Partick Thistle are not the first club to have a weird mascot... meet Gunnersaurus, the Stanford Tree and Mr Testicles

Partick Thisle's new mascot Kingsley (left) and a more conventional example of the type, Brazil's Ginga

Southern Illinois University's sporting teams are known as the Salukis - the Royal Dog of Egypt and the Persian greyhound - hence their rather terrifying mascot (left); the teams of Providence College in Rhode Island are known as the Friars. A mad monk (right) is the only possible mascot for them, then 

Everton introduced Mr Testicles to the world at the launch of Premier League Men's Health project (left); The Wichita State Shockers mascot, WuShock (right), looks like a Frankenstein-esque monster but is in fact the personification of a wheat plant, taking his inspiration from the history of local agriculture

Vancouver Canucks mascot Finn pretends (we think) to bite the head off a Minnesota Wild ice hockey fan

Arsenal's Gunnersaurus (left) is a friendly-looking mascot. But why on earth is he a dinosaur? And you would not want to meet Sheffield United's Captain Blade (right), who is armed with two swords, down a dark alley

Southend United's crustaceous mascot, Sammy the Shrimp (left), is derived from the club's nickname

Before Bayern Munich went for Berni the bear, their mascot was Bazi, a lederhosen-clad boy

Following a string of controversial mascot themes, Stanford University cam up with the Stanford Tree (left); Wenlock and Mandeville, the one-eyed London 2012 Olympic mascots of unidentifiable origin (right)

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers mascot is called Big Red. He is, simply, a furry, red blob. And why not?