The New Year has gotten off to a less than auspicious beginning. A brutal year-end at work was almost overshadowed by a waxing fever, a dull toothache, and a visible swelling of the left side of my face. By Saturday morning, the swelling was significant, reaching the lower orbital socket, and the fever would not break; by Sunday (New Year's Day), it was time to call in the cavalry--think Winged Hussars at the Second Siege of Vienna!
My dentist was on Holiday break, but his backup was a Godsend! While Cris was still on the phone with him, he phoned in a prescription for a Z-pack of antibiotics, and I had the initial dose in me within 20 minutes. The fever broke and the swelling began to subside within 6 hrs.--hardly out of the woods, but stable enough to make it to Tuesday and see my dentist. . .
By mid-afternoon, I didn't know whether I was in a dentist's chair--or a torture chamber of the Holy Inquisition. Two-and-a-half hours later, I shuffled out of the office, wondering if the cure was worse than the disease!
So far, so great. . . and it looks like your host will survive the experience. Things are progressing quite nicely, though I am very weak--things probably will not be approaching normalcy until some time this week. . .
So what does this have to do with figure modelling/painting? Well, the plans for a long, relaxing Holiday weekend of painting were summarily dashed. In fact, I did not venture into the studio until late Wednesday. And I probably won't get near the paints until next weekend.
However. . . while rummaging through my storage boxes looking for something else, I stumbled across my Toy Biz kits of Storm and Ghost Rider--I hadn't seen these in at least 12 years!!
You might recall my rather harsh dismissal of the Flamehead kit: ". . . I suppose with A LOT of work it could transcend the toy-like look. . . or not." True, but only in an absolute sense. These kits are what they are. You can't make them into something they are not, and were never intended to be. Having said that, they can certainly be improved upon to varying degrees, and in most instances exceed expectations.
Ghost Rider was one of my favourite Marvel characters of my young adult life. The revision of the CCA in 1971 led to the first appearance of Johnny Blaze and his demonic alter-ego in 1972. The run ended in 1983, with the demon Zarathos expelled from the human vessel that was Blaze, and the latter riding off into the proverbial sunset with his lady-love.
However, the Ghost Rider was quasi-retconned a little less than a decade later to provide for his resurrection in the person of Danny Ketch--and here is when the waters start getting muddy for the casual observer. For while Johnny Blaze might be the person most associated with the Ghost Rider (with a name like that, how couldn't he?), most of the non-comic media and merchandise depictions are actually of Danny Ketch. The chains? The spiked jacket, vambraces and boots? The Penance Stare? All Danny Ketch. The chopper, however, is exclusively Johnny Blaze. This unfortunate conflation has been apparently wholeheartedly endorsed by Marvel, and we need to look no further than KM's latest release.
For all the shortcomings of the Toy Biz kit--and these are legion!--at least they stuck to a single incarnation of a Ghost Rider and that was Danny Ketch. Also much to their credit, they cast the wheels and flaming skull in a translucent yellow. And it was the latter that started me thinking about the untapped potential of this kit. . .
This is going to be a VERY long-term project. It might not ever get done! But my goal from the outset is to not only "reclaim" this kit as much as possible/feasible, but also introduce lighting to enhance the hellfire effects. Hope you're up for the ride!
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