Sculpting - ***
This wave has some pretty extreme highs and lows, and I suspect that
everyone is going to have a different favorite.
Personally, I think they absolutely nailed the sculpting on
Marvin Monroe, and overall he's my favorite. The sculpt on Wendell is
also perfect, although lots of folks will complain that being so small, he's
not nearly as good a value as usual.
Marge and Maggie are no real surprise, at least not in terms
of the sculpting, but the Sunday Best theme is very popular. Vacation
Smithers is decent sculpt, and his left hand is sculpted special for the
phone.
Actually, all the hands are well sculpted to hold particular
accessories, something that's pretty crucial when you get so many cool
extras.
On the opposite end of the spectrum we have Scout Leader
Flanders and Stonecutter Homer. The sculpts here aren't terrible, just
not up to the usual standards.
Flanders is a pretty dull variation, although there really
isn't many variations on Flanders you can do. His hat is removable,
and the sculpt of his hands and arms fit the character, but there's two big
negatives. The first is the open mouth. The toothless smile
doesn't work for me, although some folks may not mind it. Second is
the glasses, which I doubt anyone can ignore - they're massive!
They're far too big for his face, and simply don't look right.
Stonecutter Homer has a great body sculpt, but the facial
expression has me guessing. I'm not quite sure what look they were
going for, and I suspect they missed whatever it was.
Paint - **1/2
Palisades has ruined me for other company's paint operations. After
seeing the terrific Year Without Santa Claus figures, I can see every fuzzy
line, every sloppy edge, every bumpy surface. Unfortunately, there's
more of them here than I'd like.
Certain figures seem to have more problems than others -
Marge and Maggie have sloppy lnes around the wrists and neck, and Smithers
had some pretty sloppy socks and shoes. Considering how basic most of
the ops are, there really is no reason for them to be weak.
Articulation - **1/2
Same old. Neck, shoulders and waist. I'm not actually
complaining, since I don't expect it to change, but that's life.
Accessories - ***1/2
We gets a ton of new accessories this time around, with just a little
re-use.
Stonecutter Homer has his huge removable hat of course, but
he also has the book (new), elaborate framed certificate (new) and beer
stein (new).
Dr. Monroe only has one new piece - the 'foam' bat - but at
least the reused cash, clipboard and diploma are reasonable.
Wendell comes with the apple (reused), banana (new), orange
(new), puke bag (new), and stack of books (reused). The puke bag is
particularly well done.
Sunday Best Marge and Maggie both have removable hats (new),
and Marge has her purse (new) and bible (reused).
Smithers has his phone (reused), bag of pineapples (new) and
suitcase (new, although I swear I've seen it before).
Finally, Flanders has his scout knife (new), book on knife
safety (new), half pine cone (new) and flair gun (new).
Value - ***1/2
The sculpts might vary a bit, but the accessories are good overall, and if
you're picking these up at five bucks each you're getting a terrific
value. Take off some points if you're paying $6 or more..
Overall - ***
Wave 10 really is my least favorite in awhile, simply because most of
the variations weren't very high on my list. It's not that it's a
terrible wave, or that any of these figures rank up there with the worst
figures produced in the entire series, but overall it's just a meh.
For me, Monroe was a must have, and I was happy to see the Stonecutter Homer
even if his facial expression didn't quite work.
