A Lament for Diamond Select.... Lord of the Rings Select figures unlikely to see the light of day

After the demise of Diamond Comics and the immediate 'shuttering' of Diamond Select Toys earlier in 2025, collectors and fans have been awaiting any kind of news or confirmation of what might happen next with their upcoming releases and the wider licences as a whole.

We've now been advised that any item not produced (and we are unclear what these might be) is now considered cancelled. Notifications are now starting to go out from stockists, cancelling pre-orders.

For me, the most exciting Diamond Select line at the point the business ceased was their Lord of the Rings line, which was very much finding its feet and selling out each wave with relative ease.

The cancellations have now gone out confirming that Eowyn and the Witch King, the next planned releases, did not get far enought into production (as far as we can ascertain) and are not being released. This will now also be true for the other upcoming pre-orders, including the first figures from The Hobbit: Bilbo and Tauriel.

The same fate will apply to the most recent reveals of Galadrial and King Aragorn, the recent preview of Azog, and the long-delayed and oft pushed back Gandalf the White.

The Diamond Lord of the Rings series was the first since Toybiz to get into the heart of the franchise, and we should still celebrate the figures we did get over its short 4-year lifespan. Diamond did manage to bring us the Fellowship of the Ring in its entirety, as well as Christopher Lee's Saruman and Gollum! The hordes of darkness were also fleshed out with releases of Lurtz, Uruk Hai warriors, and Moria Goblins.

The crowning figure of the line, despite issues in its design and stability, has to be the only build-a-figure of the line, the armoured Sauron who can also be flanked by his Ring Wraiths

We now look to the future, with S.H. Figuarts tentatively exploring the LOTR world, but at a 6-inch scale. There is definitely a market for these classic movies, and we can therefore have a glimmer of hope that we may perhaps see more LOTR releases in the future once licencing agreements and the solvency arrangements have all been resolved.

See our reviews of the Lord of the Rings figures over at our Diamond Select Collector Database

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About Me : As a child of the '70s and '80s 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 licenses - 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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