Kinetic Man (Gambit) and Red Bird (Red Robin) Figs by Phoenix Custom M

[DarkKnight7]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've been on here, but I've been busy preparing and starting my new custom minifigure company, Phoenix Customs LLC, which took a lot more time than I had anticipated. Some of you may remember me from creating and sharing some decals on here (Dark Knight, Soccer Players, James Bond, and Assassins Creed, etc.), and I met and worked with many of you all here on Eurobricks, so I thought I'd share my first two figs for you to see what I've been up to. So, without further ado, here are my first two figures, and information about both. I hope you all like!

Kinetic Man

Here's my first figure.

About

Kinetic Man is a superhero that has the power to use kinetic energy as he sees fit to defeat his enemies. Based on the popular comic character!

This figure includes:

• 1 MMCB Capes trenchcoat - Reddish brown
  
• 1 light gray LEGO cane
  

This guy is pad printed just like TLG does.

The Red Bird

Here's my second fig:

About

When trouble strikes, count on Red Bird to swoop in and save the day! Based on the popular comic character!

This figure includes:

• 1 MMCB Capes black cape
  

This figure is professionally pad printed as well. NO DECALS or PAINT!

So, what do you guys think? Would love to hear your feedback and comments below. Thanks!

[Naith]

I havnt logged on here in along time im usually just a lurker but after seeing the quality of this figures i just had to log on and say how impressed i am! i am definetly going to be making an order very soon, i am so glad to see you ship internationally (i am from the UK) i look forward to seeing more of your minifigs!!

Edited March 16, 2014 by Naith

[KingPixels]

The Gambit Kinetic Man is amazing! How much are these guys going to go for?

[DarkKnight7]

The Gambit Kinetic Man is amazing! How much are these guys going to go for?

He's available now and you have to go to my site to see, which is listed in my signature at the bottom, and I won't give price here, as per the usage rules here on the board. I appreciate your comments, I'm glad you like him!

I havnt logged on here in along time im usually just a lurker but after seeing the quality of this figures i just had to log on and say how impressed i am! i am definetly going to be making an order very soon, i am so glad to see you ship internationally (i am from the UK) i look forward to seeing more of your minifigs!!

Cool, I'll look forward to shipping to you! I noticed a lot of my friends and fans are actually in Europe/Asia so I knew that would have to be the case shipping wise. So, no problem, and glad you like him!

[Super Goblin]

While these look nice $40 is way too much for one minifig.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Super Goblin

[ultron32]

While these look nice $40 is way too much for one minifig.

Have you seen the prices of the Comic Con minifgures? Even the other official promo minifigures like Hulk and Jorel? Other customs are these prices too:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-Lego-Flash-/321317969869?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item4ad00b1fcd

[Super Goblin]

High priced comic con figs doesn't change the fact that I think $40 is too much for a minifig.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Super Goblin

[DarkKnight7]

High priced comic con figs doesn't change the fact that I think $40 is too much for a minifig.

I definitely respect your opinion.And thank you Ultron32 for giving a bit of perspective on the price. But, just so you know, the price of the custom figures reflects two things: a) the cost to pad print custom figures as a small business and get quality prints, and b) the fact that it was printed in manageable but small numbers. If I could print at the ridiculous rate that TLG does (1000s+), the price of these would be MUCH lower. But, given the fact that I had to find my own print company to produce these prints and at such a relatively low number, makes the cost jump quite a bit. But, I think that is the price for creating figs that, in my opinion, can be used interchangeably with other legos - no bumpy UV printing surface and good clarity of print (like Legos). And I did a LOT of considering when coming up with that price, looking at similar products being offered by other companies (Not Another Custom Minifigure, eclipseGrafx, Christo, etc.) and taking my costs per figure and many other things into consideration, this is the lowest prices I can offer to make a small enough profit just to expand and make other figures. But, this is an endeavor to bring to market things that TLG isn't producing that we can add to our collection, and at the rate that is best for you as customers and to allow me to bring more fun figures in the future. If this was digitally printed (which is good quality too, but not what I prefer if I can help it) it would have been MUCH lower. So, I chose quality and that brought higher costs and higher sales price, but for good reasons. I hope you see why and hopefully others do as well.

And as the moderators would agree, for future comments please keep the discussions on this thread to just comments, criticisms, and feedback about the minifigure(s) themselves. I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks again for all the feedback, these figures took a lot of love and effort to release in this fashion (over a year of planning, and 3-4 months to get the products in order and printed). So, I truly appreciate it!

[Super Goblin]

If you are going to advertise your customs here I think I have the right to comment on the price.

[Repeter]

If you are going to advertise your customs here I think I have the right to comment on the price.

You could mention, "Too expensive", without "outing" the price. Dude is just trying to advertise his new business and stay within the guidelines of the site. You seem ticked off that they are out of your price range, as I would guess all pad-printed customs would be ($40/per is quite normal).

