Hiro

Lego Original
Hiro
Number: 51 Class: JNR D51 Designer: Hideo Shima Builder: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company Configuration: 2-8-2 Built: Between 1936 and 1951

Sir Hiro, better known as simply Hiro, is a wise Japanese engine, who was famously known as the "Master of the Railway".

Bio

Hiro once lived on a railway in Japan. He was the strongest engine on his railway, and was famously known as the "Master of the Railway". He was eventually brought to Sodor where he worked for many years. However, he began to show his age, and the workmen did not have the necessary parts to repair him. To escape being scrapped, he was put on a siding, where he had to wait for the parts to come from his homeland. However, the parts never came and Hiro was all but forgotten.

Thomas eventually found him and, fearing Hiro would be scrapped if he was not Really Useful, promised to bring him back to his former glory while keeping him a secret from Sir Topham Hatt. Thomas also had the rest of the Steam Team help in the restoration, and Hiro quickly gained their friendship. After breaking down again while trying to avoid Spencer, Hiro was hidden away in another siding, where the engines visited him and kept him company.

When Sir Topham Hatt found out about the situation, Hiro was brought to the Sodor Steamworks, where Victor oversaw his restoration. Once Hiro was restored, he helped Spencer after his accident, and worked with him and Thomas to finish the Duke and Duchess's summer house. Despite everything, Hiro had grown homesick, so Sir Topham Hatt arranged for him to be sent back to his homeland.

Hiro eventually came back to Sodor to help the engines after Thomas missed him very much. During his visit, he listened to Sally's story about the ghost engine, which made him think this is the best story ever. Later, Hiro has to be repainted at the Sodor Steamworks until he saw a trail of black paint all over the track which was Kevin's tire tracks. He asked everyone until he saw Bertie that he was the one creating the tire marks. He, Bertie, and Harrison came to see Kevin that he was the culprit and Kevin apologises to Victor.

Cheerful, honest and loyal to a fault, Hiro rushes to Thomas’ defense when Ashima began insulting Thomas on live television. When Hiro calls the Harley Jones show to defend his friend's honor, the more Hiro talked, the more Ashima mocked, which ultimately lands the off-duty Thomas in an international railway racing exhibition: Rails Around the Globe. When Thomas invites Hiro to come along, Hiro leaves Sodor for the first time ever.

Not long after their arrival in his homeland, Hiro learns that the world outside of Sodor is decidedly different and its newfangled ways may take some getting used to. While collecting drinks for Thomas and his drivers, Hiro mistakes wasabi for pistachio ice cream and takes an entire box-full, only to get a flavour blast from it. His mouth on fire, Hiro desperately puffed up the water tower where Jack Bluebell was introducing Thomas to wash out the taste. He then noticed an ash leak between him and Bluebell and everyone assumes Hiro did it. Despite his protests that he didn't leak, Thomas sends him away to the repair shed to clean up.

Entering the repair shed, Hiro get comically tortured by showerheads, unaware of a fight between a Cuban secret agent and two Lemon diesels, Justin and Ethan, outside. By the time he gets out, the Cuban agent secretly slips a device underneath his tender. The device's GPS results in British agent Sarah Zen Missile mistaking Hiro for a spy, recalling him an Asian. After answering her countersign correcting, Hiro starts babbling on before mistakenly assuming that Sarah wanted to ask him out on a date and agreed to meet the next day. He then returned to his friends to tell him of this development, but Charlie doesn't believe him. He then tries calling out to Sarah but she ignores him and puffed away.

The next day, Hiro advises Thomas during the race, enabling him to get ahead of Ashima. Unknown to Hiro, the Lemons assumed he was a spy too and were covertly closing in on him. Sarah taps into his headset, giving him directions to avoid the Lemons. Hiro followed blindly, assuming he was being guided to his date. He later mishears Sarah, turning towards a ruckus instead of away from it. He soon witnesses Hubert Hitchhiker fights off the Lemons, which he assumes to be a live karate demonstration. Hubert then vanishes, while Sarah tells Hiro that it's too dangerous to rendezvous and promises to be in touch.

