Dr. Stephen Hawking (The Simpsons) by Playmates Toys

Dr. Stephen Hawking, as respected a physicist he is, doesn’t spring to mind when someone says, “Action figure!” But it should now with his Simpsons appearance immortalized in plastic. Let’s face it, books about the origins of space and quantum theary are great, but true greatness is measured by the number of action figures you have under your belt.

This figure is one of the most interesting Simpsons figures to look at. Dr. Hawking’s chair is just like its cartoon counterpart, complete with boxing glove, jet

attachments, and free-spinning helicopter blades. The only parts that need to be installed are the jet attachments, as the boxing glove and blades are completely attached. By default this makes Dr. Hawking a flying toy, although I wouldn’t really recommend throwing him as he’s not that durable. (Besides which, you’ll probably lose his glasses since they aren’t attached to his head.)

His wheels allow him to roll freely so spinning him around on the floor is a good option.

At first I thought he wouldn’t be compatible with any Intelli-tronic Playsets. How can he be attached to a playset? Simple. At the back of the chair there’s a small lever that slides the attachment level to the ground. This allows Dr. Hawking to be installed in any base (although he’ll only “talk” if it’s a compatible base).

Poseability, as you might imagine, is limited. He can’t be removed from his chair but his neck and arms are articulated. His left hand is sculpted to “grip” objects so you can get a bit of variety; otherwise, he’s a display piece. Maybe the best example I’ve seen of Dr. Hawking on display is at one of the local universities, in the Physics department, rigged from the ceiling to replicate flight. Very cool!

For play options, you’ve got the entire Simpsons line to play around with. Plus, you can get creative with games like Simpson’s Bowling. This requires Dr. Hawking and 10 Simpson figures set-up in a rough triangle. I think you can figure it out from there. But as I mentioned before, Dr. Hawking isn’t super durable. His durability can be somewhat improved by removing his jet attachments first because, along with his glasses, they can be lost quite easily. The copter blades can be snapped off, but since they can fold into one blade the chances of this happening are reduced.

Dr. Hawking should be high on the list of Simpson’s collectors and fans, because it’s probably safe to say, we’ll never see another figure like this.

- Omni
(November 2, 2003)