LEGO The Simpsons Kwik-E-Mart review!

[just2good]

Alright, so I usually do quick photo reviews when I get new sets. That's what I'll do here, but there's quite a few photos, so I thought I might as well make its own review thread.

So, I got the Kwik-E-Mart by paying just2much on an early eBay copy. I think it's worth it, as this week I'm gonna be super busy, so I was able to build it Saturday and stuff.

Here's my video review, I think it's one of my best:

Well, let's get onto this photo review. The set is $200 USD with a little over 2100 pieces. The official release is April 15th for VIP members, May 1st for everyone else at LEGO Stores. And, if you want full size pictures, check out my Flickr by clicking here.

The minifigures included are great. You get three exclusive minifigures (one being a completely exclusive character- the first time LEGO has ever put an exclusive mould in a Direct to Consumer set), and you get three of the series most popular characters in their normal attire for those who missed out on the first Simpsons minifigures series.

The Kwik-E-Mart's exterior is loaded with lots of sticker details. The only printed detail you'll see in the exterior is the dial pad in the phone booth, which has appeared in some other licensed themes since last year.

( ^^^ right here is there the store can be opened- a simple Technic pin and receiver keeps it in place and allows for opening and closing)

The roof of the store includes the garden shown in the Paul McCartney episode. The roof can be slided out/in once you open it with the hinge part.

Here's a look at the store with the roof removed. The floors are a nice sand blue color, coming with 8x16 thin plates:

And, for the interior, from the view of the store opened with the hinges at the back that I mentioned earlier:

The left front corner, which includes some arcade machines of Bonestorm and Great White Hunter, an amazingly done Buzz cola soda machine, juice machine, the checkout counter, ect:

The right front corner, with food aisles, freezers, and a frozen Jasper sticker:

The back left corner, which includes some nice coffee kettle builds, the donut tray, hotdogs, ect:

The right back corner, which has a door leading to a very small hallway that only has a mouse and cheese in it. The hallway leads to the employees only door in the back, and it's very hard to get in the door way (not that there's anything to do inside there):

Also included is Clancy's copcar, which fits three figures:

Here's a look at the piece list in the instructions, click on each to be lead to an enlarged version of the pic:

Also included are some awesome printed pieces, and two unprinted coffee cups!

Honestly, I think this set is perfect. The price is fantastic, and has a great PPP ratio. They really went above and beyond by including Snake in this set. I honestly think it's better than the Simpsons House in terms of accuracy and the value here- so many cool pieces printed and in exclusive colors.

So, that's my quick picture review. Hope you guys enjoyed, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'j2g' for another review, one of my favourite parts of the set......the half eaten donut on the dashboard of the police car.

Brick On Review On 'j2g' !

[Brickus]

Thanks for the review, your video was very well done, seeing those sticker sheets is daunting.

[Robert8]

Thanks for the review.

I can't help but think the minifigures are the weak part of the set. Snake and Apu are great but the rest.... I don't know. They kinda redundant now.

They could at least give us new torso printing, like Homer wearing his jacket or Bart wearing his blue t-shirt or Marge wearing her coat. Or, as I said in the discussion thread, I'd have included Jasper in CMF series 2 and a Frozen version here.

Overall, the set looks kinda smaller than what I thought.

(Snake's bag needed a $ symbol printed, because it looks like he is stealing gargabe )

Pretty good review overall :thumbup:

[just2good]

Thanks for all the feedback you guys!

I can't help but think the minifigures are the weak part of the set. Snake and Apu are great but the rest.... I don't know. They kinda redundant now.

They could at least give us new torso printing, like Homer wearing his jacket or Bart wearing his blue t-shirt or Marge wearing her coat. Or, as I said in the discussion thread, I'd have included Jasper in CMF series 2 and a Frozen version here.

Overall, the set looks kinda smaller than what I thought.

I agree, but so many people were complaining about how The Simpsons House should have included the most common versions (mostly because the eyes or whatever), so I think LEGO played it safe and just included the normal versions. It makes sense, since Series 1 is gone forever, and the common versions were in there, and this set is bound to be in stock for a very long time like the Death Star. I never really agreed when people were complaining about the alternate eye prints personally, but I guess this is a good business choice based on previous feedback.

Edited April 12, 2015 by just2good

[celeb]

Hello everyone. Excellent review! English is not my native language, but I want to express my opinion.

Simpsons house was the first of its kind, and I can say without exaggeration that this is the most impressive set that I'm going (my collection http://brickset.com/sets/ownedby-celeb ). I look at the video from the Kwik-e-Mart, and is difficult to say how good it is compared with the house.

The main disadvantages that I said to myself, is this: build the walls of the large panels, next is access to the roof (gray parts in front of the back door (I think they represent the stairs))

is not on the level with doors on the roof

and when you open them, you can see the white block is openly trash, my points of view.

Boxes on the left of go to the store and powersauce box, i want see make real and not just a cube, f.e. such as in the unreleased Star Wars set.

About minifigures, I fully agree with Robert8. Two more of the same Homer, Marge and Bart?! Personally, I put my set as a scene and all the replays minifigure are inside the house that was not identical characters next And also absolutely terrible Bart`s accessory

This set is made parking for bikes and it looks very cool. But damn, it is hoped to see the Bart or Lisa's bike, instead of useless balloons with paint.

The walls are made with convex inside panels, why so? can anyone know? have not seen any pictures with such walls in TV show. Why did not they turn?

I personally really like how realized roof, but my brother says that it is terrible :) garden could do more in the series there were almost jungle I do not know how to be considered here, maybe anyone can express any opinion or idea?

