Who is Hirono?
Hirono is Pop Mart's quiet, introspective boy — a melancholic little character created by the Chinese artist Lang. Where much of Pop Mart's roster is cute and upbeat, Hirono is thoughtful and a touch sombre, and that's the whole point: each series is less a costume theme than a study of an emotion or a facet of the inner self. Collecting Hirono is closer to collecting an art series than a toy line — a portrait gallery of moods, memories and quiet contradictions.
The artist: Lang
Hirono is the creation of the Chinese artist known as Lang, who introduced the character through Pop Mart in 2021. Lang's work is unmistakably personal and emotionally driven — Hirono's downcast expression and the recurring themes of solitude, memory and change all trace back to that introspective sensibility. It's what gives the line its distinctive, slightly literary feel, and why serious collectors talk about Hirono in terms of meaning as much as design.
A few things worth knowing:
- Hirono is a boy, and deliberately more sombre than most blind-box characters — the melancholy is a feature, not a flaw.
- Each series explores an idea, not a costume — the inner self (The Other One), the unspoken (Mime), transformation (Reshape), refuge (Shelter), nostalgia (Echo).
- Every set hides a secret figure (a rare chase).
- The most recent series turn outward: Tamed Wildgrass reads as a pointed take on modern working life and burnout — Hirono at his most socially observant.
The story so far: every Hirono series
The debut and the inward self (2021–2022)
Hirono arrived in October 2021 with The Other One, thirteen figures each personifying a different corner of the inner self — the restless Vagrancy, the haunted The Ghost, the puppet-like Marionette, with Dreaming hidden as the secret. It set the melancholic, psychological tone every later series would build on. City of Mercy turned outward to compassion and connection, while Little Mischief finally let Hirono play — trading melancholy for imagination and fun chaos, without ever quite losing the introspective streak.
Silence, change and shelter (2023–2024)
Mime is Hirono at his quietest — thirteen wordless figures about what goes unsaid, with Silent as the secret. Reshape is a series about change, tracing transformation from rupture to renewal, with Puppet hidden as the secret.
Shelter asks where we go to feel safe, casting each figure as a different kind of refuge — from the fortified Fort to the paradoxical Bird Cage that both protects and confines — with the Stuffed Bear as the secret.
Nostalgia and the outward turn (2025–2026)
Echo is built on nostalgia — thirteen figures catching the fleeting moments of childhood, with the light-up Never Growing Up as the secret. Monsters Carnival dressed Hirono up as a parade of classic horrors for a rare, playful Halloween turn. And Tamed Wildgrass is the most pointed yet — a portrait of modern working life and burnout (Sisyphean Work, Overload, the Digital Bind), Hirono turning his introspection outward onto the world of work.
Start your Hirono collection
Every series above has its own page on Shelfd, with the full figure roster, the secret, release dates and where to buy. Browse them all on the Hirono page, or read every Hirono series in order.