Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352) review: "A fun return to Springfield but slightly disappointing compared to previous offerings"

As someone who missed out on the previous Lego The Simpsons sets and only owns a handful of minifigures from the ubiquitous cartoon series, I was very excited to see that Lego were finally bringing the range back with a new Krusty Burger set, and opening the doors to Springfield once again.

For context, if you're not aware – Lego released The Simpsons House (71006) way back in 2014, and followed that up with The Kwik-E-Mart (71016) in 2015, alongside two series of The Simpsons Minifigures during that same period. Now, a decade later, those sets have long since been retired and the only way to get them is by paying significantly over the odds on the second-hand market, where you also risk ending up with broken, incomplete, or even fake sets.

So, now that the Simpsons are officially back on the market with a new kit, is this worth the investment? From my experience with it, I can say that the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352) is a great set, and while there a definitely some caveats to that assessment which are worth considering, it's one of the best Lego sets available if you're a big fan of Springfield's favorite family.

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Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352) features

• Rather expensive
• Exclusive minifigs and more
• Smaller than previous sets

The Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger will set you back a little over two hundred dollars, which clearly puts it in the premium price range and prevents this from being an impulse purchase for most people. That also places it roughly on a par with the $199.99 price tag previously attached to The Simpsons House and The Kwik-E-Mart, notwithstanding a decade of inflation and currency fluctuations.

However, while the Lego Krusty Burger is made of 1,635 pieces, The Simpsons House comprised of a massive 2,523 pieces and The Kwik-E-Mart was built from a similarly hefty 2,179 pieces, which makes this new set feel a little short-changed by comparison. Also, The Simpsons House measured 9in high x 16in wide x 9in deep and the Kwik-E-Mart clocked in at 5in high x 14in wide x 10in deep, but the Krusty Burger is a mere 5in high x 10in wide x 8in deep (the official 10in height is based on the freestanding sign), making the new set almost half the overall size of Apu's convenience store and three times smaller than the Simpsons' home.

Of course, while I think it's important to keep those comparisons in mind, they are somewhat moot now that those previous sets are unavailable at anywhere close to their original price points. Taken on its own merits, the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger presents a solid recreation of an iconic location from the show, and while it may not be as densely packed with items there are still a large number of fun details to discover.

While the Krusty Burger restaurant itself is clearly the main attraction here, there are several other items of note included in the set. Standing tall above the building is the famous Krusty Burger sign, and you can approach the drive-through in the Krusty-fied version of Homer's car from Homie the Clown, complete with grille-mounted mask and large dent in the front fender.

There are also seven minifigs featured, and while we've seen Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Krusty in this medium before, we also exclusively get Squeaky Voiced Teen, Officer Lou, and Bart-hating Sideshow Bob in Lego form for the first time ever.

Build

• A longer build that can easily be split up
• Instructions are easy to follow throughout
• Too many stickers for a premium set

This set comprises of more than 1,600 pieces, so naturally it takes a generous amount of time to put it all together. I spent a little over 10 hours in total building the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger, divided across a few days. It was easy to split this up as the parts are spread across 12 paper bags, assembling Homer's clown car first followed by the main building in sections, with the last three packets containing the roof and sign.

The instruction booklet is solid and features over 250 pages of detailed steps to complete, as well as some interesting background information on the previous Lego The Simpsons releases and the process for designing the Krusty Burger set. The build itself was a fun process, with plenty of unexpected uses for pieces cropping up – such as minifigure claws for fries, red roller skates as the filling for a rib sandwich, and a barred window laid flat as a fryer basket.

A lot of the build involves putting together the main shell of each section, then constructing individual pieces of furniture and equipment to slot into place, and I really enjoyed guessing what I was assembling before it was complete. At one point I was trying to work out why I was installing a small propeller on a unit above a tap, until a few steps later revealed I had made a soft serve ice cream machine (complete with cones) to go behind the counter. The dining area also has some clever elements, such as seats mounted on taps so they hover under tables that can have different trays of food placed on them.

At this point in the review I do need to address what could potentially be a big issue for some, and that is the stickers. There are two sheets included with over 40 individual stickers to painstakingly place on a wide variety of pieces, which personally feels like too many for a premium set costing over $200. Attaching stickers accurately so they don't detract from the overall look of the model can be stressful, particularly for people like myself who don't have perfect eyesight or fine motor skills. As the Lego Fortnite Peely Bone (77072) set proved, it is possible to include printed pieces without inflating the price tag, though I presume the sheer number of different designs featured in the Krusty Burger set would render this impractical.

Design

• Clever construction packs in plenty of detail
• Folds up and fits together satisfyingly
• Lots of hidden Easter eggs to find

The design of the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger set has clearly been well thought out, as it packs in a lot of detail while seamlessly fitting together. The roof lifts off as a single piece, then you can fold out the building into three hinged sections to view them individually. When closing it back up, the floating display above the counter showing the menu lines up in a very satisfying way with the opposite wall to tie the interior together, and the exterior walls lightly join together with three clips that form a surprisingly solid connection, so you can easily pick up the model and move it around.

While I have pretty strong opinions on the amount of stickers involved, they do at least provide a large number of Easter eggs to be hidden around the set. If you look closely at one of the tills on the counter you'll see "847.63" on the display, which is the amount that flashes up during the classic intro sequence when Maggie is scanned at the supermarket checkout – is it sad that I knew that without having to look it up? Elsewhere, the screen at the drive-through window reads "Next Order: 700 Krusty Burgers" in a nod to Homer's offshore oil rig order in Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood. I won't spoil any others, as part of the joy is finding them as you build the set.

There are also some nice physical Easter eggs built into the set itself, including the overflowing grease trap around the back of the kitchen. It took me a little while to work out what this represented, until I realised there was "yellow gold" spilling out of it for Homer to steal as he did in Lard of the Dance, complete with a wall-mounted shovel to scoop it into the boot of his clown car.

Should you buy the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352)?

The Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger is a fun return to Springfield but slightly disappointing compared to previous offerings, so the question of whether you should buy it or not comes down to how strongly you feel about that situation, particularly as you can no longer purchase those original sets anyway. If you've always wanted to own a piece of the classic show, and aren't put off by the volume of stickers involved, then this will sit nicely in your collection.

Ratings

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352)

I built the Lego The Simpsons Krusty Burger (10352) set over several days across five separate sessions, which added up to about 10 hours in total. There were plenty of natural breaks during the build to pause, and it was always easy to pick up where I'd left off at the start of the next session.

For more, check out our guide to how we test products.

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