On top of all that rests a great skull sculpt. It feels a bit wrong to not have an open mouth or a movable jaw, but it looks great nonetheless. I’m in-between on the flames around the skull though. They’re a separate piece, molded in a rubbery translucent plastic. I like the visual effect that allows for, but it doesn’t quite overcome looking like a separate piece. Some tapered edges might have helped it to look more like the skull was emitting flame instead of the “crown” effect the figure is sporting. It looks great in some angles, but others are wonky.
For articulation, Ghost Rider sports a one-piece ball neck (the head is removable), ball shoulders (limited), hips, wrists, and ankles, swivels at the biceps, waist, and thighs, double hinges at the elbows and knees, and the ab crunch. The neck articulation doesn’t have as great a range as some others in the wave and the arms are blocked by the shoulder pads on the jacket, but I’m getting used to it. I’m still waiting for those rocker ankles Hasbro promised, but otherwise this is a well-articulated Ghost Rider.
Ghost Rider is mostly black, but don’t think that made him easy to paint. First, there’s the armor which has a great weathered look throughout the entire figure. I would’ve liked a little more of a dark wash on the belt to match, but the armored parts of the figure look fantastic.
On top of that is the aforementioned flame color which differentiates the variants. I love that Hasbro included the colors as they cascade across the armor, though I think it works better on the blue flames than the orange. The only place the blue looks off is the over-spray on the lower jacket. The upper armor and inner collar look sharp though as does the fade from blue to clear on the flames. I’m not as happy with the paint on the skull itself, I wish a little more bone were showing through and I may take it upon myself to lighten up the wash with some acetone. If I end up opening up the orange Ghost Rider, he’ll need to receive a similar customization.
There’s no accessories for Ghost Rider which seems a little uncool to me. I mean, I’m not expecting a bike or anything, but some chains would’ve come in mighty handy…
Overall, this is a pretty spiffy Ghost Rider figure even if it’s not as iconic as the two previous Marvel Legends. I opened up with the notion that I felt like I was done buying Ghost Riders, but the irony is that I’d still like to see Hasbro release the ML7 Ghost Rider in his classic blue (clothes, that is). While I’m waiting for someone up in Pawtucket to get around that, this pair makes for a fine substitute to tide me over. The reuse is barely noticeable with newly sculpted pieces doing the heavy lifting, the paint effects are sharp, and the articulation is manageable despite the bulky coat – if I could change the coat to be a little less obtrusive I would, but otherwise I’m happy enough with this figure to have bought it and to consider the notion of having it twice in two different colors. That’s points for Hasbro.
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I know about as much Ghost Rider history as you do, so these guys don’t really do much for me being so modern. Aside from the original 70’s Johnny Blaze GH, I’m cool figure wise but wouldn’t mind seeing Hasbro redo him in the future. I do like having different flame colors for both Riders. That’s one clever touch nobody had thought of since Danny arrived on the scene back in 1990.
It definitely is. It makes for a great toy too, though I am having fun poking at the red/blue heroes…
Looks like Ghost rider has a little dandruff problem.
Ha. The soot alone would have outrageous dry cleaning bills.
Glad you finally found one. I still haven’t seen any restocks or first stocks in my area since my original sighting at TRU.
It was actually Vault who should get credit for the legwork. He found this in a picked over Walmart, someone had left him, Thor, & Klaw behind (I will never understand buying habits). I was grateful because I’m batting a thousand on the variants, even at TGT & WM. :/
ML7 Ghost Rider WAS released in blue…
Okay, with a weird “mid-transformation” head, but that’s nothing a little hot water swap can’t fix.
http://www.marvellegends.net/Figures/ML07/GhostRider_1.htm
I knew about the variant, but I honestly never thought about the headswap. LOL
I’d keep that in mind, but is the blue version still rare? That’s one of only a half-dozen MLs that I never saw in person.
If Hasbro readdresses GR though, I wouldn’t mind getting a bigger version of the MU figure!
i really likes this ghost rider. looking forward to getting one…
Two of the four Wal-Marts have put these out this week at $15.44. Target too. Hopefully, you can swing around SPFD and snag some soon.
I know you’re really off of Mattel, dayraven. So I thought you would be happy to know that I’m finally getting sick of some of their shenanigans. When I found the DCUC wave 20 Green Arrow (the only figure from this wave I want) yesterday at Target, I took him and stood in line for a minute, then decided to put him down and walk out.
The reason: I decided I would rather have the $16 in case I found this Ghost Rider (I’ve only found the orange one, but want blue), or another ML figure, because I would rather Hasbro get my money for giving me better figures for less money than Mattel.
