Every Joe #233: Ghostrider

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

Any pilots that came after Ace and Slipstream didn't stick around in the ongoing Joe mythos. 1988's Ghostrider was a great character and figure, but faded after the Marvel run. There may have been a GIJCC figure (I don't know), but certainly the NS era forgot all about poor Ghostrider.

This might have been because Hasbro didn't want to deal with Marvel over its flaming-skull Ghostrider. Why Hasbro didn't see the simple solution of changing him to "Ghost Writer" with a funny backstory about his hidden literary career as a romance writer, I have no idea.

2DARK2C · **Joined:** Mon Oct 07, 2013 3:59 pm **Location:** MS

Very cool! I like ghost writer lol maybe he is a former sky writer.

DanOfTheDead · **Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:59 pm

past nastification wrote:

Any pilots that came after Ace and Slipstream didn't stick around in the ongoing Joe mythos. 1988's Ghostrider was a great character and figure, but faded after the Marvel run. There may have been a GIJCC figure (I don't know), but certainly the NS era forgot all about poor Ghostrider.

This might have been because Hasbro didn't want to deal with Marvel over its flaming-skull Ghostrider. Why Hasbro didn't see the simple solution of changing him to "Ghost Writer" with a funny backstory about his hidden literary career as a romance writer, I have no idea.

I remember there being a thing in the Marvel comic where noone could remember his name so they could write around the shared name. I feel like it's in one of the special mission issues for sure.

Same year as Skidmark, interestingly. Someone at Hasbro kind of dropped the ball that year on codenames.

I loved the figure as a kid. His jet never really won me over. Looked way more like a Cobra jet to me, and I didn't recognize it as being based on any of the stealth planes I was familiar with.

Excellent rendition of the character!

harlie · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am **Location:** indy

Uhhmm, shoot... What's his name looks great

past nastification wrote:

This might have been because Hasbro didn't want to deal with Marvel over its flaming-skull Ghostrider. Why Hasbro didn't see the simple solution of changing him to "Ghost Writer" with a funny backstory about his hidden literary career as a romance writer, I have no idea.

Oh man, then they would have to worry about PBS/Children's Television Workshop (and now Apple+ I guess :shifty:

)

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

2DARK2C wrote:

Very cool! I like ghost writer lol maybe he is a former sky writer.

Thanks!

Sky Writer would also be a good work-around for the name.

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

DanOfTheDead wrote:

past nastification wrote:

Any pilots that came after Ace and Slipstream didn't stick around in the ongoing Joe mythos. 1988's Ghostrider was a great character and figure, but faded after the Marvel run. There may have been a GIJCC figure (I don't know), but certainly the NS era forgot all about poor Ghostrider.

This might have been because Hasbro didn't want to deal with Marvel over its flaming-skull Ghostrider. Why Hasbro didn't see the simple solution of changing him to "Ghost Writer" with a funny backstory about his hidden literary career as a romance writer, I have no idea.

I remember there being a thing in the Marvel comic where noone could remember his name so they could write around the shared name. I feel like it's in one of the special mission issues for sure.

Same year as Skidmark, interestingly. Someone at Hasbro kind of dropped the ball that year on codenames.

I loved the figure as a kid. His jet never really won me over. Looked way more like a Cobra jet to me, and I didn't recognize it as being based on any of the stealth planes I was familiar with.

Excellent rendition of the character!

Thanks.

'87 was my last solid year as kid collector, I got a few of the '88 and '89 figures, but Ghostrider wasn't one of them. But I'm sure I would have really liked the figure back then. It's pretty solid, except for the molded-on helmet. Speaking of molded-on helmets, I did have and liked Skidmark. Skidmark's questionable color set and unpainted items bothered me than his feces-adjacent codename.

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

harlie wrote:

Uhhmm, shoot... What's his name looks great

past nastification wrote:

This might have been because Hasbro didn't want to deal with Marvel over its flaming-skull Ghostrider. Why Hasbro didn't see the simple solution of changing him to "Ghost Writer" with a funny backstory about his hidden literary career as a romance writer, I have no idea.

Oh man, then they would have to worry about PBS/Children's Television Workshop (and now Apple+ I guess :shifty:

)

Thanks!

PBS would ruin GI Joe? Sounds about right!

DanOfTheDead · **Posted:** Sat Feb 25, 2023 5:09 pm

past nastification wrote:

Thanks.

'87 was my last solid year as kid collector, I got a few of the '88 and '89 figures, but Ghostrider wasn't one of them. But I'm sure I would have really liked the figure back then. It's pretty solid, except for the molded-on helmet. Speaking of molded-on helmets, I did have and liked Skidmark. Skidmark's questionable color set and unpainted items bothered me than his feces-adjacent codename.

Interesting, I'm realizing for me Ghost rider totally overshadowed his vehicle, and for Skidmark it was the other way around. I never paid Skidmark very much attention because the Fox was proabably my favorite Joe land vehicle. But he was definitely one of those figures thats always needed a better color scheme, also Windmill from around the same time.

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

The orange on the Fox really devalued the vehicle, even though I was more accepting of Skidmark's poor colors, which makes no sense. I did really like the rear computer station on the Fox. That was a nice upgrade from anything the VAMP or AWE Striker had.

And Windmill, another no-removable helmet! Hasbro really stumbled on his color set, too. It's obviously made to coordinate with Skidmark's color set. Like how Roadblock V2's and Cross Country's uniforms did.

DanOfTheDead · **Posted:** Sun Feb 26, 2023 3:35 pm

Have you illustrated Skidmark or Windmill yet? If you do, it'd be cool to see how you'd fix their colors.

DarkJedi · **Posted:** Sun Feb 26, 2023 8:47 pm

DanOfTheDead wrote:

Have you illustrated Skidmark or Windmill yet? If you do, it'd be cool to see how you'd fix their colors.

I liked the colors for Windmill when he was introduced in the Marvel comic. Dark sunglasses and black bomber jacket, darker tones all over.

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

DanOfTheDead wrote:

Have you illustrated Skidmark or Windmill yet? If you do, it'd be cool to see how you'd fix their colors.

Skidmark is in the can but won't post for a while; haven't taken on Windmill as of yet. With Skidmark I shifted orange to rust. That tones it down just enough, but keeps it recognizable.

past nastification · **Joined:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:19 am

DarkJedi wrote:

DanOfTheDead wrote:

Have you illustrated Skidmark or Windmill yet? If you do, it'd be cool to see how you'd fix their colors.

I liked the colors for Windmill when he was introduced in the Marvel comic. Dark sunglasses and black bomber jacket, darker tones all over.

I remember there were a few figures that the colorist just did whatever he/she felt like during that era. Kinda good, kinda bad. One changed I just noticed when working on my SASF Short-Fuze was that in Marvel's issue #1 he had a slight coppery tinge to his hair instead of being straight blonde/yellow.

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Every Joe #233: Ghostrider

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