Twipsy

Twipsy
imagecaption	Twipsy atop a modified scanner
Vital Statistics
position	mascot, cyberspace courier
species	energy being
age	Unknown
occupation	Unknown
Physical Attributes
height	Unknown
weight	Unknown
realm	Unknown
gallery	Twipsy/Gallery
simple	Twipsy/Simple

Twipsy is an abstract energy burst being, said to be living and working in cyberspace since its conception in 1969.

He was designed by Javier Mariscal in 1995 for Expo 2000, a World's Fair in Hannover, Germany.

Development

Initial History

Conceived and designed by Javier Mariscal in 1995 during a competition, Twipsy was chosen out of seventeen entries from invited artists as the official mascot of the EXPO 2000 World's fair, held in Hannover, Germany. Keeping in tune with the expo's theme of "Man, Nature, Technology," Twipsy was designed as an abstract being with a unique morphology.

To help young audiences get acclimatised with the spirit of the expo, an animated series was in production and released in late 1999.

Prominence

During the course of the Expo 2000 world exposition, Twipsy was featured on merchandise as an icon, in plush form, on apparel (shirts and hats), ore even on mugs and so on. He also was featured on stamps (Cuba, Bosnia-Herzegovina) commemorating the expo.

Profile

Twipsy's origins from a small leaflet, low resolution

Description

Twipsy is abstractly shaped with a striped teardrop shaped body; he bears a demilune head with a dark mask banding his eyes and a large turquoise nose; the mask around his eyes, the pseudo-ear on the back of his head and chin are black. He has two differently shaped arms - a smaller left arm and a larger, orange right arm, resembling a wing. He wears two different shoes on each foot - a flat heeled shoe on the right, and a sharp heeled shoe on the left.

He is frequently portrayed with multiple horizontal stripes on his body. According to conceptual development published in Little Heroes, Twipsy tended to turn dark and develop stains and spots when grumpy or angry.

Abilities

• He has shown an ability to metamorphise to another life form, such as Champ, the Walker's family dog. This backs up a postcard quote, "I can be anything you want".
• In lots of Expo 2000 media, Twipsy has the ability to fly and levitate. This was more demonstrated in cyberspace than the real world in the series.

Personality

According to Mariscal, Twipsy is said to be "...wild and unpredictable as an animal, it laughs and feels like a human, but is also precise and calculating like a machine". Another site describes Twipsy as "...a bit crazy and a extremely playful, a bit cheeky and very shrewd, sometimes critical and very amusing - all in all, a lovable open character with some rough edges." On observation in the TV series, despite being mischievous, he is loyal and dedicated, and also protective. He is also empathetic and emotional, and able to befriend anyone, whether from an ordinary bedside lamp to a fish he named Wanda.

Running Gags

A running gag is that Twipsy is fond of "real world" food , and often risks getting caught in Mr Walker's traps to raid the refrigerator to eat lots of it . One episode also specified that he too can get bellyaches, and at worse, a running fever. Similarly, he also has eaten other objects, for instance, the entire tray with the cookies.

Pronounciations in Other Languages

As Twipsy was meant to be a global icon for Expo 2000, he was named by Gotta, who aimed to have an easily pronounced yet globally accepted name for the mascot - in fact, he 'had to check 35 Swahili dialects'. Note that some versions of his name may be based on estimation.

Language	Written	Pronounciation	Additional
Hebrew	טוויפסי	Tooifsi
Chinese	托普西	Topsy	(sometimes translates to "PC Wizard")
Japanese	トゥイプシー	To~uipushi	(Phonetically similar to トゥイプチー, Dui buqi = "I'm Sorry" in Mandarin. Hence the different name in Chinese.)
Russian	Туипсы	Tuipsy