How Tasmania Devils mascot Rum’un was designed

It had to be kick-ass, have arm tattoos and bloody knees to represent Queenstown’ famous gravel oval, but most of all look friendly enough not to freak out little kids. Here’s how the Devils mascot was designed.

It had to be kick-ass, have arm tattoos and bloody knees to represent Queenstown’ famous gravel oval, but most of all look friendly enough not to freak out little kids.

That was the brief given to chief designer and footy greenhorn Bryony Anderson, of Terrapin Puppet Theatre in Hobart, when she set out nine months ago to create Rum’un — the mascot for the Tasmania Devils AFL team.

The fruits of her labour were unveiled on Tuesday afternoon.

She suspected it would be a smash hit judging by the reaction of kids at Howrah Primary School, who got a sneak peak to test the waters last month.

“The signs were really good when the devil got mobbed for half an hour solid and left the room to a spontaneous chant…‘devil, devil’,” Bryony said.

“I really hope that people just feel that it’s their devil.”

The Tasmania Football Club's new mascot.

Terrapin approached the Tasmania Football Club with an offer to make Rum’un.

“They [Terrapin] asked me if I would like to work on it and I said if we could include community and Palawa playwright Nathan Maynard involved in the character.

“We worked with Nathan and he wrote an origin story for the character, which is epic: born with a football in its mouth in the mountains, of gravel and struggle, and that informed the character.

“Then I went out and spoke to teams on training grounds, I had a sketch and said what do you reckon?

“They said it had to be kick-ass, have bloody knees to represent the players from Queenstown on the gravel, it had to have tats.

“Some wanted full-arm tats but some of the girls at Clarence modified that to the Tassie tat, and not be too scary because some of the Auskick kids might get frightened, so make it cheeky instead.

“So I went for cheeky with a little bit of ‘don’t mess with me’.

“They had heaps of ideas and I did my best to incorporate them all.”

*Rum'un with Bryony Anderson lead maker Terrapin. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

After gathering old school uniforms, Bryony spent a week at New Norfolk with schoolkids cutting them into strips.”

HOW RUM’UN WAS DESIGNED

• Rum’un weighs 12kg and is made up of various materials.
• Its eyes are Christmas baubles
• Whiskers are bristles from an industrial broom
• Teeth are made of recycled wood
• Its nose is a stocking, stretched over foam, varnished and painted black
• Its face is an old leather jacket
• Both arms are old school track pants
• Its “fur” is old green school polo shirts
• Plus other materials including an old school backpack and electrical conduit.

Originally published as How Tasmania Devils mascot Rum’un was designed