He might not be stuffed with cotton, but he’s no less completely adorable. Winnie the Pooh and the rest of A.A. Milne’s creations have had tons of figurines, dolls, statues and other assorted objects made in their likenesses, but they haven’t been on the receiving end of very many articulated action figures. But this bear of very litle brain finally has a figure to be proud of.
Herocross has spread their wings wide and weird with their Hybrid Metal Figurations line. Their house style is usually of the super-deformed (big heads on squashed little bodies) variety, and that has produced some unique takes on properties like Predator, Robocop, Star Wars and the DC Universe, among many others. Under the Disney banner, they’ve produced some great versions of Mickey, Donald and Minnie that mesh perfectly with their style, producing high-end and high-quality figures that look like they stepped off the screen. And by the way, Herocross: I’m still waiting and hoping for an Uncle Scrooge, please and thank you.
Winnie the Pooh fits into the Hybrid Metal style perfectly, to the point where I feel stupid for not expecting it. But having him in hand, I’m essentially going to lose my mind if we don’t get at least a Tigger, Eeyore and Rabbit out of the deal.
And Owl, Kanga and Roo.
And Gopher.
Get the point?
Upon flipping open the lid on the box, I had to suppress an urge to go “Awwwwww.” I suppressed it unsuccessfully, because I did blurt out “Awwwwww” as soon as I got a look at him. This is a great-looking figure, with a perfect Pooh-like expression. He’s a generally happy-type bear when he’s not particularly confused about something puzzling his cotton-stuffed brain, so this happy-go-lucky expression fits him very well. Herocross has previously provided multiple heads for some of their figures, so an alternate confused “think think think” head would have been nice, but it’s not a deal breaker.
This is a very nicely articulated figure. You might say to yourself, “How articulated does a Pooh Bear have to be? He’s not Spider-Man.” And my answer would be, “This articulated. I need him to, minimally, be this articulated.” 
Pooh is a stumpy armed, stumpy legged, wibbly wobbly butterball of a bear, yet this figure has just the right amount of articulation range to make give him all the physical expressiveness you’d want. I can’t seem to make him sit as well as he can in the promo pictures, but he can do pretty much anything else he needs to do, including shoveling honey into his mouth. He has ball-joints at the neck, torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles, all of which swivel around as necessary. His fabric shirt doesn’t hinder his motion at all. Pooh doesn’t wear pants.
Because his various limbs are basically columns without muscles, it doesn’t matter much how you swivel them in order to get them into the poses you need them to achieve. There are limits, however, like with all Hybrid Metal figures, and they will pop off if you try to move them too far. Popping off is better than breaking, and they pop back on easily without any fuss or muss, so you’ll quickly learn how far you can move them. I’ve come to expect that with a lot of ball-jointed figures; occasionally there are some trade-offs. Even Figuarts is not immune to a limb popping off on occasion.
Pooh comes with a handful of accessories. The most important accessory he comes with is, of course, his best friend Piglet. Piglet is a non-articulated figure, so he’s permanently stuck in “waving hello” mode. I kind of wish he’d get his own release at some point, or that this one was fully articulated, because Piglet to me is important enough to the Pooh Bear family to merit articulation. But for now, it’s a nice inclusion and does look good standing beside his friend.
Pooh comes with two honeypots. Both feature translucent glops of honey spilling over the side, but one has been sculpted with a bit more action to it, as if the pot is either on its side or Pooh just pulled a big scoop out. Both the pots and his hands are magnetized, but they are the weakest magnets in the world and don’t really do what they’re intended. I used some Blu-Tack to keep the pots suspended in his hands.
Speaking of a scoop of honey, that’s also included, and it fits on his paw, ready to be scooped into his mouth. It also fits over his ear. Pooh is a bear that gets into his food.
He comes with two sets of hands which are separated by the slightest of differences: one has thumbs, one doesn’t. For a Pooh bear, this equates to action hands and neutral hands. It’s a very nice inclusion so you can have a bit of variety with how you want your Pooh.
This was an instant gottahave for me as soon as I saw the promo shots, and it doesn’t disappoint in-hand. Hybrid Metal Figurations are toys that I can’t collect as in depth as I’d like, but there are some that I can’t pass up. Any of the classic Disney characters are instant purchases (UncleScroogeUncleScroogeUncleScroogepleasepleaseplease), and now anything from the Winnie the Pooh family will get bought.
If there are more.
Please make more.
Pooh is currently available at Big Bad Toy Store.