Ghost Rider makes another appearance in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s epic run on Marvel Legends. His first appearance was in Series 3 as the Dan Ketch version, and this is first appearance of Johnny Blaze the demon possessed hero from the beautiful Marvel ’70s era. Created in 1972, Ghost Rider continues to find his way in the Marvel Universe.
This figure was a bit of an oddity. Collectors were all expecting a “superhero” version of Blaze as he appeared in the comics, tall, muscular, a skin tight biker suit, blue colored and flaming skull head. Instead we got a “zombified” version. On the surface the collector rage swells and bristles and wants to burst volumes of nonsensical ranting at the keyboard. This is not “my” Ghost Rider. But upon further inspection this figure is a brilliant piece of plastic. The design, the idea of Blaze turning into a flaming skeleton and not just his head but his whole body is brilliant. And makes all the sense in the world. I mean why not? And the resulting loose fitting clothes and even reduced size makes perfect sense. The figure goes from being another muscle bound superhero to having a story behind it, making it stand out as an outstanding figure.
The articulation is typical Marvel Legends at this point, super articulation and unlimited posability. Time will show some looseness in the joints, the head and ankles, but the figure still stands well amongst the other heroes on the shelf. I even love the articulated action feature, open his jaw and his eyes pop out for penance stare fun. Here is the breakdown:
Hinged toes
Rocker ankles
Hinged ankles
Swivel calves
Double hinged knees
Swivel thighs
Ball hips
Swivel waist
Hinged abs
Ball shoulders
Swivel biceps
Double hinged elbows
Swivel forearms
Hinged wrists
Hinged fingers
Ball neck
Ball head
Hinged Jaw
Pop out eyes
The paint caused a bit of a stir. The apps and the prototyping were amazing as usual, Toy Biz tended to walk on water in this regard, but the colors. Oh the colors. Ghost Rider comes in black, and for many collectors this was a horrible mistake. Johnny Blaze wore a blue suit, not a black suit, it wasn’t until 2007 in the movie that Blaze adopts black. No, at this time he was all about the blue and that is what was expected. Not black. The funny part is that Blaze pretty much wears black and is universally accepted as wearing black leather now-a-days. In order to appease collectors, Toy Biz released a very hard to find variant of Blaze in mid transformation, painted in the traditional blue. Oh the rage.
Ghost Rider comes with his classic bike, kind of. Depending on your first introduction to the character he either rode a Harley with a wind screen or without. When Blaze joins the Champions he starts off with the windscreen on, and that is the look that is packed into this Toy Biz figure. It’s a great nod to the cheesiness of he ’70s and the bike. At first I think I laughed when I saw it, but these days I love the bike, so much character to it.
It’s tough to tell you to go out and add this figure to your collection. Personally I love it and I’m tickled to have it as a part of my display.
You can pick Ghost Rider up on:
