[REVIEW] 75639 One Piece: The Going Merry Pirate Ship

[MKJoshA]

INTRODUCTION

Come on board and bring along
All your hopes and dreams
Together we will find everything
That we’re looking for...

Airing for the first time back in 1999 One Piece has become one of the most well-known anime series of all time. The story of Monkey D. Luffy and his quest to become King of the Pirates has captured the hearts and imaginations of multiple generations. One Piece follows a formula well known to anime series of the 90s. A young adult (or kid) through passion and determination gets stronger, beats the bad guys and gets closer to his goal. Something that sets One Piece apart from other anime is it's constantly optimistic tone and extremely wacky and colorful characters. It doesn't shy away from dealing with some deeper subjects like government overreach or corrupt leadership. But the attitude throughout the series is that the good guys are going to triumph over evil even when facing impossible odds.

I started watching the anime show in English back in 2019 and after 6 years I'm almost 1000 episodes in. There are currently 1145 episodes so I'm still catching up. In 2023 Netflix aired a live-action version of the anime and gave Lego the perfect chance to partner with them and go sailing into the One Piece world. I watched the Netflix version and enjoyed it, but it lacks the same charm of the animated show.

So will Lego One Piece be everything we're looking for? Let's find out!

SET INFORMATION
Number: 75639
Title: The Going Merry Pirate Ship
Theme: One Piece
Released: 2025
Part Count: 1376
Box Dimensions: 47.6 x 37.3 x 8.8 cm
Weight: 1927g
Set Price (RRP): £119.99/$139.99/€129.99
Price per Part: 8.7p/10.2c/9.4c
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

THE BOX AND WHAT'S INSIDE

The front of the box shows off the Straw Hat crew's ship, the Going Merry, the Netflix logo for the show and Inaki Godoy who plays the live action Luffy.

The back of the box shows the various compartments of the ship, the working canon and the fact that 4 Wanted Posters are included. These posters are similar to the Chocolate Frog Cards from the Harry Potter sets. There are 8 in total with this first wave of sets and the distribution is random in each set. 

In addition to the 10 numbered bags we get a few of the flexible parts packaged separately as well as a sticker sheet. The sails and the pirate flags are all the thicker plastic material that you have to punch out. I forgot to take a picture of those sheets before removing the parts.

It was an interesting choice for Lego to go with plastic instead of fabric, but I think the end result works well.

THE BUILD
Five years ago the techniques used in this set would have been mind-blowing. Instead of using pre-fab hull pieces the Going Merry uses a brick and plate frame with a lot of SNOT to get the curved hull shape. Other angles are achieved using clips and bars to hold sub-assemblies at crazy angles. By today's standards it's a pretty normal build, but I was still impressed with all the techniques and really enjoyed building the ship.

A lot of the smaller details rely on stickers which is unfortunate. I had a really hard time getting them straight and as a result the cabinets in the kitchen look like they were hung crooked. 

In the kitchen there is a couch with room for 2 to sit or 1 to lounge. The counters are high for a minifigure with the pan being almost eye level with Sanji. There are a lot of details like the jumper plates used for drawers and the rail plates used to add a lip to the counter. But I think it would have worked better if one of the details had been sacrificed in order to get the counter to a better height. The whole ship plays around with scale to get the best of both a display model and a play model. For the most part it does this extremely well, but this is one area with room for improvement. 

The kitchen is covered by a clever combination of sections to create the stern of the ship.

First the section with the mast slides into place.

It sets in place using a modified plate resting inside a window element.

The white, modified plate shows how this works. Because the window element is more panel than full window frame, the bar can rest between the bricks and the slight downward offset of the bars allows it to slide just under the top lip of the window panel. The resulting "connection" is an amazing use of Lego geometry. 

The section with the tangerine trees folds closed and slides into the rails under the mast. They also lock under the brown "arms" meaning the mast section won't slide out accidentally. The entire back section is an engineering marvel. 

It is only spoiled by the rudder connection. Because it's on a mixel joint it tends to shift into odd angles. It can give the ship just a little bit of cartoonish character, but I don't think that's what the designer had in mind. A clipand bar connection would have been better and kept the rudder level with the bottom of the boat.

In total there are 3 sections that can be removed for access to the inside of the boat.

In the front is what I believe to be a bed along with Nami's map of the world. Zoro would need to jump a little to get into bed, but that is at least somewhat realistic compared to a kitchen where your arms have to lift pans above your shoulders.

Both the kitchen and the bedroom have stairs leading down into them along with a doorway. Behind the main mast is a cargo area.

Inside, the cargo turns out to be a lot of food and our 4 Wanted Posters. There is also some meat inside the treasure chest kept on the forward deck. Apart from the meat (which Luffy is always wanting more of) the food selection seemed very random. Especially the green egg. If that's a reference to something I couldn't think of please let me know.

