8/22/08

Ghost Riders In The Sky....

A few years back I envisioned what Ghost Rider would have looked like as a youth:



Today I swung into Target during a little road trip and spotted this SWEET Marvel Superhero Squad figure:


And as if Ghost Rider himself isn't cool enough, he comes with:



I'm not a particularly huge Ghost Rider fan. I know as much about his character as your average comic book nerd, and I liked the recent movie, but I don't recall reading more than one or two comics featuring him in my long and illustrious collecting career.

And I have not bought a single figure from this line. Although I've been tempted a time or two by cute little Steve Rogers, I've been able to resist the temptation before - but I just HAD to have this guy and his bike.

I guess you could say the Devil made me do it ;) Much like DCUC's Etrigan, I can truly appreciate a demon-possessed anti-hero marketed as a child's toy. Especially one with a set of wheels like these!


Modeled in the cutesy, little people style of the Marvel Superhero Squad, Ghost Rider, a flame-skulled-chain-wrapped-spiky-mace-flinging literal Hell's Angel creates such a contrast between cutesy playtime fun and eternal damnation that there are bound to be church-basement meetings this Sunday pointing directly to this blog and shouting "what are they doing to our CHILDREN?!?!"


"Penance Stare!"
But seriously. I grew up with Skeletor, and I turned out just fine. Hell, my uncles grew up with rifles, and my grandparents probably had full time jobs by the time they were six! If a little bitty cutesy-wootsy plastic Ghost Rider keeps you up at night plotting Hasbro's demise...maybe you shouldn't be using the internets - it aint for you ;)

"Get your motor runnin'..."
"...head-out on the Highway!"


P.S. - Jay, feel free to put this up on your Super Cycles blog, and I invite ToyRiffic readers (all three of you ;) ) to go check out Jay's cool blog full of motorcycle goodness!

6 comments:

  1. Wow...that is a great figure~!!!

    I also wanted to thank you for the comment.

    Us toy bloggers need to stick together, right?

    And I also agree that a red figure would be much better.

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  2. Oh wow! I was reading your post about Ghost Rider thinking "This is getting linked to on Super Cycles!" ....THEN BAM! Magically, an awesome shout out appeared! That was great. Thank you! I really dig the insight to your childhood illustration of GR. And I'm glad they produced such a little hellraising figure like GR for this line. Great Post! It's going up at Super Cycles later today!

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  3. Thanks for the comment Mr. Kang.

    re: Red (Powerglide) I do hope a repaint happens, as it is a cool figure but just too far off-character in off-white.

    Jay, when I grabbed this Ghost Rider off the shelf I immediately thought of you and your Super Cycles blog!

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  4. I especially like the translucent flames.

    But, didn't Alex Ross show us Ghost Rider as a youth in Marvels ;)

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  5. Yeah, I just got this toy recently too. The translucent flames are nice. I also really like the rolling wheels w/ stationary flames.

    There was another little ghost rider figure that came packaged with a little Punisher. I think I got it last year or something. Definitely not as cool as this guy.

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  6. Bubba i know this is a old Blog post but thanks for sending me the link to it. This Ghost Rider figure looks sweet and he is going on my wish list for sure. : )

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