Tag Archives: Danny Ketch

#3657: Ghost Rider

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GHOST RIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Danny Ketch crosses paths with a cursed motorcycle, he is transformed into a Spirit of Vengeance, wielding supernatural powers as Ghost Rider.”

I’ve only gotten 7 Ghost Rider reviews here on the site, and three of those are multipacks.  While there’s been a split between Ghost Rider’s various hosts, Johnny Blaze has definitely been the breakaway lead.  That said, I ended my last Ghost Rider review, way back in December of 2022, by asking if we could get a proper figure of Danny Ketch, the third main Ghost Rider, introduced in the ’90s.  I guess someone out there was listening.  Or, you know, in a less me-centric-view, they had to get around to him eventually, right?  He wasn’t part of the sadly rather small selection of 50th anniversary offerings for the character, but he *does* get to be part of another anniversary set-up, albeit a more overarching Marvel celebration.  You know what? Good for him.  So, let’s just go ahead and give ol’ Danny his due!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ghost Rider is a deluxe offering from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, released under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  He’s effectively an “Ultimate Riders” level offering, but they’ve discontinued that wider set-up, so he’s more of an on his own sort of thing.  This is *technically* Danny’s third time in Legends form, and *technically* his second in his classic attire.  Why “technically”?  Because his first Legends release, back in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s run, was identified as Johnny Blaze on the back of the box, despite clearly being Danny.  Still, it was clearly Danny, so we’re giving him the number on that technicality.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new; the head and neck are the same ones that have been in use since the Rhino Series figure.  It’s honestly fair; what exactly are you going to do to reinvent a flaming skull sculpt?  It’s got that cool moving jaw too, which I definitely dig.  From the neck down, he’s all-new.  The articulation scheme is a lot of the same style of layout we saw on the prior mold, but it’s more refined, and a lot cleaner looking.  He also gets drop hips, which are super beneficial for riding poses.  In terms of the look, we’re finally moving away from the re-used AIM parts and their built-in ’70s stunt guy vibe.  This one’s got the proper ’90s bike update, as Ketch well should.  There’s a lot of small detail work, especially in terms of texturing.  His jacket and boots have the stippled leather detailing, and the pants even get all of the right stitching and seams.  All of the real edgelord-y stuff (the spikes and chains) is separately sculpted, which grants the whole set-up a lot more depth and sharpness.  The color work relies on this construction, with a lot more molded coloring than prior releases.  That’s not to say there’s not paint work; the head gets a fair bit of accenting, so that the skull looks like an actual skull.  He’s also got detailing for his eyes, which seem a touch low, but they still work.  Ghost Rider is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and an open gesture/fist combo) and the flaming chain piece from the last few Riders.

In addition to that, of course, he’s got the biggest extra: his cycle.  Danny’s version of the bike is drastically different from Johnny’s stuntcycle-inspired ride, opting for a far more “tough” design, at least as far as the ’90s were concerned.  It was particularly angular and boxy, something that this version captures well.  The old Toy Biz release was noted for having a somewhat diminutive bike, but this one is quite well scaled to the figure it’s packed with.  The bike also gets its own selection of extras. There are flaming effects for each of the wheels, allowing the bike to stand better on its own, and adapting the flaming wheels effect from the comics pretty nicely.  There’s also an attachment for keeping the bike up with one wheel in the air, which adds a lot of dynamic posing options to the set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got a bunch of Johnny Blaze Ghost Riders, which is cool, because I sure do love Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider.  But I also love Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.  And I have significantly less of those.  I want more, but I rarely get the opportunity.  I have very fond memories of getting that first Legends Ghost Rider, and I was hoping for a good update.  This is a good update.  For variety’s sake, I might have liked a new head, but seeing how literally everything else is new, I can’t really complain, especially when everything else about the figure works so very well.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#0107: Original Ghost Rider

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER

GHOST RIDER (TOYBIZ)

Time to take a jump back to the 90s and to ToyBiz’s powerhouse that was the 5 inch Marvel line.  Sure, they had the X-Men line, and the Spider-Man line, and they did a few waves of Hulk, Iron Man and Fantastic Four to tie in with the cartoons.  But they wanted to do more.  They wanted another character to devote a whole line to.  And seeing as it was the middle of the 90s and being oh-so-90s was the big thing to be, they needed someone who just bled 90s.  Someone who screamed “X-TREME!”  With chains, and leather jackets, and skulls!  And what do you know, Marvel had a character like that:  Ghost Rider!  And so, Ghost Rider was given his own toyline!  To ToyBiz’s credit, the Ghost Rider line is easily one of the highlights of the many toylines they produced in this time period.

Today, I’ll be looking at one of the variants of the main character from the line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

“Original Ghost Rider” as he was dubbed was released as part of the second (and last) wave of the Ghost Rider line.  In spite of the name, he’s actually based on the second Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, who was the main Ghost Rider at the time.  I’ll be honest, the name makes no sense.  Like, at all.  So, I’m just gonna overlook it and just review the figure on its own merits.  Ghost Rider stands just over 5 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation.  For the record, that level of articulation was phenomenal for the time, which just goes to show ToyBiz’s commitment to the line, which was odd, given there wasn’t a Ghost Rider cartoon or anything.  The sculpt on GH is actually really good.  It’s quite detailed, and it’s well-proportioned for the time.   The figure’s covered in flames, that all look to be well handled, if perrhaps a bit odd looking, give that they’re opaque.  Originally, the figure had an action feature where, when you pressed a button on his back, the front of his chest would pop open, displaying his fiery torso.  However, the chest pieces didn’t stay on very well, and I lost mine over the years, leaving my Ghost Rider with a permanently exposed chest.  That sounds awkward.  The paint is pretty good, though some stuff, like the glow in the dark gimmick on the head, leaves the paint under-detailed, which is a bit of a disservice to the sculpt.  Ghost rider was originally packaged with a set of glow in the dark chains to be clipped onto him, but child-me seems to have lost that piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ghost Rider was part of a large subset of figures that were purchased for me by my dad what a nearby comicbook store called Ageless Heroes went out of business.  The store had a large stock of the various 90s 5 inch figures, and they were being sold for quite a discount.  I know this was my go to Ghost Rider for a while, and I really thought the chest thing was pretty cool.  Of course, I only bought Ghost Rider because I felt my Champions display needed him.   Yeah, I was that kid.  And for all of you who went “who are the champions?”, go look up Marvel’s Champions.  Be amazed at my obscure references!