One thing I wasn’t expecting for 2025 was that the hardest line to collect would be The Simpsons by Jakks Pacific. It’s a mass retail release so, if anything, I thought it would be pretty easy. My assumption has been proven wrong and I think it’s because this is a line that is trying to serve too many audiences. It’s Jakks and they specialize in lower cost toys sold at Walmart and Target for brands like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. With The Simpsons, Jakks has basically taken that same approach with a property that probably doesn’t have much appeal to kids. It’s adults that are likely buying these and it’s adult collectors who want every character. Jakks keeps sending plenty of Homers and Barts to the stores while collectors struggle to find the Lennys and Carls. Jakks also doesn’t prioritize selling these things to more collector friendly outlets making it quite difficult to just preorder what you want.

Despite that frustration, I will say the line is pretty solid for what it is: a low cost, articulated, line of characters as seen on The Simpsons. It’s a better take on the old Playmates Toys World of Springfield line, though it has so far lacked the dioramas of that line which seemed to be reserved for the 2.5″ scale line. I’m definitely only interested in the 5″ scale line with only few exceptions and I’m mostly happy with it. I do wish they were more selective with their expressions on the figures, but that seems to be something that’s getting better which we’re going to talk about today.

It was a little while ago that I found Wave 3 in my travels. I wanted to do a combined Wave 3 and Wave 4 post, but I’ve been unable to get all of the figures from Wave 4 that I’m out looking for. Since then, I’ve received Wave 5 so we’re just going to skip over the missing figures which for me are Carl Carlson and Bumblebee Man. The fourth figure in the line is blue shirt Bart which I don’t need. I also didn’t want hockey Bart from Wave 5, but he does look fine if you’re into that variant. Let’s blast through these though as there isn’t a ton to talk about for each.

The headliner for Wave 3 was Marge Simpson. We got Homer, Bart, and Lisa in the first two waves leaving her as the family member most needed. She is easily the tallest figure so far standing at 5.75″ to the top of her hair. She also might be the most on-model of the family as she has a slight smile which works well as a default portrait and her hair bends ever so slightly back. Everything is where it should be with her red pearl necklace, green dress, and a butt that won’t quit. The only thing I don’t care for about the presentation is the very visible seem line in her hair about 2/3rds of the way up. Apparently, they couldn’t cast it as one piece? It’s a bit odd. She also can’t articulate for crap because the dress kills basically everything from the waist down. You’ll only be posing her arms.

And if you’re saying to yourself, “Hey! What about Maggie?” – don’t worry, for she is Marge’s lone accessory. Yeah, it kind of stinks that Marge doesn’t come with something fun like a potato or toxic drinking water, but it’s definitely great that we got Maggie. She’s in her blue onesie with her trusty pacifier in place. Jakks gave her articulation at the head, shoulders, and waist which is basically a ball joint that lets her rotate and pivot. The only issue with Maggie is the same as the rest of the kids: she’s way out of scale with the adults. Her head is the same size as Marge’s and she looks ridiculous in Marge’s arms, if you can get her to stand while holding Maggie. Since she basically is an accessory she doesn’t actually come with any. It might have been a better release model if Jakks gave Marge some accessories and sold Maggie with the Simpson pets as a three pack, but hey, at least we have the whole family.

The Homer variant of Wave 3 is Home Run Homer from the iconic episode “Homer at the Bat.” That’s the one where Homer joins the Nuclear Power softball league with his trusty Wonder Bat. Homer is basically the same head as the first wave Homer with a body clad in his softball uniform. The body is mostly new since the uniform requires red piping which Jakks did with plastic instead of paint. I think the only paint might be his name on the chest, the white belt loops, black belt buckle, and gray spikes on the bottoms of his cleats. For accessories, Homer has a removable hat and good old Wonder Bat. He looks really nice, though the hat is quite large on his head making me question the decision to make it removable and not just part of the sculpt. The real downer though is Homer’s inability to hold his bat with two hands. Solicitation images implied this was possible, but they lied. He also lacks a vertical hinge for his wrists so he can’t call his shot. I would have preferred better articulation and a new expression as well. Still, as a representative from one of my personal favorite episodes, I can’t not like this one.

Another member of that famous softball team, Lenny Leonard, also finds himself in Wave 3. Unlike Homer though, this is standard Lenny as one would find him at work at Springfield’s Nuclear Power Plant. Jakks did a good job with getting the color of Lenny’s olive shirt right and I like that he has half-closed eyes as his expression. Lenny is a bit trickier to render in three dimensions so he doesn’t look as on-model as Marge and Homer, but that’s mostly just from the front. If you view him as he would normally be presented in the show from the side or at a three quarters angle he looks solid. His hair is also just a little off as Jakks took an almost semi-realistic view to the shape. In that, it reminds me of their Sonic figures and how his hair (quils) is tough to translate into 3D. For accessories, Lenny has a mug of coffee and a bag lunch. Perfectly suitable for him, and at least he doesn’t have to worry about getting any pudding in his eye.

