YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams: Chinese tales behind 11 figures
As of 8 November 2026. YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams (Chinese: 云梦志异) is a Jotoys blind box series released in China on 24 May 2025: nine regular figures, the secret Flow and the super secret Ink. Every one of the 11 can be ticked off in the YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams checklist.
A cloud that learned to tell old legends
Picture a world where flowers can talk, cranes lead the way to hidden places and a stranger on the road may belong to another reality altogether. Chinese literature told stories like these long before modern fantasy, in collections about spirits, odd creatures and things nobody could explain.
That tradition is where Wang Kuang (王匡, W.K.), the Suzhou artist behind YUMO, went for this series. The English name sounds like a set of eleven dreams, but the Chinese one, 云梦志异, points elsewhere: to zhiguai (志怪), the old genre of “records of the strange”, where the line between people and spirits is thin. Even the word 志异 is the one in Pu Songling’s classic collection Liaozhai Zhiyi, although Jotoys does not reference it directly.
According to Wang Kuang, YUMO first appeared in 2020. His Chinese name 云梦 is written with the characters for “cloud” and “dream”, and on almost every figure he has his eyes closed under fluffy white hair.
For this series the team studied two classics, the Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) and the Soushen Ji (In Search of the Supernatural), a collection compiled in the 4th century by the historian Gan Bao and the best-known example of the genre. In a report by ifeng, Wang Kuang said they did not copy old book illustrations but looked for the emotional core of images such as cloud, dream and butterfly.
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Tap — “Have”, tap again — duplicate (×2, ×3…). Hold — “Want” or one less.
- Dust Off
- Deja Vu
- Butterfly Dream
- Flower Soul
- Ink Painting
- Crane
- Neon Dress
- Scholar
- Knight Errant
- Flow
- Ink
The butterfly that makes you doubt your own reality
Butterfly Dream stands out among the eleven. YUMO sits cross-legged with long dark blue hair pooling on the ground and yellow butterflies resting on his head.
At the end of the second chapter of the Zhuangzi, the philosopher Zhuang Zhou dreams he is a butterfly, fluttering about with no memory of being a man. On waking he cannot tell whether he is a man who dreamt of a butterfly or a butterfly now dreaming it is a man. The passage has been argued over for centuries as a question about consciousness and what counts as real.
Jotoys made the link explicit. When the series was shown in Suzhou on 28 May 2025, one of the three spaces was called 静入蝶梦 (“quietly entering the butterfly dream”): a Butterfly Dream figure, 梦蝶 in Chinese, stood facing the old Xiangmen gate among butterfly installations. So the parable is part of the design, not something collectors read into it later.
When a flower spirit meets a scholar
Another story from the exhibition pairs Flower Soul (花魂) with Scholar (书生).
Their meeting was the subject of a huge scroll-style painting on Cangjie Square. Encounters between people and spirits, transformations and partings between two worlds run through Chinese tales of the strange; ifeng wrote that Wang Kuang wanted to keep the sadness of such stories, where humans and spirits cannot stay together, but tell it in YUMO’s gentler, warmer style. Scholar carries a book and has a tiny teal spirit floating at his shoulder, Flower Soul sits under a branch of pink blossoms.
Crane got its own space too: a pavilion called 鹤鸣亭台 in the Diecui courtyard, mixing Suzhou garden architecture with YUMO. The figure wears a white mask, with a crane head rising from the hair and dark wings around it.
When ink becomes part of the dream
Chinese ink painting, where water, brushwork and empty space matter as much as the subject, runs through the series. It is clearest in Ink Painting: YUMO holds a big brush while a wave of dark ink curls around him.
The two hidden figures, Flow and Ink, are translucent swirls that look like running water and ink. In both YUMO is upside down, face at the bottom and feet and hands at the top. Jotoys has not explained what they mean. Retailers KikaGoods and Kouhigh Toys give the ratios as 1:54 for the secret Flow and 1:108 for the super secret Ink, against 1:9 for each regular figure.
Release and exhibition
Sales in China began on 24 May 2025 in MINISO LAND stores in Shanghai, Chengdu, Beijing, Nanjing and Guangzhou, with Wang Kuang signing boxes at the Nanjing Road store in Shanghai. On 28 May the exhibition opened at Renheng Cangjie in Suzhou, and at the opening Wang Kuang painted a 云梦志异 scroll on the spot and gave it to the venue’s permanent collection.
All 11 YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams figures
| No. | Figure | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dust Off | Staff and red lantern |
| 2 | Deja Vu | Pink dress, paper umbrella |
| 3 | Butterfly Dream | Blue hair, yellow butterflies |
| 4 | Flower Soul | Branch of pink blossoms |
| 5 | Ink Painting | Brush in a wave of ink |
| 6 | Crane | Mask, crane wings |
| 7 | Neon Dress | Orange robe, pipa lute |
| 8 | Scholar | Grey robe, book, little spirit |
| 9 | Knight Errant | Wide blue hat |
| 10 | Flow | Secret: clear blue swirl |
| 11 | Ink | Super secret: smoky black swirl |
The order is the one five shops use (KikaGoods, Nekotama, Kouhigh Toys, 1001hobbies, Jedishop); Jotoys has not published its own chart. Figures are about 8 cm tall and each box holds one figure and an ID card. On 8 November 2026 KikaGoods sold a box for $13.60 and a 9-box set for $122.40, saying the regulars in the set do not repeat; the secrets are not guaranteed.
Track all eleven in the ColleX checklist. Two more YUMO series are in the catalogue: YUMO Magic Manual, which also has its own article, and YUMO Cute Pet Family.
Perhaps the best part of this series is not the secrets but the way it treats old stories: instead of making tiny copies of ancient heroes, it lets a modern character walk into their world. After Butterfly Dream, Zhuangzi’s question feels oddly fitting even for a vinyl figure on a shelf: how do we know we are not inside someone else’s dream right now?
Frequently asked questions
How many figures are in YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams?
Eleven: nine regulars, the secret Flow and the super secret Ink.
What are the secret and super secret odds?
Retailers give 1:54 for Flow and 1:108 for Ink, with 1:9 for each regular. Jotoys has not published official ratios.
What does YUMO Butterfly Dream mean?
It refers to Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream, the parable of a philosopher who dreamt he was a butterfly. Chinese reports on the 2025 Suzhou exhibition describe the figure as based on it.
What is YUMO’s Chinese name?
云梦 (Yunmeng), “cloud” and “dream”. The series is 云梦志异, where 志异 means “records of the strange”.
When was YUMO Strange Stories About Dreams released?
On 24 May 2025 in China, in MINISO LAND stores; the Suzhou exhibition opened four days later, on 28 May.
Can I trade YUMO figures on ColleX?
Yes. Mark spares as “Have” with a quantity of 2 or more and missing figures as “Want”; ColleX matches you with collectors who need your spare and have yours, and you settle the trade in chat.