I could agree, except I understand what it takes to start up a new business, especially one as niche and expensive as pad printing. I'd challenge anyone to find this sort of quality for cheaper. Sure, you can buy cheaper customs, but I'd doubt if they were pad printed. Also,these designs are very top notch. Congrats and good job, DarkKnight7. Money is tight right now, but if I find myself with some disposable income, I could see scooping that Gamb...ahem, Kinetic Man. I'd put these up there with Christo et al.

[Super Goblin]

If his price is justified, what is the big deal about mentioning the price? Being in or out of my price range has nothing to do with my post. I'm also not ticked off about the price. I gave mt opinion on the minifigs and the price.

[DarkKnight7]

I have no problem with that and I'm glad to discuss it, actually, as I feel they are fair prices myself. But, I just know that the moderators here don't appreciate if the threads get into the business side (like pricing) and I would like to keep this thread within the guidelines if possible and focus only on the figures themselves. So, I dont mean to slight your comment at all, I just want to keep the discussion from being moderated if I can help it. I hope you can respect that and understand why I posted that in response. I'm sure the moderators would agree.

[p_o_s_t_y]

I think it's a reasonable price considering he is pad printed,has four colours which bumps up the cost,has a custom coat,this is an excellent minifig by the way,I will be picking 1 up soon,looking forward to your next creations.

[Cheatster9000x]

Are you gonna make any version of Iron Man Steel Guy? I'd happily buy one of those.

[Im a brickmaster.]

Why not just say its a X-Men Gambit custom? I don't think there'd be any legal complications... Nice red robin!

Edited April 20, 2014 by Im a brickmaster.

[DarkKnight7]

I think it's a reasonable price considering he is pad printed,has four colours which bumps up the cost,has a custom coat,this is an excellent minifig by the way,I will be picking 1 up soon,looking forward to your next creations.

Thanks, p_o_s_t_y, appreciate it! And just to clarify, these designs both consisted of FIVE colors...on each piece! That's five on the head AND five on the torso and hips. So, yes, the cost was quite big compared to others.

Are you gonna make any version of Iron Man Steel Guy? I'd happily buy one of those.

Why yes, I do have a couple planned. Here's a picture of the two I have on deck after my next fig (Capta...I mean American Super Soldier), the one on the left (Suitcase Armor) is coming first:

Would these be ones you'd be interested in? These both are planned to be pad printed as well.

Why not just say its a X-Men Gambit custom? I don't think there'd be any legal complications... Nice red robin!

Mmm, tend to disagree with you on the legal end And thanks for the compliment on Red Robin! Some news on him coming next week.

More news will be coming hopefully next week on my next figure.

[Repeter]

The glow on the rightmost Ironman's torso is amazeballs. Great work.

[Robianco]

The designs of the figures is the most important thing... and these look great. So many things can let a design down and these look like they've been carefully put together to make them look as close to official figs as possible.

Then comes the printing. I still think pad printing is the best way to go to get things looking perfect. But it costs.

I've priced up getting things printed in the past for myself and that was bad enough working on one side of a torso and a head print. For anything that has arm, leg, face and torso prints over multiple colours then they're going to be expensive to produce... factor in the blanks of the actual Lego figure and it's easy for a price to rise and rise.

Machine printed figures can be done in very small numbers keeping them cost effective but they'll feel and look different from your Lego figures. That's why Christo figures are so sought after. His designs are good but it's the printing that makes all the difference. $35-$40 can be the end price of a Christo figure... not always though.

They may seem expensive... especially when compared with some other sellers who print digitally but I'd pay extra for good pad printing. It just limits the amount of figures you can buy.

The current Chinese fake figures are going to test a lot of customisers. They're now cloning Christo's figures. What used to cost $30 can now cost $3. You may run a slight gauntlet on the printing being bang on but it's worth the risk. This has happened with Iron Man and other Super Hero customs, Comic Con exclusives and genuine Lego figures. They're now creating bigfigs that TLG hasn't even done. You can but a set of Fantastic Four for $15. That's less than a single figure of the exact same design from a customiser who has printed digitally. That's where China's mass production and cheap manufacturing comes into play.

I think the key to finding success in customs now is getting the figures absolutely bang on... and by that I mean the actual choice of figure. If they sell then you'll have enough to pay for the next figure's print. Then it grows. If they don't... and there's a few excellent figures out there, all pad printed, that aren't selling as well as people had hoped and it's denting their enthusiasm to produce more. The more the price of Chinese fakes stays low and the quality even slightly improves it's going to put people off paying $40 for one figure when they can pay that for 20 customs from the far East.

