Other than buying all of the different ranges of 'fellowship hobbits' and removing the weapons...
- As Hill-Troll mentioned, you could get the set of 4 'shire' hobbits
- Get the multiple hobbit figures that aren't 'fellowship' such as sheriffs/militia
- For a shire diorama farmer maggot and his hounds are a must
- Not sure how big the Tom bombadil figure stands up to hobbits but he might work too.
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http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/ancient-britons/products/ancient-celts-civilians this link is for Warlord games civilians that includes 3 children...they should be of similar hobbit scale.
- Get some 28mm animals
- As there aren't that many types of figures you could set the diorama as the Shire under attack by Sharkey/bandits or just orcs. This may give it more character and better chance for individual 'animations/set pieces' within the diorama as a whole....Unless you specifically want to do the normal peace time Shire then ignore that haha
I hope this helps