olympic mascots through the ages

Mandeville and Wenlock have been unveiled as mascots for London 2012, following in a long line of Olympic figureheads

Wenlock is named after the village in Shropshire where a forerunner of the modern Olympics took place

Mandeville is named after Stoke Mandeville, where the first Paralympic Games took place in 1948

Mascots are launched with the help of schools in Tower Hamlets, East London

The new mascots were developed using focus groups of children and families, and launched with the help of schools in Tower Hamlets, East London

After Waldi the dachshund in Munich in 1972, and a beaver called Amik in Montreal, Misha the bear was the mascot for the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Developed by renowned illustrator of children's books, Victor Chizikov, Misha became an instant success

Designed by Walt Disney for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Sam the cartoon eagle was the first mascot to be used commercially

Valencian artist Javier Mariscal created the dog Cobi for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and a TV series was produced to communicate the spirit of the Games

The first mascot designed by computer, for Atlanta 1996, was an abstract fantasy figure named Izzy, derived from "What is it?" because no one seemed to know what it really was

Designed for the 2004 Games, Greek mythology has it that Phevos and Athena are brother and sister, named after two Greek gods: Phevos, the god of light and music, and Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of the city of Athens

Five Fuwa - literally "good-luck dolls", also known as "Friendlies" - featured heavily around the 2008 Games in Beijing

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Olympic mascots through the ages

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