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Packaging - **1/2
Same stuff, different wave. However, I have one new complaint.
After opening six new figures and four new playsets this week, I realize
that they have gone wild in their attempts to keep these suckers locked
down. You need a Swiss Army knife to get into these things now,
between all the tape, twisty ties and screws. On this wave of
figures, the twisty ties have been taped down as well!
Sculpting - ****
Wow - this wave is simply awesome. They've nailed most of the
characters, and I think that Carl is absolutely perfect. As a
character, he's not all that special, but as a figure he's dead on.
I think he's my current favorite just because he looks so good. Homer
is the Sunday Best head on a new body again, so there isn't much to say
there. Hibbert, Snake, and Bleeding Gums Murphy are all right in
scale, and look just like their on screen counterparts. Another
nice touch this time - every one of these figures can hold all their
accessories! The hand sculpts are much better, although Homer's
right hand fits the mitt, when it really should have been the left.
But if you force it you can get it to work. If
I have one complaint, and I always do, it's that Frink's scale is
off. He's too small, and if you were disappointed in the size of
Jimbo you'll really be upset here. I think Frink should have been
similar in stature to Lenny and Carl, but this figure is much smaller. Paint -
****
Most of the paint work on these figures is good, but there are a few cases
of glop spots, but overall the paint ops are excellent. Snake's
tattoo looks great, and Frink's eyes are properly painted under the
glasses. Even the fine
details, like Murphy's beard or Homer's suspenders, are straight and even. Articulation
- **1/2
Four points again. All the figures stand perfectly fine on their own
though, and the arm sculpts are designed to pose the figure with it's
various accessories properly, so the lack of articulation isn't as big an
issue as it could be. Accessories -
****
Wow again! Is Playmates listening, or just smart enough on their own
to realize that cool accessories were important? There's almost no
re-use in this line, and some of the new accessories are perfect.
Murphy only has two - his sax
and a copy of his album, Sax on the Beach. Instead of cheaping out
and using Lisa's sax, the made a much smaller sax for Murphy, accurate to
the show. I also don't recognize the square used for the album.
Hibbert has one re-use, a
clipboard. Yep, another clipboard. But since we get four more
new accessories along with that - stethoscope, medical bag, reflex hammer,
and 'shot' gun (remember the one he made Bart sweat with?) - there's no
room to complain.
Mascot Homer has the most
re-use, but variations tend to do that. His accessories also make
far more sense with him then with the previous figures. He comes
with a new hat with the Springfield Isotopes emblem, and a re-used Number
1 hand, and radio.
Carl also has two re-used
accessories, with the mug of beer and bowling ball bag. But again we
get three more cool new accessories - a container of donuts, drum of
radioactive waste, and single donut. I don't recall another single
donut, with frosting, and no bite out of it.
Snake has three very cool and
very specific accessories. He comes with hand cuffs, one side of
which can fit on his hand, a bag of money, and a gun. So much for
the idea that Playmates or Fox was worried about guns...
Finally, there's Frink.
He re-uses the most re-used accessory ever - the clipboard. But I'm
not complaining, because we get another 3 new and unique accessories for
him, including a single flask, a rack of test tubes, and his brainiac cap
(okay, I don't remember the 'correct' name!).
Talking Features - **
This wave takes a hit here. Ignoring Homer, who works on other sets
like you would expect any Homer variant to, the rest of the line has very
few new lines. I didn't check all possibilities, but here's a quick
run down of the obvious ones:
Murphy in the Church -
"All I had was a little brother who grew up to become a doctor."
Hibbert in the Church -
"Heheheheheh", "Homer's illness is either caused by
ingesting spoiled food or, hehe, some sort of voodoo curse."
Carl in the Bowl-a-rama -
"Hey, you want to come bowling with us tonight?", "Aw, can
the corn, bonehead." (I swear that's what I hear!)
Carl in the Plant -
"Hey, Homer, see you at Moes?", "Ah nuts, I mean da, ah
nuts.", "Yea, too bad we got to work, huh Homer?",
"Homer, quit wallowing in self pity."
Snake at the Arcade -
"I'll be back on the street in 24 hours.", "Sah hah, good
bye student loan payment."
Frink at the Arcade -
"It's out of it's matrix... nobody move!"
As you can see, we're not
talking about too many new lines, and I didn't replace any older figures
on any playsets with these.
Value - ***1/2
Toys R Us charged me $6 each, so the value isn't quite as good as it used
to be. But considering the number of new accessories we got with
this wave, I can tolerate it.
Overall - ***1/2
This wave is so close to perfect it's rubbing elbows. If it weren't
for the lack of lines with the playsets, I would have given these a solid
four stars.
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