Review : Ghost Rider
Marvel Select (Diamond Select Toys)
Wave/Series : Comic Book Series
Released : 2007 / re-released 2014
Price : £19.99
The majority of my Marvel collection is firmly embedded in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I do occasionally hop over to the Comic Book Select releases. Ghost Rider is a figure I have been sat on the fence about for a while. I love the character and even the Nick Cage movies, and with him joining the MCU via Agents of Shield I finally dropped some cash on a loose Johnny Blaze from eBay.
Ghost Rider was originally released in 2007 by Diamond, and was latterly re-released in 2014. He comes on the standard over-sized blister pack with the right hand side wrap around a beautifully designed flaming skull comic book image. Round the back is a full size image of Ghost Rider on his stand and next to this is an overview of the character. Beneath this bio is a wonderful 1970's era Ghost Rider comic cover, and to the right of this a couple of "also available" figure images - Venom and Nightcrawler.
Out of the packaging and Ghost Rider stands dead on 7" high. The flaming skull head is brilliantly done with the skull being almost a face plate on top of a translucent flame effect that stars behind the eyes and roars out to the back of the head and down into the neck, giving the impression that the skull is suspended in the fire rather than attached to the figure. The paint on the skull is also impressive, starting with a bone white base colour but with sufficient dry-brushing and washing to an almost black around the teeth, eye sockets and where the skull meets the fire.
Replicating any kind of fire effect is difficult, but Diamond have succeeded pretty well with the rest of the flaming head. The base plastic is a translucent orange and onto this is a yellow highlight effect to accentuate the flame.
Most people, myself included, picture Ghost Rider in black leather with spiked - where as this figure goes back to the very early days of the Comic Book Ghost Rider with the blue motorcycle outfit. The shape of the body is very "comic" book with the slimmer waist and wider shoulders. The suit is sculpted with plenty of fabric folds and creases and these are then really well picked out by the paint job. This paint job starts with a black base, on top of which the blue is applied, while leaving the black to show through in the depth of the creases. This makes the suit much darker in person than perhaps it appears when photographed. There is a lighter blue trim applied on the chest, down each arm, each leg and around the upturned collar - all really neatly done with a defined dark blue edge to each stripe. The gloves are a black and are sculpted so the right is a fist and the left is an open grasping hand, ready to choke the life out of his enemies. Likewise the boots are black and almost knee high, and yet up close there are further lighter grey shades used to bring out the texture of the boots.
This is an older Select figure, so articulation is less than we expect on the newer releases. The head is ball jointed, but won't move too far in any direction due to the flame effect. You do get ball jointed shoulders which can move out to the side and rotate above the head. The elbows are a single 90 degree joint and then the hands have a swivel in the wrist where the gloves meet the arm.
There is no ab joint, and the waist is a simple swivel hidden by the cut of Ghost Rider's belt. It is the legs that you notice the biggest articulation differences to more modern figures, with the hips on simple peg that rotate only on the axle of the groin. This is enough though as once you couple this with the jointed knee and ankle there are a range of stances you can achieve - it is just Ghost Rider will never sit, kneel or crouch.
As with most standard sized Select figures, Ghost Rider comes with a diorama base. And WOW what a base this is. It is essentially a one inch high plinth which is made up of panels of volcanic rock size chunks and in between the rock is the same translucent orange fire with the yellow highlights. And from this lava are reaching several demonic hand. These hands are clawing upward at the figure and are in the same orange plastic, but this time brushed with black to show how they are cooling out of the lava. The stand has two peg holes to match up to Ghost Rider's feet, and when he is positioned one hand is gripping his right foot while a second is reaching up for his left. It gives the whole thing a statue type look, and is arguably the best base I have come across from Diamond in terms of being an extension of the figure itself.
As a £20 figure at retail, Ghost Rider is brilliant despite the lower range of articulation. He easily stands up to any of the more modern releases in terms of sculpt and design and the base is a real work of art and takes the figure to a whole new level. Yes, a motor cycle would have been a bonus - but that would have been very cost restrictive for Diamond and even if it had been included I doubt Ghost Rider could have sat naturally on the bike.
I award Ghost Rider a very impressive 5 out of 5, and if you are sat on the fence on this figure (as I was) then do not hesitate in grabbing this one if you get the chance.
