The Houston Astro first introduced their mascot Chester Charge in 1977.
A funny thing though, Orbit was actually replaced in the 2000 season! He was replaced by a huge walking bunny named Junction Jack. Dressed like a railroad engineer, Jack would drive a small train whenever one of their players would hit a home run!
Now in 2012 the Houston Astros bought ole’ Orbit back as their main mascot and retired Junction Jack and his family. That rabbit had a 12 run before Orbit’s triumphant return. Of course back then Orbit looked a lot different. I’ve posted a picture of what he used to look like.
]After a while, the team contacted Major League Baseball and asked for an official mascot update. That’s where I come in! They passed me a photo of the mascot and I got to work on a redesign. I think I did at least 3 different looks in all.
In about 2 or 3 weeks the team decided on a direction and I went to work on inking and coloring. I also put the character in the teams current uniform. Now, after some back and forth with the team tweaks were made and then the character was finally approved by the team brass.
I’ve included a video that was made to go along with his unveiling. I’ve also included the art I produced for the teams official style guide. I also threw in the original 360 turn drawings (font, back, side) that I did that were used by the product designers and costume makers.
To see these poses in color click here!
English