Review: 5009325 The Simpsons Living Room
Posted by CapnRex101,
The Simpsons' living room is certainly a famous location from the animated series, appearing in the opening sequence and nearly every episode! Even so, 5009325 The Simpsons Living Room is an unexpected choice to accompany 10352 The Simpsons: Krusty Burger.
After all, these settings have limited association onscreen, so perhaps there were better options available. On the other hand, the diorama looks great at first glance and includes a couple of exclusive printed parts.
Summary
5009325 The Simpsons Living Room, 123 pieces.
This is a nice model overall, but a confusing companion for Krusty Burger
- Accurate colours* and furniture
- Lovely printed elements
- *Awful colour consistency
- Couch should be extended
- Odd choice to accompany Krusty Burger
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The Completed Model
The living room earlier appeared in 71006 The Simpsons House and was quite detailed there, although some compromises were required to accommodate minifigures. They are not such a concern here, so the proportions of the room are more accurate to the animated series and the colour scheme is much better, thanks to vibrant coral walls and the reintroduction of teal.
While the model is minifigure-scale, no characters are included and the couch only seats one, which surprises me. I understand not making space for the whole family, but surely it could be extended by a stud, giving room for two. Otherwise, the rug, lamps and telephone all look good, but the highlight is the famous sailing boat painting on the wall, printed on a 2x4 tile.
The television looks excellent too. Detail is limited at this scale, but the colours, antennas and dials correspond with its appearance in early seasons of The Simpsons. Furthermore, the 2x3 tile forming the screen is exclusive and the printed advertisement provides some connection to Krusty Burger, at least.
Vibrant coral is an ideal choice for the wall, but these bricks suffer from incredibly poor colour consistency, unfortunately. I know this is a shade LEGO struggles with sometimes, but this is truly egregious. Additionally, I wish the designer had used a brick with one stud on the side to attach the painting, rather than two, so it could be angled as it normally is onscreen.
Overall
5009325 The Simpsons Living Room is a strange set. The model is definitely accurate to the animated series and takes full advantage of colours introduced, or reintroduced, since 71006 The Simpsons House was produced in 2014. I love the printed painting and all the furnishings look nice, although I think the couch should be longer.
However, I struggle to understand why the living room was produced as the gift-with-purchase specific to 10352 The Simpsons: Krusty Burger. The two are basically unconnected and I think there is a chance LEGO will revisit the Simpsons' house pretty soon, making this obsolete. The circular stage from Krustylu Studios or even Krusty's clown car would be better options, in my opinion.
This set is currently available with the purchase of 10352 The Simpsons: Krusty Burger at LEGO.com, until June 7th or while stocks last.
Thanks to Huw for the photos in this review.
121 likes
56 comments on this article
Thank you for the review! It has some lovely printed pieces but, my gosh, someone call quality control about those coral bricks! Yeeks!
Needs some kind of gag for the couch. maybe in this case the family members disappear or get transformed into small objects.
I appreciate that having the sofa big enough to fit the whole family would not be feasible, but it clearly isn't as wide as it should be, looking at the source material. Even one stud wider might be acceptable, and that would enable two minifigs to sit on the sofa, rather than one.
@tne328 said:
"Needs some kind of gag for the couch. maybe in this case the family members disappear or get transformed into small objects."
Someone will make a stop motion of them trying to squeeze on and break into their loose elements or something like that
It is at least good, as a fan of Lego Star Wars, to register that sucky GWPs have, at least temporarily, moved on to other themes.
Aside from the printed tiles, this is a pretty poor effort. Thanks for the review, though!
That couch, either do it properly so that it can fit the family or don't do it at all. Shame on you Lego, you can do better, especially for a GWP!
If that was makeup or nail polish, those coral bricks would be considered at least 3 different colors.
I definitely prefer the light purple used for the TV in 71202 , and as someone who missed the house and can't justify the cost of Krusty Burger, it's good to have a cheap way to represent the theme (once parted out) (without the sailboat painting probably) But yeah, that couch is a problem, and I appreciate the color consistency being called out.
I'd like to believe such egregious color inconsistencies happen because they actually pay a human being to mix the dye in, but when it's probably robots... unacceptable.
