LEGO officially announces the Simpsons Family House (71006)

January 9, 2014 | 3

NEW UPDATE: Simpsons Collectible Minifigures are now out in Australia. More info here.

UPDATE: Finally!
UPDATE 2: Australian RRP is $329.99. Release Date 1 February on Lego.com.  Link to The Simpsons Family House on Lego.com here
UPDATE 3: LEGO.com VIP members have early access to the Family House but it is currently out of stock with an expected ship date of 6 February 2014.
UPDATE 4: It’s the first of February and this means The Simpsons Family House is now available to the public, but due to the immense popularity of this set, it’s currently out of stock with an expected ship date of 19 February 2014 

Three days after the leak, LEGO has finally come out and properly announced their partnership with Twentieth Century Fox in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of The Simpsons. You can dig into the full press release here. Finally, we have more than a box and even a designer video that you can watch below:

Here’s the lowdown on the important bits of information. The set will retail in the United states for $199 which is a really great price considering it’s a licensed set AND has over 2,500 pieces. The set will be exclusive to Lego’s online store, official Lego stores and specialist Lego stores. This means that it’s not likely that we’ll see this popping up at Toys ‘R’ Us or Kmart. The set will be released in early February according to the press release. Some Eurobricks members have said that Lego’s Facebook Page have stated that the release date is 17 February 2014, but I can’t confirm that.

No news on other Simpsons-related sets but we will be getting Simpsons characters in the next Collectible Minifigure Series which will hit stores in May 2014. They’ll be priced $3.99 in the US.

No official news for the Australian release date or price, but I expect it to be released simultaneously worldwide. As for pricing, my best guess is AU$269.99. I’ll update this when I have more concrete details.

Update: Lego.com has listed the Simpsons Family House on their online store. It’ll cost AU$329.99 and will be available on 1 February 2014. 

Now that I’ve had a much better look at the set, I’m happy to say that I’m pretty impressed at the overall quality and build as well as the minifigures. 

A point that the designer stressed on was that it is the first time in history that Lego has moulded sleeves and shorts onto minifigs. For the sleeves (highlighted blue) I’m taking this to mean that instead of the paint being sprayed on for the sleeve’s details, they’re actually using separate pieces of plastic to make up the entire arm. Fantastic news and I hope this trend extends to newer minifigures.

This is more Bart specific but we have shorts right now! If you look closely at the red loop, you can see a distinct mould on the leg sections, which is AWESOME. It also seems like they’re following the techniques used for the sleeve as well, which is fantastic. I’m most excited about these changes and what it means for future minifigures.

The interior also looks great. Colourful, nicely detailed and filled with tons of Easter eggs and references to the TV show such as the wheelbarrow being property of Ned Flanders as well as the Itchy and Scratchy sticker on the TV. Can’t wait to get this set and build it myself.

In the meantime, check out the beautiful hires pictures of the Simpsons Family House: