Merle Dixon: The Walking Dead (McFarlane Toys)

The Walking Dead: Merle Dixon

Don't you just miss this guy's crap? I don't know why they even introduced such a B.A. of character and then killed him off after he did his first and final epic performance on that Season. I guess that's just the way it is, but I will sure miss this rugged built redneck with a tongue as sharp as his bayonet, and his irreversibly interesting personality that makes this entire show addicting and entertaining. But still addicting as it always has been, we still got Daryl, Michonne and a good direction from the crew of The Walking Dead. And every time someone dies, there is always some new and sometimes, much cooler characters that gets introduced.














But of course, nothing could ever take the place of Merle just as on Daryl's. He is part of the Dixon Brothers 2-Pack that I've showed in my Daryl Dixon review. Merle has a gun that goes apparently to his left trigger hand and has a holster at the waist made for it. The holster can also be used as a sheath for his knife but I wish he has a separate pocket for it,... nor these bunch of keys had anything it may cling on Merle. Another gripe I had with this figure is his trigger hand that couldn't hold probably his best accessory- the assault rifle. Both the rifle and the knife cannot be wielded properly and ends up around his shoulder and waist area.

But the sculpt on this one is absolutely gorgeous and every time I look at this figure, I can just see Michael Rooker in it- like some kind of a miniature version of him. It very much captured his head and face! You can also see some texturing over his tank top, and just wrinkles and folds every where around his clothing. Moreover, Merle got some accurate sculpting over his amputated arm with all these straps and braces all put together like an arm of a cyborg. I think this is the most well sculpted Walking Dead figure ever made by McFarlane.

I said it over and over again that the paint jobs on these figures are unbeatable. By perfectly blending all these colours and shades, all these sweat and dirt looks almost... real sweat and dirt! If you look at his shirt, Merle got this stain that could be some kind of zombie snot but more likely just dirt. Even as simple as a shoe has lots of colours to make it as real-looking as possible.

Good thing about this figure is that his eyes aren't looking at a certain angle like that of Daryl, which make it easy for me to pose his head in ways where he is properly looking at you. So the articulation on Merle is not that many. He got a ball-jointed neck, ball-hinged shoulder (without bicep swivel), single-jointed elbows, rotation at the elbows and wrists. He got a Y-joint with swivel to the upper thighs, single-jointed knees with rotation, ball-hinged ankles and a little bit of ankle pivot.

If you're following the TV show or maybe just collecting McFarlane figures, I would recommend getting Merle not only because he's one of the major TWD characters but also of the high amount of detail that you can add to your display. He stands about 5.1 inches tall; just a "millimeter" taller than Daryl and could be in perfect scale with the rest of the figures in this toyline.