I hope more people produce great customs like this. There's 3 other people I know that produce pad printed customs and I'd take all their figures if it wasn't for the seemingly high cost. I just know that to be able to get some sort of business model going they're going to stay at that price or it's simply not worth the people producing them actually doing it. I can think of 9 figures I'd like to add to my collection including these 2 and it would cost me over $300 for them.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Robianco

[DarkKnight7]

The designs of the figures is the most important thing... and these look great. So many things can let a design down and these look like they've been carefully put together to make them look as close to official figs as possible.

Then comes the printing. I still think pad printing is the best way to go to get things looking perfect. But it costs.

I've priced up getting things printed in the past for myself and that was bad enough working on one side of a torso and a head print. For anything that has arm, leg, face and torso prints over multiple colours then they're going to be expensive to produce... factor in the blanks of the actual Lego figure and it's easy for a price to rise and rise.

Machine printed figures can be done in very small numbers keeping them cost effective but they'll feel and look different from your Lego figures. That's why Christo figures are so sought after. His designs are good but it's the printing that makes all the difference. $35-$40 can be the end price of a Christo figure... not always though.

They may seem expensive... especially when compared with some other sellers who print digitally but I'd pay extra for good pad printing. It just limits the amount of figures you can buy.

The current Chinese fake figures are going to test a lot of customisers. They're now cloning Christo's figures. What used to cost $30 can now cost $3. You may run a slight gauntlet on the printing being bang on but it's worth the risk. This has happened with Iron Man and other Super Hero customs, Comic Con exclusives and genuine Lego figures. They're now creating bigfigs that TLG hasn't even done. You can but a set of Fantastic Four for $15. That's less than a single figure of the exact same design from a customiser who has printed digitally. That's where China's mass production and cheap manufacturing comes into play.

I think the key to finding success in customs now is getting the figures absolutely bang on... and by that I mean the actual choice of figure. If they sell then you'll have enough to pay for the next figure's print. Then it grows. If they don't... and there's a few excellent figures out there, all pad printed, that aren't selling as well as people had hoped and it's denting their enthusiasm to produce more. The more the price of Chinese fakes stays low and the quality even slightly improves it's going to put people off paying $40 for one figure when they can pay that for 20 customs from the far East.

I hope more people produce great customs like this. There's 3 other people I know that produce pad printed customs and I'd take all their figures if it wasn't for the seemingly high cost. I just know that to be able to get some sort of business model going they're going to stay at that price or it's simply not worth the people producing them actually doing it. I can think of 9 figures I'd like to add to my collection including these 2 and it would cost me over $300 for them.

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it. And I would agree, pad printing is the way to go, much better quality, but people have to know that unless you have your own pad printer (which are expensive as all get out), than you will have to pay more for that quality, as TLG is only able to sell cheaper because they mass produce (1,000s + of one figure), which customizers can't afford to do.

I've seen many discussions on the "knock-offs" that you discuss here from China. What I wish people would understand, though I don't think many care, is that when they buy that $2 fig for cheaper than the TLG or Customizer version which is more, they are supporting a model of economics where the production is cheap, the quality of print is not good (and not safe, from the latest reports from China on inks), and WORSE than that...you are supporting the stealing of designs of good honest companies, like TLG and the Customizers. That person buying from these Chinese companies (like Decool) is supporting and allowing a company, protected in China from having to follow any form of international copyright law, to steal the work of those who are trying to produce a quality design (and who love LEGO themselves) and product, and make it without any concern for the customer (other than give them kind of what they want). These things are crap and are not worthy of being in the world of LEGO, and I feel sorry for those who feel buying a stolen Christo design is worth it to them. Well, when the customizers are forced out of the game, the customer will be at the whim of a company that cares very little about its customers and the quality it produces. Anyway, that's my rant. But, that's also the power of capitalism - those who can do it for cheaper (and legally get away with stealing) will always win out.

[LOTRfan]

I really like Kinetic *cough*Gambit*cough* Man, he was always one of my favourite superheroes. If it weren't for the huge pad-printing cost, I would get one.....

[The Legonater]

Amazing work! I've always been a huge fan of Gambit Kinetic Man, I may have to order him someday!

[DarkKnight7]

I really like Kinetic *cough*Gambit*cough* Man, he was always one of my favourite superheroes. If it weren't for the huge pad-printing cost, I would get one.....

Amazing work! I've always been a huge fan of Gambit Kinetic Man, I may have to order him someday!

Thanks guys, and glad you like him! You guys should send me a PM via my website as I have a few available with very minor defects in print or on the surface of the part that I'm selling for much cheaper. But, as he is sold out on my site, these are going fast, too.

[LOTRfan]

I'm selling for much cheaper.

Could you give me an estimate of the price?

[DarkKnight7]

Could you give me an estimate of the price?

Sorry for the late reply, but you can check on my website now to get the next print of Kinetic Man reserved, if you were still interested. Just FYI. Thanks

[Eric The Hand]

Oh man...I've been wanting to get Kinetic Man for sometime now.