LEGO One Piece Going Merry (75639) Review: The Heart of the Crew

🏴‍☠️ Introduction — The Ship That Means Something

⛵ This review is part of our LEGO One Piece Hub – every set from the East Blue wave we have built and graded, in one place.

There is a very specific lump-in-the-throat that hits any One Piece fan when the Going Merry comes up, and if you know, you know. This isn’t just the Straw Hats’ first ship — it’s the first home a crew of misfits ever shared, and the manga and anime spend years making you love it before they break your heart with it. So when LEGO announced the LEGO One Piece The Going Merry (75639) , a certain kind of anime-dad — me — went very quiet and then immediately started clearing shelf space.

After building it across a couple of evenings, the verdict is easy: this is a 9 out of 10 and the emotional centrepiece of the entire LEGO One Piece launch wave. It is not the biggest set in the line, and it is not the one with the most minifigures. It is the one that means something, and LEGO clearly understood that brief.

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LEGO One Piece The Going Merry Pirate Ship (75639) (opens in a new tab)

The Straw Hats' first ship as a build-and-display caravel: ram figurehead, Jolly Roger sail, tangerine grove and the East Blue crew. The emotional centrepiece of the wave.

For the Dadnology community, the framing here matters. Most of the early LEGO One Piece sets are aimed squarely at kids and pretend play. The Going Merry is the one that bridges generations: a set a ten-year-old wants on their shelf and a forty-year-old dad wants on his, for completely different reasons that turn out to be the same reason. That is a rare thing, and it is why this is the set to buy first.

The headline here is the silhouette. A LEGO ship lives or dies on whether you recognise it from across the room, and the Going Merry passes that test before you’ve placed a single minifigure.

⛵ Build Experience — A Hull, A Mast, And A Lot Of Heart

The build follows the logic of the ship itself: you lay the hull, raise the deck, build up the masts and rigging, and finish with the details that turn a generic caravel into the Going Merry. It’s a satisfying, legible build — the kind where you can always see the thing taking shape, which keeps a younger co-builder engaged and gives an older builder that steady, low-stakes evening pleasure that is the whole point of LEGO after the kids are asleep.

The hull construction is the backbone, and LEGO has handled the curve of the caravel well. Ships are hard to do in brick — too boxy and they look like a barge, too ambitious and they fall apart in your hands — and the Going Merry threads that needle. The deck has genuine depth, with space for the crew to stand, pose and (if you’re a kid) sail off to the next island.

Then come the details that earn the licence. The ram figurehead at the prow is the single most important element in the whole set, because it is the Going Merry’s face — the thing that makes the ship a character rather than a vehicle. LEGO got it right: the snout, the horns, the slightly daft expression that somehow makes the eventual goodbye hurt more. Behind it, the mast rises to the Jolly Roger sail with the Straw Hat skull, and the moment that sail goes up is the moment the build clicks into place.

There are smaller touches that reward fans specifically. Nami’s tangerine grove. The mast crow’s-nest where Usopp would perch with his slingshot. The little cannon. These are the things a casual builder might not clock and a One Piece fan will grin at immediately, and the ratio of those moments is high enough to keep the build feeling special rather than generic.

🎨 Design & Display — The Silhouette Does The Talking

Display sets have to work at two distances, and the Going Merry nails both. Across a room you read the caravel shape, the ram figurehead and the Straw Hat sail instantly — there is no mistaking it for a generic pirate ship, which is exactly what a licensed set has to achieve. Up close, the deck planking, the rigging and the crew details reward a longer look.

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LEGO One Piece The Baratie Floating Restaurant (75640) (opens in a new tab)

The 18+ collector flagship of the wave — Sanji's fish-shaped floating restaurant with ten minifigures. The display companion to the Going Merry.

The colour palette is faithful to the anime: warm wood tones for the hull and deck, the cream-and-skull sail, the green of the tangerine trees, the soft blue accents. Nothing clashes, and crucially nothing screams “toy.” This is a set you can put on a grown-up shelf next to a Mac mini and a stack of manga and feel good about, which is not something you can say about most of the kid-aimed end of the wave.

The footprint is manageable — it’s a ship, so it’s longer than it is tall, and it wants a shelf with a bit of horizontal room rather than a tall cabinet. It pairs beautifully with the Baratie (75640): the hero ship and the floating restaurant together make a genuine East Blue display that tells a story, not just a row of boxes ticked.

👨‍👩‍👧 Family Fit — A Shared Obsession

Here’s where the Going Merry quietly becomes the best set in the wave for an actual family. One Piece is one of those rare shows that genuinely spans generations right now — the live-action Netflix series pulled in parents, the anime has hooked a whole new wave of kids, and the manga is the most popular in history. So this is a set that a parent and a child can be excited about together, which is rarer and more valuable than any individual play feature.

The honest caveat: the 10+ rating is there for a reason. The masts, the sail and the rigging are the fragile parts of any ship build, and a curious four-year-old can turn the Going Merry into a shipwreck faster than Buggy can split apart. In our house it lives on the display shelf, and the under-sevens admire it from a respectful distance. An older child who knows the arc, though, will handle it with the kind of reverence usually reserved for things they actually care about — and staging the crew on the deck is genuine, screen-free, imagination-led play.

💸 Value — You’re Paying For The Meaning

Let’s be honest about the money, because that’s the Dadnology way. This is a first-wave licensed anime set, which means the price-per-brick maths is not going to shame a Creator 3-in-1, and you are paying a small “it has the One Piece logo on the box” tax. If you measure LEGO purely in pieces per euro, there are better-value sets in the range.

But that’s not why you buy the Going Merry. You buy it because it’s the ship, and the ship matters, and almost no other set on the shelf carries that kind of emotional payload. For a fan, the value is in the meaning and the display presence, and on both counts it delivers completely. As a gift for a One Piece-obsessed kid or a grown-up fan, it’s close to a guaranteed win.

📌 FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

Is the LEGO One Piece Going Merry (75639) worth it?

Yes. For any One Piece fan it is the emotional centrepiece of the whole launch wave, and as a display caravel it earns a permanent shelf slot. A clear 9 out of 10. The only reason it is not a 10 is the slightly soft first-wave value and the delicacy of the sail and rigging.

What age is the LEGO Going Merry (75639) for?

It is rated for ages 10 and up. It builds and displays best as an adult or older-kid set; younger children can absolutely help and play, but the masts, sail and rigging are fragile and best handled with care or kept on the display shelf.

Which minifigures come with the LEGO Going Merry?

The set is built around the core East Blue Straw Hat crew, so you get the founding members of the gang to captain the ship. It is the crew you want on the Going Merry specifically, which is exactly the point of the set.

How does the Going Merry compare to the LEGO Baratie (75640)?

The Going Merry is the emotional, display-friendly hero ship for ages 10+, while the Baratie (75640) is the larger 18+ collector flagship with ten minifigures. The Merry wins on meaning and shelf elegance; the Baratie wins on scale and figure count. Most fans will want both, but the Merry is the one to buy first.

Is the LEGO Going Merry good for display?

Excellent. The caravel silhouette, the ram figurehead and the Jolly Roger sail read clearly across a room, and the deck details reward a closer look. Keep it out of a four-year-old’s reach and it will sit happily on the shelf for years.