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Template:Featured Article

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
Revision as of 08:12, November 1, 2014 by Solar Dragon (talk | contribs)
World of Springfield Series 4.jpg

The World of Springfield is a series of action figures, which ran between December 1999 to December 2004 and was released by Playmates Toys.

The toy action figure series was called World of Springfield because the goal of the line was to build a miniature Springfield through a series of interactive action figures and playsets. It eventually encompassed over 200 different figures/characters from the series, 40 interactive playsets (toy re-creations of Simpson's interior settings and town location settings within Springfield), and 3 non-interactive diorama town settings.

The success of all "mass-market" action figure lines based on TV or movie characters are timed to the initial release of the project - as part of its promotional and marketing messages - taking advantage of the promotions, P.R. and advertising awareness and the figures themselves also as advertising and promotional vehicles. Most movie/TV tie-in action figures are successful for the brief period of the theatrical release, the video/DVD release and the possibility of a successful sequel but rarely for any longer period and typically, the release pattern for the action figure is no more than a few dozen figures, and some playsets to serve as background dioramas for the figures - with sales dropping off a few months after the last film is released. The Kenner/Hasbro Star Wars movie line is of course, the gold standard with figures in the same scale and in the marketplace since 1978. The closest TV equivalent might be the Star Trek line, though non-contiguous and not technically from one TV series (coincidentally also from Playmates Toys).

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