PhoenixCustoms/AAA Custom Works - Superman '78 (Patreon)

Wow! I never thought I’d see the day that PCB would design another Superman fig! We haven’t gotten one of these since their ancient early days! (2015/2016, or something like that?). That old New52 Supes is still a solid fig (even if it's getting a little worn and faded)!

However, this wasn’t just a PCB fig! On the other side of the river, AAA Custom Works are a newer brand on the scene that I’ve not taken the time to look at any of their figs yet, and frankly their contribution to this fig is, well… they did most of the heavy lifting!

But do I like this fig?

Well let me try and figure it out.

Right off the bat, the custom parts are weird.

The hair is waaaaay overly textured to the point where you could make out every single hair and follow it from brow to neckline. If this was on an action figure? Perfect! No notes! But on a minifig?

Ech! 

But folks, my opinions don’t stop there! That cape sucks too! *queue the party music!*

Okay okay okay, I’m being harsh once again, but this thing looks like he's wearing something made out of cardboard!

No, stop! I gotta stay positive here!

The color choices for this fig overall are perfect! The bright blue looks great! The bright reds and yellows? Ya can’t beat em! Oh but man… There's something a little strange about the over complication of the details on the fig!

Like why are there light blue accents to define the musculature? It’s not something a standard minifig would have, but PCB/AAA opted to add it in there. Makes him look like he’s all wet (I guess like that scene where Lex Luthor tries to drown Superman in his weird underground subway mansion with a kryptonite necklace?) 

...but something tells me that’s not the exact moment PCB/AAA were trying to capture with this fig…

Same thing goes with those nobby little knees he’s got. Last time I checked, minifigs don’t have knees?? 🤨

Honestly this fig would have been great with that bright light blue print just fully removed from the design all together. While I’m generally a fan of complex designs and prints, this character (and more so this particular suit) didn’t need highlights like this. It was a soft cotton fabric, not something made of skintight leather.

These types of highlights just don’t make sense in my mind. Maybe if the colors were a little more subtle even? Idk… not sure what the thought process was for that one.

Oh and also I don’t like the design choice to print the belt just eeeeever so slightly over the hip piece. I mean it gives ya more room for a larger emblem I guess? But it takes the cross-compatibility of the parts to a more difficult level, like say if you hate those nobby knees and wanted to swap them 👀

Not to mention that this torso-to-hip print is all smudgy on the back side of mine!

But to wrap up my discussion on the design, the faces are great! PCB nailed Reeves likness in these that almost carry the entire fig for me!

But those heads with that custom hair is just too weird. Like it's so choppily designed. The fig ultimately looks WAY better with Official Lego Hair

Oh and I got side tracked with the cape before! Let’s go back to that!

The cape looks good from the front, but from the back it’s waaaaaay too stiff for my liking. But! I love the important (and often forgotten) emblem printed back there! However the 3D modeling work here makes it look more like a perforated napkin than an asymmetrical flowing piece of "American Heroism".

If I wanted to give it any kind of props, it’s got a sort of retro plastic cape shape of old action figures of the 70s/80s. So I could maaaaaybe see what PCB was going for here (if it was even intentionally supposed evoke that nostalgia), but man, it just looks so stiff in all the wrong ways.

I mean come on, MrJBrick’s Kingdom Come Superman   had a cape with more flow than this one!

Honestly this fig needed a good simmering, distilling, simplifying… something! A reduction of details and an overall final draft could have improved this figure a lot for me.

Not every fig needs to have knees!