MEGADETH: Winner Of Mascot Redesign Contest Announced

March 16, 2006

MEGADETH's beloved mascot "Vic Rattlehead" has a new face thanks to the artists at deviantART.com. The web site, online home to the largest group of artists in the world, hosted a contest to redesign the longtime mascot for one of the most legendary metal bands of all time and frontman Dave Mustaine chose the winner himself: Polish artist Michal Loranc (whose "deviant" name is Xaay). The design can be seen online at this location.

Vic Rattlehead has appeared on several MEGADETH albums as well as a myriad of band merchandise. Mustaine created the first Vic himself but decided after two decades that it was time for a revamping. The singer viewed all 2,500 submissions himself and said he knew the winner as soon as he saw it.

"It was exciting to see the different entries, but this one stayed true to the idea of the contest which was to create an update of Vic," said Mustaine. "This artist had a futurist vision — you can still tell it's Vic, but he's morphed over time."

Loranc, who has his own death metal project, is a huge fan of MEGADETH and said he considered the band's longtime fans when he came up with the idea and wanted to make sure the mascot was recognizable. Aside from the glory and recognition of designing the new Vic, he wins a LTD AXXION, a Dave Mustaine Signature Serious electric guitar from ESP. The second and third place winners won signature guitars as well, the LTD DV8-R, and LTD DV200 respectively.

"This was the most high stakes contest we've ever hosted and we were blown away by the quality and volume of submissions," said deviantART.com CEO/Co-Founder Angelo Sotira. "As the largest society of creative people on the Internet, deviantART was a natural place to host the contest and I am so proud of the community for stepping up to the challenge with some incredible work."

Mustaine says he not only discovered a new Vic, but a new group of artists to work with on future projects, whether its album covers or T-shirt designs.

"This turned out great for everyone. We now have a relationship with the deviantART community and I would definitely love to do this again."

deviantART.com allows all artists across the globe to create their own personal webpage and upload art for free. It currently hosts over 19 million pieces of art.

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