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Tuesday, 30 April 2019

Sir Bedevere Action Figure by Diamond Select Toys

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In 2003 Diamond Select Toys launched their first series of "Talking" 7 inch Monty Python and The Holy Grail action figures, housed in blister card packaging. 

Included with each figure, apart from their scabbard, sword and shield is a stand with a Grail-shaped button which when pressed plays a line of dialogue spoken by each character during the film.

Three figures were released at this time; King Arthur,Sir Bedevere and Sir Robin - Each one was cast to look just like Grahame Chapman, Terry Jones and Eric Idle in their respective roles.

A further three figures were planned to be released as Series 2 in 2004, the proposed figures were; John Cleese as Sir Lancelot, Terry Gilliam as The Bridge Keeper and Michael Palin as Sir Galahad.

According to the Announcement on Daily Llama, posted on 5th August 2003, where they debuted their prototypes of Series one and their plans for a continuation of the series, 10,000 to 50,000 units of each figure were to be shipped and sold in Comic Book Stores and Collectable Shops.


At the same time as I bought my Dead Collector from Monty Python Online, I saw they had a Sir Bedevere 7 inch Talking Figure for sale as well, so of course, I added him to my basket too!

This earned me a cool bonus, which I'll tell you about in a little while...


I know you can't see his face very well in the photographs I've added here, so you'll just have to believe me on this one... The sculpt is very well done and looks very similar to Terry Jones, as do the Sideshow Toy versions.


The back of the packaging  states the following:

Arthur, King of the Britons, sends his Knights of The Round Table on a quest throughout his kingdom in search of The Holy Grail, plagued by obstacles such as rude Frenchmen, swamp kings, knights who request shrubbery cut down with a herring and a killer rabbit that decimates their ranks, the Monty Python troupe puts an entirely fresh spin onto a classic tale.

Each figure includes a sword, shield, scabbard and a base that includes three lines of the character's dialogue from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

All figures sculpted by Gabriel Marquez.


As this figure comes in a blister pack, opening his package will very likely damage it beyond repair and as I like to keep my toy's packaging, to store them I finish posing and playing with them, I'm not planning to open him any time soon.

But luckily the package has a "try me" opening in the front - the button is in the form of a golden Grail-shaped button which when pressed plays a line of dialogue, just the one though so I presume the other two can be heard once the stand is removed from it's package.

If you click the above video you can hear Sir Bedevere suggest a solution to the "Trojan Rabbit" debacle!


As I mentioned earlier I got an added bonus when I ordered my figures last year, it came in the form of a free 12 inch vinyl single of "Always look on the bright side of life"!


This copy is dated 2014 - released a week before the World Cup began; and is a limited edition, bearing the number  000314/500 in the top right corner.

Side A is credited to Eric Idle apparently the lyrics were adapted for use during the World Cup in Brazil as a preemptive for England's failure to win.

According to an article in The Independent Newspaper; The new verse is sung as follows:

“When you're in The World Cup, And all your hopes are up, And everybody wants their team to win.“Then they go and let you down, And come slinking back to town, It's time for this daft song to begin.”

The B-side is titled "An Apology from Bernard" and credited to the entire Python Team.

It contains a sketch, unavailable anywhere else and features Michael Palin as Bernard from the record company with input from Terry Jones and the late Graham Chapman.







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