Crybaby Character: The Hidden Gem Café and The Background Story of It

BONCI is a café that looks simple and stylish. They use mainly white, black, and brown colors for their decoration. When I visited BONCI, they teamed up with CryBaby, a character made by an artist from Thailand. CryBaby was everywhere in the café, and there was even a huge CryBaby statue in the middle of the cafe.

One day, I decided to visit a cafe near my home. I remembered that I had been following Bonci on Instagram for a while but had never been there. I started following them for a long time ago since they were working with other artists. So, I finally decided to go because I found it interesting and was collaborating with CryBaby.

I have tried some of their menus such as Cheesecake, Latte, and the BIMBOM Cream which is the dirty with the secret cream on top. The BIMBOM Cream's so good for me who don't like the coffee that too bitter. The cream made the dirty has a little bit sweetness and make the taste special. For other menus, they are good too but not surprised me like the dirty.

Recommend Menus

1. BIMBOM Cream : 150 THB

2. Iced Latte : 90 THB

3. Basque Burnt Cheesecake : 150 THB

Location : 1477 Phahonyothin Rd, Samsewn Nai, Phaya Thai

Open Time : Wednesday - Monday 10:00 to 18:00 (close on Tuesday)

How to get there : BTS Saphan Khwai (Exit 1)

The cool thing is that BONCI doesn't stick to just one style. They like to work with different artists, and they change their look every so often. For you guys who are the fan of CRYBABY character. I'm sorry to tell you that right now this cafe wasn't collaborate with this cute characters anymore, the café change a whole new theme.

After I visited BONCI, I found out that Crybaby is very popular. Previously, I used to saw this character on social media, but didn't know about it that much.

Anyone who read up to here and still have no idea what this character is. It's fine. This blog I'll walk you through the story of the Crybaby Character.

Crybaby is a character created by a Thai artist named Mod, who many people know as "Molly." Before creating Crybaby,she was really into toys, art, and crafts. She enjoyed making things like dolls, crochet items, paper dolls, and collecting car models.

One day, during her free time, she decided to dedicate herself to sculpting and sketching art toys for two whole months. She worked on this project every day until she completed the first mock up of Crybaby. Around this time, she had just started using Instagram. She took a photo of her creation and used hashtags related to toys when posting it.

Soon after, a Chinese people commented on her post, asking when she would sell the toy. At the time, she didn't even know that there was a market for art toys. So, she didn't pay much attention to it. However, this person continued to ask her about selling the toy for a few months.

Finally, one day, she decided to give it a try. This Chinese people took her toy model to shared it in a group chat with a large number of people in China. As a result, her work became well-known and even got showcased at events in foreign countries like Hong Kong and China. She also had the opportunity to collaborate with artists and organizations in those countries.

Mod Molly: The artist who designed Crybaby

A picture from https://readthecloud.co/crybaby-molly/

She's been drawing sad characters since high school. She used to draw one called "Rabbit Cry." Every day, like a diary, she'd draw it and note why the rabbit was crying. The idea behind Crybaby today isn't much different from that.

Crybaby's appearance had already been taking shape in her mind. It was during a tough time when her dog died. Here's a secret she shared: part of Crybaby's hair was inspired by her dog's ear. During that period, her dog was very sick and, unfortunately, didn't make it. This experience became a big inspiration for her when she was designing Crybaby.

The messages that Molly would like to convey through her Crybaby character is crying is a normal things and she sees it as a basic human emotion. However, many of us try to hide our tears with smiles because we want others to think we're okay. Crybaby's story is based on Molly's own experiences. Since she was a child, when someone asked her how she was, she felt like she always had to say she was okay. She wondered why? What if we're not okay? Why can't we tell them, and why do we have to cry secretly? She feels very interested with this issue, and she always been fascinated by the nature of tears. Tears don't come easily, unlike other expressions like laughter, which we can see more clearly. Tears are different because they're the result of deep feelings that are sometimes too hard to put into words. It's not just about sadness; sometimes, it's about feeling so overwhelmed that tears just start flowing.

(According to the interview from: https://www.sarakadeelite.com/faces/crybaby-molly/ )

Now, Crybaby has become really popular in many countries, especially in Asia. Crybaby has been around as art toys since 2017, and Molly has been working on it ever since. She's expanded her character and teamed up with other brands in different markets. For example, she collaborated with BONCI café, as I mentioned earlier, Pop Mart, Crocs, etc.

That's the background story of Crybaby. Even though BONCI café isn't collaborating with Crybaby anymore, but if you're a fan or just interested in Crybaby, you can visit River City Bangkok. There, Molly has her own Crybaby exhibition called "Everybody Cries Sometimes." In the exhibition, there's a place where you can create your own Crybaby. People really like this part, and you can even download your creation. There's also a spot where you can take pictures with Crybaby sculptures. They come in different color theme and sizes, both small and big.

Going to the exhibition is almost free, but if you want to enter the special zone "The Insomniac": the zone for you who ends up crying yourself to sleep, you can join them in "The Insomniac" zone where we can share our feelings and cry together. This zone has a huge Crybaby model lying in the middle, you'll need to pay 450 baht for The “No Sleep” set, which includes a pajama suit and exclusive enamel pins.

Additionally, if you're someone who loves collecting adorable things, this exhibition has Crybaby merchandise available for purchase. From what I know, this collection has been made and sold here for the very first time.

Example of the merchandises

I wrote this blog near the end of the exhibition. It's wrapping up on September 30, so there are just a few days left for you to visit the Crybaby exhibition. I highly recommend you don't miss it!

Exhibition tickets are available for purchase at :

https://www.ticketmelon.com/river…/everybodycriessometimes