Meet the Spanish pavilion’s Miguelin: the first female Expo mascot?

Photo courtesy of World Expo Blog

Last May we were introduced to the kookaburra “Peng Peng”, Australia’s cheeky mascot for the 2010 World Expo. Shortly after, a whole gaggle of pavillion mascots started popping up: the Francophile feline “Léon”, the stinkin “Durian Star” from Singapore, the turd-like “Yabi” from Taiwan, the not-so-gentle Giant “Tai” from (you guessed it) Thailand and everybody’s favorite blue gang “the Smurfs” representing the shared Belgium/ EU pavilion.

This week, the folks at World Expo blog got a sneak peek at Spain’s representative: a blue little critter named Miguelin.

We are unsure at this point if the um, “thing” is a boy or a girl, but something about that stylin’ polka dot ensemble and distinct wavy black hair tells us Miguelin is a Spanish senorita. This would make her the first female mascot amongst the crew of boy critters represented thus far. Unless of course you count “Tai” who’s pink jewels got him pegged as a possible katoey. Regardless, there’s a good reason why our man Haibao’s standing so close to Miguelin in this photo…and we think it’s more than their obvious shared appreciation for the color blue.