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Last year, Playmates decided to market a
separate line of World of Springfield figures, called All Star Voices.
These figures were all guest voiced by well know celebrities. The licenses for these characters (or more accurately,
their voices) was more expensive and more difficult to obtain, so they price
point was slightly higher.
Unfortunately, the idea didn't take
off. After two waves consisting of only five figures total, Playmates
canned the All Star Voices line. However, they already had the figures
all set to go for the third installment of three - Hank Scorpio (Albert
Brooks), Cooder (James Varney) and Llewellyn Sinclair (Jon Lovitz). Rather
than dump them, they had to come up with some other way to release them.
For Cooder and Sinclair, they did a mail
away offer. Send in two older figures, series 9 or previous, get two
new figures. It was a good deal, and they ended up with a good
response.
But they knew that Hank Scorpio would be
more popular, even though he was only in one episode. So they added
Scorpio to wave 10, swapping him into some cases and swapping out Scout
Leader Flanders.
These are showing up in greater numbers now,
as the shipments of wave 10 increase to the retailers.
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Packaging - ***
I really like the All Star Voices packaging - the large picture of the
character to the left of the bubble looks terrific, along with the bolder
red color.
This figure also has the star
sticker on the bubble announcing the B-Sharps Homer mail away, but unlike
all the other releases since wave 2, there's no wave designation on the
right side.
Sculpting - ***1/2
This is an extremely well sculpted WOS figure. He's been given both a
very good facial expression, and a terrific body pose. Rather than
either being static, they both possess a feeling of personality and motion.
Paint - ***
The ops aren't particularly complicated, but I had no issues with this
particular figure. All the lines around the hair, eyes, and
clothing were fairly clean, with no slop or bleed.
Articulation - **1/2
No surprises here - neck, shoulders and waist. The pre-posed nature
makes the articulation less crucial I suppose, and fortunately the arms and
hands were sculpted to hold the flamethrower.
Talking Feature - *
Hank takes a big hit here, having only one line on any playset so
far. Let's hope we get further lines in future sets.
Accessories - ***1/2
Hank comes with three very cool, new accessories. One is the large,
two piece flamethrower. It looks great, and fits easily on his back if
you pop one of the straps out at the bottom. The colors are pretty
basic, but it's nice to get such a large accessory.
The other two are a grenade (canister style), and a walkie-talkie. You can fit them in his hand, and
it's nice to see no reuse.
Value - ***
I'm assuming you'll pay the higher $6-$7 celebrity figure price here, but if
you get them for less than six bucks you can add some value.
Overall - ***
This is a great looking figure with some terrific accessories. I
would highly recommend it, except that the voice feature is currently so
limited. I'm assuming since they had to pay for Albert Brooks voice
rights, that we'll see other lines in other sets.
Where to Buy -
I picked mine up at a local Media Play, but I've seen him at Meijers
and EB since then. On-line:
- I always recommend checking out New
Force Comics for Simpsons purchases. Rick has great prices and
great customer service.
- Electronics
Boutique is the only place on-line that I know of where you can buy
Scorpio individually. He's $5.99 plus shipping. Make sure you
search for 'Hank Scorpio' to find him. (MROTW Affiliate)
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Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford. |
