Not only was WoS 20 years ago, but why would a company start a brand new line just to essentially fill in holes from the long-dead line? Start over with a own consistency. They need to get sales, so they'll make the main characters again. And popular locations for playsets. If the line is compatible with WoS, Jakks also risks losing some sales, however low those may be, since there's a competitive (even if 20yrs old) line out there. New line and scale means all new sales.
As someone with 0 WoS figures, I imagine the appeal is that you could update your collection piece at a time with presumably better sculpted, painted, and articulated figures, while still mixing in parts from your other collection into one display, especially the playsets. If they are off scale and you own a ton of WoS, you have to decide if you want an entirely new set of everything to display separately, and what you want to do with your WoS once you build out two scales that don't mesh. If the Jakks figures aren't really that much better than WoS, you might get WoS collectors sitting this line out.
I might dip into eBay'd WoS playsets to supplement the line, if they scaled. While Jakks might extensively flesh out their line, it's hard to imagine they'll come anywhere near the breadth of Playmates, but time could prove me wrong.
Looking at footage of the display, I'm definitely seeing Homer, Wiggum, and Flanders in the smaller scale they've got, which is presumably the 2.5-inch scale that the smaller Nintendo & Sonic figures are in.
In the big scale, I think there's a Groundskeeper Willy behind normal Bart. The figure is obscured by Bart, but you can see its accessory is a shovel. The figure itself is packaged diagonally (I'm guessing the insert slid) but looks to be Willy legs.
I'm not sure why the Treehouse of Horror figures (and Radioactive Man) are packaged differently, maybe they are deluxe.
This is perfect for the Simpsons. "Action" based action figures, like super heroes or Thundercats or whatever, you want articulation. For cartoons like the Simpsons, I don't need to get them to pose like Spider-Man. Not that Super7 had great articulation, anyway.
The price will also be a lot better. And they'll be smaller scale. For a property like Simpsons where there are hundreds of characters, this makes a lot more sense.
I agree that the line shouldn't have to be concerned with WoS 20 years on. At the same time, assuming these will be like their video game figures, I really don't feel the need to buy many more Simpsons figures with a complete set of WoS at home. Maybe the odd left-field selection (like S7 with robot itchy & scratchy, etc), but given what they've been cranking out with the Mario line, I don't see many of those forthcoming.
I agree that the line shouldn't have to be concerned with WoS 20 years on. At the same time, assuming these will be like their video game figures, I really don't feel the need to buy many more Simpsons figures with a complete set of WoS at home. Maybe the odd left-field selection (like S7 with robot itchy & scratchy, etc), but given what they've been cranking out with the Mario line, I don't see many of those forthcoming.
The Nintendo selection isn’t on Jakks, it’s Nintendo being really strict with their licensing. They’ve gone deeper with the Sonic line for sure I can’t see them going as crazy as WoS, but they’ll definitely get the major side characters in there
The line will probably be just like Mario and Sonic though with 4”ish and 2.5”ish lines. I don’t remember exactly how big WoS were, but if they’re around 4” it might be close enough to work
I agree that the line shouldn't have to be concerned with WoS 20 years on. At the same time, assuming these will be like their video game figures, I really don't feel the need to buy many more Simpsons figures with a complete set of WoS at home. Maybe the odd left-field selection (like S7 with robot itchy & scratchy, etc), but given what they've been cranking out with the Mario line, I don't see many of those forthcoming.
Jakks' Mario line might be stagnant, but I think that might be a Nintendo thing more than anything else. After all, their Sonic line has released some shockingly obscure characters and I wouldn't be surprised if the same eventually goes for The Simpsons.
I’m really excited to see Jakks get the license for the Simpsons. I’ve been collecting Simpsons since the original toy line from Mattel and of course World of Springfield.
my only concern is the distribution on the Nintendo figures have been pretty spotty. Some waves don’t show up at all in Canada while others hang around on the pegs.
Hopefully Disney is better at letting them do a variety of characters than Nintendo is because the Mario line rehashes the same ones over and over while trickling out unique characters over a decade. I don’t think we’ll ever finish the koopa kids.
I doubt they are looking to extend the WoS and agree they shouldn't be trying to cater to that audience, but all things being equal why not make then the same scale/aesthetic as the WoS and the NECA 25th anniversary figures?
For someone like me who has both of those lines, I doubt I will start a new line from scratch. But if I were Jakks, doing a 6 figure wave with 5 main characters and then having the 6th spot be a figure or variant not made before in WoS/NECA, I think would get some extra sales there.
Yeah it’s unreasonable to expect a company to cater to an old toy line from a different company, but it was a good size for the license so it’s not a horrible thing for them to stick with that size. Do their own thing, maybe have a bit more articulation, but at least on the surface allow them to display together could be more of an advantage than disadvantage. Sure, they’ll hit most of the same characters out of the gate, if they don’t they risk going the Super7 route and stumbling out of the gate. Even those that have WoS likely won’t mind upgrading on many of the main characters if there is value there. I hope this line is successful. I wanted Super7 to be but the price just really killed the interest in starting a new scale. But at $10-20 I’m more interested regardless if these pair well with WoS or not.
I tried to pry some info out of an insider contact regarding this line. Couldn't get much info but I did confirm there are 2 scales being released. And they're pushing the line due to the Simpsons finding a new audience via Disney+.
Kids at the mall are wearing Nirvana shirts and dressing up like extras in My So Called Life. I guess we had 60's, 70's, and 80's revivals throughout my lifetime but now it's the first decade I have solid linear memories of living in that's being resurrected by a generation I don't identify with and I'm more like Grandpa Simpson each and every day. Glad new people are finding The Simpsons though.
https://toynewsi.com/news.php?itemid=52088&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Most of these are just cut outs but already, the line looks better than what Super 7 did in the 4(?) years that they had it.
The character selection looks better than what Super7 did, though I think the actual figures don't look as good. And they shouldn't if these are going to occupy something in the neighborhood of 15 bucks vs the 55 we get from Super7. Definitely looking forward to seeing actual samples of what these will look like in-hand.
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