@ekayto said:
"Thank you for the review! It has some lovely printed pieces but, my gosh, someone call quality control about those coral bricks! Yeeks!"
Its sad when KO sets have better quality....
Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building which was used to capture video and audio signals that were transmitted over the air.
Crazy technology for the time, and it was free!
@xurotaryrocket said:
" @ekayto said:
"Thank you for the review! It has some lovely printed pieces but, my gosh, someone call quality control about those coral bricks! Yeeks!"
Its sad when KO sets have better quality...."
Funny really, because I actually bought a Lepin copy of the Green Grocer years ago, and colour matching there was excellent. And that was indeed a true Knockoff set.
But to be fair, while in this case the colour matching is truly awful, other manufacturers seem to struggle in that regard as well these days in some cases. I guess most of them buy their raw ABS and dyes from the same manufacturers as LEGO.
That color consistency is downright shameful. LEGO is quickly being surpassed in the quality department by its peers, while seemingly every set is overpriced.
Something needs to change...
It is a shame they missed the opportunity to do the picture at an angle. The brick doesn't even match anyway, so they could have used any 1 stud on side brick.
The sofa is tricky, to make it longer means missing out the side builds or extending the room to 13 wide. If they added one stud, then the rug would also need an extra stud to keep it centred. And that means more smaller tiles. So might as well do 14 wide instead.
I'm not concerned about the link with the main model. Smeagol and Deagol doesn't fit with The Shire and they put 'special' figures in SW sets that have no link whatsoever.
@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building which was used to capture video and audio signals that were transmitted over the air.
Crazy technology for the time, and it was free!"
It was free to receive here, but you still had to pay for a license to use the equipment
As has often been the case with recent specific set linked GWPs this is OK, but certainly less than I would want for a £180 threshold.
Specific set GWPs need accompanying with non specific theme GWPs that can be stacked (like the 3 with Endurance).
A very lacklustre, maybe £70 threshold GWP with a £180 set just says 'wait for something better'.
@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building..."
The antenna is mounted on top of the TV.
The set uses five of 1x1 brick with stud on the side to attach the knobs and screen. Rather than add in another part type of a plain 1x1, the designer reused the 1x1 with stud on the side. It's the same reason why 1x1 technic bricks sometimes get used with the holes hidden, if they're needed in other spots while plain 1x1 bricks aren't.
@FuddRuckus said:
" @Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building..."
The antenna is mounted on top of the TV.
The set uses five of 1x1 brick with stud on the side to attach the knobs and screen. Rather than add in another part type of a plain 1x1, the designer reused the 1x1 with stud on the side."
That was my conclusion as well.
@Huw said:
" @FuddRuckus said:
" @Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building..."
The antenna is mounted on top of the TV.
The set uses five of 1x1 brick with stud on the side to attach the knobs and screen. Rather than add in another part type of a plain 1x1, the designer reused the 1x1 with stud on the side."
That was my conclusion as well."
It's both. They avoided adding another piece type to yhe set, AND portrayed the hookup for a rooftop antenna.
The color-matching issue is interesting. I see two primary shades: an orange-y one that both 1x2 and 1x4 bricks possess, and a pinkish one only visible in some 1x4s. Seeing as the orange-y shade matches the tiles on top and thus comes in more elements, that's probably the correct shade, and the darker pinkish shade is off. It seems like a batch issue.
I encountered a similar issue when building my Blue Shell (40787); the left angled half bows (https://brickset.com/parts/6507847/plate-2x2x2-3-half-bow-w-cut-left) were a darker shade of blue than the right variants. When building 72034, however, I don't recall finding the same issue between those pairs of elements (in either dark grey or green).
The element consistency of the color inconsistency suggests to me that certain elements got a bad mixture of ABS when molded, but LEGO's QC for elements destined for GWPs/VIP sets is maybe lower than for regular retail sets (not that it should be, but maybe rushed production is a factor here?) and these batch errors slip by.
Should've included Maggie and Marge, so at least you would've gotten the full family when buying the Krusty Burger set. Not that they'll fit on that tiny excuse for a couch, though.
