Mola Mola, a toy for Naturalis Biodiversity Center

In December 2021, a gigantic sunfish (Mola Mola) washed ashore on Ameland, a Dutch island. The unusually large specimen of 2 by 1.80 meters was kept in a freezer in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden (NL) for months. In the beginning of September 2022 the sunfish was defrosted in the Live Science room of Naturalis. Visitors were able to see the process of stuffing the animal. A number of sunfish that are normally kept behind the scenes were also given a place of honour in the museum. ​ Especially for this occasion Naturalis asked us to design a Mola Mola toy and his little friend the Bannerfish, who helps him get rid of skin parasites. In Dutch the Mola Mola is called "maanvis" (moonfish), in English he is called "sunfish", so we decided to make a blue night version and a yellow day version of this peculiar fish.