Playmates The Simpsons World of Springfield Family Christmas
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00:00Celebrating this season in Springfield, here's your Christmas spot on the Playmates Toys
00:05The Simpsons Family Christmas Interactive Playsets.
00:30Welcome to Springfield USA, home of the Simpsons. Whether freezing your brain with an ice-cold
00:39chutney squishy at the Kwik-E-Mart, choking down imitation fruit beverages at Springfield Elementary,
00:44or drowning your sorrows at Moe's, you can't help but drink in the radioactive charm that
00:48is Springfield's alone. Yes, a visit to Springfield brings a glow to the heart that never ever goes away.
00:54Oh ho ho, how about before we check out the fat man in red? No, no, no, the other fat man in red.
01:01We're going to take the tape measure and in fact we're going to see just how tall the Simpsons
01:05family members are. Not all of them, just because like Bart and Lisa are similar in size, so it makes
01:09no sense to measure both of them. Marge obviously is the tallest, Homer a little shorter than that,
01:14and then Maggie and Stan's little helper are joined at the hip, literally. With that in mind,
01:19Bart is going to be three and a half inches. That's also the same for his sister.
01:23That translates to a figure that's nine centimeters tall. Marge the tallest, she's at six inches or
01:28about 15. Homer's going to be four and a half inches in height or about ten and a half centimeters
01:33tall. And then on to Maggie and Stan's little helper, the shortest of the Simpsons akin. She's
01:39going to be three inches or translates to about seven and a half centimeters tall. For those that
01:45have followed the festive exploits of the person behind the camera, thank you for that. We've already
01:49had a look at some of the Simpsons interactive worlds. Not so much though for Christmas, but
01:53though for the Hallows season. So I'm going to slide over the one that we're about to have a look
01:56at for the Christmas, and maybe while that doing that, we're going to also move over the piano. We
02:00don't get the playing piano in the way. I'm going to bring in ironic punishment. What an irony that
02:05we're looking at ironic punishment along with shopping for the Christmas season. I have finished
02:11about half of my Christmas shopping. I can already tell you the irony of what punishment I have to
02:16deal with. Then giving the gifts of giving to others. Now as you can see though from the sizing
02:22of this, the family Christmas is about maybe the same size as ironic punishment. Let's bring in
02:26some of the other characters. Not from all the same sets, but here's what Bart and Lisa look like
02:31with Hugo. Here's Marge. Marge is the only other release where she got two figures. She got one
02:36from of course Witch's Coven that just happened to have come from ironic punishment. But the one that
02:40I was kind of the most interested to show you guys was the one that we got from the Homer from the
02:44Kang and Kodos sets. The thing that's rather interesting about that is because now we have a
02:49Homer and a Homer, while the head sculpts seem to be exactly the same, the bodies are not. It seems
02:54though that not only is the Homer here from the Kang and Kodos a little bit more svelte. Svelte,
03:01I guess, is the obvious. That was the opposite, right? A little more portlier. But if you also
03:05look at it too, he's shorter than the one we get from family Christmas. I'm not really even sure
03:10why Playmates chose not to have them the exact same size. I mean clearly you can see like this
03:14Homer is a lot taller than the other. The only thought that I possibly could come up with is
03:19that because Playmates was basing this on the earlier seasons of the Simpsons, the Simpsons
03:23were a little bit more rougher around the edges. Especially with the Simpsons Christmas. Was it
03:27Simpsons roasting on an open fire? I can't remember the name of that episode. But maybe because of that
03:31they chose to have the Homer a little bit shorter than the one we got from Kang and Kodos. Same
03:35again, like same head. Differently, obviously completely differently designed bodies. Now all
03:40the characters, of course, can interact with either one of the worlds. Some of the characters,
03:44like for example the Simpsons Christmas ones, won't interact with the Halloween ones. So we'll
03:48just move ironic punishment. Irony? Maybe. If you've done enough shopping during the busier mall
03:53hours, you know the ironic punishment of gift giving and how much you suffer while doing that.
03:59Anyways, let's move that out of the way. Let's again bring back in the family Christmas.
04:04Of course, we also will move these other characters out of the way here. If you wanted to go back and
04:07watch out those full reviews that I've done of all the other interactive worlds for the Halloween
04:12season, feel free to give those a gander. But as for the actual characters that make up this set,
04:16we'll move everybody back here for a second. Maybe we'll look at the one that has the least mobility.
04:21We've got Maggie and Sansa the Little Helper. Sansa the Little Helper making the first debut
04:24appearance in the interactive worlds. There's no poseability at all. It's basically just a
04:29staction piece. And Maggie, of course, on top of that, no poseability in her either. But the paint's
04:33pretty good overall. Nice look at that. I like the way that they've tied off the little antlers
04:38there on the top of Sansa the Little Helper's head. Now, even though that this one doesn't
04:42have poseability, it does though have a connecting chip on the bottom of this that then plugs into
04:46the base. And if things work in a perfect world and maybe a miracle can happen, it would then cycle
04:51through sound effects. I will say a lot of times these don't work all that well at all. But there's
04:56Maggie and Sansa the Little Helper. Then, of course, we also have ourselves Lisa and Walnut.
05:00We'll bring in Bart there as well. I think the most closest thing we've gotten ourselves to a
05:04Bart because all the other cases of Bart have had something going with him, whether he be like
05:08Stretch Boy or the Hugo. This is probably the most closest thing we've gotten to a regular Bart,
05:15short of, of course, just collecting the regular Simpsons World of Springfield characters.
05:20Obviously, there's been several Barts released in that. Now, this one does have a hat.
05:24Hat's not removable. Face is good on this one though. Standard articulation, of course,
05:28with all these characters. You can only rotate their head all the way around,
05:31swivel back and forth only on their arms, and a swivel in the waist. Again, you've got the
05:35connecting chip on the bottom. Fingers crossed this actually does work in this review. I was kind
05:38of playing around with these just before I hit record. I will say, like, I had just a struggle
05:44completely just trying to attach these onto the base. They never really work perfectly.
05:48But there's Barts. The kind of thing that's funny about these is all the, all the characters,
05:52well, I shouldn't say all of them. Lisa seems to be dressed like there's no, there's no heat
05:56temperature at all in the house. Maybe Homer's behind on paying his bills and the Simpsons
06:00household is a little on the cold side. I don't know really why any of them are really dressed
06:03like it looks like they're going outside. Maybe they're going to be singing some songs at the
06:07piano and then going outside afterwards. I probably won't be going outside anytime soon
06:11because Patty and Selma are right now smoking. Oh boy. I think we have gotten a Patty and Selma
06:16from the interactive world of Springfield. But again, for Lisa, standard articulation,
06:20just in the arms, just in the head, and a little bit of a waist swivel down below here. Lisa seems
06:25like she needs a little bit of hot cocoa. Put her down over there for a second. Of course, we also
06:29got her as well. Oh, as well, Marge. Marge seems to be just as decorated as the, well, actually,
06:34that's not true. The tree is not even decorated at all in the back. It looks like they just yanked
06:37that from outside, taking a page perhaps from Clark Griswold's book. But Marge does have a
06:42little bit of decorative details. Of course, she has the garland wrapped around the top of her head.
06:47It also has earmuffs. So again, like either the Simpsons household is just freezing inside or
06:52they're planning to go outside afterwards. Head articulation, arm articulation, waist articulation,
06:58that's all you're going to be getting. And again, you got your connecting peg on the bottom.
07:02Homer, while not having a hat, is certainly dressed the part of Santa.
07:06Again, he's a little bit smaller than the other Homer that we've already had a look at. Same
07:10head sculpt though. Panel lining is really good on the hair on the back, the zigzag, and also,
07:15of course, the little hairs that he has on top of his head. It's not denying at all that Playmates,
07:21when they were doing the Simpsons property, really covered a lot of territory. Not only, again, with
07:26the regular interactive world. They even did the interactive world of Springfield. But then again,
07:30like they also had all the characters you could possibly even think of. Head articulation, arm
07:34articulation. I know we already covered all this and it's just a waist swivel. So those are your
07:39characters that make up this specific interactive world. Of course, one of the other included
07:44accessories is the playing piano. I keep saying a playing piano like it's playing on its own.
07:48I don't know why looking at this, it looks like it's a really cool looking piano. These would
07:51be his glasses. This would be his smile. He's like, hey, happy holidays, everybody. No, no,
07:57no. I can play myself out. You can see I can't quite even make out what exactly they're playing.
08:05It's all gibberish to me. Though I don't know how to play a piano. So even if that was legible
08:09font, I wouldn't be able to interpret that to the ivories.
08:13The actual playing piano is obviously hollow on the back. Luckily, it doesn't have to connect
08:20to anything. So you don't have to commit to where this has to go in the actual living room.
08:24The living room did have some installation that was required. The back wall panel had to connect
08:29on the back here. So of course you can take the piano. The piano could really be over here. I
08:34know I started the review having it over here. You could also completely just block Patty and Selma,
08:39which if Homer had it his way, that's what he would be doing all the time.
08:42You'd only be able to get the suggestion that they're standing outside freezing our butts off.
08:47Anyways, I'll just end up putting it off to the side. This is one that I usually put out during
08:52Christmas. And of course, the other ones that we looked at for Halloween, yes, put out during
08:55Halloween. What you have though for connectors is three of them. So if you do yourself the simple
09:01math, you have five Simpsons members. You subtract three connecting points. How many Simpsons members
09:08will not be able to connect? The answer is none of them. None of them. That was a trick question.