No minifigs is acceptable if the build is truly inspired. But this just feels like the most meh idea and the design just isn't really creative at all
@The_Boba_Brick said:
"That color consistency is downright shameful. LEGO is quickly being surpassed in the quality department by its peers, while seemingly every set is overpriced.
Something needs to change... "
Unfortunately, I believe the only thing that will drive change is a severe reduction in revenue that smacks the bottom line hard. Otherwise, why would TLG care?
@tne328 said:
"Needs some kind of gag for the couch. maybe in this case the family members disappear or get transformed into small objects."
They could have include 5 nano figures and at least (somewhat) reproduce the Simpsons being miniaturized in one to the couch gags: https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Miniature_couch_gag
A much larger diorama of this would be pretty cool.
@shaase said:
" @tne328 said:
"Needs some kind of gag for the couch. maybe in this case the family members disappear or get transformed into small objects."
They could have include 5 nano figures and at least (somewhat) reproduce the Simpsons being miniaturized in one to the couch gags: https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Miniature_couch_gag"
Not only would that have made more sense, it would have made the GWP very enticing!
I don't understand why it is numbered 5009325, when the box has 6578425 on the box.
I have the same colour inconsistency on the Pixar Lamp. The 2 yellow globe pieces are a totally different shade from each other.
Can any of our LEGO Ambassdors here re-escalate this color consistency thing to LEGO? The photos above are unbelievably embarrassing.
Weird choice of a GWP , timing wise, with no Marge or Maggie in sets for 10 years.
And no, not this Marge : 76451 Privet Drive: Aunt Marge's Visit
So I go to look up "Couch Gag" on TV Tropes (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CouchGag) and the article image is... Futurama. Anyway, I have no intention of getting this set or the one it's associated with (I only bought 71005 for the pieces below the neck, I have no interest in The Simpsons otherwise), but I want that painting tile.
I've honestly never had any issues with Coral being inconsistent so this is really surprising to see to this degree!
@The_Cellarer said:
"It is at least good, as a fan of Lego Star Wars, to register that sucky GWPs have, at least temporarily, moved on to other themes.
Aside from the printed tiles, this is a pretty poor effort. Thanks for the review, though!"
It's not patches, but it's pretty close. No thanks.
@brickwich said:
"I'd like to believe such egregious color inconsistencies happen because they actually pay a human being to mix the dye in, but when it's probably robots... unacceptable."
Great-grandma Kristiansen stays up late at night in her thatched cottage on the edge of the wilds of the Danish Highlands working her knobby, arthritic fingers to the bone each night, whilst the world sleeps, mixing by hand the secret paint, dye, and plastic mixture needed for each day's work so that you can enjoy your precious plastic toys.
Yes, there are some minor issues that only an insensitive troglodyte would complain about. This is the unfortunate result of her tuberculotoc sputum being added as she slowly coughs her life away in the sweet diligence to her craft.
Have you no shame, man?!
@560heliport said:
" @Huw said:
" @FuddRuckus said:
" @Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building..."
The antenna is mounted on top of the TV.
The set uses five of 1x1 brick with stud on the side to attach the knobs and screen. Rather than add in another part type of a plain 1x1, the designer reused the 1x1 with stud on the side."
That was my conclusion as well."
It's both. They avoided adding another piece type to yhe set, AND portrayed the hookup for a rooftop antenna."
Old floor model tvs could still have connections for cable and external antennas. However, the connections were usually screw terminals- the type where wire would need to be wound around a screw and tightened.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_terminal
Size would've been fine if they put in elements representing each character since they kept the couch so small to seat only one figure:
Skateboard
Baby bottle
Donut
Purse
Saxophone
@Huw said:
"That was my conclusion as well."
@560heliport said:
"They avoided adding another piece type to yhe set, AND portrayed the hookup for a rooftop antenna."
@StyleCounselor said:
"Old floor model tvs could still have connections for cable and external antennas."
