Kamp Krusty and Marge & Homer in the Belly of the Boss - Action Figure Reviews

Support AE! Buy Collectibles Here:

Series

The Simpsons, 1

Craftsmanship

8.5 / 10

- Very detailed sculpts

- Perfect bases

- Excellent paint jobs

- Poor articulation, especially for Kamp Krusty

Playability

5.0 / 10

- Marge & Homer have “bath time fun” written all over them

- Both are very much display figures

Newsletter

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

Kamp Krusty and Marge & Homer in the Belly of the Boss by McFarlane Toys

Kamp Krusty (left); Marge & Homer: In the Belly of the Boss (right)

McFarlane Toys is a recent newcomer to The Simpsons franchise but they’ve done a great job creating great collectibles. Pure collectibles. These things are in no way “action figures” – they install on their included bases and that’s it. Well, except for Marge and Homer, which have “bath time fun” written all over them.

Taken directly from their appearance in Treehouse of Horror XV – the Fantastic Voyage parody called “In the Belly of the Boss” – Marge and Homer are clad in bathing suits, clear helmets and an air supply. (For some reason, Homer is completely covered up, while Marge is outfitted like Ursula Andress in her appearance in Dr. No.) Each of them also sports flippers. Both figures are easy to remove and reattach to the base. All this means that they make great bath toys,

Advertisement

aside from the fact you’ll have to watch that you don’t lose or break the helmets, which don’t stay together very well. (Marge’s helmet has a collar section for some reason, which means that the back half of the helmet can’t be removed from the figure. Unless it’s broken.)

Both Marge and Homer lack any significant articulation but what is included is mostly

Advertisement

hidden. The only seam joints that are obvious are Marge’s shoulder joints. Both figures have joints at the ankles, neck, and shoulders. Homer also has seam joints at his wrists. It amounts to practically nothing, but it’s light years ahead of Kamp Krusty – neither Krusty nor Bart have any articulation.

Kamp Krusty is the more colorful of the two sets but both sets are extremely well painted – the only “problem” is that the yellow skin tone isn’t consistent. (Homer’s coloring is different than Bart’s.)

Top marks are awarded for sculpting here, too. Both sets are snapshots of specific moments in the show and McFarlane has done a great job capturing those moments. The cardback includes a breakdown of the episode if your memory is foggy. I like having this extra bit of information, rather than the usual “catalogue” of upcoming figures. McFarlane has done this kind of thing before with the Twisted Oz figures and the McFarlane’s Dragons series. I’m all for it, I just hope that McFarlane takes the bull by the horns and include some really neat extras on the cardback, like a pictorial on how action figures are designed or a visit to the factory in China.

Will the Simpsons merchandising machine ever squelch to a halt? When the collectibles are this good, it won’t be any time soon.

- Omni

(May 16, 2007)