The last figure of Wave 3 is the little wiener nobody likes: Milhouse. I kid, of course, as I do like this figure which comes with perhaps the most ambitious accessory in the line yet: a bicycle. It would have been a lot cheaper to just give him an issue of Biclops, though it also would have been funnier to actually give him Lisa’s bike. Milhouse looks great though, but suffers from the child scaling like Bart and Lisa. His articulation is essentially the same as Bart and he can sit on the bike fairly convincingly. The bike has a stand, though it can still be tricky to get Milhouse properly balanced on it. The one difference with Bart that’s a bit odd is Jakks sculpted his knee articulation into his shorts rather than have it begin just past them. I suppose his shorts are traditionally longer than Bart’s, but it does look a bit weird. It’s also extra noticeable since he needs to bend his knees to ride his bike. That aside, he does look good and I think he turned out better than Bart and Lisa.

As I mentioned before, Wave 4 is the one I’m struggling with and the only figure I’ve managed to land is Barney Gumble. If that’s the only I can find at least it might be the best. Barney rivals Marge for title of most on-model which is impressive considering he has a design that should also be hard to translate. He scales well with Homer, Moe, and Lenny and has that perfect dead-ass drunk expression. If I have one critique, it’s that his shirt is too orange when it should be closer to a salmon. He actually articulates pretty damn well and comes with two accessories: a lunchbox and a big hoagie. Yeah, they don’t really make much sense for Barney, but Jakks wasn’t going to pack alcohol related accessories in with him. I’m struggling to think of anything from the show that would work. I guess they could have given him a soda can, but that would be equally lame. Maybe that plant he never watered? A cup of quarters? No, that might be too close to a gambling reference. Maybe this should just have been the first alternate portrait in the line of Barney mid belch?

Wave 5 is where we’re getting some more side characters, though I would say it’s headlined by the inclusion of Abe “Grandpa” Simpson. This is where Jakks seems to be taking the portrait criticism to heart as Abe appears to be clearly modeled after the “Old man yells at cloud,” meme. I just find it ironic that they took this approach with a character who would have looked good with a dead-eyed stare. Still, I do like it though Abe’s head looks a little fat to me. The forehead area doesn’t have as dramatic a slope to it so he’s a bit off-model. It’s almost like a more Saturday morning approach to the character. The sculpt of his shirt looks nice though and his bolo tie is painted. His glasses are also clear plastic unlike Milhouse who has his eyes painted onto the lenses. The eyeglasses are too thick, a frequent issue for toy manufacturers, as well. His lone accessory is a cane and that suits him. If I am allowed to be pedantic, and Simpsons fans are known for such, Jakks did screw up by making his left hand the fisted hand and the right the gripping hand if they wanted to properly match the Old man yells at cloud image. I’ll let it slide though.

Bart’s teach, Mrs. Krabappel, finds herself among the characters of Wave 5. Like Lenny, she’s a bit off-model as she has a head that’s tough to render in three dimensions. Her eyes are off and it throws off the look of her as they’re too narrow and elongated. A half-lidded approach might have served her well and some bag lines under the eyes. She’s a little too happy and glowing for the downtrodden teacher. She also suffers from the same issue as Marge where her plastic skirt hinders any articulation she may have at the waist and below. Her accessories are a ruler and an eraser, which I guess is fine. I honestly would have been okay with a repeat of Lenny’s coffee mug or her picture of Woodrow. There’s no paint on either accessory so they don’t look great and you can barely tell the ruler is sculpted. She can hold them though so I guess that works.

The last figure we’re going to take a look at is everyone’s favorite aquatic lifeform enthusiast, Troy McClure. You may remember him from such toy lines as The World of Springfield and Super7 ReAction! He’s depicted in his traditional look of pink sweater, red tie, and white pants. He has a nice, toothy, grin and I like that Jakks did include some bags under the eyes for old Troy, though some crow’s feet would have helped too. The head is maybe a tad undersized as it looks a bit off-model to me. I’m also surprised they went with an open mouth instead of just his smile, but I don’t mind as it makes him look like he’s in mid sentence. They also didn’t give him a microphone which surprised me and instead he has his breath spray from the episode “A Fish Called Selma.” I had to look at the package to figure out what it was as it looks more like a bottle with a screw top. His other accessory is pretty great though: The Juice Loosener. As seen in the episode “Marge in Chains,” the Juice Loosener is a juicer with horrible efficiency as illustrated by the included glass with an orange, circular, sticker on the bottom to show how much juice one can expect to get from an entire bag of oranges. It’s pretty great, and since Troy has a thumb’s up gesture for his left hand, he can hold the glass in his right (FYI: not an easy fit) and enthusiastically gesture with his left!

That’s going to do it for this look at some Jakks Pacific Simpsons figures. I would say, in short, Marge, Barney, Milhouse, and Home Run Homer turned out pretty great by the standards of the line. The rest are pretty good, including Maggie, though suffer from being a bit off-model. I find Mrs. Krabappel to be the least interesting of them because it doesn’t capture the right spirit of the character for me. She’s sarcastic while this figure makes her look more like the ideal teacher eager to spread some knowledge. It’s hard to argue though that this isn’t a solid selection of characters. I assume we’ll be seeing the likes of Skinner, Ralph, and maybe even Super Intendent Chalmers pretty soon. Jasper would pair well with Abe, and we still don’t have a 5″ scale Flanders or Sideshow Bob. If the next wave has been announced I missed it, but I’ll also remain on the hunt for Bumblebee Man and especially Carl. My Lenny needs his Carl as do the other denizens of Moe’s Tavern.