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DWS AND HALLOWEEN HavoK 2K24 PRESENTS... THE SIMPSONS HALLOWEEN HEAD-TO-HEAD SPECIAL


by Scrooge McSuck

Simpsons Halloween Head-to-Head

Welcome back to Halloween HavoK 2024! Have we really done this tradition for FOURTEEN YEARS now? Time flies before you know it. A few years ago, I ranked some of McDonald's best Halloween themed Happy Meal toys, showing my level of dorkiness extends beyond professional wrestling and comic books. I would have sworn that I did another ranking some of what Burger King had to offer, but maybe I scrapped it due to unsatisfactory results. Honestly, if that were the case, it was for the best, because Burger King RARELY had great Halloween themed toys, and the list would have been nothing but fluff.

(UPDATE: That was what happened, as my list wasn't coming together to a level I felt like it would be worth my time and effort, and scrapped it, about 2 weeks out from Halloween 2022. Even though there were properties that could be tied into the season, like Beetlejuice and Scooby-Doo, they weren't released for Halloween, so it wouldn't have worked as well as McDonald's Happy Meal promotions). With that said, I do want to mention at least one Kids Meal toy set that deserves acknowledgement, and it was the Universal Monsters set released in 1997, featuring decent likenesses of Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Wolfman. I remember having all but the Wolfman as a kid, and as an adult, put down a few bucks to buy them bagged up, because, again, huge nerd, don't care. With that mentioned, we return to our regularly scheduled column).

You know, it's probably for the best I never completed that list, because today's heavy hitters would have stolen the show without having enough of the spotlight shined upon them. For as little as Burger King and Halloween got things right, there was one franchise that came back time after time and knocked it out of the park: THE SIMPSONS. Burger King and the Simpsons partnered up quite a few times over the years, and no less than THREE sets of Halloween toys were manufactured for Kids Meal distribution (not to mention at least 3 or 4 more collaborations). We will omit the 2011 Halloween set, but they themselves are perfectly fine, but they feel a little more cheap and thrown together than the two sets featured today.

In 2001, The Simpsons unleashed the Spooky Light-Ups set, and the following year, gave us their Creepy Classics, both sets featuring nicely detailed figures and a platform with a gimmick to compliment them. With so many figures featured in both sets, why not do a head-to-head battle to see which figure set is the best of the best? The rules are simple: There are 7 characters that were used in both sets, so we'll take those figures and match them against each other, with a point awarded to the better of the two. The judging won't be based on the episodes the design is featured from (if applicable) but the quality of the figure and the design itself, even if it doesn't line up with a particular Treehouse of Horror special.

Dr. Hibbert
ROUND 1: DR. HIBBERT
Quite the interesting choice to be featured in both sets, but as you can see, being a doctor has handicapped him quite a bit. In the 2001 Light-Up, he's designed with a maniacal expression on his face, implying that his sanity is in question (and verified by the spinning tombstone), while the 2002 Creepy Classics depicts him in a more twisted form, with the implication of the window slide-show that he's battling back and forth with his inner-self as a Jekyll and Hyde. There's very little to differentiate their appearances, but the look of evil on the Light-Ups version is just enough to give the 2001 set the opening score, though if we were to rank them individually, it wouldn't be rated too highly.
WINNER: SPOOKY LIGHT-UP INSANE HIBBERT (2001 Leads 1-0)

Groundkeeper Willie
ROUND 2: GROUNDSKEEPER WILLIE
Make way for Willie! He's here to come rescue the lot of you... or die in embarrassingly quick fashion, you decide his fate. Things are looking much better this round, as Willie is in full costume for both figures and not just in his generic coveralls. Our 2001 Willie is cloaked, possibly a connection to the Treehouse of Horror where a Nuclear holocaust kills off most of Springfield or turns its survivors into mutants (except for the Simpson family, who were spared due to all the lead paint in their house acting as the perfect shield). 2002 Willie is cosplaying as the Creature from the Black Lagoon... err, sorry, the Creature from Lake Springfield. While Willie's Creature costume doesn't seem to be a feature from a particular episode, it does stand out more and comes off more appealing than the somewhat generic appearance of our 2001 cloaked fella.
WINNER: CREATURE FROM LAKE SPRINGFIELD WILLIE (SERIES TIED 1-1)

Ned Flanders
ROUND 3: NED FLANDERS
Despite being a bible-preaching left-handed do-gooder, Ned Flanders isn't immune from the darkness of Halloween! In a perfect world, he would have received a figure as his Devil form from Treehouse of Horror IV, but then that alone would have been such a strong victory, it would have won the entire series on it's own merit. We have not one but two designs ripped from Treehouse episodes. First, or 2001 Ned is a hook-wielding trench-coat wearing maniac spoofing "I Know What You Did Last Summer", while the 2002 Ned is in full Wolfman mode. I honestly like both designs, but we can't have a tie, so I defer the tiebreaker to my wife, who goes with the Wolfman design because it looks cooler. Works for me. Considering her love of I Know What You Did Last Summer, I figured the Light-Ups were a lock to retake the lead, but it wasn't meant to be.
WINNER: WEREWOLF NED FLANDERS (Creepy Classics Leads 2-1)