I look at the Simpsons house, and then look at the photo of this e-Mart. I can not understand, in the house we have a garage, two floors, cool floor, a lot of furniture, all the rooms and walls, collected from cubes, many additional accessories. And where is all this detail here? It looks much smaller (maybe even poorer). If they still will release next year comic book store, it will be even less? Of course it is difficult to estimate without seeing it live, we have it will be sold only in May.

At first sight it does not look so impressive as the house. Can certainly the case in the limit on the amount of detail, but why it was impossible to add $ 50 to the cost and make Jasper, the more detailed the roof, the walls of the smaller elements, that it was not convex. Sad.

Thanks all for attention.

Edited April 13, 2015 by celeb

[ARSLOCK]

Can you post a pic of it next to the simpsons house? just curious about size comparisons...

[Gooker1]

Great review!! Thanks for paying a little extra to get it now and review it for us!!! You must be a youngin'...those phone booths thingys are called "pay phones" :) J/J They're tough to find nowadays.

[Vorkosigan]

Incredible set, thanks for the pics! So many details and unique prints and colors. I'm not that into the Simpsons but definitely a top tier set.

[just2good]

Thank you all for the great feedback!

Can you post a pic of it next to the simpsons house? just curious about size comparisons...

Soon, but my area with The Simpsons House is very messy, so I will have to make room for it first.

Great review!! Thanks for paying a little extra to get it now and review it for us!!! You must be a youngin'...those phone booths thingys are called "pay phones" :) J/J They're tough to find nowadays.

LOL!

[Mestari]

I have sooo mixed feeling about that... I loved the Simpsons House (save for the terrible wall in the Homer and Marge's room), but this so far is inferior in almost every aspect.

The walls made of panels is a bummer. I expect a D2C set to be better that this.

60+ stickers? The same thing.

Same price for less bricks and smaller build then the house.

Strange coloured bricks on the outside wall (some ugly mix of yellow + tan)

Panels again with their fronts facing towards the inside of the shop so we and up with those squares all around.

The walls are yellow, this was so nice, lost opportunity to make it in some other less common colour.

Then again the set overall looks is good.

The roof is a nice detail.

The shop looks actually like a real one, not just an approximation of one.

The roof tiles are in Dark Orange - we got new/rare colour here

The car looks interesting to build (just like the pink one from the house)

Lots of nice references to the show

It's The Simpsons!

Definitely a must buy... but for a discounted price. I'll try to find one with maybe damaged box or after-display copy.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Mestari

[Lego lover 88]

looks great. how does it compare to the house

[ARSLOCK]

I have sooo mixed feeling about that... I loved the Simpsons House (save for the terrible wall in the Homer and Marge's room), but this so far is inferior in almost every aspect.

The walls made of panels is a bummer. I expect a D2C set to be better that this.

60+ stickers? The same thing.

Same price for less bricks and smaller build then the house.

Strange coloured bricks on the outside wall (some ugly mix of yellow + tan)

Agreed! Glad my GF likes to do stickers! 60 yikes! But looking at it now I think the tan/yellow is supposed to represent where the paint is fading on the back of the store? I guess?

[just2good]

Here's a size comp to the house:

Click for a bigger image.

[fred67]

That's actually not bad sizing, IMO.

Sure, it looks like you get a lot more with the house, but the Kwik-E-Mart has a lot more of those little references that make it Simpsons. I agree with some of the complaining; a real Jasper behind a trans-blue panel would have been cool. You could always bulk up the roof with more foliage... I think it has a great foundation as a set, but could do with a few mods to make it better.

Thanks for the pictures; I greatly appreciate being able to see reviews like this before dropping $200 on a LEGO set.

[Tariq j]

Great Review Just2Good, honestly I love this set lots of great details and references.

[merman]

One thing that may justify the price: it has 527 different parts (if I counted correctly). I alway heard the more different parts the more difficult the set is to produce. The Simpsons House already had an astonishig amount of different pieces, but this one is even more extreme...

[MAB]

... one being a completely exclusive character- the first time LEGO has ever put an exclusive mould in a Direct to Consumer set ...

I'm still hoping that Snake will be coming in the next (wave 3) CMF set.

[TheBrickHitHouse]

It's the level of detail that floors me, a licensed set with the mindset of those great Creator sets.

I think it displays much better than the Simpsons house which, from the outside, is a bit drab

[Skalldyr]

Nice review! But I have one question: Is the transparent dome of the Squishee Drink removable?

[just2good]

Nice review! But I have one question: Is the transparent dome of the Squishee Drink removable?

Nopers.

[Darkdragon]

I like this set a lot better than the Simpsons house, but 60+ stickers is just incredibly disappointing. It seems quite a few of them could have been printed parts

[jaisonline]

Great review.

[Grendelego]

Nice review, I'm building it (need to finish it, but I'm at work right now)

With the printed piece, you forgot to show the chocolat milk 1x1 brick, which is exclusive to this set yet (it isn't referenced on bricklink yet, only the blue one)

The set is really fun to build, with a lot of little pieces for the fridges.

I haven't put the stickers yet, will see the final product to put the essentials ones

[alohamitsu]

Did anyone else have a problem with the piano against the wall of The Simpsons House? It just kept coming off way too easily and I was getting really frustrated with it sticking out and not fully going on so I had to put the two tiles that hold them one place over away from the wall for it to sit properly without falling out, I think I might put Snowball II behind it since cats love to hide underneath or behind things lol but just curious to know if anyone else was encountering this problem with the previous set.