Bartman (Simpsons (Super7)) Review

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Bartman (Simpsons (Super7)) Review

Bartman
Simpsons (Super7) (Super7)When Super7 announced they got the Simpsons license, I was excited, as was many others. The idea of a fully-articulated Simpsons line with tons of accessories was neat, but over time, some of the initial excitement died down when it became clear Super7 was focusing more on various characters than the main family, let alone in their regular outfits. They announced a while back that they would begin making the regular family beginning in wave five, but unfortunately, Disney pulled the license and dropped the company, cutting the line short and preventing the fans from getting what they really wanted. Aye carumba.

On the brighter side, Super7 still had three waves they were able to release, with waves two and three out now, and wave four should be here soon. And more good news, Jakks Pacific recently announced they got the license, with some figures and more coming out later this year. Until that happens, I may as well look over what's left of the S7 line, starting with my most anticipated release.

Like with Homer in the first wave, Super7 chose to do Bart in a specific outfit rather than plain ol' Bart. In this case, it's Bartman, his heroic alter ego. The sculpt looks great on him, namely the heads. As with most Ultimates, Bart has three portraits: a gritted teeth head (which sorta reminds me of the old Playmates figure), a smug smile, and a worried head. The heads fit his personality perfectly, and benefit from mostly clean paint. However, the mask edges are sculpted to stand out a bit from the head, so don't expect to be able to repaint any of them into regular Bart.

Bartman is one of the smaller figures in the line, and one of the smaller Ultimates in general, standing just 4 3/4" tall. This puts him in scale with the adults, and such a thing is important for lines with both kids and adults. The body sculpt is pretty good, and the simple design is easy to recreate in three dimensions (especially since it's been done countless times before), but his arms are slightly lower on the torso than they should be. The paint's good aside from a few minor blemishes, but I noticed they forgot to paint the spots on his shoes. Completing the Bartman look is a wired fabric cape and a controller belt. The belt comes from The Simpsons Game, and is a nice deep-cut extra. It tends to be upside down on him in the box, but it can slide off easily and be refit the correct way, fitting snugly around the bottom of the shirt.

The articulation is about the same as wave one, but it seems Super7 improved on it a bit. Bartman has a barbell head and waist, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles, and ball-jointed hips. The joints moved with no issues, being tight enough to hold a pose without the need to heat anything up to get moving, and there's plenty of range in them. I didn't expect the head or waist to get a ton of movement, but they turn and tilt great. The heads take a bit of work to swap out, but you shouldn't need any heat to do so. The hips are the only limited area, as they can't kick forward all the way, but it's no big deal.

Bartman is smaller than the others, but still costs $55, so plenty of extras are needed to justify the cost. In addition to the interchangeable heads, he has four sets of hands - splayed, relaxed, gripping, and closed - along with an extra right holding a wad of cash, and they swap with no issues. For Bart's usual mischief, he gets his slingshot and skateboard. The slingshot is sculpted as if it's ready to fire, and the arm articulation works great with it. The skateboard has rolling wheels, but they don't so much roll as they do just turn, though the foot peg helps give Bart some stability on it, good for more dynamic poses.

Although the outfit may have existed beforehand, it made its in-show debut in "Three Men and a Comic Book," where he created the persona to get a admission discount for a comic convention (it didn't work). Of course, Super7 had to included extras related to the episode, most namely the first issue of Radioactive Man. The printing on it is good, but it's a little bigger than it should be. Sadly, Bart, Milhouse, and Martin's inability to share the $100 comic led to its end, as it's torn up by Santa's Little Helper. The pooch is included here with the comic in his mouth, with great sculpt and paint, and he's in proper scale with Bart. His neck and shoulders turn, allowing you to adjust the pose a bit. Then there's the comic's fate: being used to build a bird nest. The sculpt and texture on the nest is also good, with the final panel of the comic clearly shown. The image isn't very clean, but it's probably the best they can do at this size.

Bartman has proven to be the best in the line, if not one of the best Simpsons figures period. While there are a couple issues, the great look, articulation, and plenty of accessories makes him one worth picking up. It's a shame Super7 lost the license before they could get the most wanted characters out, since they did better than usual with it, but what Jakks has in-store so far looks great, and I'm sure they'll do more justice for the series than S7 has.

- 3/22/24