“It's talking, Merry. The tree is talking”
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 bblue-huedcolour 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 Pippin 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. And 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.
Pippin arrives in the outfit we see him wearing as he leaves Lothlorien in The Fellowship of the Ring, complete with Elven cloak. The trousers are three-quarter length and in a dark brown colour with additional weathering. Pippin is wearing a simple cream shirt, over which is his blue jacket. He is also wearing a scarf as an individual piece. This sits round his neck as does the Elben cloak which is a cast green piece with full texture and weathering a painted gold metallic leaf of Lothlorien clasp. To remove either the scarf or the cloak you will need to remove the head from the neck pin - and I advise caution doing so with the nature of the plastic Diamond utilise on their Select figures.
Like Merry, Pippin also has some disappointing painted joints. While the arms are blue for the coat, this is painted over a flesh colouring and the rear of the joint is very unsightly. There is also a significant paint rub issue on the front of the joint which flakes immediately on first movement of the elbow joint. On the legs, there is the reverse of the issue. While you’d expect the lower legs to be cast in flesh tone, they are actually cast in dark brown and therefore the rear of the ankle joint is an even starker issue than the elbow. While paint rub here is less obvious, the front of the ankle joint will wear away over time.
Pippin’s head sculpt is a strong likeness to Billy Boyd, slightly better than Merry but still with a skin tone that is slightly too tanned. Diamond continues to paint their face sculpts and this is done neatly to pick out the eyes and key features with the hair also well shaped and sculpted and then painted with no obvious paint bleeds or issues with the edges. The Hobbit feet are sculpted with a patch of fur on top which is painted initially in the flesh tone but then with brown painted on the very top edges to give the hairy feet effect. Pippin is scaled perfectly with Merry as the two are almost identical in height. Combined with the other Hobbits we can see that Sam is looking a tad tall, and Frodo a tad small. Frodo is of course also the only Hobbit not to have an elven cloak having been shortchanged on accessories in Series 2.
Because our Hobbits stand at just 5.5 inches rather than the normal 7 inches and above of characters like Aragorn and Gandalf, the packaging in which they sit has an excessive amount of space, and to add perceived value for the release and to fill in this space we do get a number of accessories with Pippin. These accessories are a little better thought out than Merry, but still lack a huge amount of options for a display.
While Merry had a set of cooking implements, the main element of Pippin’s accessories is the large dragon firework they steal from Gandalf at Bilbo’s party. This is a large piece, coloured in bright red and with golden trim and a thin base in wood coloured brown. Pippin can hold this, propped across both hands and in particular utilising the single alternative right hand with a more open palm. While the execution of the firework is OK, it lacks any display functionality in light of Pippin’s actions in the movie and might have best been executed as a diorama piece stuck into a stand to reflect the mud in the tent allowing it to freestand alongside your Pippin and Merry figures.
Pippin also features the exact same pipe and tankard as was included with Merry. These are scaled perfectly for the figure and while the pipe appears delicate, there is flexibility built into the plastic so it is not as easily broken as you may think. Pippin can hold the pipe between the fingers of his hands as the most secure position, while either hand can grip the brown painted handle of the silver tankard. Sadly, there is not enough elbow movement to have either the pipe or tankard raised to Pippin’s mouth, leaving the options more limited to holding the pipe in hand, although the tankard can be raised in celebration.
Pippin comes with a sword and holster, like Merry as given by Aragorn on Weathertop. The sword is individual to Pippin with a wider silver blade, brown grip and silver pommel. This fits in either of Pippin’s gripping hands. The sheath is the same as included with Merry, a dark brown piece with sculpted pattern up both sides. Like almost every sheath released to date in the LOTR series by Diamond, there is no way of attaching this to the figures belt so it can be worn as intended. So you are left with having Pippin hold the sheath - or to rig up your own fixing to he belt.
Pippin features 14 points of basic but pinless articulation. There is some basic movement build in here, but not to the extent we find on other lines and that is as we have seen to the detriment of the figure in terms of posing him with some of his accessories. All of the joints feel tight and secure but are at risk of paint damage when used - mainly the elbow and ankle joints. Pippin can stand perfecty well once posed, but like Merry he lacks any of his boisterous character that see in the films with such a restricted range movement and therefore limited interaction with any of the accessories.
Pippin is very much as we’d expect now from the Diamond Lord of the Rings series, a very well executed figure in terms of costume with an acceptable if not spectacular likeness, basic articulation, and a selection of accessories that often have limited or no engagement options with the figure itself. For me Merry and Pippin might have been best served as a two pack, negating the need for much of the accessories except perhaps the pipe and tankard which are fitting for our two hobbits. Pippin, like Merry, also suffers from poor decisions around base colour and overpainting and the issue with both the elbow and ankle would have been easily avoided by using a base plastic that matched or was close to the final colouring.
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, 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
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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...
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