"I don't think he knows about second breakfast”
Merry and Pippin make up Diamond Select’s Series 7 Lord of the Rings figures, a line that has been running since 2021. Both of our Series 7 Hobbits use the standard packaging first established in 2021 for general releases. The window box uses a blue-hued colour scheme inlaid with the map of Middle Earth and with the stark contrasting gold Lord of the Rings logo to the front left. The artwork on the other side has also remained the same throughout all 7 waves - showing an image of Sauron, Gandalf and Frodo rather than an actual image of the character included. The only reference to the content sits underneath this with the character name in gold text.
The rear of the box features a large central image of both Series 7 figures as well as some smaller ‘also available’ images featuring Series 5’s Boromir & Lurtz, and Series 6’s Saruman and Sam. There is a small font paragraph of text between these two sets of images that provides a generic overview of The Lord of the Rings itself and under this a confirmation that Merry is based specifically on his appearance in The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Diamond Boxes continue to use a top hanging tab which is prone to damage in shipping. They are also still using both an internal window and a two sided inner tray which does somewhat restrict how well the figure itself is displayed through the dual plastic surfaces which create a number of reflections and distortions.
Merry, from The Fellowship of the Ring, is depicted in his yellow shirt with a white collar and brown three-quarter trousers. Over the shirt is a green textured jacket, while the trousers are sculpted with a black painted belt and silver buckle. Weathering is added to the trousers to give a worn look, while the shirt and coat are left relatively clean. Merry features some frustrating decisions on colourtion of plastic with the arms obviously cast in a flesh colour and then painted - which means the rear pin of the elbow joint is exposed in the flesh colour when the arm is bent, and while the front half of this joint is painted, it starts to rub with the first elbow movement straight out of the box. As a direct contradiction to this, the bottom half of the legs and feet are cast in a dark brown and then painted in flesh, resulting in exposed brown plastic on the rear of the ankle joints and further worn paint to the front if the ankle joints are used.
Merry is also wearing his elven cloak as gifted to him in Lothlorien. This is cast green plastic with a metallic green painted elven leaf-shaped clasp. The cloak is textured and weathered to an impressive extent. It is removable, but you will need to pop off Merry’s head first - which needs to be done carefully considering the type of plastic employed by Diamond for their figures.
The head sculpt for Merry is a good likeness to actor Dominic Monaghan as Pippin from the 2001 movie. The skin tone is perhaps slightly too tanned, but there is sufficient detailing in the eyes, facial features, and the mop of brown hair - although as yet still no facial printing tech in use from Diamond. The other key hobbit feature, the hairy feat, is achieved with a sculpted wad of ‘fur’ on the top of the feet which is partly painted on the top facing in brown. Merry is Hobbit-scaled and stands just 14cm (5.5 inches) tall, which is accurate alongside human-sized characters like Boromir and Gandalf. He also lines up relatively well against the other hobbits from the line, although Frodo looks a touch small and Sam a touch tall.
The size of the Hobbit characters does present Diamond with a challenge on filling out the packaging with a good amount of accessories to provide perceived value. While Frodo had a build-a-figure part, and Sam had a whole raft of travelling gear, Merry still feels very light on accessories and what we get is limited in terms of their display value.
The focus on Merry’s accessories is very much around cooking and ‘second breakfast’ and he features two pans - one larger than the other - with a dull silver base and brown painted handle. With these also comes a brown knife and spoon, both slightly oversized for the scale of Merry. He can hold these in either hand, but the grip is not secure.
The two accessories I really like in terms of fitting in with the character and his scenes in the Trilogy are the pipe and mug. The pipe is delicate and scaled well for the figure and to hold it you need to slip it between the spaced fingers rather than in the hand grip itself. The tankard, in a silver finish with a brown handle, is also scaled nicely to Merry and can be held securely in either hand. Unfortunately, the elbow articulation isn’t wide-ranging enough to have Merry raise the pipe, or the tankard, to his mouth.
The accessory set is finished off with a sword and scabbard - the one presented to Merry by Aragorn at Weathertop. Like so many of the LOTR figures from Diamond, the scabbard has now functionality to connect to the figure and be worn on the belt. It is cast in brown with an intricately carved design down both sides of its length. The Numernorean blade is a hard, brittle plastic painted silver on the blade with a hold trim toward the grip, and the grip itself in brown. An alternative right hand is included and seems to be specific to cradling the blade or the scabbard for poses with the weapon.
Merry has just 14 points of articulation, all now pinless but with a relatively limited range of motion as mentioned earlier with the elbows in particular. The joints are all tight, but with that comes a significant risk of paint rub particularly prevalent at the ankles and elbows. Merry stands perfectly well on his own but lacks some degree of character with the accessories in particular.
Like much of the Diamond Lord of the Rings line, the focus has been on a very accurate costume for the figure with a relatively strong likeness and a paint job that brings out the best of both. Articulation is obviously secondary, and not the line's strong point. The decision to cast parts in the wrong colours and then paint is odd and most likely driven by the factory output and this causes unsightly issues at the elbows and ankles which most other lines avoid by colour-coordinating parts and joints. Merry’s accessories are a mix of those that we’d expect for the character like his pipe and tankard, to an odd cooking set that lacks any aesthetic benefit and a sword and sheath that can’t be worn. In terms of filling out the packaging then Diamond might have followed suit with the older Toybiz line and created diorama parts such as a campfire with all the cooking accessories.
There is quite a bit of shared use between Merry and Pippin, with both figures using the same entire lower half - just painted differently - and also sharing the upper arms, While none of this detracts from either figure,e the cost-saving employed on the shared elements puts further focus on the accessories and overall 'value for money' of the releases which are still retailing in the UK around the £30 mark.
Series 7 does finally complete the Fellowship and in an age where many action figure lines are cancelled before key characters are released we should be thankful for this. Posed all together you can also see the advancement of the line between 2021 and 2024 with Legolas and Frodo in particular looking dated against the newer figures.
I was also pleased to find that Merry and Pippin were both relatively well scaled against the older large Toybz Treebeard figure and have sufficient articulation to be posed sitting on his shoulders as seen during the events of The Two Towers.
Keep Track of all the Lord of the Rings figures from Diamond Select at our comprehensive
If you are reading this via a 3rd party website that is importing our newsfeed, please come and visit us directly and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Check out our direct news feed for more action figure news, reviews, and store reports
About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
Comments