The TV was orange in Season 1 and we never saw the back of it. They switched to a purple TV from Season 2 onward, and the top-mounted antenna plugs directly into the back port on the top left. They finally got a flat screen in Season 20, but kept the antenna:
https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_couch_gags
This set made me not buy the Krusty Burger set
1. Strange idea for a gwp
2. One needs to buy multiple to extend the room
3. That purple brick bugs me off so much
4. Overall, a bad gwp.
@Krutak said:
"2. One needs to buy multiple to extend the room"
To extend any set you need to buy multiple. Or you can just use other similar, widely available LEGO bricks if you want something bigger.
@p3co said:
"This set made me not buy the Krusty Burger set"
If you don't like the themed GWP then you can wait until there is a regular price threshold GWP and get that instead. Or just wait until the promo is over and not get a GWP forced on you.
@p3co said:
"This set made me not buy the Krusty Burger set"
Huh? Why? Never heard of anyone who cares about a gwp more than the main set. Weird.
The first Postcard I got had poor colour consistency in the blue tiles and it’s rather wonderful because it made the sky look almost natural and realistic; not something generally possible in microscale. I was even a bit disappointed when the next two Postcards had perfectly uniform blues. But skies and sitting room walls don’t have much in common when it comes to colour variance, and it’s a real shame that the lovely coral bricks and the build are marred by a mistake.
@ToysFromTheAttic said:
"Should've included Maggie and Marge, so at least you would've gotten the full family when buying the Krusty Burger set. Not that they'll fit on that tiny excuse for a couch, though."
Came here to say this.
@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building which was used to capture video and audio signals that were transmitted over the air.
Crazy technology for the time, and it was free!"
free? Not in Belgium....
@transamman6585 said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic said:
"Should've included Maggie and Marge, so at least you would've gotten the full family when buying the Krusty Burger set. Not that they'll fit on that tiny excuse for a couch, though."
Came here to say this."
Haha, I'll write you down for +1 then.
@BelgianBricker said:
" @Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building which was used to capture video and audio signals that were transmitted over the air.
Crazy technology for the time, and it was free!"
free? Not in Belgium...."
I guess I always assumed over the airwaves TV was generally free for most countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-air
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_television
@CCC said:
" @Krutak said:
"2. One needs to buy multiple to extend the room"
To extend any set you need to buy multiple. Or you can just use other similar, widely available LEGO bricks if you want something bigger."
Widely available? As if coral pieces in these exact colors are that easy to find.....
@CCC said:
" @Krutak said:
"2. One needs to buy multiple to extend the room"
To extend any set you need to buy multiple. Or you can just use other similar, widely available LEGO bricks if you want something bigger."
Highly doubt that those are widely avaliable...
@Krutak said:
" @p3co said:
"This set made me not buy the Krusty Burger set"
Huh? Why? Never heard of anyone who cares about a gwp more than the main set. Weird."
I guess what I mean by this is that I was ready to get the Krusty Burger set, but I was questioning the value. A really good gift with purchase would have put it over the top for me, while a lackluster one like this made me rethink the need to get it. At least for now.
@p3co said:
" @Krutak said:
" @p3co said:
"This set made me not buy the Krusty Burger set"
Huh? Why? Never heard of anyone who cares about a gwp more than the main set. Weird."
I guess what I mean by this is that I was ready to get the Krusty Burger set, but I was questioning the value. A really good gift with purchase would have put it over the top for me, while a lackluster one like this made me rethink the need to get it. At least for now. "
Understandable.
But if I were you I wouldn't focus on the additional stuff that TLG tries to convince us with and just kind of "listen to my heart" or something like that...
@FuddRuckus said:
" @Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building..."
The antenna is mounted on top of the TV.
The set uses five of 1x1 brick with stud on the side to attach the knobs and screen. Rather than add in another part type of a plain 1x1, the designer reused the 1x1 with stud on the side. It's the same reason why 1x1 technic bricks sometimes get used with the holes hidden, if they're needed in other spots while plain 1x1 bricks aren't."
If you had a TV that was designed to be used with a rabbit ear antenna, those would usually connect with a pair of screws that would clamp down on split spade connectors coming from the rabbit ears (usually, these would be two wires separated ~1/4" by being molded into the sides of plastic "tape"). A coaxial port might also be provided for connecting a rooftop antenna. Alternately, some TV sets only accepted VHF input through the coax, and UHF required the use of rabbit ears.
