r/Moomins • u/nippapippa • 23h ago

€150 for a mug 🤯

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Does anyone else feel like Fiskars “(Moomin Arabia)” is taking advantage of us Moomin fans!?
Over the past few years the mugs have been getting more and more expensive, and more and more exclusive mugs are being released!
I guess they know people are willing to pay a lot of some of the old rare mugs, and they are finding ways to make the new mugs exclusive and desirable to justify selling them for 150€! This just seems ridiculous to me and I’m starting to have negative feelings towards the company!
This is a shame because I do love my Moomin mugs!

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u/B_Ellard 22h ago

There are many, many Moomin stories that mock this type of object fetishization.

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u/Prestigious_Bee_4392 22h ago

Sure but Arabia has made limited stuff for ages, and hand painted is always more expensive. I'd be disappointed if a hand painted item wasn't more expensive. Their regular mugs are still reasonably priced

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u/B_Ellard 22h ago

It's not about hand-made stuff in general. This is merch, not art. It's neither unique nor artful, it's a pre-made template, approved by the copyright holder, drawn on a factory-produced cup. No one forces me to spend 150$ on it, true, but no one can force me to consider it a valuable piece of Arabic craftsmanship, or even a great product.

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u/bearisloafing 8h ago

so if an artist uses a template to create multiple copies of the same thing, it's not art? any ceramic mug-makers I know use at the bare minimum a design reference. that doesn't make it not art.

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u/B_Ellard 3h ago

If the template is sent to them by Moomin Incorporated across the globe, yes, then it's not art.

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u/bearisloafing 3h ago

would you not consider colouring art? or those paint-by-number canvases? it's still something made by human skill and effort to evoke meaning. yes, it's very corporate, which undermines the meaning of moomin, but it's still art to me.

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u/B_Ellard 2h ago

I mean, this is just semantics. But you're right, that's not art. Paint-by-numbers especially are made to require no skill, and the meaning becomes inevitably "I painted this according to the instructions", no matter how beautiful the picture. I guess it is possible to create colouring art by going crazy with it and not following the template. We get close to Joseph Beuys interpretation of art, then, or Marcel Duchamps, even.

All of this is also not what we were talking about before, though. You're not selling your finished paint-by-numbers en masse, are you? If your grandma paints you a Moomin cup according to some reference material, yes, that's art, if it helps some people here sleep better.