09:12Even though you could connect these, and for all intents and purposes, they should be able to cycle
09:16through something. The correct answer is most of the time they won't play anything. They do have
09:22though the pressing buttons on the sides. You actually get three of these. One, two, and three.
09:26On the bottom of the base, this actually attaches. Well, first of all, you have to install three
09:31AA batteries, which I've already taken the liberty of adding. At the end of all these seasons,
09:35I always usually take the batteries out, put them in a bag, or put them back. I usually have
09:38like a little battery caddy. Everything doesn't touch one another because you don't really want
09:42to have your batteries touching one another. But they're all kind of stored there. And then I
09:46usually store these back in the boxes without their batteries. One of the things that it also
09:51does have is all the other interactive worlds did have this too. It has a demo. It has an on,
09:56and it has a try. I guess that would be like display off demo. If you switch it to demo,
10:02one of the benefits, at least, is if you're having a struggle as much as I have a struggle actually
10:06trying to connect your characters to any of the interactive world connecting points,
10:09you usually can just cheat. Switch it over to demo, and we'll cycle through all the sound effects,
10:13whether the characters are on top of it or not.
10:25So right away, you don't have to rely solely on these characters connecting.
10:29Again, like a lot of times, I just have to struggle so much trying to get these characters
10:33in place. And this happens every time a new season comes around. Halloween, I have to do this.
10:38Christmas, I have to do this as well. They never really attach properly. So a lot of times,
10:42just between you and me, I usually cheat. And I usually just have it set to demo. But if you did
10:47want to try your best, I mean, maybe, I don't know, a Christmas miracle will happen. You can
10:51switch it to on. Now, if you don't have the characters plugged in place properly, when you
10:56press these buttons, you're not going to get the sound effects or the sounds of those characters.
10:59What you'll get instead is this sound clip,
11:04which isn't the most irate sound that you have to deal with. I think what was the worst one was
11:09the flying saucer. It went... Luckily, you don't have to deal with that. But yeah, Christmas,
11:15jingle bells, that's a little easier on the ears. So of course, if you want to take yourself the
11:20characters, I found the one that connects the easiest seems to be Marge. Again, you don't have
11:24to deal with that. When you look on the bottom of all of these, you have a rectangular chip,
11:29and then you have these two little spots on either side. Those spots, for all intents and purposes,
11:34should clip onto these clips, just to keep the character secure in place. So we attach Marge,
11:41get her completely on there. You'll know if she doesn't work when you press this button.
11:46Exactly what I meant. Let's just move these guys all out of the way here.
11:50So we put Marge down here. Sometimes you have to put... There, we put a little pressure on it.
12:01This does happen to me a lot. Here we go.
12:13This also does happen, too, where even if the character is not properly attached,
12:17like I haven't even added Lisa yet to the base, and yet it cycles also through Lisa's as well.
12:23Now what you could do, too, is I've got myself the Homer from the Kang and Koto set. I've already
12:27tried this, too. Sometimes this does also happen where you can get characters from other interactive
12:31worlds and attach them to these ones, and they'll still also give you the same audio clips.
12:36So we'll just get Homer in place here. Let's just remove Marge here for a second.
12:43So even though it really...
12:50So even though it wasn't... Let's just wait till Homer is finished. As I was saying, though,
12:56even though it wasn't really Homer that comes with the set, because Homer obviously is wearing
12:59the Santa suit, you could still use a regular Homer from another interactive world, and it
13:04just essentially cycles through the same Homer audio clips. Of course, we can also take as well
13:08Bart. Bart will just plug onto the back here. You can plug in really any place that you want,
13:14and let's see if he actually works. Put a little pressure against it.
13:22Yeah, it's not. You can probably already see why I always set this just to demo,
13:28because demo at least you get the full effect of what Playmates had in mind when these initially
13:32work were released. The problem with this always really comes down to is that you never can
13:37properly connect them to their display bases. Oh, sure enough.
13:44Sure enough, now when I plug this in,
13:48maybe just me holding this is all the miracle I needed in order for this to actually work.
13:58So let's just go ahead and remove him right now. One last chance to show you guys actually also
14:03the background here. You've got a little picture there on the back of Grandpa Simpson. Clearly,
14:08again, it looks like they've yanked this tree from outside. There's still a birdhouse on the
14:11top. They haven't even decorated yet, and yet they still put all their presents underneath with care.
14:16I don't even know if Santa will even be there. And of course, we also have ourselves Patty and
14:20Selma standing outside, spoken away. I don't think Homer has any plans at all of ever letting them
14:25back in. Is it a good set? Obviously, if you have been collecting the interactive worlds, yes it is.
14:30The problem always really comes with these though, is like even whether it be Halloween
14:34or it be Christmas time, this actually is the first time I'm opening this set for 2024.
