It was a lull in between appointments in 1996 when I popped into a comic book store in Sacramento’s Downtown Plaza. At the time I wasn’t a comic book collector or reader but I spied this fifty cent size slug that had the image of the mug shot of O.J. Simpson with the outline of Bart Simpson’s hairline on O.J.’s head. It was a clever homage to Bart’s denial of mischievousness, “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove anything”.
O.J. and Bart
O.J. Simpson, Bart hair line. A pog slammer I saw at a comic book store started be collecting The Simpsons in 1996.
The O.J. image on the slammer piece, part of the POG game raging with young boys at the time, was not an official use of The Simpsons brand. However, I recognized instantly how The Simpsons animated show had invaded the daily conscienceless of our society with its unique brand social satire and parody. At that point, the switch was turned on to collecting as much The Simpsons ephemera, books and merchandise as possible.
OCD Simpsons collecting
Over the next ten years I would be a fairly ardent collector of any Simpsons’ item that fell within my budget and appealed to my sense of humor. Along the way, friends and family would use my affliction to give me Simpsons related birthday cards, Christmas gifts and Simpsons “crap” they no longer wanted. There was a time when I could scour dollar stores, yard sales and flea markets for overstock and severely discounted Simpsons merchandise and find some real gems. Those days are long gone.
Unsold Simpsons were my treasure
Some of my prize finds came from little stores that had early character figures, toy cars or magazines that had been
Early Bart Simpson suction cupped window sign most often found in minivans for some reason.
sitting on the shelf for years, dusty and faded by sun light. On a visit to Minnesota in the summer of 1996 I walked out of a little five and dime store with two bags of Simpsons junk that the owner was happy to see leave even at the severe discount.
Evolving Simpsons animation
I remember watching the first Simpson family shorts, with their crude animated drawings, on the Tracy Ullman show. The Fox network picked up Matt Groening’s cartoon and turned it into a half hour show we know today as The Simpsons. By the time I started collecting Simpsons stuff the character drawings had gone through a couple of iterations until they were the smoother and more refined animated images we see today.
Mass produce Simpsons
Homer wall clock, one of many such clocks I own of The Simpsons
From my perspective, merchandise that reflects the evolution of the character images are more valuable than the mass produced crap meant primarily to profit from the show as opposed to celebrate the satirical elements of life in Springfield. Fox rode the wave of the shows popularity licensing the Simpson character images into the very junk the Simpson’s parodied on the show; cheap Chinese made crap. Crap that I gleefully bought.
Europeans loved Bart
It’s interesting that while American religious conservatives were condemning the show for its lack of family
Les Simpson french language edition comic book.
values and good role models in the 1990’s, audiences in the U.K. and France were eager fans. Consequently, there were many different merchandise items made to cross over in to the British and French market. I have a few pieces but I wish I had more, like the French language comic book and stickers.
Marketing evolution
Not only has the show’s characters undergone an evolution of design, the different marketing and merchandise have also adapted over the years. Before the show really gained nationwide acceptance and popularity, most of the merchandise was directed toward die hard fans that really connected and appreciated the The Simpsons form of comedy and social commentary. An early work was Simpsons Illustrated that was a mixture of behind the scenes information and Simpson drawn comedy. The readership was probably small and I have only found a couple years worth of Simpson Illustrated.
Can we talk Bart
A constant challenge for The Simpsons merchandise was how to achieving the interaction with the audience that people wanted. We not only wanted to watch the show, we wanted to hear and see The Simpsons with their snarky humor in our daily lives. This desire to have a sensory relationship with the cartoon characters led to talking watches, plush toys, clocks and ultimately an interactive diorama of various scenes and audio. The interactive recreation of animated sets with snippets of character lines in the mid-2000 really made me stop and rethink my collection hobby. The sets were bulky, hard to store and of limited laughs.
Diorama scenes missed the point
Someplace, I still have one or two of the dioramas, but I gave the bulk of them away years ago because they failed to really embody the spirit of The Simpsons for me. There were also various screen savers and computer games that were kind of fun, but not tangible. I don’t want the Simpsons family in my computer, I want them sitting next to me on the couch.
Food fit for the Simpsons
Through the late 1990’s and mid-2000’s The Simpsons were plastered and licensed to a variety of food stuffs. From breakfast cereal,
KrustyO’s cereal sans the metal parts and worms. I licked off the frosting and threw the cereal away it tasted so bad.
cheese sticks and juice boxes, The Simpsons seemed to be everywhere. Some of the co-branded products were fun and I wonder if Matt Groening wasn’t playing a joke on some of the manufacturers. Like the KrustO’s cereal box that showed worms and sharp metal shards in a bowl of KrustyO’s, what parent would actually buy that cereal for their child? Groening got his money up front, designed the box cover that parodied the product, and laughed all the way to the bank. You have to appreciate that sort of subtle humor.
