Rex / PCB / BrothersFigure - "Amazing Arachnid v2" (Patreon)

Now here’s a fig with a LOT of drama on it’s heels. Probably more so than any of the other PCB/Rex Spider-Figs we've looked at so far!

With its initial release back in December 2021, Phoenix was drawn into the DLC fad of custom figs that began around this time.

In early July 2022 this fig was nowhere to being complete, and Phoenix dropped an “expansion pack” that a lot of people were not happy about. I was also in the opinion that the Public Relations involved with the release of yet another preorder DLC (for lack of a better term) was handled and timed poorly.

Here’s my initial thoughts (that still stand) at the time this was announced:

The sheer amount of unchecked preorders PCB had going at the time was nuts! And believe it or not, there are STILL more preorders from this 2022/2023 time frame that still have not been completed (like their MCU Moon Knights)

So long story short, this Amazing Garfield-Man fig wasn’t complete. It had been months, and PCB gave off the impression that what should have been originally included with the initial fig (custom hair, printed hands, extra faces) was now going to cost extra like $40 as a SEPARATE ORDER?!

They weren’t the first custom minifig brand to start this expansion trend, but with all other brands that have done the DLC thing, these generally were announced and coincided with the initial release of a project. Not several months later! PCB instead, without anything to show for it given the allotted time for waiting on the initial Garfield fig, it felt like a cash grab.

In the moment it felt icky. Thinking back on it, it still feels weird. PCB hadn’t really done anything like that before and I for one was caught by surprise. Of course there were a lot of other people with much stronger emotions at play, but to lay it out plainly… it was a bit of a shit show.

It took a little more than six months for that DLC to be completed, but another three years before this final fig was finally shipped to me. Folks have had these loose hands and custom hair rolling around waiting for the fig for three years, while the full fig has only just been shipped out to folks in the last month or so!

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Simply put, I did not order the head/hair/hands DLC out of principle.

And now here we are! On the other side of that fence! Looking back fondly(?) on all the drama that took place to instead focus on the other big picture that is… THIS FIG TOOK NEARLY FOUR YEARS TO GET PRODUCED AND I HAD TO PAY FOR IT TWICE!!!!!!

Okay that’s enough…!

Was this fig worth all of our stress? Does this “amazing” Spider-Man live up to the name?

Hell no! Not at all!

Before I even opened the clamshell, that texture work looked just plain bad across the red plastc. And without any proper wraparound print work, the color blocking is just awful!

Specifically that red is so darkened by the texturing that it makes those blank sides of his head looks bald, while those hands stick out like he’s wearing rubber gloves! Swapping out with dark red hands doesn't solve this problem either unfortunately, as the median color is right between the two official Lego ABS Plastic colors…

This fig was also designed before folks started printing the shoulder area of torsos. So the lack of red in that area of this fig is also a bad look!

Perhaps if the fig would have been printed over a red torso instead of dark blue? But then we’d be back to the red texture issue, so there's no winning here with out a core redesign 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also there's no side torso printing at all, yet 360° printed limbs? What the heck! Just like some of the other PCB spider’s we’ve looked at, it’s just a weird choice. Losing the belt around the waist really diminishes the final look when it’s like only half printed around the legs, but not the torso?!

What the hell guys! Who approved this?

I don’t know man…. 

This fig honestly would have been moderately impressive (at best) back when I first preordered it in 2021. But in a world where others have made versions of this suit by now but better? Not to mention the lack of intense drama and waiting we went through…

I’m pretty disappointed.