How do I get repaid for making this decision? I happened to stumble across ML wave 2 Captain America today (still need to find a blue GR though). It completely took me by surprise because I didn’t expect to see any wave 2 figures yet, and I had the money in my pocket to buy him. He is a completely awesome figure by the way.
I’ve never been a ML collector. Actually, I only started collecting when I found DCSH figures in 2006. I bought a couple of Hasbro’s early ML offerings, but thought they were pretty lame in sculpt and construction. These new figures are fantastic though, so I see myself becoming a Marvel fan.
oh man do I hate that coat I display mine without
“relief tube”? Is that a ‘The Boys’ reference?
While i like the design, this figure doesn’t really feel like Ghost Rider to me. Wasn’t the pure demon form of GR called Zarathos? I think I saw a panel of him once in passing and this figure reminded me of that. So, I’m treating him as Zarathos in my collection.
Dvl, I wish I’d had the restraint you’ve shown. All I kept finding were the variant waves down here in Texas. I grabbed orange for the terrax pieces and, after a week, gave in and opened him. I found blue a couple of weeks after that and he looks infinitely better. Orange GR just looks nasty, like someone licked his Cheetos dust off and put him back in the bag. The skull really needs to be white, but I’m not sure if acetone will do the trick. I ended up having to trim away at the jacket/vest under the right arm on both GRs because it kept pushing the arm up. Both work great now.
The lack of a chain is a glaring omission. Anyone have any suggestions for a good one?
More of a general astronaut reference, but perhaps a Boys reference would also work?
I could see this as a Zarathos, a Demo-Man version of sorts.
I don’t know how commendable my restraint is! I had to basically forget I had it and hide Terrax too! 😀 I think you’ve sold me on returning/selling my orange Ghost Rider though – I can’t unsee the Cheetos dust!! LOL
For the chain, I’m thinking of going down to one of the hardware stores and seeing how small a chain they sell and getting some for him.
if you are looking for someone to buy that Orange GR off you……
Zarathos was Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider demon. It turned out that Danny Ketch was bonded to a completely different demon (with, apparently, similar tastes) called Noble Kale.
So anyway, several years after Danny Ketch was separated from the ’90s GR (who was not Zarathos), he found himself craving its power, and the evil angel Zadkiel hooked him up with some and tricked him into killing all of the other GRs on Earth (it turns out the GRs have always been a Green Lantern Corps-style thing, and we’re introduced to a ton of awesome GRs past and present) to steal their power. When he gets to Blaze, who was Zarathos’ host again at the time, they fight a lot. Once Ketch defected back to the side of the angels – er, the side of the non-angels – the guys fighting against Zadkiel, his flames went back to orange, but he was wearing a totally different costume. Less metal album cover, more leather biker guy.
The first half of that story was a limited series collected in the Addict trade, but the showdown-then-team-up with Blaze was in the main GR book.
Thanks, LV!
WAY Too much blue paint on the skull. Too bad you missed the opportunity to have DCUC w2 Harley comment on it! the packaged orange doesn’t look too bad. definitely better/cleaner than the blue.
You didn’t get any of the figures from the first movie? He’s a bit better than the ML7 versions, imo. (I also picked up one of the 6″ scale bikes on clearance, as it looks near enough to the one on the Meat Loaf album covers. No, I’m not joking.)
also, the Roman numeral for 7 is VII, not XII. 😉
You and your picture suggestions! Grar!
I don’t think I did buy any movie GR figures now that you mention it. Hmm…
And at 4am, Roman numerals are whatever I say they are! That’s less embarassing than “Secret Warts Doom” anyway. LOL
so here’s my question… vengeance aside, does anyone think we’ll see any other GR villains in the mix? cuz man, i like his roster, but you talk about a cast that will be hard to part re-use… i would love to see a blackout, zarathos, deathwatch, lilith, scarecrow, zodiac, tatterdemalion, zadkeil, null the living darkness… the only one i wouldn’t want is mephisto, and only then because for me, DS already knocked that ball out of the park. marvel legends just isn’t going to do better than that. but that said, a few of my must haves are 100% tools, so way “less than likely.”
it’s also worth note that morbius crosses over into a couple of marvel mainstay rosters, and the one we’ve been given thusfar kinda blows… can we amend that?
Easy pass for me, I much prefer either Blaxe’s 1970’s look or Keith’s 1990 look. just me I guess.
I finally found one of the two GR’s and it was this one, it was about 16 bucks at target but worth the buy even though it has no weapons or otherwise. I suppose its rare because the cheapest I saw on ebay for was $44! Also I haven’t seen this variant anywhere else, now hopefully trying to find the orange one won’t be as difficult. On a random side note the blue one looks like it ate some blue candy 😛