Big yellow Homer
As the interest in Bart “bad boy” Simpson dissipated, Homer’s character, by chance or designed, blossomed. The central focus shifted from Bart merchandise to more Homer merchandising. Of course, young men who had grown up with The Simpsons were now becoming fathers, like me, and subtly identified with Homer the drunk, donut eating slouch of a father. Most of the Homer paraphernalia I have was given to me as presents, but I did buy the Homer watch.
Collectible or dust collector?
Mr. Burns haunted mansion Halloween series with Mr. Burns as the vampire. Lights up with nice detail for spooky Simpsons Halloween specials, brings them to life.
Early in the The Simpsons phenomenon manufactures of “collectibles” such as the Franklin Mint started churning out merchandise. Most of the plates, figurines, and houses are not necessarily collectible. They appeal to people like me who have this obsessive compulsive disorder to buy everything related to the genre we collect. Fortunately, The Simpsons creative design team was able to have real input with some of the products so the essence of the humor is transmitted. Unlike some of the horrible mass produced plush toys that only slightly resemble the actual characters, collectibles like the Halloween series of haunted Simpson buildings really reflect the gags of the Tree House of Horror Halloween specials.
Exploiting holidays, The Simpsons tradition
Holidays have always been a popular merchandising area for the Simpsons. The major holidays of Christmas, Valentines Day, and Halloween have been infused with Simpsons’ products. Valentines Day has been the hardest to preserve because not eating that solid chocolate Homer Simpson head is a mortal sin in my house. I do have an inflatable Homer Simpson as Vampire with internal lights. The pull over Bart and Krusty the Clown vinyl head masks are neat but terribly hot. On a cool Halloween evening, wearing one of the helmet heads produces copious amounts of sweat and light headedness as you breath too much of your own carbon dioxide because of the lack of ventilation.
Subversion comic books
I really enjoyed collecting the comic books and trading cards. Bongo Comics was set up as a separate business with the license to
Lisa Comic book series. I collected a few.
produce Simpsons’ comic books outside of Fox. Bongo seemed like a natural progression from the early Simpsons Illustrated to a product that fans of the comedy could enjoy in pulp version. The comic books are essentially a small version of the show but with an entirely new plot line. All the gags, satire and social commentary are present in the comic books.
I’ll trade you a Bart for a Milhouse
The success of The Simpson comic books spawned other lines, sometimes limited issues, of Bartman, Radioactive Man, Lisa, Krusty and Itchy and Scratchy comic books. Another staple of the comic book world are trading cards. The two series of The Simpsons trading cards were really fun and addictive to collect. The premium cards like the holograms, motion cards, or specially autographed editions were always kick in the pants when I got one in a pack.
Autographed Dan Castellaneta card…cool man
Autographed The Simpsons trading card by Dan Castellaneta, voice of Homer.
Because of the limited quantity of the premium cards, you almost have to turn to eBay to collect all of them. While I purchased some Simpsons’ stuff off eBay, it was to much of an admission that I had a problem with my collection obsession. Plus, it was always more fun to find a new piece at a store or garage sale. Half the fun of collecting is the hunt.
Your fascinated, I can tell
For some reason I got the bug to pull out all 9 different storage bins of The Simpsons crap and put together this blog post. My photos and commentary are not meant to be a historical retrospective of Simpson merchandise. Some of the photos really suck. While I still buy some Simpsons stuff on occasion like the Kidrobots, I have largely stopped collecting. When I say collecting, I mean making sure that I have at least one representative of each item issued, two is better, in a series. I still enjoy the show when I have a chance to catch it.
Growing up Simpsonized
My son has grown up with The Simpsons and at 15 years old completely understands the humor. While he is only one boy who grew up
Inflatable Homer Simpson as vampire.
watching The Simpsons, he has not been corrupted by Bart into a slacker or malcontent like some people told us would happen. Somewhat to the contrary, although perhaps just as alarming to the conservatives, my son plays the saxophone and is a vegetarian like Lisa.
Giant yard sale next week
Unless you offer me a tremendous amount of money for my Simpsons collection,which I would happily consider, my son will be the recipient of all my Simpson crap. Upon his inheritance of all my Simpsons collection I will assume that he will probably have a yard sale and sell it for pennies on the dollar. And that is probably the way it should be in the karma of The Simpsons.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge or reduce my crummy photos. Because there were so many pics, I set a pretty low resolution in order for them to load quicker on the site and they have a tendency to pixilate. This is not my entire collection, but some of the highlights or lowlights.
Moleskine Dancing Homer
I made this little animated GIF from the inside of a ribbon on a The Simpsons Moleskine journal I received for Father’s Day.
