Hirono Echo by POP MART: meaning of all 13 figures and the secret
As of 5 November 2026. Hirono Echo (Hirono Echo Series Figures) is a POP MART blind box series released on 11 April 2025. It has 13 figures: 12 regular ones and the secret Never Growing Up. All 13, with “Have” and “Want” marks, are in the Hirono Echo set.
A childhood that never quite leaves
Remember when a plain cardboard box could be a spaceship, a wooden horse a real steed, and rain on the window the start of an adventure? None of it needed expensive toys. Imagination was enough.
As adults we stop playing those games, yet a tune, a smell or an old toy found in a drawer can still pull us straight back. That is the feeling Hirono Echo is built on. “Echo” is a fitting name for a series where childhood games mix with memories, the wish to be free and some harder emotions.
At first sight the 12 regular figures are just Hirono in unusual costumes, but their names and details tell a different story. POP MART has not published an official meaning for each figure, so what follows is our author’s reading, not the maker’s explanation.
Mark what you already have
Tap — “Have”, tap again — duplicate (×2, ×3…). Hold — “Want” or one less.
- Hiding Behind You
- Daydreaming
- Journey in the Rain
- Get Lucky
- Back Off
- Breakout Plan
- Pieces of Memory
- Soul Connection
- Staying Up
- Knight
- Eaten
- Caught You
- Never Growing Up
When a hobby horse is enough for an adventure
One of the most striking figures is Knight. Hirono rides a wooden hobby horse with a wheel, wears a red bucket as a helmet and carries home-made knightly gear. No armour, no castle, no real horse, and none of that ever stopped a child.
In a child’s mind a bucket becomes a helmet, a stick a sword and a backyard a kingdom. Daydreaming has the same mood: pink pyjamas, a striped knitted hat, a wooden mask over the eyes and a little toy dinosaur on wheels pulled on a string. Journey in the Rain is a boy in a bright yellow raincoat whose umbrella has blown inside out.
There are no grand events here, only the small adventures we used to invent without going far from home.
Not every childhood memory is carefree
It would be easy to call Echo a series about a happy childhood, but Hirono has never been a character who shows only joy. Back Off sounds like an attempt to keep distance, and Hiding Behind You shows Hirono in a red hood with only his eyes peeking out. Both can remind you of moments when a child wanted to hide, be alone or simply not explain to adults how they felt.
Breakout Plan goes further. Hirono sits in a wooden crate whose door is painted with clouds and the word “freedom”; he wears a striped vest, a handcuff hangs from his wrist and a crown of twisted wire sits on his head. It reads like an inner conflict: wanting to escape and wanting to stay somewhere familiar at the same time.
This is one possible reading, not an official explanation, and that ambiguity is exactly what makes Hirono interesting: different people see different stories in the same figure.
What are memories made of?
Pieces of Memory wears a patchwork costume of colourful scraps and a black polka-dot jester hat, like a little harlequin stitched together from parts. That is close to how memory works: we rarely recall childhood as one story, more as fragments, a favourite toy, a familiar room, a voice, the way home from school.
Soul Connection wears a black suit and red tie and a metal pot on his head; a flexible tube runs from it to an identical pot on a small teddy bear. It looks as if the boy is trying to reach someone close with a home-made device, a reminder that our most important memories are usually about people, not things.
Never Growing Up: a small secret with a big idea
The secret figure’s name almost sums up the whole series: Never Growing Up. POP MART does not publish its odds; according to sellers it turns up in about one box in 144. Hirono wears a grey and blue hooded outfit that looks like a home-made alien costume, with an antenna and lights, and a little green alien sits on his raised hand.
It also differs technically. POP MART lists electronic components for the series, the official photo shows a battery marked “Hi-Ro-No” next to the figure, and the everytoys catalogue describes lights on the chest and head. Read the instructions included with your figure before using the light feature.
Why do we sometimes not want to grow up? Perhaps not to go back to homework and rules, but because with age we lose the ability to be amazed by ordinary things. We know a hobby horse will not gallop and a box will not fly to space. Never Growing Up can be read not as a call to stay a child forever, but as a reminder that growing up does not mean giving up imagination and curiosity.
The artist behind Hirono
Hirono was created by Chinese artist Lang in 2021. In an interview with SPOT.ph in January 2026, he said he began by drawing an imagined child for his newborn son; over time those drawings became a character through which he shares his own feelings and view of the world.
Lang also explained that he rarely plans a series around a fixed storyline: he makes many separate drawings first and only then looks for links between them. That may be why Hirono figures don't always add up to one obvious story. They feel more like separate emotions that each viewer connects in their own way.
All 13 Hirono Echo figures
| No. | Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hiding Behind You | Red skull hood, note pinned on chest |
| 2 | Daydreaming | Pyjamas, eye mask, toy dinosaur |
| 3 | Journey in the Rain | Yellow raincoat, inside-out umbrella |
| 4 | Get Lucky | Tyre skirt, four-leaf clover |
| 5 | Back Off | Toothy monster costume, rope |
| 6 | Breakout Plan | Crate marked freedom, handcuff |
| 7 | Pieces of Memory | Patchwork suit, polka-dot hat |
| 8 | Soul Connection | Pot helmet linked to a teddy bear |
| 9 | Staying Up | Star pyjamas, pillow on head |
| 10 | Knight | Bucket helmet, hobby horse |
| 11 | Eaten | Face inside a dinosaur’s jaws |
| 12 | Caught You | Under a box propped on a stick |
| 13 | Never Growing Up | Secret: light-up “alien” |
The order follows POP MART’s official lineup on popmart.com.
How to collect all 13
Figures come one per sealed box, 6–9 cm tall, in PVC, ABS, hardware and electronic components. Under POP MART’s rules a whole set is 12 boxes without duplicates, but the secret, if it appears, replaces one regular figure. On POP NOW in the US a box costs $19.99 (popmart.com, 5 November 2026).
On ColleX you can track the full Hirono Echo checklist, mark the figures you have as “Have” and the missing ones as “Want”, and find collectors to trade duplicates with. More Hirono in the catalogue: Hirono Shelter, Hirono × Le Petit Prince and Hirono × Harry Potter. And whichever figure becomes your favourite, an echo is not the sound itself but what stays after it.
Frequently asked questions
How many figures are in Hirono Echo?
13: 12 regular figures and the secret Never Growing Up. On ColleX the complete set is the 12 regular ones.
What is the Hirono Echo secret and what are the odds?
Never Growing Up, Hirono in a home-made “alien” outfit with a green alien on his hand. POP MART does not state odds; sellers quote 1 in 144.
Does Never Growing Up light up? Does it need a battery?
POP MART lists electronic components for the series and shows a battery next to the figure on the official photo; according to everytoys, that battery switches on the chest and head lights. Check the instructions in your box.
What does Hirono Echo mean?
“Echo” as in what remains of a sound. POP MART has published no official meaning for the figures; this article gives our author’s reading: childhood games, memories, the wish for freedom and not wanting to grow up.
When was Hirono Echo released?
On 11 April 2025, according to POP MART.
Can you tell the secret by the box weight?
The boxes look identical. Collectors compare weights, but POP MART does not publish them and we have not weighed boxes, so we give no figures.
How much does Hirono Echo cost?
$19.99 per box on POP NOW in the US (popmart.com, 5 November 2026). POP MART’s site currently shows no whole-set price.