Celebrity Simpsons wave 3 part 1 review

NECA's third wave of Celebrity Simpsons - all 11 of them! - are hitting retailers. I've got the set, but I'll be breaking them up into three reviews. First up tonight is Penn, Teller, Lisa and Mr. Burns. You can find the review here:

https://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_091514a.htm

or with the rest of the reviews at the usual:

https://www.mwctoys.com

Thanks for reading!

Michael
MWC

3 reviews. You tease.

Good review though I'm surprised Burnsy didn't get 4 stars as well. He seems to be the most popular of this wave and was often cited as a top want in the WoS heyday. Reports are he's selling out first both online and in store.
And as far as I can tell, the case breakdown is

3 x Bret Hart
3 x Nimoy
2 x Stephen King
1 x everyone else

And the other rumor I heard is that wave 5 is the last one planned as it will wrap up the 25 guest stars (bands and duos count as 1). It seems like these are selling well, especially as the character selection has gradually improved. Hopefully NECA will continue this line with another 25 though "25 of the second greatest guest stars" doesn't sound as nice. Or maybe they'll come up with something else more World of Springfieldly sounding.

If that's the case breakdown, it's surprising. But then, those wrestling figures do sell well...

Do you have a dream line up for wave 5, Michael?

And one small request for future reviews, more group shots please. Thanks.

Yeah, I'm thrilled to finally get alien Burns in the collection. When this wave was originally announced without the variants, I was disappointed he wasn't included in the wave since he would have been paired great with Nimoy. Glad NECA was thinking the same thing and he eventually was announced with the other 2 variants, which weren't as need as he was, but are better than nothing. I'm guessing because Mulder and Scully weren't playing themselves but rather were characters played by their actual actors, they won't be apart of this series. Although if these do well enough for a follow up series, perhaps celebrities not playing themselves could be the theme. Kiefer Sutherland is another actor that comes to mind that didn't play himself but played both Jack Bauer and a few other characters on the show. Sideshow Bob could also fall into that category.

As for the next wave, Stan Lee is my last real want in this line, and I don't think I'm alone there. I'd also be up for Elton John and any Beatle.

Beatles and Stones, please.

And it's definitely a good sign this line is selling well if they're adding figures. 11 is a bunch. Hopefully we'll get some more added to wave 4.

I'm still surprised they are making full bands. I mean when it was only 3 figures, that was one thing, but all of Aerosmith!?!? I'd have been fine with just Tyler.

The Beatles are a no brainer, but of course there's probably major hoops to jump through. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sting. And where's the Ramones?

On the non musical front, I'd love Stan Lee - he's really the only must have right now, with Adam West a close second. While he's not a must have for me, Magic Johnson wouldn't be a bad choice for the sports set, especially since we have Yao. Not sure if they can pull off a Bob Hope, and Johnny Carson would be great too. In fact, a set of four with Carson, Leno, Letterman and Conan would be great!

There's so much potential...

BTW, I'm guessing at the 'painted yellow' thing, since a) it has that appearance, instead of the slightly translucent look that cast colors have and b) is prone to scuffs and rub marks. However, if someone would like to carve up a figure to see, I'd be interested in hearing the result...

I didn't think of the talk show host group. Great idea.

I've carved up a few for customs. They're all painted yellow on a white plastic base.

Aha - glad to know I was right. It happens so rarely!

That's just so wrong...

Michael Crawford said:

The Beatles are a no brainer, but of course there's probably major hoops to jump through. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sting. And where's the Ramones?

On the non musical front, I'd love Stan Lee - he's really the only must have right now, with Adam West a close second. While he's not a must have for me, Magic Johnson wouldn't be a bad choice for the sports set, especially since we have Yao. Not sure if they can pull off a Bob Hope, and Johnny Carson would be great too. In fact, a set of four with Carson, Leno, Letterman and Conan would be great!

There's so much potential...

Click to expand...

That makes me wonder how this came to be to begin with. I mean, I would have thought NECA would have to get each and every celebrity's approval for each figure right? I can't imagine that's the case though. Could you imagine only getting 2 of the three members of a band to sign off with the last just flat out refusing? Do any of the celebrities actually know these are being made? I mean its stuff like this that is usually avoided in a line because of all of the difficulties and yet NECA seems to be plowing through without any hold ups.

I certainly hope this line continues past the originally planned 25 stars. Its so awesome NECA not only did this to begin with, but kept it in the WoS spirit. I'd have to imagine they're big fans of that line to do that when another toy company would just as soon forget that any other line existed before theirs.

Michael Crawford said:

That's just so wrong...

Click to expand...

Just a regular day, grinding on Mark Hamill's crotch.

Buttmunch said:

Do any of the celebrities actually know these are being made? I mean its stuff like this that is usually avoided in a line because of all of the difficulties and yet NECA seems to be plowing through without any hold ups.

Click to expand...

I know Penn posted pics of the Penn & Teller figs. Weird Al and Elvis Costello tweeted about theirs. But we haven't had any mega stars as figs yet. Tom Hanks? Aerosmith is the biggest get yet I think. I doubt Yao Ming or Tony Hawk threw up any roadblocks. I mean, who is the biggest name that would command a high price for their likeness or refuse? Beatles and/or Stones?

I don't know how the Simpsons handles merchandising of the celebrity guest stars, I imagine NECA has needed to contact the reps of each celeb or their estate to get permission, but maybe it's on an individual basis depending on the deal they signed with Fox and when it was signed?

I doubt they HAD to get approvals - I'm betting FOX has the likeness rights to do whatever they'd like for most of the guest stars on the show. They may still get approval though just to be cool with the celebrity. From my experience with Playmates, they had to get approvals on every figure they did, because they were using the voices and those rights stayed with the celebrity. It seems to me that they told me back then that without the voices, it would have been much, much easier.

Which is why you never got Maude Flanders or Rabbi Krustofski.

I'd love to see:

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
U2
Metallica
Mulder and Scully
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sideshow Luke Perry

I would also assume that the actors wouldn't have control over the "likeness rights" to these characters, as they epitomize "parody" as much as any caricature of an actor/character could. But it would make sense for Fox to make a token payment to these guys, or at least seek informal approval for the sake of not stirring up any trouble.