Xiong Miao and the figure that remembers something
Skullpanda was meant to be one artist's private alter ego. It became one of Pop Mart's most recognisable series.
Xiong Miao started out in concept art for games and films — detailed, precise, technical. But somewhere between the pixels and the delivery deadline there was something that fit into no brief. In 2014 she founded her own studio, and in 2018 she created Skullpanda — a character meant to be her alter ego: slower, louder and without limits. Two years later the Ancient Castle series sold 60,000 pieces in a single second. The rest is history every collector knows.
Because Skullpanda isn't a pretty toy. Each figure is a fragment of identity sealed in form — something we often can't, or won't, say out loud. They remember something. Or they know something.
From concept art to alter ego
After graduating in 2009, Xiong Miao worked in concept art — fans treated her pieces from that period as works in their own right. But Skullpanda was born only when she stopped filling other people's briefs and started drawing herself. The influences run wide: Gothic, fashion, anime, street fashion, Egon Schiele. The result: figures like miniature characters from a surreal fashion show — or from a story someone deliberately left unfinished.
Cute and dark in one costume
Big heads, tiny bodies, bold make-up, theatrical costumes. The form is sweet, the mood — not necessarily. It's a contradiction that isn't looking for a resolution, it simply lives inside one. In a world of art toys full of characters that want to be adorable, Xiong Miao chose something harder — she wants to be real.
Her figures stay in your head long after you've looked away.
Craft and detail
Xiong Miao regularly visits the factories and watches production. Every gradient, every detail of the make-up — none of it is accidental. Skullpanda was the first Pop Mart series where lace details were embossed into the vinyl rather than printed. This obsession with detail is what sets the original apart from the fake — and it's worth remembering when you buy.
How to spot the original
Collector's series
Worth knowing
Skullpanda's spherical braids and helmet form a triangle — a conscious symbol of balance built into the character's proportions. The “Cage-Uncage” installation was shown at the National Museum of Singapore, one of the few places where an art toy has entered a national museum collection. And Skullpanda's signature make-up has become a cosplay trend of its own — fans recreate her look with every new release.
The whole Skullpanda collection is waiting here — theatrical, dark, real.
See the collection →Follow: Skullpanda on Instagram · All the artists
