I remember finding out that series 13
of the very popular LEGO minifigures were going to be all Simpson
characters. My feelings were mixed, up until this point every series
before this were a mix of mostly generic characters. Series 12 was
all characters from The Movie which did feature an Abe Lincoln and
William Shakespeare. No Batman though, you gotta buy the playsets for
that bad boy. In previous series you could find characters that
looked like familiar faces such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or even a
jazz player that looked like a blues brother but never licensed
characters.
Minifigures are the
characters of the LEGO universe and they come in “blind packaging”
which is where the item is inside a bag so you cannot see the
contents so there is no way to tell which figure you are going to
get. I remember when I discovered “blind packaging” I thought it
was a stupid idea. I mean why in the hell would you buy something
that you didn't even know what was inside? Well, then I sort of fell
in love with LEGOs. More specifically, minifigures. Therefore I had
to give into my feelings of the marketing strategy to sell people
things they could possibly already have.
So for series 13, all 16 characters in
the series would be residents from everybody's favorite town,
Springfield. Quite frankly I wasn't all too excited when I found this
out. I mean I love the Simpsons but it’s been a long time since
I’ve sat down to watch new episodes or even reruns for that matter.
I didn't see pictures for quite some time so I was curious how LEGO
would put these characters into “LEGO form”.
All of the minifigures in previous
series had the normal LEGO style heads but it was revealed that the
Simpson characters would have heads that looked exactly like their
animated counter parts. Which meant they would have a more 3D effect
that minifigures typically do not have.
I thought this was an odd choice
because I would have loved to see just the standard heads. Over the
years though, LEGO has moved to changing the heads when necessary.
Brands like TMNT & Spongebob Squarepants have paved the way to
this change being more accepted among the community. Honestly though,
after seeing these guys in person, I am very happy for the direction
they chose to go with the head sculpts. They are exact replicas of
their animated counter parts in minifigure land.
So onto the list of characters included
in this set. Wow, I was blown away by how many of the popular
characters they fit into this series. Most of the favorites are here
for the picking. For this review I am going to name each character
and then give brief thoughts on each of them.
Homer Simpson- Perfect,
excellent accessories with a donut and television remote.
Marge Simpson- Perfect, Cloth
dress with good accessories with a donut fancy magazine and her
purse.
Bart Simpson- Bart gets his
own picture review, see below.
Lisa Simpson- Perfect, Cloth
dress with her trademark saxophone.
Maggie Simpson- This one is a
bit of a miss for me because I think the look in her eyes is a bit
odd. I know the look they are going for but it doesn’t quite work
for me. She does come with her beat up bear Bobo.
Grampa Simpson- Perfect,
comes with a newspaper with a hilarious headline.
Krusty The Clown- Perfect,
comes with a pie.
Ned Flanders- Perfect, comes
with a I love south paws mug and tool box.
Apu- Perfect, comes with none
other than a Squishee.
Chief Wiggum- Near perfect
although his body looks odd to me since his animated counterpart is a
little bit on the bigger side. Comes with a megaphone and Billy club.
Mr. Burns- Absolutely
perfect, the head sculpt is amazing on him! Comes with the Three Eyed
Fish, Blinky & radiation bar.
Ralph Wiggum- Perfect, comes
with his hilarious signature Valentine’s Day card.
Milhouse- Perfect, comes with
a Biclops Comic Book.
Nelson- Perfect, ha ha, comes
with a bat.
And last but certainly not least!
Itchy- Perfect, comes with a
caveman club.
Scratchy- Perfect,
comes with an ax.
(These guys are a blast to play with
& set up pictures with, definitely a must have for each of
these.)
Now onto poor Bart Simpson.
This minifigure has two major things
wrong with it. I absolutely hate this skateboard, it’s the same
skateboard that LEGO always uses but it’s so out of scale it looks
goofy. The other negative is that Bart comes with a slingshot that’s
just painted on to the back of his shorts. Boo. I would rather he
have come with an actual slingshot than this oversized monster truck
version of a skateboard.
Another downfall with this series is
due to LEGO increasing its minifigure price from the standard 2.99 to
3.99. I am guessing this is because of the new head sculpts, but I
think it’s a little high. That being said I still bought them all,
along with being stuck with some extras so I guess their strategy
worked on me. I have seen this series at both Walmart & Target
since their release so you shouldn't have any trouble finding them.
Well, there you have it. A full review
of series 13. If you are a fan or have ever been a fan of The
Simpsons, this is an absolute must have series. As far as I know,
this is the last LEGO Simpsons product to come out in 2014. In
February, The Simpson's House was released which looks awesome but is
over two hundred dollars so it might be a while before I get my hands
on that one, if ever.
If I had a complaint about the
character choice LEGO decided on it would be the lack of two figures.
Mr. Smithers would look great beside my favorite of the series Mr.
Burns. And I so badly want a Moe (along with a Moe's Tavern) and am
saddened he wasn’t included.
I absolutely love this series but
because LEGO dropped the ball on Bart and the price increase, I
couldn't give it a perfect score. But it’s really close.
Score: 4.5
out of 5
-R.T.
@richardrants
R.T.'s thrilling short
story Alpha Male is Available On Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Male-R-T-Ewell-ebook/dp/B00EIHFZJ2/ref=la_B00DH203AU_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400357504&sr=1-2
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