LifeBrick/Abnormal Daredevil Variant Figs! (Patreon)

Now I’m gonna be honest, the variant colors were NOT cheap figs. At $140 per fig that’s pretty steep, even for LifeBrick. Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, when you divide the initial 2pk in half, that’s only $100 per fig. So seeing these each have another $40 tacked on to them feels… well honesty… it’s not great.

I remember back in the flickr day’s when you could get an entire MuddyRiverMinifigs Daredevil for less than $40!

…sigh

I also feel that I should mention that the initial two-pack went live for preorder back as early of January 2022, while these variant colors were announced only as late as July for their independent preorders.

To some it’s probably just food for thought, but I find it a little… off… like perhaps the color variants were planned from the beginning and were only later announced to buzz up the original product…? Maybe it was to capitalize on the larger new cost as time had passed…? Perhaps it’s a fabricated collection price as there were only 55 of them made (compared to the 120 copies of the two-pack)…

Not sure…

Hell these didn’t even have fancy foam in their shrink wrapped tins! I can only imagine how irritating this can be for casual collectors because it definitely bugs me!

Anyways, I started with the Yellow Suit! So let’s talk about it!

Other than the big orange ‘D’ on the chest, its graphic design is nearly the same as the Red Suit. Similar patches, buckles, straps, and textures all across the fig all with some minor color variation.

I do appreciate how the top of the torso was left dark red, while the entire shoulder area of the torso is printed yellow to give this fig the true tank-top look! I’m happy to see that LB/AB took the time to retool the initial Red Suit design just enough to where this Yellow Suit doesn’t feel like a simple recolor.

The escrima sticks in yellow have a thinner plastic and you can easily see the inset magnets inside the pieces. However the functionality is still the same. Not the worst thing in the world, but it’s noticeable in certain lighting conditions.

All in all, I like it… but not for $140. The least they could have done was give us a second head with another expression. But nope.

It’s even more ironic when I finally took a look at the the 90s Black Suit! This one came with a bonus head! …why didn’t the yellow one come with a bonus head?! Gah!

…hrrrmm

The Black Suit holds the same general motif of the Red and Yellow Suit designs. But this one benefits from some killer texturing work done to it! The black on black looks so good, plus the bright red accentuation absolutely pops here printed on black plastic!

The magnet of this fig’s escrima sticks isn’t as inset as the others and actually leaves this full length assembly with a slight bend in it so… *shrug*

***

But now it’s time for my “FINAL THOUGHTS” segment of the post where I summarize and complain some more!

With Abnormal and LifeBrick’s recent independent projects and their SUPER tight custom parts, dare I say I was really nervous about these four figs… Happy to report that the major issues were fixed, the printing is clean… I genuinely don’t have anything super negative to review other than the preorder time frames and the price difference.

Just taking a look at the final price tag, it makes me want to barf at the HUGE $487 total for all four figs! Hell, I didn’t even pick up all the different variants (The Blue Suit & Red Ninja Suit)! I could have spent another $280 just for those figs alone! Even crazier, if you DID pick up all six figs, you’d be looking at something closer to $700!

You could almost buy two of the 90yr Anniversary Lego Castle Sets for the same value!

The custom market is getting out of hand, even for a professional reviewer like myself. A majority of my reviews are not endorsed because I point out fabricated things like price gouging. An $80 fig once every few months was no big deal back in the flickr days, but now some ten years down the road… I don’t know. It is what it is and I’m not happy about that. I can just see myself not able to pick up every fig I want to collect or what ya’ll want me to review. 

…makes me wonder if we’re getting close to the bubble bursting...