LEGO picked up the license for The Simpsons last year, bringing to shelves an initial range of 16 collectible figures and a £179.99 incarnation of the titular family’s house. This model continues in 2015 with another full-scale building and a second selection of collectible minifigures – both of which are a significant improvement on an already fantastic line.
While The Simpsons House was certainly a faithful adaptation of the source material, the Kwik-E-Mart simply offers more bang for your buck. It’s packed with details and references that will appeal to hardcore fans of the show, from Frostillicus in the freezer to a rogue hot dog on the floor.
Weighing in at 2,179 pieces, the set includes six minifigures and will set you back £169.99. That price tag may seem a little high at first, but it won’t take you long to realise just how much you’re getting for your money. On the minifigure front, we have the core cast of Homer, Marge and Bart, identical to their iterations in last year’s collectible minifigure range – certainly welcome if you missed that first series, but alternate variants would have been preferred (Bart and Milhouse in their boy scout uniforms would have fit in well here).
We do get two new variants on last year’s minifigures, in the form of Apu in his Kwik-E-Mart uniform and Chief Wiggum with some donut jelly splattered over his head and torso. The former is the most interesting of the five repeats and perfectly suited to the set (and for recreating the classic season five episode ‘Homer and Apu’).
The single exclusive figure included is, thankfully, a great one: Snake Jailbird, complete with black trashbags acting as loot sacks for robbing the place. Still, with a set this size, you’re not usually in it for the minifigures – you’re in it for the model, and it delivers in spades.
From the payphones and dumpster on the outside through to internal components such as the individually constructed squishee machine, video game arcades and coffee maker, the set is jam packed with references and details that really bring it together as a cohesive whole. Indeed, it’s littered with nods to the show’s entire history, from boxes of Powersauce bars to Angry Dad comics and issues of Mom Monthly. (There are even the beginnings of a roof garden going on atop the set, a la the season 7 episode ‘Lisa the Vegetarian’!)
The entire thing is hinged from the back, so you can open it up and remove the roof for easy access to the inside. Fair warning: the set comes with a massive 50 individual stickers, but as they’re all about adding extra details, the set would be nowhere near as awesome without them. There are also plenty of already-printed bricks, including three boxes of Krusty O’s (though sadly, none contain the rare jagged metal Krusty O).
Also included alongside the set is Chief Wiggum’s trusty cop car, complete with driver and passenger seats and even a space for imprisoning Snake in the back. No detail is left forgotten, making for a great building experience and a superb finished result.
Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart? Well, if you’re a fan of The Simpsons, LEGO, or both, then you dooooo. You can order it directly from LEGO’s website right now, and don’t forget to enter for your chance to win 16 Simpsons Series 2 collectible minifigures!