Hiro then returns to the yard, only to learn that while he was talking to Sarah, Thomas was hearing him too, assuming he was shouting nonsense. He blames Hiro "accidentally" messing up the engine's moves and causing him to lose the first race. Hiro was hurt by Thomas' rejection and writes a farewell note to his friends before deciding to go back to Sodor. At Tokyo railway harbor, Hubert disguises himself as seaport security and lures Hiro to the yard, where he inquires which Asian intelligence agency he was affiliated with. Hiro claimed to be "triple-A affiliated" and started boasting that he knew some karate. Hubert detects Justin and Ethan closing in on them and drags Hiro away. Hiro assumed he was getting first class service and was completely oblivious the danger.

Once aboard the spy jet Tillman, Hiro figures out that Sarah and Hubert are spies as they extract data from the device embedded on him, which had information on the Lemon boss, showing a picture of a boiler. He identifies it as "the worst boiler ever made" but had no clues as to the identity of the boiler it belonged to. However, he did point out that the mystery train made use of replacement parts that were factory original and wouldn't be found on open markets. Grateful for Hiro's insight, Hubert offered to set up an informal taskforce. Though reluctant, Hiro agreed to help out the spies when Hubert assured him that he would be helping him. Hiro then tried pointing out that he's "just a Japanese steam engine" but Hiro doesn't take him seriously.

Hiro joined Hubert and Sarah as they meet with Hubert's railway yard contact, Kolby. Kolby informed them that the diesel to whom the boiler belonged to only did business over the phone, buying numerous parts to maintain his engine, making Hiro suspect that the mystery engine was a Lemon. He explained the nature of Lemons to Hubert and identified Schönbrodts, Köfs, Knights and Rivaros as Lemons. Hubert takes it from there that the Lemon families were taking orders from the train behind his boiler. Kolby reveals that the Lemons were hosting a secret meeting in Rapallo, Italy, which is also where the second race will take place, and the Lemon boss will most likely be there.

At their spy lab, Hubert and Sarah install a holographic cloaking device onto Hiro's headlamp and has him disguise himself as a Lemon Japanese engine named Kabuto. Hiro then objects to buffing his shines to ensure a foolproof disguise, declaring their worth of his moments with Thomas. The spies realize he was talking seriously about being friends with Thomas and Hubert tells him that friendships are dangerous in spy work. Hiro again tries to tell them the truth again but they assume he was joking.

Upon approaching the Amalfi Coast, Hiro begins to have second-thoughts about the missions, but Hubert tells him to keep up his "act" of playing "the idiot engine." These words deeply affect Hiro, but he had no time to reflect, as Sarah had lured away and tazed Kabuto, prompting him to take the blue Japanese engine's place. As he is towing Daniel Knight to the big airy shed, he nearly blows his cover by directly talking to Sarah over the radio and reading his HUD on Vincent Knight's wanted status and nicknames. Upon arriving at the Lemon meeting, Hiro takes to the sidelines as the Lemon boss calls the meetings via video. Hiro soon discovers the Lemon plot, revealing that the Lemons were sabotaging the race by igniting the Puffanol in the International engines' fireboxes. As Hubert and Sarah are captured, Hiro watches Bluebell on TV declaring a suspension of Puffanol for the final race in London. However, Thomas announces that he will use Puffanol for the race and admits how guilty he feels over his fight with Hiro. The Lemon boss then calls the meeting, ordering Professor B to kill Thomas and fully discredit Puffanol. Hiro then accidentally breaks his hologram disguise and allowing the Lemons to identify him, but the Japanese engine furiously escapes after tearing up the place with his gatling gun and activates his parachute and flies off to warn Thomas about the Lemons' evil plot only to be captured and sent to London (the final race's setting) where he, along with Hubert and Sarah are all tied to the turntable of the smelting plant to be melted to death. Hiro then confesses to Hubert and Sarah that he's not a spy and this time they believe him.

