Michael Crawford's Review of the Week

TOY REVIEW ARCHIVE LIVING WITH LATE FEES FEATURES LINKS BIO MISSION EMAIL MAIN PAGE >

Re-released Moe and Mr. Burns

Wave 12 of the Simpsons was recently released, and packed in with the usual six figures were two 're-releases', Mr. Burns and Moe. These figures were released for two reasons - first, Playmates wanted to get these hard to get figure back into collectors hands to help people who started later with the line, and second, they wanted to get a Moe on the shelf around the same time that Moe's Bar was out there. Doesn't do you much good to have a Moe's without a Moe, does it?

While they were at it, they also decided to try to do a little better job on the colors of these two figures. The original colors were not correct, at least by many collector's standpoints.

These are packed in with only certain cases, and one case will have two Moe's, another will have two Burn's and a third will have neither. They are showing up at Electronics Boutique, Toys R Us and Target stores right now, but Target still has the best prices at only $6 each.

Packaging - ***
Of course these cards have the same design as wave 12, making it pretty obvious that MOC'ers will be picking them up as well. At least the completist MOC'ers will be. These figures also count toward the B-Sharp Skinner mail away figure.

Sculpting - ***1/2
These are really two of the best sculpts in WOS, although they are both early figures. Mr. Burns is one of my top five favorites of the line, and while some folks feel the Moe sculpt is too mean in appearance, I think they did a great job capturing the feel of the character.

Normally, that would mean that Mr. Burns was a four star sculpt. But I'm taking off a half star here because of a much softer plastic being used. The arms are much softer than the original, and it was quite surprising to me. Let's hope this isn't a trend. Hasbro has already done this with many of the newer Star Wars figures, and it's very disappointing.

Paint - Mr Burns ***1/2, Moe ***
The paint ops on both of these are quite nice, and seem a little better than the average WOS work. There's not much slop around the eyes, and the colors covering the larger areas are consistent and clean.

The big issue is that these were intended to correct what were perceived as incorrect colors in the originals. They've done that extremely well with Mr. Burns, but Moe is still not quite right. It's a pity that a second shot at the character still didn't get us the perfect look.

Articulation - **1/2
Neck, shoulders and waist. Same articulation, different day.

Accessories - ***1/2
Both figures come with the same exact accessories as the first time around. Mr. Burns has Blinky in the bowl, and two hunks of money. Moe has his wall phone, beer mug and bar cloth.

The accessories all make sense, and Blinky is one of the best accessories in the entire line. Still, since these are identical in every way to the originals, they lose a little for lack of originality.

Value - ***1/2
Back when these first came out, there were just five bucks each. Now, you can find them for $6 at Target, and that's how I'm grading them. It's not quite the fantastic value they once were, but considering how expensive some other lines have become in the last 3 years - particularly McFarlane and DC Direct - it's still pretty damn good.

If you end up paying $7 or $8 though, you'll knock off another star.

Talking Feature - ***
Not surprisingly, these say all the same things as the original two on all the same sets. I also had no trouble getting the foot pegs working on the sets I tried. While new lines would be nice in some of the new sets, at least both of these characters have some real classics in places like Burn's Manor, the Power Plant, Moe's Tavern and the Main Street sets.

Overall - **1/2 if you have the originals, ***1/2 if you don't
For those of us that have the original figures, the lack of new accessories, the mis-coloring on Moe, and the higher cost knock these down a bit. They are just repaints for us, and have less value.

But if you missed out on the originals, you can pick these up and save yourself the higher prices the originals are getting on ebay. That makes them a great idea, and well worth picking up.

Where to Buy -
I got them at Target, but Electronics Boutique and Gamestop are getting them too. On-line:

- Entertainment Earth has the set by the case for $75. No telling whether you'll get the main six or the Burns or Moe though.

- Amazon.com (TRU.com) has the best deal, with the full set of 8 - that's right, it includes Moe and Mr. Burns - for $48 plus shipping. Since finding the short packs might be tough, this is certainly the easiest way to get a set.

- At EBgames online you can buy five of the six new figures individually for $6 each, but for some reason Mr. Largo is missing. They also have the new playset, Bart's Treehouse, available for purchase.

KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR A GREAT COMPARISON SHOT OF MR. BURNS!

Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.