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Simpsons Bendies
 

If you've been buying Simpsons items for awhile, you'll remember a few years ago when Jesco did a series of Simpsons bendies.  They included the family of course, and are still fairly popular with collectors today.

Now there's a new bendy in town, and it's produced by NJ Croce.  So far there is a boxed set which includes Santa's Little Helper (along with the rest of the family) or you can pick up the figures on individual cards.

The boxed set sells for about $20, and is available at specialty stores like Media Play or Suncoast, and some comic shops.





Packaging - ***
The boxed version of the family isn't collector friendly, but overall works well.  It has colors and designs similar to the packaging from Rocket USA, and you can see the whole family easily within.

Sculpting - ***
This 'gumby' style works better for some of the characters than others.  I think the Marge sculpt is fairly strong, and I really like Santa's Little Helper.  However, Homer and Bart don't look as good, and the style really doesn't work well for them

The scale is also off on the entire set.  Either Homer and Marge are too small, or Lisa and Bart are too large.  This seems to be a common problem for both action figure and bendy manufacturers.  At least Maggie and SLH seem to be in scale.

Paint - **1/2
There isn't a lot of detail on figures like these, but there still are a few problems here and there.  Many of the lines between the clothes, shoes and yellow bodies are sloppy, and there's some inconsistency in the thickness and coverage of the blue of Maggies jumper.

Articulation/Bendy Action - **1/2
Obviously these figures aren't articulated, but they should bend.  The only real bendy action here is in the arms, and SLH has the most bendy posability.  The old bendies, although not done in a Gumby style, had more bendy action.

Value - ***1/2
I paid $18 for the set at Media Play, which works out to three bucks a bendy.  That's not bad at all, and they are certainly worth that price.

Overall - ***
Word is there are plans to continue these bendies with quite a number of different sets and characters.  While I'm not a huge fan of the style, I suspect they'd do fairly well with the hard core Simpsons collectors.

Where to Buy - 
I found mine at a local Media Play, so that means Musicland, Suncoast and Sam Goody should have them as well. On-line:

- JGP Toys (previously known as Grant's Toys) has them in stock for $20 each plus shipping.  I've always gotten terrific service from Grant!

- Entertainment Earth has them for $20 plus shipping (MROTW Affiliate)

 

Keep scrolling down for more photos!


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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