Save Blinky Bart figurine

Save Blinky Bart is an extremely rare variant figurine that was part of the Mattel Simpsons Figurines, released in 1990. It was a re-painted version of the Mattel Series 1 Bart Simpson figurine.

History
Mattel produced several Simpsons figurines during the early 1990s, and during December 1990, the company started a mail-away promotion for a repainted figurine of Bart, named "Save Blinky Bart". The figure could be bought through the mail by buying 3 Mattel Simpsons figures between December 1, 1990 and March 31, 1991. The Bart figurine was painted so it had white and green sneakers, green shorts and a white t-shirt with the words "Save Blinky" and a picture of the fish below the text. The figure was only promoted in the US, and therefore, was not able to be purchased from outside the United States. After the promotion ended, it is known that only 3 figures exist, meaning it is probable that the figure and its promotion by Mattel never made it to a widespread audience, as their first line of figurines produced did not sell as well as the company hoped.

During April 2003, Simpsons Collector Sector wrote an article about the figure turning up on eBay, and the description was that "His auction listing gives more insight into its history stating it "was part of a promotion from Child World/Children's Palace toy stores before the company went out of business" and may never have been released commercially."

Also in August 2003, another article was wrote about the same figure on the same site, with the description "Yesterday, ezboard member oggiedoggie offered a rare Save Blinky Bart action figure for sale or trade through our message board. SCS webmaster phalen180 purchased the figure.

Around 2004 phalen180 again sold save blinky Bart on eBay to jop8ball. Shortly after purchasing save blinky Bart, jop8ball also purchased a mint condition Simpsons advertisement poster from Child World for save blinky Bart, including the mail away coupon on the bottom corner. This is the same poster featured on the scs website, and is the only known existing advertisement for save blinky Bart. Over 5 billion dollars worth of Simpsons merchandise has been sold since the show began. Blinky Bart and the promotional poster are a true one of a kind, and together make an ultimate Simpsons "holy grail" collectable.

In May 2009, a seller on eBay listed a large lot of miscellaneous Simpsons memorabilia. Within that lot was a Save Blinky Bart action figure, although it was not noted in the auction. The buyer who won the lot had emailed the seller prior to bidding and asked for a closeup of the Save Blinky Bart figure to confirm its inclusion in the lot. The seller sent an email response with the photo attached. The interested party won the lot for $400 and true to the photo, the Save Blinky Bart was in the lot. It is believed that the seller of the lot used to work for 20th Century Fox and gotten ahold of a bunch of discarded memorabilia that she then sold on eBay.

The winner of the May 2009 auction later sold the Save Blinky Bart on eBay in March 2010 for $1200 to a buyer in Paris, France.