They're are making a cartoon based on ‘Zhdun,’ that armless, Dutch-created meme abomination

The Russian company “CD Land” has purchased the rights to use the “Zhdun” brand created by Dutch sculptor Margriet van Breevoort. The company’s president, Yuri Tseitlin, says he plans to resell the brand to major companies that will in turn manufacture toys, tableware, and office supplies — all based on the lumpy, legless creature created by Breevoort.

“Additionally, one of the leading commercial animation companies has purchased from us the rights to create a cartoon series with Zhdun. He’s also going to have his own video blog,” Tseitlin told the news agency Moskva.

There are even soccer organizations (Tseitlin won’t say which) that are supposedly competing to buy the rights to use Zhdun, apparently in hopes of using him as “an alternative soccer symbol” and a “fan symbol” for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Margriet van Breevoort sculpted “Homunculus Loxodontus” in the spring of 2016. The following January, images of the bizarre sculpture — seemingly half-seal, half-elephant — exploded on the Russian Internet, birthing the name “Zhdun,” which means roughly “he who waits.” According to Google, the meme hit peak trendiness in February 2017.