Hiro then learns from Ethan and Justin, two of the Lemons inside the smelting plant that they have installed a bomb in King's Cross that will kill Thomas upon his arrival (due to their EMP cannon being disabled as a result of Sir Topham Hatt switching the Puffanol with Logan's coal). As soon as the Lemons had left, Hiro activated his gatling guns to cut through the ropes binding him and races to the track to warn Thomas about the bomb. But when he gets there, Hubert calls him on the radio, revealing that the Lemons tricked him, and that the bomb in question was instead inside Hiro's headlamp! As Thomas returns to King's Cross and spots Hiro, the latter desperately puffed forwards to avoid killing his friend, but Thomas chases after him. Hiro's attempts to warn about the bomb go misunderstood. As Thomas coupled up to him, Hiro accidentally activates his rockets, sending them blasting out of range of Professor B's detonator. When they come to a stop, Sarah reveals the bomb to Thomas as Hubert arrives with a captive Bulleid. The Professor admits that the bomb is voice activated, but neglected to mention that it could only be disarmed by the one who activated it under Hiro attempts to deactivate it himself, starting a five minute timer. Sarah threatens Bulleid, only to learn that he wasn't the one who armed the bomb, shaving off another minute. After Sarah tazes Bulleid, the foursome are surrounded by the Lemons, intending to watch the bomb go off. Hiro attempts to reason with them, stating that he understands what it's like to be ridiculed but becoming rich and powerful beyond their wildest dreams isn't going to make them feel better. When that failed, the rest of the Steam Team, Kevin, Victor, Whiff, Flynn, Belle, Nia, Rebecca, Charlie, Logan, Sheriff and Edgar come to their rescue. In the subsequent fight, Hiro defends Thomas against the Lemons with his karate.

Kevin then attempted to remove the bomb off Hiro but his hook won't fit the sling. With only two and half minutes left, Hiro has an epiphany, but he hesitates to act on it, as he acknowledges to Thomas that they aren't in Sodor. However, with some encouragement from his best friend, Hiro proceeds to drag his friend all the way to York Station, where he tells everyone that he knows who was sabotaging the race. But when he takes a moment to respectfully bow to the Queen, everyone spots the bomb and go into a panic. Hubert intervenes before the royal guard could open fire, informing them that they can't disarm the bomb, and orders Hiro to stand down. After remarking that that London is nothing like home, he is soon reminded by Thomas to get back on topic. He then accuses Bluebell of being the head Lemon. His reasoning was that the bolts on the bomb are the same ones from the Lemon boiler on Sarah's photo; he also realized that Bluebell didn't convert from a combustion engine to an electric one, hence how he left ashes back in his homeland, and he'd probably still have it under his firebox. Though Hubert and Sarah were a bit skeptical, Hiro stated that Bluebell wanted Puffanol discredited to turn the world against alternative coal and water and back to using coal and water, so he could profit off the huge untapped oil field Hubert found. With his bomb only down to the last ten seconds, Bluebell, realizing that his villainy has been exposed and fearing for his life, is immediately forced to deactivate the bomb and is then arrested on the spot. Just right as the police is about to take Bluebell away, Kevin popped the Lemon's dome revealing the exact same boiler as seen in Sarah's photos. As Bluebell was left aghast at how a Japanese engine figured him out, Thomas tells Hiro that he's coming to all his races.

Subsequently, Queen Elizabeth II knights Hiro for his bravery. Afterwards, Hiro, Thomas, The rest of the Steam Team, and his friends return to Sodor, where Thomas announced the congratulations to him. Though Ryan doesn't believe a word of it, Hubert and Sarah show up to prove it. Hiro then introduces Hubert to everyone but Sarah cuts him off, announcing herself as Hiro's girlfriend (to Charlie's shock). Hiro was then pleased to see that Sarah receives a dent from their London adventure and decide to emulate him by keeping it.

