It has been just over 10 years since I last posted about a Lego set featuring The Simpsons. That last set, the Kwik-E-Mart, came out in 2015 and was preceded by the home of the Simpson family the year prior. Those sets along with two waves of mini figures seemed to sell pretty well, but for whatever reason Lego decided that was enough Springfield for now. I don’t know why they’re suddenly back ten years later with a new set, but I’m not complaining. I was hoping for at least one more set plus another wave of mini figures since we were missing so many iconic characters from the show: Principal Skinner, Superintendent Chalmers, Lenny, Carl, Barney, Jimbo, and many more. It was unlikely that we’d ever get every character we wanted, but it felt like a third wave would have really filled in the most crucial gaps.

That didn’t happen. Is a third wave now on the table since we have a new set to talk about? I don’t know, but for now we do have Krusty Burger. When I was left to ponder new sets for Lego, I’m a little surprised at myself for not having Krusty Burger pretty high on my list. If I had to make a wager on what was most likely, I was going to go with The Android’s Dungeon the local comic book store run by Jeff Albertson better known simply as Comic Book Guy. It’s small, has some nerd appeal, and works well with existing figures. Maybe it could have led to us getting a Lego Stan Lee? Instead, we have Krusty Burger, the local fast food establishment run by the clown of the same name. Many episodes (and even the movie) have scenes set at Krusty Burger and some are quite memorable. It’s a perfectly cromulent selection by Lego so let’s see how it turned out.

The Krusty Burger set contains 1,635 pieces and seven mini figures. Of the mini figures, four are repeat characters: Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Krusty. Bart and Lisa are exactly the same as some past releases. They have neutral expressions and Bart comes with a slingshot while Lisa has her saxophone. Homer also has a neutral expression, but he at least gets some grease stains added to his shirt. Krusty is all new and he’s in his farmer Krusty attire from the episode “Coming to Homerica” complete with hat. It’s a bit interesting to me because Jakks Pacific recently released a Krusty Burger in their toy line featuring a Krusty in the exact same outfit except theirs omitted the hat.

The rest of the figures are of new characters. Working at the Krusty Burger is the squeaky-voiced teen. He is a teen of many names in the show and also many jobs. He’s in a green and gray uniform which is a color combo seen in more recent seasons of the show. In the old days the workers often had purple shirts. He looks the part and also has his hat on which is non-removable. Also there to enjoy a Krusty burger is officer Lou. I assume he’s included because of the scene from “22 Short Films About Springfield” where he discusses visiting a McDonald’s in Shelbyville which confuses fellow officers Wiggum and Eddie. We also already have a Chief Wiggum (two, actually) so he pairs well with him. Lastly, we have Sideshow Bob. He’s featured in a green shirt and blue pants which would appear to be the default style guide for Bob these days. He’s here I guess because of his connection to Krusty and he is a pretty big name character. He unfortunately doesn’t look the best as Lego really went conservative with his outlandish hair.

Just like the previous two Simpsons sets, The Krusty Burger also comes with a vehicle. This time it’s Homer’s sedan, but redone to match the episode “Homie the Clown” when Homer became a Krusty impersonator. It has the Krusty visage on the front and also comes complete with speed hole decals for the hood. The build is pretty much exactly the same as the standard version of Homer’s car which includes no roof. I guess this is so Marge could fit inside, but I really hate the no roof look. Why not give us an optional one? It also has exposed studs on the hood like the original which is also something I don’t care for. I would have preferred a smooth exterior there. And while I think this is a solid inclusion, it does make me wonder why we didn’t just get a Homer as Krusty mini figure? That obviously would have cost more money because they would need to cast a new head, but they could have made up for it by just having Krusty come with his default head instead of the one with the hat. Or drop Bart or Lisa from the set – I don’t know. I want a Homer as Krusty!

If you ordered this set from Lego directly then you also get a mini set of the Simpson living room. It’s the couch, TV, and end table, and a lamp and it’s basically a cut-away. The TV is the same as the one included with the house only this one comes with a screen featuring a Krusty Burger commercial. A mini figure can easily fit on the couch if you want, but it’s not a couch that is to scale with the house. It can really only accommodate two figures so no family couch gag is happening here. Still, it’s a fun little throw-in and considering the Simpson house set is 11 years old there may be a lot of people buying this set who don’t already have it. This isn’t exactly a substitute for the whole house, but it’s better than nothing.

