There's actually two different Simpsons Scrabble games. The American one was a Borders Exclusive manufactured by Sababa Toys and licensed by Hasbro; it comes in a long rectangular box with a lineup of the Simpsons family on the cover. The UK one is made by Mattel; it comes in a squarer rectangular box and depicts the Simpsons family playing Scrabble in their living room.
The American one has a black & white rulebook, 100 yellow letter tiles, a yellow plastic letter pouch, yellow tile racks onto which cardboard Simpsons family characters can be stuck, and an irregular board shaped like Homer's head. There are additional special tiles with Simpsons characters which allow for special actions. For example, Bart lets you place a word anywhere on the board without having to connect to anything that's already been played, and Cletus lets you misspell a word by one letter. There's also bonus Simpsons words, mostly character names, which when played give 5-15 additional points.
The Simpsons theme, the irregular board, the special tiles, and bonus words are fun; even family members who don't watch the Simpsons and who aren't usually big Scrabble fans have enjoyed it.
Physical problems: my board came warped, the sticker applied to the board has bubbles in it, and the pouch is translucent thus requiring players to be honest or look away as they draw. The rules, both the basic Scrabble ones and the special Simpsons tiles, are a little unclear in parts (Sababa did respond to an e-mail I sent for clarification of one though, which pleased me). I also had to make three photocopies of the Simpsons bonus words, and three copies of the special Simpsons rules along with a key identifying each of the characters (the special tiles have pictures, but are not labeled) so that each player could have one and so that people relatively unfamiliar with the Simpsons would not be at a disadvantage. If you want to hold onto your Simpsons tiles, that means you have that many fewer regular tiles to form words. It's theoretically possible that you could have a hand with all special tiles and no letters.
I felt they missed an opportunity to have the tile racks shaped like the Simpsons' couch, which would have been neat (the rulebook actually calls it a couch in one place), and for the different characters you stick into the racks to have different effects on gameplay. People might be able to come up with some house rules to do that.
The UK one seems to have a better design. The board is double-sided; one with regular rules and one with Simpsons ones. Instead of special tiles, there's special Simpsons cards, so you're not shorted on the number of letter tiles. The Simpsons bonus words are somewhat different. The rulebook is glossy and in color. The tile bag is opaque. Ordering from Amazon.co.uk is pretty easy, should you want to try that version of the game. The American one is fun, though (just don't pay too much for it).