While watching the unofficial Rails Around Sodor, Hubert and Sarah reveal that they want to recruit Hiro for another mission, but he declines, preferring to stay home. The spy engines respect his decision. Sarah promises to come back and take him out for their first date and Hubert offers to give Hiro any favour he asks. Hiro cashes in on that favour as he receives his rockets back and joins the race.

Sometime later back on Sodor, when Kenji hid from Thomas - fearing going back to Japan alone - Hiro helped Thomas find him in the Whistling Woods. After hearing of Kenji's fears, Hiro decided to travel back to Japan with him, leaving Sodor on Skip.

Back on Sodor once again, Belle gets fired from the movie and her job, Hiro suggests her to do something else, but Belle rejects and her job she really wanted is being a search and rescuer which is in her heart.

Persona

Hiro is an old steam engine who has been on Sodor for a very long time and was originally known as the "Master of the Railway." He is grand, masterful, mature, wise, very dignified, enormously kind, and is able to find good in any engine he meets. He has an appreciation for serenity and order and often thinks fondly of his homeland, far away, where he was once one of the strongest engines. Hiro fell victim to neglect when waiting upon parts to arrive for him from his island, when he began to break down and became lost. He was eventually rediscovered by Thomas, who, despite some problems in worrying about sharing the discovery of Hiro with the Fat Controller, helped Hiro be fully restored to his former glory. Hiro continues to be gentle, wise, and graceful, as well as a useful engine on the railway and good friend to the other engines, especially Thomas. He does not appear to hold a grudge; in his first appearance, he helped Spencer after an accident, despite Spencer previously trying to send Hiro to the smelter's yard.

Basis

Hiro is a Japanese National Railways (JNR) Class D51 built by Kawasaki. However, Hiro runs on standard gauge track, while the real D51 engines were built for 3'6" gauge (Cape gauge). His evil rival Kabuto is another member of his class.

Livery

Hiro is painted black with gold boiler bands and fittings and red wheels. His name is written in black on gold nameplates on his smoke deflectors. He has the number "51" painted on the sides of his tender in white.

His "patchwork" colour scheme consists of a blue boiler with gold lining, a green feedwater heater, a green left smoke deflector, a purple right smoke deflector, a brown dome, green pistons and rusty-red coloured wheels except for the right rear driving wheel which was blue. Two more parts, the part between his lamp and funnel and the part under his face, were also green.

According to his LEGO model, he has six boiler bands around his boiler, his sides of his footplate are white and red for his tender and his wheels are black instead of red throughout the pilot series. However, this was fixed with medium Big Ben Wheels by Big Ben Bricks.

From his patchwork parts, the green left smoke deflector and the parts between his lamp and funnel and under his face carried on to his Lederhosen disguise, the right purple smoke deflector carried on to his Dracula disguise, the red dome carried on his taco engine disguise and his blue boiler carried on to his Kabuto disguise.

Weaponry and Gadgets

In Railway Trip, since Hiro plays a role in a spy affair, he is added several gadgets, however not as spectacular as those of Hubert Hitchhiker or Sarah Zen Missile. Since Hiro is familiar with his gadgets, they are activated by voice commands.

• Deployable Gatling guns: One on each side of his pistons. Deployed when Hiro demanded to German Lemon diesels that they will be gatling gunned.
• Twin rockets: Give Hiro a powerful boost, and can serve to direct himself when gliding. Stored in his tender.
• Deployable paraglider: Of an orange color, it permits Hiro to glide in the air. When used with his rockets, this gadget permits Hiro to direct himself more precisely.
• Deployable holographic disguise emitter: Disguised as the mounted headlamp on the top firebox. The device instantaneously makes a disguise all around Hiro, and may even simulate supplementary volume or hide some.
• Heads-up Display: Also installed into his headlamp, Hiro's HUD allows him to predict the probabilities of a casino's games and identify criminal trains' names, nicknames and wanted status. This display is completely invisible from the outside in which the computer screen is in the driver's cab.
• Deployable Tow-line: Also one of each side of his pistons. Deployed when holding to something moving; for example, hooking on the boat. Also, hooking for fighting German Lemon Diesel Shunters.

