|
For size comparisons, a WB Poison Ivy beanie next
to the Itchy beanie.
His counterpart, Scratchy:
|
Since these aren't action figures, they won't follow the usual format
for my reviews. Instead, I'll just give you my basic impressions of
each beanie, with an overall score at the end. This set of beanies is being produced by a U.K. company called
Giftware, and so far are only available to Americans through the web.
They are available at two web sites that I know of - the official Simpsons
web site at www.thesimpsons.com,
and the Giftware web site at http://www.giftware-international.com/
I haven't ordered directly from Giftware, but I've heard good things about
them (thanks Jeanette!).
First a little about www.thesimpsons.com
where I bought these. They are actually What's Hot Now - all the
billing, shipping and customer service is through them. And they had
alot of trouble with this order. First, it took a couple weeks to
see any part of the order. Then I received a partial order, missing
SLH and Snowball II. I didn't receive a packing slip at all, so I
called and was informed that they couldn't see my order from 'this
terminal', but that I'd probably receive the rest of my order in a week or
so. Sure enough, within a few days another box showed up, but it was
exactly the same as the first order - another Itchy, Scratchy and Blinky,
but no sign of the other two. Finally, about two weeks later, the
other two arrived. I have nothing good to say about the service or
reliability of ordering from simpsons.com or whatshotnow.com
Itchy - **1/2
Not bad, in terms of likeness and execution. He's too big of course
- being the same size as Scratchy, and having the much larger head makes
him seem way out of proportion. But it's a good likeness. Scratchy
- **
Not bad, but the execution could have been better. The felt 'hair'
sticking up from his head doesn't look right, messing up what otherwise
would have been a great beanie. |
Blinky - ***1/2
Terrific likeness - but how hard is it to mess up? The execution on
this was straight forward, and they got it right. Easily my favorite
of the set.
Santa's Little Helper - ***
Another well done one. Looks like the character, and doesn't have any
cheap or cheesy components.
Snowball II - **1/2
Size is his only problem - he looks good, but he's just too big compared
to the others.
Overall - **1/2
Price hurts these guys more than anything. While I was thrilled with
Itchy's size or Scratchy's head, the fact that these cost $11.95 from
thesimpsons.com makes it tough to recommend them on value. The fact
that they are imported from England is certainly a factor in the cost, but
it still seems excessive to me. Definitely for the hardcore fan
only.
I did like the fact that they are not doing the humans - we have plenty
of those. Instead, by doing the various animals they are adding
characters that we normally don't get to see.
Of special note - Ty found out that they were calling these 'beanies'
on the hang tag.
Ty asked them (with a squad of lawyers, I'm sure) to stop doing that - Ty
has a trademark on the word 'beanie'. So you may receive one without
the word 'beanie' on the tag, or it may be marked out with a pen. If
you get them unedited, and you care about such things, then consider
yourself lucky.
|
A side view of our favorite fish, Blinky:
If you look close you can see that 'beanie' on SLH's tag is crossed out
with a pen...
|
