Review: Big Hero 6 - Hiro Hamada action figure from Ban Dai

So I picked this thing up yesterday (Valentines 2015). 

The figure set me back £8.99 GBP from Smyth's Toys Superstores, and he was an early Easter present from my dad.

Taking a look at the box, it is mainly white, with images depicting Hiro riding Baymax, the logo for the film and what looks to be the "collectable code" for this model of figure. The box is multi-bilingual, I'm assuming this is because this is the European release. The box also depicts an image of Hiro from the film, which appears to have been flipped (the fringe is pointing in the wrong direction).

These figures come with one accessory (apart from armoured Baymax, as far as I am aware). Hiro here comes with Baymax's charging station, with what looks to be a dormant Baymax within.

Flipping the box around to see the back, we get the promotional images for other figures in the Big Hero 6 set that are currently available. Only Hiro's picture really seems to depict what the accessory he comes with is however. In the store there was at least one of every character, though there were more Baymax figures than anyone else. 

What is also interesting to note is that this store put the price tags on the plastic display part of the box. For some odd reason, the majority of Hiro figures had some portion of their faces covered by this sticker. I'm not sure why, was it an intentional thing? Because non of the other characters had the stickers over their heads.

The box also shows some images from the film depicting the main characters, and a bunch of warnings and instructions in multiple languages.

Now the box itself was rather hard to open. I probably should have used some scissors, but surprisingly Hiro's box was hardly ripped apart when I was done with removing the outer shell of the box.

Here is the figure nearly out of the box. He is literally just wedged in there, no tape, no twisty ties or anything like that (*cough*Hasbro*cough*) the figure just literally pops right out of there.

Upon removing Hiro from the final stage of the box, we can get more of a closer look at this guy.

The figure is a bit of a pain to get to stand up (I'll elaborate more later.) but once he is stood up he makes a wonderful display piece.

The figure is really detailed, and rather shiny looking when light is shone on him. 

I don't know if you can notice, but mine doesn't have paint on his whole right (actually his left) eyebrow. Whether this is something that should bother me is really another concern, because in the grand scheme of things the figure is so small you really would have to get this close to him to notice that something was off with his eyebrow.

The figure sports a really innocent looking facial expression, regardless of the fact that Hiro is in his battle armour. I may have preferred the side-ways smile look for the figure better, but this works too.

One thing I must note is that his face is kind of stretched to fit in to his helmet, without making anything removable. What the figure lacks for it makes up for in many other ways though:

Without flash

With flash

This guy is seriously pose-able. For a figure this small I am amazed at the amount of articulation on him. He has mobility at his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and slightly at the knees. As well as this his shins are made of more of a rubbery plastic, allowing for what I'm going to call ankle movement, but really:

Sorry for the bad lighting... Artificial lights and looking down over the figure made for this green light look.

I think it may be hard for you to tell, but you can see his left (or his actual right) leg is slightly bent inwards towards the other leg.

This... This is as a result of the way the figure was posed inside the box. Looking at the figure now it has straightened out a lot more than it was when I first opened this figure, and since when I took this picture.

Now I want to talk about size of this guy.

From felt to right (shortest to tallest): Mochi, Shiver, Mega Absol, Apple Bloom, Unikitty, Rainbow Dash, Hiro Hamada, Princess Cadence, Baymax, Princess Celestia, Absol, Pinkie Pie, Twyla, Toralei Stripe and Clawdia Wolf.

When compared with other of my favourite pieces from other toy lines, Hiro is in the middle between a normal pony and a younger alicorn. He is nearly half the size of an Equestria Girl and only the size of the shin of almost all Monster High sizes. Now I know normal sized ponies are around 3 inches tall, and the normal sized Monster High dolls are around 10 inches tall. I'd say this Hiro figure is around 3.5 inches tall, and that's just an educated guess. The website actually said he was 10cm tall, but somehow I don't think that's right.

Lol, my laptop behind him.

Hiro is wearing his battle armour from the film. It depends on the lighting, but the blue parts either appear blue or a nearly purple colour. There are red accents, and underneath the armour there is almost like a black jump-suit. The figure's hands are closed to form a fist, and he is wearing grey gloves with blue accents. The knee pads on the figure restrict the articulation at the knees however, they can only bend so far backwards before they just stop. His shoes are black, with lighter grey accents.

From the back there seems to a bunch of serial numbers. Though where else are they supposed to go I guess.

Overall this is a really grate figure, though I may have preferred a normal every day Hiro in his hoodie, this will do non the less. I'm sure at some point they will come out with one like that, but for now this guy is really cute and will take pride of place in my collection, and Lucky 4.

Unused images:

Close up inside the box

Hiro with the remainder of my Lucky 4,  Unikitty, Mega Absol and Angry kitty. All of these guys go everywhere with me.