My least favorite toyline to collect has become the Jakks Pacific 5″ line of action figures based on The Simpsons. When Jakks wrestled the license away from Super7 (or Super7 fumbled it away) I felt it could be a good thing. The Super7 approach was never the best fit as The Simpsons never needed to be in a 7″ or 1:10 scale. The ReAction figures were kind of my preference when all was said and done, though I did like some of the Ultimates. With Jakks getting the license it meant that The Simpsons would be able to come to mass market retail at a smaller scale and a far more affordable price. Some sacrifices would be made since Jakks isn’t exactly a collector brand, but a lot of Simpsons fans still love The World of Springfield by Playmates Toys so Jakks seemed like a good fit.
Until it wasn’t. I don’t know what’s going on with this line, but it has become a pain to collect. The first wave seemed to be available in decent supply at mass market retail around me. Yes, Homer and Bart seemed to dominate the pegs, but I did eventually find both Otto and Willie in-store. Waves 2 and 3 followed a similar path and during shipment of those Jakks would also supply stores with more of Homers and Barts likely in a bid to keep the main characters readily available to build a consumer base. Unfortunately, this may have backfired for Jakks as it started to become an issue where those characters were the only ones I could find in stores. Gradually, the figures started to fade away and I have not seen any Jakks Pacific Simpsons in my local Targets or Walmarts in months. The only figure I sometimes comes across is the deluxe raging Homer which gets stocked in the collectibles section.
Since the line isn’t anything amazing, I’m not that upset if it’s dying an early death. I have a pretty sizable display as it is, but there was one hole that was really bothing me. In the third wave of the line, we got a Lenny. Wave four brought Carl, only I could never find Carl. Wave 4 never appeared at retail near me that I ever saw. I was able to snag Barney off of Target’s website in a blink and you’ll miss it moment. I stalked online retailers hoping they would eventually get the wave in, but it never happened. Big Bad and other retailers got the fifth wave, but I never saw the fourth one. Also included in that wave was Bumblebee Man, and even though he’s far from an essential character, the figure looked like one of the better ones so I was hoping to get a chance to buy it. As the weeks and months dragged on though, it started to look bad for the Jakks line. I don’t know if it’s been cancelled or what, but I felt like if I didn’t get Carl and Bumblebee Man now the price would only go up. To eBay I went where I did find both from the same seller for about $18 a piece. I hate paying over MSRP on what is a pretty basic line, but I at least didn’t have to go well beyond it in this case.
The long preamble here is to cover for the fact that with both figures there isn’t much to talk about. These are very basic figures with just a few accessories between the two. Carl stands at about 5″ to the tip of his hair while Bumblebee Man is about 4.5″ to the top of his head. Both figures are comprised almost entirely of colored plastic. Even Bumblebee Man’s torso is alternating black and yellow strips of plastic to create his iconic outfit. The only paint is reserved for Bumblebee Man’s antenna tips, the little circles on his inner shoe and the eyeballs and eyebrows. Carl doesn’t have eyebrows so it’s just eyeballs for him. The end result is you have figures that are very durable and won’t have any paint transfer issues, but they are quite shiny and have that plasticky look to them. I’d love to know if anyone has tried hitting these with a matte coat as Carl’s face is pretty bad. I could try it myself, though I also don’t want them to end up looking worse. Since there’s no paint on the plastic, the matte finish could wash them out a bit. Apart from that though, they do look pretty on-model. Carl is perhaps the lesser of the two (even though I wanted him more) just because his design isn’t as 3D friendly. He looks better from the side or a 3/4 angle, but it’s definitely not perfect. Bumblebee Man, being more of a rounder design, translates quite well and he’s one of the most on-model figures in the line. He also has transparent wings which look great and I like his slightly depressed facial expression.
Accessories are minimal, but Carl has two and Bumblebee Man one. For Carl, he has a cup of coffee with a red stirrer in it. It fits in his right hand and looks fine. His left hand is a tighter grip and it’s for his lunchbox. Since Jakks probably wanted to stay away from beer references, it would appear the approach to both Lenny and Carl (and Barney too) was to make them Homer’s lunch buddies. It’s fine and I can’t think of a better accessory than the lunchbox that isn’t a beer so why not? As for Bumblebee Man, he comes with a video camera which is on a tripod. It looks great, but sadly features zero articulation. I was a little surprised by this as there are places where it’s keyed in that could have been ball sockets, but oh well. At least it won’t lose its shape. A giant mouse trap would have also been acceptable, provided it could have got a secure grip on Bumblebee Man’s ass.
Articulation for these two is what you would expect of the line: head swivel, shoulder ball hinge, bicep swivel, elbow hinge, wrist hinge and swivel, waist ball, ball socket hips, hinged knee, ankle swivel. The ankles feel like ball pegs so they basically wiggle a bit in all directions, but it’s not a substitute for a proper hinge and rocker setup. Bumblebee Man also gets a thigh swivel where his legs meet his shorts and his wings are attached via ball pegs so they get some decent range, but nothing extravagant. The figures have a bit of a loose feel to them, especially in the legs, but they’re so light that they don’t have trouble standing. The articulation isn’t going to allow for a ton of poses and the figures are further limited by the one facial expression they’re stuck with. It’s fine especially for the price (which should have been 12-15 bucks) and certainly better than the old Playmates line.
Carl and Bumblebee Man are not flashy, but they raise the profile of the line slightly. Carl via his importance to Homer, Lenny, Barney, and Moe and Bumblebee Man just for how faithful he looks compared with the character in the show. If the line were to continue, I don’t know if Homer’s group really needs any of the other bar flies. Maybe a Grimey? Bumblebee Man pairs with Krusty and a Sideshow Mel or Kent Brockman would fit well into the Channel 6 crew. Will any of that see the light of day in the 5″ line? I don’t know. The smaller 2.5″ line seems to be going somewhat strong and there is a Mel included in it. Perhaps Jakks has found that form factor is more popular (it lends itself well to play sets and vehicles) and intends to focus its resources on that. There is a Bart as The Fly coming out soon in the deluxe line as yet another Treehouse of Horror representative, but I’m not as interested in those (they tend to have annoying gimmicks built in). I guess we’ll see what the future holds, but for now, my Simpsons collection from Jakks is pretty solid. It’s not a figure line that I love, but it’s an affordable way to get a pretty large collection of the many characters who populate Springfield. And given how big that cast is, just existing and being affordable is a pretty big deal.
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