I’ve been to all three places you mentioned as well and never saw any costumed characters. I sure did when I went to Vegas, though. Maybe they’re even more ubiquitous in Vegas than in other touristy places, or maybe it’s because I was in Vegas in 2016 while New York was 2002 and Paris and London were in the late 80s.
Its always interesting to me to see how horrifying they are based on the location.
They all manage to be uncanny valley even though it’s a cartoon character, but the middle one in particular reeeeally didn’t try.