14:39Right after this review, in fact, I'm going to be putting them out on display on my mantle. I know
14:42the mantle that already seems full with other things. Of course, I get Bart there also as well.
14:48With these two, you only ever usually get three connecting pegs or three connecting points,
14:53and then you always get more characters than that. So there always is going to be extra
14:57characters that can't fit on a clip. They usually end up just being, you know, relegated to kind of
15:02just being background characters or surrounding characters. But if you also switch this always
15:06to demo, you never have to even worry about connecting them onto the pegs. It does defeat,
15:11unfortunately, the whole interactive experience, but at least it does mean that you can have them
15:17properly going through the audio clips. Because if not, you're going to be fighting a lot of times
15:21getting these things properly connected. It's a fun little set. Like I said, this is a this is
15:26one that I do get out every year. Usually when I already start to decorate for Christmas time,
15:30it's near the end of November, and then these are usually out till like the first week of this of
15:35January. So there's a good stretch of month that I'm going to be able to have these out on display.
15:39The Halloween's obviously have already been packed away for this year at least, and they're
15:43going to be coming out for next year. It's a fun little set. You know, again, like I think
15:46Playmates had a good heart when it came to what they wanted to really do with the interactive
15:50worlds. They don't always interactively work well. I mean, a lot of times you're usually hearing more
15:54so than anything. There's the background noise of this or of that, rather than actually the audio
16:01clips that they had in mind. But for what it is, for how old these sets actually were, I think we're
16:06kind of already now thinking, what was it, 20 years? 20 years ago? And even earlier than that, when these
16:10first came out, they've held up. They just don't ever really interact the way that they ever should.
16:15But they're fun sets. Ones that I always look forward to putting out, not only just for the
16:19Halloween season, for the Treehouse of Horror, but also this one I put out every single Christmas.
16:24Looking online, I don't even know why I did. Spelt means thin, which I guess would be the best
16:28way to describe this version of Homer. Same head as the one that we got with the Kang and Kodos,
16:32but a lot more spelt. Some assembly was required when putting this together. It's the least
16:37amount of assembly that's required. Literally, you're just taking the backdrop of the living
16:41room set and plugging onto the main base. Now, also, full disclosure, I've got none of the
16:46characters currently attached onto their interactive chips, just because, again, like the way they
16:51spread these a lot of times, they spread them in so much way that there's enough space around each
16:55of the characters. But it usually then means that you have to kind of just finagle getting
16:59other characters around them. For me, when it comes to displaying these, I'd like to think
17:02they're all at least in the living room and they're not being subjected to the cold outside
17:06like Patty and Selma. So I usually just have them avoiding those connecting pegs altogether.
17:11And if anything, I switch it to demo. Then I can just cheat. Anybody wants to come up and see the
17:15set and hear the audio clips, I switch it to demo. And unless you're really looking at the fact that
17:19they're not connected to anything, you really wouldn't be questioning it anyways. I'd like to
17:23think, too, if you're coming over to my house and I'm giving you eggnog and having some snacks, I'm
17:26getting all the hors d'oeuvres ready for the festive season, you're not going to be looking
17:30around at my interactive worlds at Springfield and saying, hey, buddy, while I'm enjoying the
17:34eggnog you've offered me, I couldn't help but notice none of your Simpsons members are actually
17:37connected onto the display base. If that happened, I would say, excuse me, can I just see your glass
17:42for a second? Oh, yeah, here you go. I take the glass. I'd walk him over to the front door. I'd
17:46open the front door and I'd send him on his merry little way. He'd be standing outside in the cold
17:50like Patty and Selma. No, that's not true. I really wouldn't do that. I value friendship at any time
17:55of year, whether it be the Christmas season or not. As a whole, though, the sets never really
18:00work all that well. I've noticed, though, with friends that have had these sets, usually what
18:04they end up doing is they just force the characters down onto the pegs where they want to put them,
18:08and then they just leave them. They don't move them. They don't budge them. They don't even
18:12cough on them, just so that they work the same way as they did the first time that they forced
18:16them. I don't do that because I take these down every year when it comes to holidays of Halloween,
18:21of course Christmas. I take them apart. I put them back in the box. So every year I have the
18:25new struggle, and then I forget how much hassle I have to deal with every holiday until the time
18:31comes that I have to put these on display. What do you guys think of the Interactive World Family
18:35Christmas? Let me know down below in the comments section. Have you collected any Interactive
18:40Worlds? And share your horror stories down below in the comments section. If in the meantime,
18:44though, you guys did enjoy this video, do it a solid throw a like. You guys want to stick around
18:47for more, so I hope so. Hit that subscribe, turn on that bell, but of course the most important
18:52thing is that you're coming back. We may be wrapping up things right now in Springfield
18:56for the season, but there's a lot more Christmas spots coming your way the rest of this month.
18:59As always, thanks for watching. See you guys next time.