Back in October, we took a look at the very first wave of action figures from Jakks Pacific based on The Simpsons. At the time, I only had two figures from that inaugural wave: Homer and Bart. It was a series of great interest to myself and other Simpsons fans since it’s existence basically meant that other recent Simpsons figures from Super7 were coming to an inglorious end. My feelings on Super7’s output was mixed, at best. Some of those figures I really like and some were really bad. I wish the two could have coexisted, but that was not to be. Jakks Pacific, for their part, crafts far more affordable action figures and also makes them available at standard retail outlets like Target and Walmart. While I don’t love giving either store my money, at least it means it’s possible to find these things somewhere nearby for visual inspection before buying. At the time of my first review, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue reviewing the line since it is fairly basic, but now that I have quite a bit more I felt like it warranted a follow-up to see how things are going in Simpsons Land.

If you’re new to the Jakks experience, The Simpsons is split between 3 figure lines: 2.5″, 5″, and Deluxe. The primary line is that 5″ one which boasts the most articulation while the smaller line is centered around playsets which the smaller scale makes far more feasible. The deluxe figures are so far limited to three: Count Burns, Homer as the Incredible Bulk, and Radioactive Man. These figures have a bit more paint, but also a built-in gimmick. Radioactive Man has a light-up chest while Burns pops out of a coffin or something. I’m actually not sure what Homer does, but he by far has the most elaborate paint job of the lot seeing that he’s splotched with green and yellow flesh. They retail for 20-25 bucks depending on where you find them and are a curious set. The gimmick takes away from the presentation and makes them seem more like kids toys, but the deluxe price point does not. I’ve ignored them thus far. Burns has some appeal for me being that he’s a Treehouse of Horror character, but he honestly looks pretty cheap. Homer is all right, but I’m not paying that to get him.

I’ve basically stuck with the 5″ stuff though I’ve dabbled in the 2.5″ as well since they’re so cheap and at least two characters make a whole lot of sense for that scale. Since my initial review, I’ve managed to acquire the rest of the first wave as well as all of wave 2, save for the Homer repeat. I also grabbed 2.5″ Bart and Lisa to see how they scaled with 5″ Homer as well as the Walmart exclusive Bartman.

Let’s start with Bartman since he’s the most familiar. This is basically the same Bart figure from the first wave, but with a new head, cape, and slingshot. He’s sporting the blue t-shirt which is what Bartman usually was drawn with as he was more of a licensing art character than a show one. The new head has a scowl on it befitting the character and it looks like it’s molded in two main pieces: the cowl and the lower head. Jakks sticks with colored plastic and avoids paint which is true of Bartman. His left hand has also been replaced with a fist when compared to regular Bart which helps to sell the illusion that he’s drawing his slingshot (which is held in his canonically correct right hand as Bart is a lefty). The cape is just plastic, but looks okay. You just can’t position it at all which kind of stinks since he does come with a skateboard. And that skateboard is the exact same one that comes with regular Bart. If you like that Bart then you’ll probably like Bartman. He has all the pluses and minuses of that release, but with a cool superhero motif.

Rounding out wave one is the duo of Groundskeeper Willie and early season star Otto Mann, the bus driver and local burn-out. Otto features a somewhat involved sculpt, especially when compared to Homer and Bart. He’s sporting his hat, headphones, Walkman, and bracelet on his right wrist. His big hair is present which limits the posing of his head to essentially nothing. He looks pretty on-model though with his partially closed eyes and trademark overbite. Paint is sparse as even the headphones look like they’re composed of different colored plastic. The tape deck is painted as are the black lines on his shoes. Otto’s sole accessory is Bart’s left-handed guitar. The sculpt is nice, but the lack of paint is a detraction as it’s just a red brick for the body and a light brown for the neck and fretboard. It also lacks a strap, but it’s light enough that Otto can hold it without much trouble. He looks nice and if I had one nitpick about the sculpt it’s that he should be slouched a little more, but overall it’s solid.

Willie is another involved sculpt and a damn good one at that. He’s probably my favorite of the first wave. And even though, at a distance, it looks like he’d require more paint, it’s still mostly colored plastic. Even the green overalls are molded and laid into the gray undershirt. All of the red for his hair is separate and the only obvious paint is the white for his teeth and the black hair on his arms. He has an open mouthed expression like he’s possibly yelling at someone, but it also works with his bagpipes accessory. It too is mostly colored plastic and Jakks went to great lengths to not have to paint the red pattern, though they did paint the end of one of the horns with a metallic gold which was an unexpected flourish. Willie’s other accessory is a shovel which is comparatively plain and not likely to see much use as a result, but it’s still nice to see a figure with two accessories instead of one. Unlike Otto, Willie does have pretty bad posture which is appropriate for him. I’m not really getting into articulation because it’s basically all the same, but it’s good enough here that Willie can handle his bagpipes in a convincing manner.

That concludes wave one, but before we move onto wave 2 I’ll mention the 2.5″ Lisa and Bart I picked up. I grabbed them thinking they may actually scale better with the adults than the 5″ line’s version, but as expected, they’re just too small. They don’t move much either and each has one accessory: Bart his skateboard and Lisa her saxophone. They look okay so if the smaller scale is more your thing you may like it, just don’t expect much.