Lisa Simpson
ROUND 4: LISA SIMPSON
Oh boy, I wasn't looking forward to this one. Lisa is arguably the most polarizing of the main cast of characters, and in this home, she ranges from "alright" to "insufferable", depending on the episode and the message it's trying to send. Lisa's Treehouse of Horror representation has been weak for a lot of the years as well, so it's no surprise that both figures come off as weak efforts to shoe-horn Lisa into the fun of the season. 2001 Lisa is a simple ghost with a removable sheet. I can't say it's the least creative idea, because the follow-up set presents Lisa as... giant Lisa, which is only identifiable when the figure is complete with the attachment that features a couple of tiny cars for scale. I guess this could be a wink to one of the many universes Homer discovers where Bart and Lisa are about 50 feet tall, but that was a 10-second gag. Again, I can't go with a tie, but these are two of my least favorite figures across both sets, so picking a "winner" is more like picking which bottom-feeder team is less-bad. I reluctantly choose Light-Up Lisa because she's in costume instead of just being "Big Lisa", which is as bad as putting vaseline on toast.
"WINNER": Ghost Lisa (Series Tied 2-2)

Bart Simpson
Round 5: BART SIMPSON
Here comes Bart to once again upstage his annoying little sister. Bart has a lot of looks that could be utilized as a tribute to the Treehouse of Horror... and surprisingly, one of these is NOT from one of those specials. Both figures do follow a similar style, in that Bart's head is uncovered, but he's wearing a bodysuit/costume that covers the rest of him. 2001 Bart is a call back to the Treehouse Special where Bart and Lisa are sucked into an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, and Bart's eaten down to the bone (except for his head) but Piranhas, while 2002 Bart is in a full-body Godzilla costume, with the gag in the sliding window displaying him being a nuisance to Lisa. I guess I should amend the "not a reference" from earlier to this is a reference to Simpsons related material... Bartzilla, in Bart's Nightmare. Either way, it feels like a piggy-back attempt from the first effort, which means it's not as unique an idea or all that appealing.
WINNER: BART SKELLINGTON (Light-Ups Lead Series 3-2)

Homer Simpson
Round 6: HOMER SIMPSON
We're getting into deep waters now, and Homer is in need of a big score to keep the Creepy Classics alive to see another Round. 2001 Homer is surprisingly dull, depicted as a Frankenstein's Monster. I originally had him listed as Zombie Homer, but then I noticed the neck bolts and the very faint design of stitching around his skull. That's actually better than being a generic Zombie, but I feel like they could have done something better... like 2002's KING HOMER FIGURE, WITH LITTLE MARGE STUCK IN HIS RIGHT HAND! Remember when I said Devil Ned would have won the whole thing? This is almost as good as that, except we actually got it! King Homer is probably my favorite figure of the Creepy Classics set, and that means it buries Frankenstein's Homer 6-feet under and sending this to the deciding Round 7.
WINNER (BY A LOT): KING HOMER (Series Tied 3-3)

MargeSimpson
Final Round: Marge Simpson
So it all comes down to this... Marge Simpson. The dull as dishwater, dry toast without jelly or butter, being the all-deciding round. It's almost liked the rounds were rigged so that this would happen. 2001 Marge is a nod to one of Marge's best Treehouse of Horror appearances, where she's revealed to be a witch and along with Patty and Selma, invent the concept of Trick-or-Treating when they accept cookie children instead of the Flanders children as sustenance. 2002 Marge isn't going down without a fight, busting out a great "Bride of Frankenstein" look, which would go perfectly with Frankenstein's Monster Homer... HAD THEY BEEN PART OF THE SAME SET. Had that been the case, I might have given the nod for matching Homer and Marge together, but nope, they did the gimmicks on separate years, so the power of love isn't strong enough, and Witch Marge puts the final nail in the coffin for the no-quite-Creepy Classics set.
WINNER: WITCH MARGE AND THE 2001 SPOOKY LIGHT-UPS (WIN SERIES 4-3)

This was a close one, with both sets having some strong performers, but the 2001 set has just enough going for it to give it the slight edge. That doesn't take into account that the figures that didn't make the cut for the head-to-head were much better options from the Light-Ups set than they are from the 2002 Creepy Classics, with 2001 featuring great figures of Krusty, Grandpa Simpson, Mr. Burns and Apu (as well as Milhouse, Maggie, Principal Skinner and Barney) compared to the 2002 lineup that only has lukewarm Professor Frink, Otto the Bus Driver, and Kang (or maybe Kodos, I don't remember which is which) sitting on the sidelines. For completionists and fans of the Simpsons, you really can't go wrong with either set, and they all look great displayed with other Halloween decorations. I hope everyone has a great spooktacular October and we'll see you in 2025 for the 15th Anniversary of Halloween HavoK.

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