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The Sims Plumbobs, Ranked By How Badly I Want To Eat Them


Surely they can’t all be apple-flavoured, right?

The Sims made the life simulator mainstream. And with it, it brought about a new forbidden snack: Plumbobs.

In case you don’t know, a plumbob is the wee green thing that hangs around above your Sims’ heads. As pointed out by The Sims News, a plumbob is also an architectural tool for ensuring things are level. However, only one of those two types of plumbob make me hungry.

But… Which ones make me the most hungry? And what do I think they taste like?

4. The Sims 1’s Plumbob

A screencap from The Sims 1 showing Melissa Roomies watering a plant in a big green leafy garden behind her house. A glowing green opaque plumbob - a diamond - sits above her head.

This one doesn’t exactly look unappetising. But it does look a little dry. I think it would be a little like those jelly sweets (or gummies) that are slightly clarified and have a foamy level on the bottom, with a super false apple flavour. Not for me, but I get the appeal.

The datebob is pretty tasty looking, though. That’s the small blue one that hangs around when your Sims are on, well, dates. I think they’d be like little blue raspberry Nerds, and would rank higher on this list.

3. The Sims 4’s Plumbob

The loading screen from the Sims 4 showing a shiny green plumbob graphic. It's a large shiny green diamond. The text underneath reads: "Gardening skill can lead you to grow the rare cowplant. Completely safe as long as you feed it!"

Now, I was a little torn about how to rank this one. The glassy-looking plumbob on the loading screens looks really good. But, the in-game plumbob looks maybe a little dry. And I just don’t love dry.

I like to think that The Sims 4’s plumbobs all kind of taste like different types of apples: Granny Smith for green, Pink Lady for red, Russett for yellow. But, I’m not a huge fan of apple-flavoured things – I’d rather just have apples – so this one ranks a little lower than I’d expected when I set out to write this. If apple sweets are your bag, though, I’d imagine this would be a step up from The Sims 1’s plumbob.

2. The Sims 2’s Plumbob

A glowing plumbob from The Sims 2. It's a green squishy looking diamond with a big glow around it.

Another chewy-looking plumbob! What about the 2000s made all those little indicators that you’re being divinely controlled look like they’re straight out of a pick-n-mix?! 

However, The Sims 2’s plumbob looks a lot less dry. Actually, when in-play, it looks positively juicy. Maybe like one of those juice-filled chewing gums. Plus, the colours are a little more vibrant and fruitier looking, which obviously appeals to me.

If every colour of a Sims 2‘s plumbob came in a big mixed bag, I’d always cane the amber coloured one first, because I suspect they’d be lemon-flavoured. Then I would eat the red, strawberry-flavoured plumbobs, followed by the various green lime flavours, then the orange. Then I would probably try and give away the suspicious-looking silver ones to whoever would take them.

1. The Sims 3’s Plumbob

A Sims 3 plumbob looking shiny. It's a large green diamond with a three above it and a trademark underneath. The corner starts copyright Electronic Arts, Maxis.

Could it ever have gone any other way?

The Sims 3’s plumbob looks like a tooth-breaking hard candy that would leave your mouth slightly rough afterwards. It’s giving crystallised sugar, stained glass window biscuits, and boiled sweets. But, like, make it more chic and less it’s-been-rolling-round-the-bottom-of-your-handbag-for-years.

I think the flavour of this one could go one of two ways. It’s either a sour green apple taste, so much so it would make Warheads blush, or it’s an unsuspectingly civilised melon flavour. Either way, if I was giving a bag of them, there wouldn’t be many left for long, that’s for sure.

Toni Oisin H.C. is the Head of Audio at QSO Media. Read more of his writing here.

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