Pyong — A stylized cute red cat character with a round white face, large black eyes, small triangular red ears, and a happy open-mouth smile in minimalist

Pyong

2006Original character / mascotdead

Published March 24, 2026

Also known as: Pyong Raposa

Pyong is a cute cartoon fox character created by Brazilian DeviantArt artist TiggerFactory, originating around 2006. The red fox mascot built a dedicated fan community on DeviantArt complete with fan art, animations, emoticons, and a dress-up Flash game, making it a minor but notable example of mid-2000s DeviantArt character culture.

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Overview

Pyong, a small, stylized Japanese red fox character designed by a São Paulo-based digital artist known as TiggerFactory on DeviantArt2. The character's simple, round design lent itself to fan art, animated GIFs, emoticon sets, and interactive Flash content1. Pyong's appeal fit squarely into the mid-2000s DeviantArt ecosystem where cute original characters could attract dedicated fan communities through clubs and collaborative art submissions.

The name "Pyong" also picked up slang definitions on Urban Dictionary unrelated to the character, including a reference to "a Japanese red fox (Anime)" that likely traces back to the character's Brazilian fan base, where "raposa" (Portuguese for "fox") was commonly appended3.

Origin & Background

Platform
DeviantArt
Key People
TiggerFactory
Date
~2006

The character was created by TiggerFactory, a digital artist based in São Paulo, Brazil, whose DeviantArt profile lists influences including Disney animators Glen Keane and David Colman2. The earliest Pyong fan club submissions on DeviantArt, including emoticon sets and an "Angel Pyong" illustration, carry art IDs in the 29-30 million range, placing their upload around 20061.

A DeviantArt user known as KSteinhoff organized the Pyong Fan Club group, establishing membership rules that required joining by note and adding the club icon to members' journal pages1. The club accumulated fan art including animations, stamp graphics, themed drawings ("Gotta Catch Pyong," "Pyong is King"), and a Flash-based "Dress Pyong Game" created by TiggerFactory1.

How It Spread

Pyong's spread was modest and largely contained within DeviantArt's community structure. The fan club operated through DeviantArt's group system, with moderators managing membership lists, curating submitted fan art, and answering comments1. At one point, the moderator (known on DeviantArt as po-po-tan) posted a journal announcing their resignation due to university workload, asking for a volunteer replacement to avoid shutting the club down1.

Years after the initial DeviantArt popularity faded, TiggerFactory announced a partnership with Sulistas to bring Pyong images to Nokia's Ovi Store as cellphone wallpapers2. The journal post framed it as a comeback: "after so many years....he is back" with a link to the Ovi Store listing and a call to "Spread the word!"2. This represented a rare example of a niche DeviantArt character crossing into commercial mobile content, though on a very small scale.

On Urban Dictionary, the term "Pyong" picked up several user-submitted definitions, one describing it as "a Japanese red fox (Anime)" with a usage example referencing "pyong raposa pics," directly tying back to the Brazilian fan community3.

Frequently Asked Questions