Merrow (Monster in my Pocket, Series 2, by Matchbox)

Matchbox’s Monster in my Pocket (MIMP) line is going to prove a bountiful source of content for the Monster Toy Blog. We’ve already migrated one MIMP review from the Dinosaur Toy Blog, the plesiosaur-like Nessie. So, let’s start ticking the rest of these mini monster off the list.

The merrow is figure #65 in series 2. I hadn’t heard of a merrow before doing some research for this review. It’s basically a kind of mermaid or merman from Irish folklore. There’s a separate merman in the MIMP series – #10, Series 1, Triton. But that one is a ‘pure’ merman with a human body and fish tail, whereas the MIMP merrow is more monstrous. Merrows are traditionally depicted as normal half fish half humans, so the sculpor has been let loose to explore creative licence. I note with some surprise that There’s no traditional mermaid model in the MIMP line, as far as I’m aware. So maybe Triton is meant to be a male merman, and the merrow the frightening mermaid. However, I wouldn’t describe the top half of the merrow as human.

The head is more reptilian or snake-like, with a frill around the face, akin to a frilled lizard or the Jurassic Park version of Dilophosaurus. There’s an extra protrusion on the top of the head, a wisp of hair maybe, or a feather? A longer strand of hair sinuously snakes its way, rather appropriately, down the merrow’s back.

She’s a strapping beefy bugger, with human-like muscular arms and huge hands with three webbed pointy fingers and a thumb. The arms have an extra spine or finger near the elbow. The tail and torso is adorned by large scales, supplemented by two small rounded fins on the hips, and the body is contorted into a twisted post. The early MIMP releases were monochrome and I like these much more than the ugly painted versions that came later. Each model was released in a variety of colours, the one I have is green.

I collected MIMP when I was a kid in the early 90s, so I have the entire first and second series from back then, plus the Battle Cards game that was available at the time. This top trumps style game ranks the monsters by points (the merrow is worth 15, also embossed on a small circular disk on the back of the toy), intelligence, strength/weaponry, speed, and weakness/limitations. The merrow get -1 for weakness/limitation, which seems a bit harsh. But I suppose a monster that can’t move about on land isn’t much of a threat to a human. Just don’t go into the water!

Many more Monster in my Pocket models coming soon…