Review: Diamond Select Toys 'Twilight' Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings, 'Prancing Pony' Special Release
- Mephitsu
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
"We wish to stay at the inn. Our business is our own."
The last of Diamond Select’s Lord of the Rings releases before the parent company folded and Diamond Select was shuttered was the special release of Twilight Frodo Baggins in the special ‘Prancing Pony’ packaging. This figure, already in production and shipped in Spring 2025, has made its way onto selected shelves, including at Forbidden Planet, where we found our review copy at just £19.99.
The box is a new design for the Lord of the Rings series, and may have originally been planned as an exclusive, as it is similar in design to the Gimli, Son of Gloin, release for SDCC 2024. It is a green closed box, with the front cover solely an image of the hanging sign for The Prancing Pony in green. There is no logo, character details, or anything else on the box front, which is a brave choice if this is being sold in stores to articulate what the set actually is.
The first significant reference to The Lord of the Rings comes on both of the sides, with the movie logo down more or less the full length of the spine. Above this sits the Diamond Select badge, with the New Line Cinema logo at the base. On the back, we have a large headshot of Elijah Wood as Frodo and next to it an image of the figure. Underneath, there are three panels coloured to look like aged papyrus, each containing an overview. The first is of the movie trilogy itself, the second is of the figure, and the third is of the design team.
You only see the figure by opening the front cover like a book. Unlike NECA who use a Velcro tab, the Diamond cover is held in check by two corner magnets, which works brilliantly. Inside the front cover is another aged paper-style tab complete with screen grabs from The Fellowship of the Ring and text covering Frodo’s journey from The Shire to the Prancing Pony and how he first enters the Twilight world by accident as he fell in the Inn’s main bar. On the other side, the window is cut in the shape of the One Ring, with the ring designed around it as a border, complete with Mordor Script. The oval window does not show off the figure particularly well, with the inner tray having the figure sitting more towards the top, so you only get a good view of the figure's lower half.
Once open, the Frodo figure is sandwiched between two acrylic trays, meaning you are also viewing a translucent figure through two layers of clear plastic. Under the figure sits a stand, the first included in the LOTR series. The tray is sat in an inner cardboard sleeve with a contrasting red colouring against the green of the outer box, and featuring the image of the Eye of Sauron.
Transparent plastic action figures are nothing new, dating back to the 80s and often reflecting either an invisible character or a ghost like the Star Wars Force Ghosts. In this context, as laid down by the box, this is ‘Twilight’ Frodo, insinuating this is Frodo as seen in the Twilight world when he wears the ring. This is very different from invisible Frodo, which is how the 2021 release was badged, and yet there is no difference between either release. Every part of the figure is cast in translucent plastic, including the joints, which are partly visible through the plastic of the outer parts.
The figure is defined enough to be recogniseable as Frodo and in the traveling gear he is wearing in the Prancing Pony, but they have left in his sword belt and sword, something he was not wearing at this point in the journey. The figure is reliant on the lighting around it to expand the detail, with the translucent plastic taking on any colour within the lighting, while also deepening or narrowing the detail depending on how intense the light is.
There is nothing new on this figure; it is simply the 2021 Frodo figure cast in clear plastic, complete with the sword sheath as mentioned above.
vs 2021 LOTR Series 1 release of Frodo (right)
The offending accessory, the sword Sting and its belt and sheath, are not seen in any of the Prancing Pony scenes with Frodo, only receiving the weapon from Bilbo when he reaches Rivendell. Considering this is a softer plastic belt than it would have been easier, cheaper, and more accurate for Diamond to leave the weapon and belt off the figure entirely. You can, of course, look at this in the positive and thank Diamond for including it, allowing you to replicate Twilight Frodo from scenes later in the movie.
Frodo has 16 points of articulation, all visible through the plastic, and therefore an interesting insight into the internal workings of Diamond figures. Frodo can turn and tilt his head on the neck joint, while the waist joint is practically fixed in place, reducing any central core posing and relying on the arms and legs only.
The arms are quite wide-ranging and can gesture and wield Sting if that is a look you want to replicate. The legs will bend and flex, even getting into a basic sitting position as needed. The ankles feel particularly weak with no discernible ratchet, and therefore, the figure is not overly stable when posed.
The included stand does help with this. It is an oval translucent piece with a single peg that connects to the holes on either of Frodo’s feet, holding the figure more securely. There is another aesthetic issue here with the stan,d likely recycled from another Diamond line. When doing this is coloured plastic, the factory stamp underneath isn’t an issue. But in clear plastic, you can then see the imprinted factor details through the stand, which is not particularly well thought out either.
At a time when glorious-looking figures like The Witch King, Eowyn, Galadriel, and Bilbo are cancelled, this last hurrah for the Diamond Select line is a bittersweet addition to my collection. While it does put another figure on the shelf, it does so without expanding the line very much, considering Frodo has already been released in this ‘Twilight’ format back in 2021 alongside Gollum, and has also had a standard release as part of the first wave. This release also shows what Diamond could, and should, have done with the LOTR packaging, with the box choice more aligned to the visuals of Peter Jackson’s masterpiece. The figure does a job as a translucent release, but considering Frodo in this guise is invisible, the context overall is not an easy one to understand, and feels like a missed opportunity to do a genuine ‘Twilight’ Frodo with muted colours as he appears when wearing the ring and in the shadow world.
At £20 it's an acceptable addition to a collection that will sadly get no bigger from Diamond themselves at least. Whether it holds a place in the wider collection is down to individual collectors and their personal preference over these clear/translucent releases.
Keep Track of all the Lord of the Rings figures from Diamond Select Toys 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...