The second wave of 5″ figures consists of Krusty the Clown, Lisa Simpson, Moe the bartender, and Homer again. The Homer is the same as the wave one figure so evidently Jakks felt it needed to make sure it kept shipping the Simpson family figures to keep them in a state of constant availability. And from what I’ve seen, you can walk into pretty much any store that carries this line and find a Homer and a Bart on the pegs, but not in huge numbers so I guess it’s working. We’ll start with Lisa since she’s a member of the titular family. Like Bart, she’s oversized for proper scale standing at about 3.25″. And it’s not so much that she’s too tall, she’s too big proportionately speaking. Her head looks huge compared with Homer’s. She’s also the worst articulated figure in the line so far since her skirt means that she can’t do much with her legs. She comes with her saxophone, which is a solid chunk of gold plastic, which she struggles to wield properly. A little hand was sculpted onto it as a cheat, but her tiny hands still struggle to hang on. You may need to heat it, shove it on, and forget about it.

We next turn to Krusty who’s depicted in his standard attire. Like Homer, he suffers a bit from a bland expression. It’s a neutral one which just doesn’t work all that well for Krusty. I think of him as either “On” (Hey! Hey!) or miserable. This face just lacks any and all emotion. The pupils on mine also seem to be misplaced slightly so he’s kind of looking up all the time. The rest of the sculpt is fine though and captures all of the details one would expect. He has his huge clown shoes which makes him relatively painless to stand and they also feature the most generous ankle rocker in the line so far. The rest of the articulation is basically the same as Homer, though my figure’s knees were really stuck out of the box. For an accessory, he has a microphone and stand which is fine. I prefer it to a pie. It’s just too bad his mouth is closed so it doesn’t look like he’s actually speaking into his lone accessory.

Our last character of wave two is the bartender Moe, inventor of the Flaming Moe. He is what you would expect and it’s kind of eerie how similar the figure looks to the Super7 one. Almost like it’s the same mold scaled down. The apron he wears is an overlay that can be removed if you want. It’s buttoned in the back, but I haven’t taken it off out of fear it might be hard to get back on. With it on, it severely limits the movement in his legs, but it is somewhat soft so it’s not impossible to move his legs if you’re determined. He has a neutral expression which works for Moe and he comes with two accessories: his rag and his phone. The rag is exactly like the Super7 version as it’s a piece of molded plastic so that it can hang from his fingers. The phone is slightly more elaborate as it features a removable receiver, also just like the Super7 accessory. I love these old phone accessories for some reason so I like it here, but it could use an angry head to go with it.

I have two more characters to highlight before we’re done and they come from the 2.5″ line: Itchy and Scratchy. These little guys feel right at home in the smaller scale so much that I don’t think I have any interest in 5″ versions. They have the same limitations as Bart and Lisa which is no elbow articulation, knee, wrist, waist, and their legs move as one piece. Still, the sculpt looks great on both and they actually feature a solid amount of paint. Itchy comes with a club while Scratchy comes with a mallet. The limited articulation means they can’t do much with their accessories, but they look good in a pretty vanilla pose. It would be awesome if at least Scratchy could be pulled apart with gruesome wounds left behind, but Jakks is probably hoping to court some kids with this line so I get why that isn’t the case.

The Jakks Pacific Simpsons line keeps on chugging and it’s hard to find fault with much of what’s here. My main gripe still remains the scaling between the adults and kid characters as well as Jakks’ utter avoidance of painted parts. Still, the figures are about 13 bucks in most places with the 2.5″ figures retailing for $5. Of the line so far, I think Willie is my favorite, but I also really like how Moe turned out. My only other gripe is just availability. These figures have been the kind that you can’t pass up. While I did eventually see Otto and Willie get restocked in a few places, I’ve never come across Moe and Krusty more than once. The 2.5″ are just as bad as I only saw Itchy once and could not find a Scratchy for the life of me. A fellow collector helped me out with him which was greatly appreciated. I assume they’ll be restocked at some point since the demand is obviously there, but Jakks has been slow to course correct so far.

If you do like this line, you can find it almost everywhere action figures are sold. Bartman is exclusive to Walmart and, at the time, was easy to track down. I’m not sure if that is still the case. I’ve found not many Walmarts around me carry the line. Most Target stores seem to stock it, but only at a case at a time so they go fast. They can also be found at Gamestop and the 2.5″ line has also shown up at Five Below. Online retailers do carry the 5″ line, but some force you to purchase by set or by case which is unfortunate. They also tend to add a buck or two onto the price and if shipping is a factor that can drive the price up. This isn’t a line that would survive at 20 bucks a figure because the quality isn’t there. They’re not terrible and look fine as-is, but a 20 dollar figure carries different expectations. Though in all honesty they’re not far off from your typical Marvel Legends figure when it comes to paint and accessories. I just wish Jakks made the parts on these guys easily swappable so we could get different portraits, but we’ll speak more on that when we take a look at wave three.

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