I was happy to get 4 different Wanted Posters after hearing about poor distribution from other people. However, my other sets did not treat me so well... You'll see in the other reviews but I ended up with a lot of duplicates and I'm still missing 2 posters. I get the idea of having chase elements and wanting people to work to "collect them all." But I bought or received every set in the theme. It seems reasonable to want to get all 8 posters without having to buy multiples of sets or buy off Bricklink. I don't know how they ensure that except to put all 8 posters in the biggest set. 

Now to finish talking about how this set plays with scale. You can see that the front of the ship is pretty much minifigure scale. This works great and allows for the crew to point out their next island destination.

Moving to the back of the ship it focuses more on micro-scale. The tiny door and 1x1 round tiles for portholes make a micro-scale cabin and the tangerine trees in the back would fit well next to a micro-figure. Putting a minifigure in the back to steer the ship helps spoil the forced perspective. But overall I think the set balances the scale well. This is a set that looks great as a display model but will also provide a lot of play potential for the kids.

Through the series of One Piece Luffy slowly recruits a crew to join him. They become known as the Straw Hat pirates because of Luffy's iconic straw hat. But the end of season 1 of the Netflix show Luffy has recruited 4 members. In the picture we have Luffy, our intrepid captain; Nami, the navigator; Usopp, the sniper; Sanji, the cook; and Zoro, the swordsman. Overall their outfits represent their live-action counterparts well. Zoro gets a new sword element that attaches at the neck. This is necessary because Zoro uses a fighting style called 3-sword style where he holds the 3rd sword in his mouth. I was really hoping Lego would make a neck bracket with a clip to hold anything and was disappointed when they went this direction. The element works great for this use, but it's limited to this situation only. The sword can be held by the handle, but the neck bracket element sticks out making that not a viable usage. 

Each has back printing and alternate faces. A missed opportunity to include Sanji with hearts printed for eyes.

Nami and Zoro have dual-molded arms and Usopp has a printed sweatband on his left arm. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to have side printing for Nami. Adding her signature circle pattern on her legs would have helped a lot.

Each character comes with a new-for-One-Piece hair or hat element. 

Not picture is Zoro's new bandana piece. It's similar to the previous pirate bandanas, but slightly different.

Since Lego is making their sets based off the Netflix show and not the manga or anime there is one major change to a character that I feel is a big loss. That is Usopp. In the manga and anime Usopp has a comically long nose. He is known for telling tall-tales and Pinocchio and his nose easily come to mind. For the live action series they chose to ignore that physical aspect of the character. I tried replacing Usopp's head with the Lego Pinicchio. However, the expression on the face ruins it. I really hope Lego makes at least 1 set based on the anime and re-uses the Pinocchio head for Usopp with the right skin tone and facile expression.

But all those minor complaints shouldn't stop you from enjoying this set.

All the arcs in One Piece seem to end with some kind of feast. This review will be no different. Using just food and drink elements from the set, our crew is enjoying having set off for another adventure.

OVERALL

In summary I have a few complaints with the set, but compared to the finish product they are minor. This boat is a fantastic re-creation of the Going Merry and looks amazing. The shaping is superb and it is packed with detail. There are lots of compartments and the right amount of space for our whole crew. It's great that you get all 6 Straw Hat pirates in this one set. If you just want 1 display model you don't have to source the rest of the crew from other sets. The finished boat is sturdy and I believe will hold up to play well. 

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

DESIGN 9
I love the overall design of this set. The rudder not using a clip, the lack of side printing on Nami and overuse of stickers are the only reasons this gets a 9 instead of 10.

BUILDING EXPERIENCE 9
It was fun to build and managed to pack a lot into a small space. It makes great use of modern building techniques. It felt like a standard build, but that's only because Lego building techniques have been getting more and more clever.

FEATURES 9
There are great play features with all the areas of the ship for story-telling. The negative feature is the random distribution of the Wanted Posters. I got lucky with this set, but others did not receiving 2 or 3 of the same poster. Somehow Lego needs to get better at distributing these chase elements.

PLAYABILITY 10
This set is very easy to play with, full marks there!

PARTS 10
I wouldn't call this set a good parts pack, but it does have a great selection. New elements are used well, colors work well together and nothing feels missing or superfluous.. 

VALUE FOR MONEY 10
At 140 USD it's just over the golden PPP. At 130 EUR it's just under. Either way I feel like this set is a good value. You get a great ship, the full crew and hopefully a good set of Wanted Posters.

FINAL SCORE: 10
I"m going to round up and give this set a perfect 10. Yes, there are some small flaws. But if you are a One Piece fan you are going to want this set as a part of your collection. 

 

But what's this, there's more! What would happen if our crew stumbled across the Eldorado Fortress? 

 Guys, there's an island up-ahead! Should we go check it out?

 I don't know, what if there are monsters waiting for us?

 I'll bet they have meat, I'm going to go check it out!

 Wait Luffy, we should go together!

 It's too late, he's already gone.

 Come on, let's go catch up with him.

Tune in next time to find out what happens next!