Saturday, October 31, 2015
Review: Return of Marvel Legends Ghost Rider
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Hasbro |
| Origin Series: | Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 16.5cm tall |
| Original Price: | $14.99 |
| Packaging: |
Much like my Agent Coulson figure review, I got RoML Ghost Rider as a loose figure just this year at Toycon with the help of my friend Snacks who bought it for me from a friend of his. So yeah, to give an idea, RoML's packaging is that of a card-type package with an artwork at the back, though I cannot provide any photos of the packaging as I don't have it, I will provide links to the package's front and back photos . (credits to Marvelous News.com)
| Details: |
This Ghost Rider is actually Danny Ketch who is, quite likely, the most famous Ghost Rider among the fans, but in his look as seen in the 2008 Ghost Rider comic series (if my research is correct that is, correct me if I'm wrong though) complete with the blue flames.
Like all my detail section reviews, I'll start off with the head. First off, I TOTALLY love this head sculpt, I definitely think it's the best looking Ghost Rider headsculpt to date as it does look like they've really put in effort to sculpt the skull alone and there's definitely a fierce look on how the molded in the skull; in addition to that, they actually painted it with blue hues to give it the effect that it's somehow inside a burning blue flame.
The flames igniting molded in the figure are all molded up pretty well for a legit flame effect and are all made of clear plastic with different shades of blue to have give it a more legit flame look, kudos to them for that as I definitely love it.
Likewise, his outfit is equally as awesome as the coat was molded in a way that there are a lot of wrinkles in it + the fact that it's in gloss black give it an impression of a real leather jacket. Additionally, I just love how rough the texture is on the shoulder pads and gauntlets. One additional thing to note is that you can see traces of blue hues on his suit, it's actually supposed to be a full black and gray suit but since they made the shoulder pads ignite blue flames, Hasbro wanted to give it some light blue hues as an effect of the flame igniting at the instant; I think it's a very cool approach and it definitely works well for my tastes.
There are a bunch of chains throughout this Ghost Rider's designs and while they are not real chains, the amount of paint detail on those soft plastic turned out quite nicely and they actually look like chains with all the mixes of silver and black lining.
| Accessories: |
Unfortunately, Ghost Rider doesn't have any accessories but he does come with the arms for Terrax which I definitely do not have as, again, I got this one as a loose figure without the BAF parts.
| Articulation Points: |
Ghost Rider's skull sits on a ball joint and there's no articulation at the bottom of the neck but the ball does allow a nice rotation and tilt but looking up and down is quite limited in range especially looking down.
While Ghost Rider supposedly has good articulation, a lot of his suit details actually limit his articulation to really notorious levels. First off, his shoulder pads prevents his arms from being fully rotated, only allowing you to raise it up around 90 degrees forward or backward, sideways raise is pretty ok though however, due to his suit yet again, having his arms in resting position would look awkward at certain points because it only sits at 45 degrees by default instead of the usual 10-ish degrees. Ghost Rider has a bicep swivel, but rotating his arms through the biceps would forcefully raise his arms through the shoulders. His elbows are basically double jointed but you can't fully bend it since again, a design factor prevents it and this time it would be his gauntlets getting in the way. Lastly, his wrist joints are again similar to old figma wrist styles which has a central side hinge but also rotates via the connection peg but yet again, a part of the gauntlet makes it very hard to fully rotate it; you can definitely fully rotate it but it will stretch out a bendy plastic in the tip of the gauntlet.
Ghost Rider has an ab crunch and that is ridiculously one of the more unrestricted articulation points this guy has and the range is pretty decent IMO; additionally, Ghost Rider does have a waist swivel.
Going to the legs, since this is the pre-infinite series, Ghost Rider does have that weird hip joint that works similarly to the shoulders, what makes this so hard to move is that you need to shift the position of the hinge on the hip joints before you can do any kicking (worth a 90 degree raise) or splitting sideways (around 135 degrees split). Ghost Rider also has a thigh swivel which works just as intended; a double jointed knee which, I can't tell if due to design or not, can bend only to around 90 degrees and lastly, a hinge on the ankles. Yes, no ankle tilts which makes this a pretty hard to balance figure.
| Poseability: |
RoML Ghost Rider is pretty tricky pose and is very hard to balance due to non-existent ankle tilts and there really isn't much you can do with him alone since first and foremost, he doesn't have any accessories nor extra hands. But hey, a Ghost Rider's a Ghost Rider, so the default I thought of was him punishing a bad guy but even with such a case, there's still really a limited amount of poses this guy can do.
If you have the means to give him some chains, it does work perfectly as his right hand was sculpted in a way to make it look like it was supposed to hold something and I did use the chains from figma Black Rock Shooter for him since I don't have any silver chains but it does work pretty well as an accessory for Ghost Rider.
Now, it's already a given fact at this point that you need to accessorize the Rider if you want to fully utilize him being a figure and for me, one of the best complimentary "accessory" you could give him would be the attachable flames from the Tamashii Effect Flame (of course, the blue one since this is the blue flame Ghost Rider variant). Sure Ketch is more on the chains and the stares but Hellfire is always one of the powers of the spirits of vengeance.
Effect Flame definitely works perfectly with him and is my main "accessory" for him in my display cab.
And before I end the review, here's a little shot of our sin-counting heroes. (well, GR technically works that way in general, right?)
| Final Thoughts: |
Now the only reason I bought off Ketch Ghost Rider was because I like Ghost Riders the best from Marvel's array of heroes but, of course, if it's THE Ghost Rider, it'd be Blaze for me. But anyway, I totally love the sculpting and detailing work on RoML Ghost Rider and that alone makes his price worth it, got him for around 13 USD iirc? But if you're looking for articulation, you'd best be chasing after the Blaze Ghost Rider from the recent Rhino wave. I can't really say I can recommend him since I love and hate this figure at the same time, love it because sculpt-wise, this is still the best Marvel Legends Ghost Rider for me but accessory and articulation makes it equally a bummer to own. So yeah, do decide for yourself, if you're a fan of this design of Ketch's Ghost Rider form, then definitely get one. (Do note there's an orange flame variant for this.)
Once again thanks to my friend, Snacks, for this find, I owe you one for this! 8Db
Once again thanks to my friend, Snacks, for this find, I owe you one for this! 8Db
I do give the Spirit of Vengeance a 3 out of 5.
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