Skullpanda vs Crybaby vs Hirono: Pop Mart's Moody Side, Compared

The Shelf Where the Sad Kids Sit

Pop Mart's catalog has a sunny side — Molly's pout, Dimoo's clouds, the candy palette of the crossover series. And then there's the other shelf: figures that stare past you, cry in public, and dress like the moodboard of a film student's thesis. That's where Skullpanda, Crybaby, and Hirono live, and it's quietly become the most artistically interesting corner of the blind-box world.

These three lines get lumped together as "the moody ones," but they're doing genuinely different things — different artists, different emotional registers, different reasons to put one on your desk. If you're deciding which deserves a slice of your monthly budget, the differences matter a lot more than the shared eyeliner, so let's take them one at a time and then put the numbers side by side.

Three Artists, Three Kinds of Melancholy

Skullpanda is the creation of Chinese artist Xiong Miao (often credited as XMM), and its register is fashion-editorial gothic. Skullpanda figures are sculptural showpieces — dramatic silhouettes, elaborate headpieces, costume concepts that swing from cyberpunk to baroque between series. The melancholy here is aesthetic and theatrical; it's a runway, not a diary. Flagship series like Image of Reality lean into concept-album territory, with each figure exploring a facet of a theme.

Crybaby comes from Thai artist Molly Yllom, and its register is emotion worn openly. The signature is right in the name: a child-faced character with tears perpetually rolling, rendered not as tragedy but as catharsis. Where Skullpanda performs feelings, Crybaby simply has them — the line's whole thesis is that crying is honest and okay. Series like Tears Factory turn that thesis into worlds. It is, sneakily, the most sincere line Pop Mart sells.

Hirono is by Chinese artist Lang (Liang Cong), and its register is interior and literary. Hirono figures are a boy — scuffed, wary, often mid-gesture in some private narrative — sculpted with a muted palette and an illustrative, almost storybook surface. Series like Mime feel like chapters rather than costume changes. Of the three, Hirono asks the most of the viewer and rewards the closest looking.

Structure and Odds: The Numerate Comparison

All three lines follow the standard Pop Mart blind-box framework, which makes the cross-shopping easy:

	Skullpanda	Crybaby	Hirono
Artist	Xiong Miao (XMM)	Molly Yllom	Lang
Typical set	12 regular + 1 secret	12 regular + 1 secret	12 regular + 1 secret
Secret ratio class	Commonly 1/144	Commonly 1/144	Commonly 1/144
Aesthetic register	Fashion-gothic theater	Open-hearted tears	Quiet narrative
Sculpt complexity	High — headpieces, costumes	Medium — expression-driven	Medium-high — texture and pose

Those ratios are published box ratios — verify on the current packaging, since they vary by series and wave. At a 1/144-class ratio, the standard formula P(≥1 secret in N) = 1 − (1 − 1/144)^N puts your secret chances at roughly 4.1% across 6 boxes, 8% across 12, and 15.4% across 24. In plain collector terms: buy a full case's worth and you still probably don't see the secret. Compare lines and waves on our odds table, and as always — if a specific figure is the goal, a checked single on the secondary market beats sealed-box roulette every time. Set a budget before the shelf does it for you.

Who Collects What

After enough time in collector circles, the sorting becomes visible:

• Skullpanda people are display maximalists. They care about silhouette and lighting, own at least one acrylic case, and treat a new series like a gallery opening. If your figures are going on a dedicated shelf with intentional spacing, start with a Skullpanda blind box.
• Crybaby people collect by feeling. The figures function as small emotional totems — the line about crying-as-release lands with people who use their shelf as a mood journal. A Crybaby blind box is the most likely of the three to become personally meaningful rather than just owned.
• Hirono people are the readers. They know the character's backstory beats, compare sculpt details between series, and tend to buy fewer, more deliberate boxes. Hirono collections grow slowly and almost never get sold off.

None of this is a rule — but it's a decent compass. The honest test: which one would you still want on your desk if nobody ever saw it?

If you genuinely can't choose, there's a cheap sampling strategy that beats buying blind across all three lines: pick one checked single from each — a known regular you like, bought secondhand at a known price — and live with the trio for a month. Sculpt quality, paint, and presence in person tell you things product photos never will, and you'll know which line you reach for. Then put your blind-box budget behind that one. Three considered singles cost less than one impulsive case, and they answer the actual question.

Display Notes for Dramatic Figures

A practical aside, because these lines punish lazy display more than cute lines do. Skullpanda's tall headpieces and Hirono's matte textures are dust magnets, and dark sculpts show dust worse than pastel ones. A 4-tier acrylic case solves dust and adds the museum framing these sculpts frankly deserve. Tiered height also matters: moody figures read best at eye level with space around them — crowding a Skullpanda is a crime against the silhouette. Lighting is the other lever: a cool, slightly raking light flatters Skullpanda's costume detail and Hirono's surface texture, while Crybaby's glossy tears want a softer, warmer wash. Ten minutes repositioning a lamp upgrades these shelves more than another figure would.

The Verdict, Such As It Is

There's no winner; there's a fit. Skullpanda if you want spectacle and your shelf is a stage. Crybaby if you want sincerity and a figure that means something at 2 a.m. Hirono if you want narrative density and a line that rewards patience. The blind-box format is identical across all three — same set sizes, same ratio class, same math — so for once the decision is purely about art. That's rarer in this hobby than any secret figure.

And a closing budget note, because moody lines have a particular failure mode: these are the series people collect emotionally, and emotional collecting is where monthly numbers go to die. Set the budget before the feelings vote. The figures will still be sad and beautiful next month, on restock, at retail.

FAQ

Are Skullpanda, Crybaby, and Hirono all Pop Mart lines?

Yes — all three are produced by Pop Mart in the standard blind-box format, but each comes from a different independent artist: Skullpanda from Xiong Miao, Crybaby from Thai artist Molly Yllom, and Hirono from Lang.

Which of the three has the best secret-figure odds?

They're structurally similar: typically 12 regulars plus 1 secret at a commonly 1/144-class published ratio — roughly an 8% chance of a secret across 12 boxes. Always verify the ratio on your specific series' packaging, as it varies by series and wave.

Which line should a beginner start with?

Whichever artwork you'd happily display without the rarity story. Crybaby is the most immediately lovable, Skullpanda the most visually impressive, Hirono the most rewarding over time. Buy one box of your favorite, not three boxes of all three — and if one specific figure is what you want, buy it as a checked single instead.

Do these lines hold value better than cuter Pop Mart lines?

We don't make resale predictions — markets for art toys move with hype cycles, and chasing value in blind boxes is how budgets die. Collect the line you'd keep if prices went to zero; anything else the market does is a bonus.