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Hello everyone!!
Last month I wrote about Fred Durst and his love for Rei, and one of his figures he's had of her for over a decade. Feel free to read that as well if you'd like, since they're similar in nature, though this one doesn't cover any mysteries, unfortunately...
But yknow, how about other musicians who collect anime figures? How about our resident queen of anime figures, Hatsune Miku?! Fred Durst doesn't own any Miku!! More like FRAUD Durst!
While thinking about it, I remembered that multiple times now, I've seen posts about Mike Shinoda and his love for Miku. And then I thought, let's look into that more, right?
Mike Shinoda, in case you don't know, is an incredibly storied person. He's a rapper/singer/songwriter, the co-founder of Linkin Park, and has an album on his own under Fort Minor, among other things. He's on MFC, and he has his own Nendoroid Petit (Absolutely legendary).
Growing up, I listened to pleeeenty of Linkin Park. And Fort Minor too actually, my dad was a big fan of the sole album they did.
Even recently, I did karaoke at my friends house and we both tried to hold the 17-second scream at the end of 'Given Up', lol. "Put me out of my! Fucking! MiserAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAHHHHHHHHHHGHHHHOHHHHHHH." Hahaha I seriously just love them so much. And they're still active as well, so if you're at all fond of this guy from reading this article, I definitely recommend checking them out. Their songs have meant so much to me throughout the years!
Linkin Park in general is a band more tied to Japanese culture than you'd think. Not only Mike Shinoda, but Chester Bennington was a big Gundam fan, and there's a Gundam on the album artwork for Reainimation! I don't know anything about it myself, but I did find somebody on Reddit breaking it down.
It seems to be mostly a Zaku with the wings from the Double X, a V/U fin added to the head, and a torso I can't place. I'm also a little thrown off by the square arms which seem to be more Wing generation arms. [...] (I'm not confident it is a Zaku, it might be a Gouf base because of the flared legs but the pipes and the mono eye make it distinctly based on a zeon suit)
But back to him, Mike Shinoda's not a Miku casual, either. On November 6, 2020, he streamed himself playing Hatsune Miku VR, and during the livestream (Which you can watch here), he shows off his figures of her!
First, https://myfigurecollection.net/item/167103, a Racing Miku 2012 prize figure.
He also owns https://myfigurecollection.net/item/23068 of Hachune Miku, and the frames of him holding up her have become somewhat of a meme.
Seeing the contrast between this picture and the picture of Fred Durst, I literally couldn't not giggle, so I made a meme too. Feel free to replace 'Mom' with anybody else in your head while viewing.
We can see other figures he owns in other pictures of his studio, too.
This one's painfully tiny, but you can spot https://myfigurecollection.net/item/155014 (Madoka!!), and I believe the smaller chibi figure is of Luka.
Over on the left side, there's a small Megaman, and a figure of Franky! (Not sure which one, I tried looking but didn't see a pose matchup.)
As far as I can find, there aren't any clear up-close pictures of the various items on the studio counter, so there very well be more around. I'm also sure he changes them out from time to time. But it's really funny to see someone so famous and skilled do the same kind of thing lots of us do- put figures around our workspace to brighten up our desks and stuff!
Earlier in 2025, someone even threw a custom Miku Shinoda plushie on stage while Linkin Park were performing, created by the artist Mina Harker. He absolutely loved it.
The Hatsune Miku Twitter account also posted this in 2018, like, I don't even know the context, lol... it's a reply to one of his tweets, so I guess you could even say Mike Shinoda and Hatsune Miku have spoken before... kinda. People are eagerly awaiting a song from them featuring her, and what's crazy is that it's actually totally possible. I really would love love LOVE to see that happen!
As usual, thank you for reading my articles and I hope you enjoyed!! :D
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Here's a video of him showing guests at Anime Expo 2019 a part of his newest music video, talking about his love for anime, growing up watching it, and how it inspired various things for Linkin Park. It's really cool!