The rise of Moomin mugs and how they became a global phenomenon

The rise of Moomin mugs and how they became a global phenomenon

Many people have started collecting Moomin mugs already in the 1990s, when Arabia launched the first Teema-style Moomins Comic strips. The Moomin mug is traditionally a Finnish mug, and the Teema-style mug is a distinctly Scandinavian design mug. The illustrations are based on the Moomin characters created by Tove Jansson, one of Finland's most famous artists.

Moomin mugs became a global phenomenon. The earliest Japanese Moomin animation was made by, among others, the legendary animation director Hayao Miyazaki. However, the series did not receive Tove Jansson's approval. The series was never translated into English, let alone Finnish, and was never shown outside of Japan.

The reason may simply be that Jansson did not give it her approval.

The anime master Hayao Miyazaki, who retired in 2013, worked as one of the animators for the series. During his career, Miyazaki wrote and directed, among other things, the animated film My Neighbor Totoro, which has even been praised as the best animation in the world.

Moomin was also made into a sequel in Japan called Shin Moomin and it consisted of 54 episodes. The sequel was more in line with Jansson's original works and is the only one of the early Japanese Moomin animations for which Jansson has granted international distribution rights.

The latest Moomin production is the 2014 film Moomins on the Riviera, which is based on the Moomin on the Riviera story from the Moomin cartoon. The Finnish-French film was sold to around 40 countries.

What are Moomin mugs and the story behind their popularity

Arabia launched the first Teema-style Moomin mugs in the early 1990s, and that's where the Moomin mug series started from. A new mug was made for the series almost every year and it was already eagerly anticipated. In 2000, in honor of the Millennium, Arabia launched perhaps its most famous mug, Millennium, in which the Moomins celebrate with glasses of sparkling wine while the sky shines with the dancing colors of fireworks.

Check out the different types of Moomin mugs and themes

Moomin mug series has multiple constantly changing character mugs, and Moomin plates and Moomin bowls also came into production at around the same time. All dishes are in accordance with the Arabia’s Teema collection. The Teema proved to be a popular design style as it is both modern and timeless, yet clearly portrays the Scandinavian simplistic and matter-of-fact style and is still in production.

Small batches of special pieces have also been made of mugs, of which the most popular and most valuable is certainly the special mug ordered by Fazer in 2004. Only 400 mugs were produced and each one has a numbering on the bottom 1 / 400, 2 / 400, etc. Nowadays, up to 10,000 euros have been paid for the mug and the price has only increased due to its rarity.

Another Moomin mug coveted by collectors, Moomintroll Daydreaming, of which exactly 2005 pieces were produced in 2005. The value of this mug has hovered around thousands of euros, depending on whether or not it has a barcode sticker. In general, collectors therefore value completely unused mugs with stickers. From time to time, our shop has collector's mugs, which we buy directly from collectors and sell them to new collectors around the world.

The effect of online shopping on the growing popularity of collecting Moomin mugs