@BLProductions:
For several years now, they've been doing in-line coloring, so they only order neutral ABS. Most instances of color inconsistency seem to be with highly saturated colors, where even a teensy variance in either the batch of pigment, or how much is being added, will have a noticeable impact on the final color. If it was the base ABS that was the issue, you'd see this more frequently across even less saturated colors.
@Zeitgeist:
I refer to those as thief-beater phones, because of how heavy they were. Regarding the dialing, 911 was picked in the US because 1 is pretty quick to dial, but adding a 9 makes it much less likely that you'll get a misdial. The N11 numbers were all reserved for service lines, but if you don't get the dial all the way around to the 9, you might accidentally dial 811 (underground public utility location). Making it the last of the N11 numbers makes it less likely that the lines will get tied up by a bunch of misdials, causing legit calls to get a busy signal.
@StyleCounselor:
Rabbit ears never just had bare wire that needed to be wound around the screws. They always had a type of rigid metal connector shaped like a "Y", frequently with bent tips that would catch on the clamp plate to prevent the connector from being pulled free.
@yellowcastle:
Broadcast TV is never truly free. In the US, we pay for it by having ads eat up ~25% of the timeslot. In the UK, they have to pay a tax on every TV set in the home. One of the key differences appears to be that in the US, TV networks are for-profit companies, where the BBC is funded by the British government. The airwaves are considered public property in the US, so to justify being granted exclusive rights to a particular frequency, TV stations in the US have to include in their broadcast lineup some amount of educational programming for kids, and some amount of news programming for the purpose of keeping the public informed.
Ay carumba! What gives man? When you see other GWP in the past like 40659, 40579, 40761 or 40532 you wonder why they didn't try harder to make a deal-breaker set for such a highly anticipated Simpsons set. Does anyone know what the Kwik-E-Mart or Simpsons house GWP were?? For me, a good GWP is what pushes (and rewards) the loyalty to purchase at Lego directly and get points. But a lacklustre set in both scale and execution doesn't do the customer any justice. D'oh!
@ShilohCyan:
Assuming there isn’t a lighting issue involved, I can see as many as six different shades, in the back view. The lower four layers have one shade of pink and another of orange. These are also the lightest shades, which is why I’m wondering if lighting is a factor. The orange in the fifth layer is just slightly darker. The seventh layer orange is even darker. And the end of the side brick on the sixth layer is the darkest orange. The pink in the upper three layers is pretty uniformly a darker shade than the lower four layers, but I’m only seeing two shades of pink.
@Euroseb11 said:
"Does anyone know what the Kwik-E-Mart or Simpsons house GWP were??"
I don’t think there were any. Not exclusive GWPs like this, at least. Looking at the tag, besides those two sets, the first CMF wave launched a few months after the house, the second CMF wave on the same day as the Kwik-E-Mart, and otherwise there were only Brickheadz and Dimensions packs.
@Euroseb11 said:
"Ay carumba! What gives man? When you see other GWP in the past like 40659, 40579, 40761 or 40532 you wonder why they didn't try harder to make a deal-breaker set for such a highly anticipated Simpsons set. Does anyone know what the Kwik-E-Mart or Simpsons house GWP were?? For me, a good GWP is what pushes (and rewards) the loyalty to purchase at Lego directly and get points. But a lacklustre set in both scale and execution doesn't do the customer any justice. D'oh! "
True. Nevertheless, everything I said was also accurate. I speak from experience
Not everything was as it should be. Many things were hot-wired.
@JukEboX said:
"I don't understand why it is numbered 5009325, when the box has 6578425 on the box."
the first number is the client product number and the second number 6578425 is the lego internal number. the same GWP with two numbers
@Rare_White_Ape said:
"Eagle eyed observers will note the antenna connection on the back of the tv.
For anyone born since 2007, an antenna was a metal device mounted to the roof of a building which was used to capture video and audio signals that were transmitted over the air.
Crazy technology for the time, and it was free!"
I still have an antennae, albeit a modern version. But it grabs some free channels if I ever needed to. I haven't hooked it up in a while, but I was able to grab the main channels that fall under the free category.