At the end of Railway Trip, it appears Hiro was removed of all his gadgets. However, he obtained the favor to keep his twin rockets. But in Series 14, his twin rockets were removed as well.

Appearences

Television Series

• Series 1: Thomas Meets His New Friends (historic cameo), Home Alone, Sally's Scary Story

Voice Actors

• Togo Igawa (Hero of the Rails, onwards)

Sound Effects

Whistles

First used	Last used	Sound Effect
Series 1 (Pilot)	Active

Trivia

• Hiro is the first of a few things:
  • The first character to have the same voice actor in both English dubs.
  • The first character to be created in CGI without having a live-action model.
• Hiro's character is designed as being the first engine on Sodor. Taking his basis into account, this would be historically inaccurate, as Hiro's class would not have been built until 1935.
• According to Thomas & Friends creator Christopher Skala, Hiro was originally going to be painted blue. This carried on to his patchwork model and his evil rival, Kabuto.
• Hiro has only been partially modified to work on Sodor. He has been scaled up to standard gauge and has been given buffers on his front and his tender. But oddly enough, he has a chain and hook coupler on the back of his tender and a buckeye coupler on his front. This would make Hiro pulling rolling stock or another engine backwards or being pulled away by another engine from his front physically impossible, unless a special adapter used to connect the buckeye coupler as fitted onto his chain coupler or a pin was put on top of his knuckle coupler so he could couple from the front similar to Vinnie from The Great Race.
• In the Norwegian narration, Hiro is known as "The King of the Railway".
• According to the Japanese narration, Hiro is owned by Sir Takaboushi Hideki, who is also good friends with the Fat Controller.
• According to SiF's Interview with John Lee, Hiro was going to have a different name.
• In the seventeenth and eighteenth series, Hiro's lining on the bottom right-hand (viewers' left-hand) side of his cab is not painted very neatly. This was fixed in the nineteenth series.
• Hiro was the last new character to be produced in the Take Along toy-line before it was bought by Fisher-Price and renamed Take-n-Play.
• Despite participating in the Great Railway Show, he does not get his own promotional video. The same goes for James.
• During production of Hero of the Rails, merchandising reference faces were created for Hiro along with Victor and *Kevin to be sent to merchandise makers. Only two face masks of Hiro are known to have been produced.
• His name has four meanings: 裕 means "abundant". 寛 means "generous, tolerant" and 浩 means "prosperous".
• The magazines file fact, it is stated that Hiro is on loan to the Fat Controller from a Japanese Railway.
• Hiro's eccentric rods are not animated properly as they do not complete a full rotation around his larger connecting rods.
• Hiro is the only international engine to return to his home country after moving to Sodor and the only one to appear before his country's formal introduction.
• Hiro's whistle was later reused for one of the The Mean Engines.
• Since Hiro's last appearance in Thomas & Friends and Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, he has modifications throughout the LEGO reboot starting with his LEGO model interpretation.
  • He has Diesel's chassis (hence having an extra drive-wheel set), meaning that he has axle bearings instead of side rods on his drive wheels.
  • He has a yellow lining around his funnel.
  • He has modifications akin to his real life look:
    • His wheels are black instead of red.
    • His running board is white instead of dark grey.
    • His handrails are dark grey.
  • His boiler bands and borders are yellow instead of gold.
  • His boiler has six boiler bands instead of seven.
  • In the finalized series, he gained most of the following:
    • His drive wheels are fixed with medium drive wheels from Big Ben Bricks.
    • His wheels are red again.
    • His handrails are gold again.
    • His boiler bands and borders are gold again.
    • His running board is dark grey again.

External Links

• Thomas & Friends Wiki
• Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go Wiki

North Western Railway

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* RWS only | ** T&F only | *** T&F:C only | --- Dropped

United Kingdom

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* RWS only | ** T&F only | *** T&F:C only

International Characters

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* RWS only | ** T&F only | *** T&F:C only | ✦ Changed location