The Collector

In the world of collecting, I have noticed that there are two kinds of people; those that collect and use the things they collect, and those that collect and never touch the things they collect. I would describe myself as being more of the collector that never touches the things I collect, though I do have my exceptions. An icon of mine that I admire for this very trait of never ever opening up the things he collects is The Collector, aka Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

The Collector first made his debut in Treehouse of Horror X. In the episode Comic Book Guy becomes a villain who takes his hobby to extremes by collecting real life individuals. Unfortunately the Collector does lose to Bart and Lisa, and even mistakenly opens up an extremely rare and expensive collectable, noooo. That episode was hilarious, and I loved the super hero/villain treatment Comic Book Guy received. He also gave a voice to us collectors that love things to be mint in box.

I’ve always wanted to buy the version of the Collector that Playmates Toys made, but it was out of my budget for what I was willing to pay. Then early last month (September) I heard that Burger King would be coming out with the Simpsons kid’s meal toy, and that it would include a version of the Collector. This got me real excited, because I would finally be able to add him to my collection.

The toy is nicely painted, and bright colours were used to make him stand out. On the back of the figure there is a switch and button that activates a red light, so that you are able to read a secret code or image on a brick wall. Unfortunately my toy’s light didn’t work, but it wasn’t so bad because eventually these added features stop working anyway. Regardless of that, I am glad to now add the Collector to my collection of the Simpsons Burger King toys (right beside Comic Book Guy).

Burger King:

www.bk.com

Comic Book Guy Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Book_Guy

YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XmlHYseRCc

Ralph Wiggum

The expression ‘an elephant in the room’ has been used several times by people to describe a reality that people hate acknowledging. When it comes to The Simpsons that elephant took over the room more than 10 years ago, then became a woolly mammoth that took over the village, than a brontosaurus that destroyed the city, and is now Godzilla. Of course the elephant or the reality I am referring to is the lack of originality and humour that has surrounded The Simpsons for more than a decade. The show simply sucks now. The jokes are dry, storylines are written by lazy writers that look to gossip shows for inspiration, characters aren’t faithful to their original idiosyncrasies, and too many episodes are dedicated to boring Lisa or Marg. Case in point: whenever Homer breaks their heart and has to spend an entire episode trying to make it up to them by showing them how much he loves them.

Fortunately re-runs and DVD’s take me back to the good old days when the show was brilliant. I call this ‘the Phil Hartman slash Conan O'Brien slash traditional cell animation slash still has some balls’ days. I figure as long as I stick to watching these classic episodes from season1-9 (and some exceptions from later seasons) this show will always be gold. Besides Homer my favourite character from the show is Ralph Wiggum. (Though I can’t forget Lionel Hutz, Comic Book Guy, Jimbo Jones, Bart Simpson, Homer’s monkey, etc...) For some reason I have always liked the dumb slow characters on shows; such as Butters on South Park and Bobby from King of the Hill.

When the Simpsons first appeared in the late 80’s early 90’s merchandise from the show was everywhere. From t-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, underwear, video games, pyjamas, and music CD’s just to name a few. Though toys were also made it wasn’t until the year 2000 when Playmates came out with a line that became popular and continued for numerous series. This line gained momentum when it became collectable because people started buying them in multiples and collecting every character. I remember the one character I wanted to buy was impossible to get, Ralph Wiggum.

Yet this collectable period was short lived because as the show declined in quality so did it start to lose numerous fans, and as such resulted in a wave of discount sell-off of figures on eBay. I took advantage of this wave last year by finally being able to purchase a Ralph Wiggum toy for real cheap. Ralph’s accessories include a bottle rocket, keys, school books and a Radioactive Man comic book. The toy itself is well done with the paint job not having any mistakes, and the sculpture being true to what Ralph looks like. I’m really glad I was finally able to add him to my collection, and hope to add more World of Springfield characters later on.

World of Springfield toys:
http://figures.nohomers.net/
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_51nQxahcs

The Simpsons Tattoos

One of my favorite shows of all time has always been the Simpsons. I still remember as a child waiting patiently all week until Thursday night when Fox would air new episodes and I would fire up my VCR. Over the years the show did start to lose its magic as the comedy became dry and very banal. But regardless my love for the show has kept me a faithful viewer throughout the years, and now decades. Of course some people show their love by taking it to the next level, and actually getting Simpsons tattoos. Here are some cool one’s I found on-line.

Now I would never consider having a Simpsons tattoo, but if I had to choose one I think I would definitely get one of Evil Homer.