As for the Krusty Burger itself, it’s the smallest of the three sets and by a noticeable margin. It’s pretty self-contained with nothing surrounding it aside from the buildable sign. The layout is a bit odd as the front door is right next to the drive-through window, but that’s how it’s depicted in modern episodes. The right side of the building has a lot of windows while the backside features a rear door and an overflowing grease container. It’s done well with translucent yellow bricks and feels like the sort of thing one would likely find behind an actual Krusty Burger. The left side of the building features the drive-through menu and intercom which pretty much matches the depiction of the same from “Lisa vs Malibu Stacy.” You get to see what everything costs which depicts this restaurant as frozen in time back to the early 90s. My one critique as a fan of the show is that it lists milkshakes on the menu. Krusty Burger doesn’t sell shakes, it sells partially gelatinated, non-dairy, gum-based beverages.

To access the interior, you have to first remove the roof. It just rests on top of the set and there’s a big fan on it that doubles as a handle. There’s also roof access for your mini figures via a little trap door. Once removed, one side of the building can open up which basically breaks the kitchen in half and isolates the dining room in the center. If facing this open set, the left part is the counter and kitchen. There’s a large menu over the counter and two registers. Behind the registers is a small area to fit a mini figure with a prep table behind it that contains some massive burgers. The burger build is creative, but does lead to comically large sandwiches. The deep fryer can be found here as well which has a removable fry basket. For the french fries, Lego is using Wolverine’s claws, but in gold. I’ve seen them do some funny stuff with their hot dog shape, but I wasn’t expecting Wolverine claws for fries here. Also back here you’ll find some storage and an ice cream machine that’s forever out of order. The contents are basically just water which is a nice touch.

The center of the build contains the dining area. It’s pretty cramped as it contains one booth and two tables each of which has two stools. Tucked into the corner is Krusty’s Kidz Zone which is a small ball pit. It’s cute, though I would have probably preferred more seating to fit as many figures into this thing as I wanted. Having the Simpson family at one table and the cops at the other would have made sense. Some food is intended to go into this area including Krusty’s version of the Ribwich. It’s made with those tiny Lego cars which is pretty amusing. I had previously seen those in a Christmas tree set.

The right side of the build contains the bathroom and the rest of the kitchen. The bathroom is pretty small and walled-in. For the image on the box, Lego even removed the side wall to make it present better which you could also do if you chose to display the set open. The bathroom is in a pretty sorry state as the sink appears to be overflowing, the toilet is leaking, and there’s no toilet paper left on the roll. It’s what one would expect of a Krusty Burger. The part of the kitchen that’s behind it is the drive-through window. There’s a nice little in-joke on the order screen and there’s also a drink machine in this area.

There are a lot of references throughout the set which is what we’ve come to expect as Simpsons fans with basically anything like this. Lego did a good job with the past sets and they do an adequate job here. This set did begin life as a Lego Ideas design and the pitch was pretty similar to what we got. One of the main differences though was that it was going to come with Marge’s station wagon instead of Homer’s Krusty-fied sedan. It is surprising to me that we have now had three sets from Lego that all came with vehicles, but we still don’t have Marge’s car. And with this set in-hand, a Simpson fan is likely to immediately wonder what could be next? I’m not holding my breath, but now that we have a Krusty Burger I would so love a Skinner house so we could recreate the Steamed Hams sketch in Lego form. The house could be pretty small as we only need the dining room, kitchen, and then they can do whatever with the upstairs. Just having that setup would surely be unforgettable.

The Krusty Burger is a pretty quick and enjoyable build. It’s not very big, but I’m also not surprised that it didn’t get the same love as the Kwik-E-Mart given that ten years have past and costs have changed. The set will set you back $210 making it the most expensive Simpsons set so far, especially per brick. Given the cost, I do wish there were more printed bricks and less stickers. This one came with two sticker sheets and if I have one major complaint with Lego it’s stickers. My Kwik-E-Mart’s stickers are curling on the front and it’s become an eyesore. I don’t have the same issue with other Lego sets that I have, but a lot of them also don’t have exterior stickers like that one. The Krusty Burger does though, and I hope it doesn’t end up in a similar state one day.

As a Simpsons fan, I almost can’t not recommend this Lego Krusty Burger. Sure, I would have packed in more references to the show, probably would have preferred some different characters for mini figures, and definitely would have done things differently with the car, but everything that’s here is still done pretty well. It looks good and there are certainly a lot of memorable scenes from the show one could stage here. It may be small, but it doesn’t look drastically out of place with the other sets. Hopefully, this isn’t the last we see of The Simpsons and Lego and hopefully the next collaboration isn’t ten years away. There’s a lot more Lego could do with Springfield even if there are aspects of it they’d never touch, and I am certainly ready for whatever comes next.