Homer (Simpsons (Playmates)) Review

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Homer (Simpsons (Playmates)) Review

Homer
Simpsons (Playmates) (Playmates)In case you haven’t heard, Super7 recently revealed that they got the Simpsons license, along with the first wave of “ULTIMATES” for them. While it’s an unusual line-up for this wave (only two regular characters and three one-offs), the figures look great and it shows how deep the company is going with the license. But years before all this, Playmates did their own line of Simpsons figures in the early 2000s known as World of Springfield. While the main gimmick with them was that they could talk when connected to a playset, over time I came to appreciate the great sculpts, good accessories, and the many characters it did. Aside from that, they also did a large-scale line of non-talking figures known as Faces of Springfield. I’ve had Homer for a while now and I may as well go ahead and do a review of him to prepare for the upcoming line.

The large figure is packed in a neat window box where you can see everything. The text on the back describes the general history of the show, but the character picture on the front is a flap that has a description of them on the back. There’s quite a bit of twist ties holding the figure itself in, so be prepared for that if you get one.
While the WoS Homer is around 4 ½” tall, this one is almost twice that size, standing about 8” tall and made out of rotocast vinyl. As opposed to the smaller figure, this is one is more dynamic in pose, with an open mouth instead of a grin and legs done in a walking pose. The sculpt looks quite accurate to his on-screen appearance, especially because it can be difficult at times to translate a 2D character to 3D, but Playmates managed to do a good job. He’s not very articulated, having only swivels at the neck, shoulders, and waist, but the smaller figures aren’t all that posable either, and there’s not much they could’ve done with hollow parts anyways, so it’s fine.

As for the paint on the figure, it looks fine from afar, but up-close you can see all the imperfections. There’s quite a bit of bleed and sloppy edges all around the head, and the tongue and mouth got the worse of it. The rest of the figure is fine, but there’s still a few minor imperfections.

We only got three accessories with this figure, but they’re nice choices. The main highlight here is Pinchy, the lobster Homer keeps as a pet in “Lisa Gets an A”, and while the colors aren’t accurate, he’s still a great sculpt. The gummi Venus de Milo is included as well, and the transparent plastic helps give it some realism. The last accessory is a big sandwich, it’s nothing special, but still makes sense with the character. My main gripe with the accessories is that the hands aren’t designed to hold them tightly, so they just rest in the hands. He can hold the gummi fine and Pinchy can rest on his arms, but he can’t hold the sandwich at all, which sucks (and what, no Duff?).

I’ll admit, the Faces of Springfield Homer isn’t a very exciting figure, but he’s still something nice to have. The sculpt looks nice and we got a small but decent selection of accessories, but the paint on the figure could have been done better (especially on the head). It may be about a year before we get Super7’s offerings from the license, but at least there’s plenty of Playmates available to get yourself ready for them.