Reviews of LEGO 71006-1: The Simpsons House

I have been in the USA 1 time and right at that time, the first full episode of the Simpsons aired. I was around 8 years old and it spoke to me as it did with many others. At writing, 552 episodes (25 seasons) have been released making it the longest running sitcom and animation series. During the run, the series gathered many awards and even a star on the walk of fame. For this event, the 25th anniversary of the Simpsons, there was a deal struck with Lego to bring out a set of the Simpsons. TLG would bring out a house and minifigs and later on, The Simpsons would have a special episode called Brick Like Me . Both were generally well received by the public.

It is true that the Simpsons are having more difficulties to keep the audience happy and I remarked myself that the episodes lost their panache during the years. Nonetheless, this is no reason why the Lego Simpsons wouldn't perform well or be less fun to build.

So the anticipation is pretty high when I sit in front of the box, looking at the family I have gotten to know so close during the last 25 years. The picture on the box looks exactly like the one engraved in my head and I can not wait until I can put Homer in his car with and hum the Simpsons tune along during the build.

Minifigures: 

• Ned Flanders: The overfriendly neighbour of the Simpsons in his bbq outfit. The head seems to be the same as you can find in the polybags but both the torso and PRINTED pants are unique and can only be found in this set. The back is printed aswell showing the cord to tie the skirt. As with all the Simpsons figures, his depictation is true to the series.
• Marge Simpson: In her cooking tenue. The skirt is made of some sort of fabric. I think they could have designed it a bit better since it looks like she's wearing a split skirt looked from the side. The back is printed with the necklace and the back of the skirt. The detail of the figure is pretty good, it's a simple print but everything you need is there including the red necklace. This entire figure is unique to this set.
• Maggy Simpson: I believe that the body of Magy is the same for the polybags as for the set, however her headpiece is slightly altered. Here she looks much more awake. The body and leg part are completely blue, but that is how it is in the series as well so no comment there on detail. Special about Maggy is that she doesn't have a leg part, it is an entire unibody. I doubt this will be used again in later Lego series.
• Lisa Simpson: Probably my favourite figure of the bunch. It has the same type of fabric like the Marge figure. Has the back printed and wears a pants under the skirt. Her facial expresion is really nice albeit a bit sad. Apart from the head part, I don't see that many changes with the ones found in the polybags. 
• Homer Simpson: The pater familias of the Simpsons ready for work. His torso is printed with a nice tie and his badge for work. He does not have a back print and the pants are generic but completely true to the orginal from the series. Both torso and head piece are unique to this set and differ from the polybags.
• Bart Simpson: Again a different headpiece than the polybags, the body looks the same but the back of the torso has a printed catapult in the polybags and not in this set.

A general remark is that Marge, Homer and Bart look a bit sleepy. Perhaps for Homer it is normal but the rest should have their eyes open. I find the 6 minifigs a decent amount and well constructed however, I would have liked for Snowball II and Santa's Little Helper to be included. They are part of the family too imo and shouldn't have been left out.

Unique Parts:

 Apart from the stickers and the printed items, I don't really know what all the unique parts of this set are. I am sure a large part of them are uncommon due to the used colors. Pink, Purple, blue, yellowish... all colors that are not so commonly used in Lego sets (apart from the Friends I assume). Rebrickable mentions there are 450 unique parts/colors.

With 2523 parts, this is a very decent built. I genuinly had a 'wooooow' feeling when I opened the box and poured the content on the table. It is the largest set I built upto now.

Homer's Car

Here as well incredible detail on the car. You can see the front right has the accident marks on it just like the show. There is I believe 1 sticker to depict the radio inside the car and 2 stickers for the license plate. Applying them was not really difficult. The roof is the car is open, which is a bit strange since I didn't think the car had an open roof in the series but  with Marge's hairdue, it was impossible to fit her in. It's a blocky structure, just like the car in the series. It would have been possible to make it a bit more smooth (the hood, trunk) but then again, it still needs to look like Lego so for this. Pretty good job lego. 

It was my girlfriend that completed the car. It was her first build since...a long while and she managed to build it in a respectable time so it was not that hard.

The House

The house itself on display

You first start off with the garage to show you the building techniques. Building the garage was pretty easy and straight forwards due to its geometric form and the lack of real building details (it's a garage meh). Nonetheless, you get a very nice detailed section of Homer's working bench. I build this one myself and again, a very straightforward none to complex build to warm up for the house itself. I was already impressed by the size of the garage and was anxious to start with the house. Some of the tools like the cross, I had not encountered before

 It was when I got to the roof of the garage that I had doubts about the sturdiness of the construction. I had seen some roof constructions for some modular houses but this one was the first I saw like this. I was pretty skeptic.

