The apartment contains extensive Moomin-themed items, including mugs, a teapot, a framed tea towel, night light, key rings, jewelry, a vending-machine model, decorations, a poster, and framed fridge magnets. Moomins are white, rotund characters created decades ago by Finnish writer-artist Tove Jansson, characterized by pointy ears, swishy tails, and rounded snouts and sometimes compared to hippos. Their singular visual identity makes them instantly recognizable. Moomin merchandise generates substantial global sales reportedly exceeding eight hundred million dollars annually, and certain items—especially illustrated mugs—are highly collectible and can fetch high prices at auction.
My girlfriend and I own all sorts of trinkets bearing their likeness: a selection of mugs, a teapot, a tea towel (that we framed and put on the wall), a bedside night light, a pair of light-up key rings, a necklace, a wallet, a plastic model from a vending machine in Japan, at least one Christmas-tree decoration, a poster, and a pair of fridge magnets that, in the absence of a magnetic fridge door, we've posed on either side of our fireplace. They look like heraldic bas-reliefs.
They're children's characters, dreamed up decades ago by the Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson, that are white and rotund, with pointy ears, swishy tails, and rounded snouts; they're sometimes likened to hippos, which is fair, even if the comparison doesn't particularly resonate with me. (To me, they just look like Moomins, a fact that is partly because I've been familiar with them since my early childhood, but is also a reflection of their singular visual identity;
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