Series: The Simpsons, 9

Craftsmanship: 9.0 out of 10

- Hat snaps firmly in place

- Great accessories

- Looks better than the regular Lisa figure

- Stands easily

Playability: 9.1 out of 10

- Durable

- Hat stays on pretty easily

- Small accessories easily lost

- Excellent compatibility with the entire Simpsons line

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Sunday Best Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons) by Playmates

The most impressive thing about Sunday Best Lisa Simpson is her hat. Don’t misunderstand me – I don’t play with dolls or think Barbie’s choice in shoes needs

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to be analyzed. I’m just saying, that the fact Lisa’s hat can fit on her head at all is a great bit of action figure engineering.

In actuality, this Lisa figure is a better likeness of the original Lisa figure, plus it has a better paint job. The original figure has a glossy paint job, giving off an unnatural sheen. Sunday Best Lisa has a

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flat finish, which better represents her cartoon likeness. Her head has an all-new sculpt with a narrower and longer upper lip (and nose) and slightly modified hair to allow her hat to snap into place. Placed side-by-side, Lisa and Sunday Best Lisa obviously share some similarities but Sunday Best certainly has a better likeness.

Playmates has nabbed Lisa’s likeness and further accentuates it with some spot-on accessories. She comes packed with her hat, a collection plate (complete with coupon for $0.30 off Shake ‘n’ Bake) and a big chocolate bunny. Although, the accessories heighten the playability, they can be lost. This, of course, is offset as usual by the cross-compatibility with every other Simpson figure and accessory.

Durability is the name of the game, but Lisa’s dress seems to pick up scuffmarks more easily than has been seen with the other Simpson figures. This might have to do with the flat finish. You see the same thing with wall paint – any parent will tell you that a semi-gloss paint is washable and doesn’t throw a spotlight on every little mark, but paint with a flat finish… oh man, what a mess! Lisa didn’t lose any limbs during the play test, so she’s like all the other Simpson figures in that regard. (Her hat will pop off though.) If you’re just displaying her (with the rest of your collection) you’re not really concerned with durability anyway. For those that stick with display, Lisa stands easily and is very balanced – and unknockdownable when installed on a playset base.

Basically, Lisa is another great figure from the Simpsons line, and an actual improvement over the original.

- Omni
(September 23, 2002)