But it worked like a charm. It looks good and very functional!!!

Perhaps I am easily impressed, so with high anticipation I started with the building of the actually house and it got even better. I had no feeling of being bored or having to do repetitive work for a second. I guess when you see all those nice bright happy colors in front of you, it is difficult not to feel 'happy' and anxious to build.

 The house itself has a modular lay out so it can be folded out and you have 2 parts:

So there are some rooms missing. Maggies room for example is left out and she sleeps in the master bedroom. This is a bit logical tho since if they would have built the entire house, it would have been at least 4k pieces. Perhaps for the Simpsons 40th birthday, they will make an even bigger one. The only thing that was a bit of a negative was the position of the kitchen table and seats. The room provided for these is just too small and you can't enter the door there because the chairs and table are in the way.

The used building techniques are sublime. I looked in awe at the construction of the television set, the piano and the bathroom. All good ideas and executed nicely. it was really fun to construct.

The summum of detail was Bart's room. It is simply gorgeous! I put it a bit larger then the other pics and you'll see why.

Of course Lisa's room and the other rooms have plenty of detail too. But you'll find that out when you actually build it. The antenna on the roof is also a welcome addition and I'm glad this essential part has not been forgotten.

All the rooms have floor tiles aswell in different beautiful flashy colors and that is a large plus too.

In the end, the build did require me to pay some attention, but because of the diversity of colors, it was not that hard. With so many trinkets and minifigures and details, I think this set lends well to kids playing with it. it will probably be the only set of the Simpsons but for a standalone, playability is OK. If there would have been some other sets to combine with this house, I would give it a 9 for playability/build. 

But don't get me wrong, it was a FUN FUN FUN build!!!

This is a licensed theme with 2523 pieces for MSRP 219.99€ (Belgium) bringing it to a total of 8.7c/piece which is below 10 and therefore good in my book. Discounts on this set are rare but they are done. It is weird that some countries have MSRP of 199.99€. that seems to be a better pricing for this item.

Even though the Simpsons is such a popular and long running series, the interest for it is declining. From my nostalgic pov, I would rate it a 10 for popularity but nowadays, I think an 8 would be more suited. 

It took a while to get to the various webshops and B&M in Belgium but not that long. It is fairly easy to get and the stock seems plenty enough.

The front of the box has the depicting of the house, with some Simpsons trees and clouds in the back, giving it that cartoon feeling. The top with the yellow banner and the family on it. Note that here, Santa's little Helper and Snowball II are on the picture. The package doesn't scream "buyyyy meeee" but keeps it rather sober.... and that is how I like it.

The back has the house folded open with the various rooms and eyecatchers on it. Also the entire house lay out is displayed here. Again with the clouds and trees as background. It is a bit more crowded but still a very good job to highlight the man special features.

This is a tricky one.

Yes of course this has growth potential but for how long and how much is the question.

If this is a one off building with a license for a year, I'm sure it will get to a point of double MSRP in early 2017. Will it get much higher?  I doubt it. Now already the Simpsons interest is not what it used to be. The only thing that could boost the sales for this set is another movie...but no rumours yet for this so very uncertain. However it will remain the longest running sitcom/animation series and it does have a closet full of awards so it will certainly make you SOME money the upcoming years.

In general, I have a small room where I clean, sort and build lego's and that is also where I display my sets of my personal collection... but not this one....

This one, in accordance with my girlfriend, has been placed on the dressoir near the large dining table. Both of us grew up with the Simpsons and this set is so well executed that there is no other option then to put it there. It also received many positive comments already of our friends. Most are 25-40 so the Simpsons is also something they grew up with and know.

The picture of it on display can be seen in the playability/building section.

It is a beautiful, large set that can be used to play or display and it handles a theme alot of us carry close to heart. This little yellow family deserved a make in the big yellow family of TLG. It was designed with functionality in mind but not losing the estethic part out of the eye. I read that the exterior seems 'boring' but it looks how it is supposed to look. Just an ordinary family in an ordinary house with a below ordinary car.

Are you a fan of the Simpsons? Buy it and display it. it's worth the money. If you're a minifig collector, there is enough difference between the minifigs in polybags and this one to buy a house. To part it out, I'm not sure if this brings in any money. The used colors are not so ordinary and would fit in more difficult in MOC's I presume.

I am sure there are plenty of other better investments then these, but this set shouldn't be neglected to make some money on the short run ( less then 3 years holding period)