Beam Me Up For A Moomin Adventure

As soon I as saw this depiction of these Moomins on the side of a coffee flask (not sure how or why we acquired it) it took me instantly back to my childhood, with my camera flash making it look like a beam of light was descending upon them.
The Moomins are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, picture books, and a comic strip by the Swedish-speaking Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson.
They are a family of white, round fairy-tale characters with large snouts that make them resemble the hippopotamus. However, despite this resemblance, the Moomins family are in fact trolls.
All in all nine books were released in the series, together with five picture books and a comic strip between 1945 and 1993. They have also  inspired numerous TV series, films and even two theme parks. I remember watching the TV series as a child following the adventures of Moomintroll, Moominpappa, Moominmama, Little My, Sniff, Snork-Maiden, Snufkin, Mymble, Snork, Too-Ticky and the unfortunately monikered Stinky, which for some reason I always recall falling on the day that we had cross-country as school. It's funny the places your memory takes you to just by coming across a coffee flask!
One of the stories on how the term Moomintroll was invented is said to have been coined during Jansson's childhood by her uncle: to deter the young Jansson from taking food from his pantry, the uncle told her that it was inhabited by "cold moomintrolls", which would come out of the corners and rub their noses against Jansson if she came to purloin food. The mysterious creatures would then follow Jansson as she grew up - a prophecy that would effectively come true! :-)