PPG review of iGeek Customs’ Ghost Rider

I recently acquired a custom Funko Pop! piece that I just was so excited to receive. I have come to notice that Ghost Rider is truly an underrated character in Marvel. You rarely hear him being mentioned when in comes to Marvel. I know there was a movie made about him that some of us might want to forget (*cough, Nicholas Cage, cough*) but when we come to know his story, it’s actually quite interesting. This underrated character matches his Pop! prices which, has never been astronomically high until now since he is “retired” and is catching up with other similar priced pops that we are all too familiar with. Honestly, I wasn’t much of a Ghost rider fan till I saw this monster of a piece.

The process for creating customs has been one of my interests since collecting Pops! and I’m always curious what it takes to create these wonderful pieces of custom Pops. I decided to ask Carlo Wendell Lacsamana Gomez who is the amazing customiser from iGeek Customs further on what the process is like in creating this particular piece. Carlo was gracious enough to allow me to do this article about him.

On the concept of this idea, Carlo felt that the Ghost Rider and his iconic Hellcycle were always pictured side by side however he felt that Funko was never gonna produce this and decided to do this on his own. Carlo searched around for different interpretation of the concept of this Pop! He finally settled for one of the recent statue makers who has gained much fame for their paintwork and ideas, XM studios.

Enough talk! Now for the process junkies turn. I felt that was one of the biggest things that drew me to this custom was it’s huge translucent flaming head. The details and the way it was sculpted must have taken a long time just to get it right. I have never seen any custom head sculpted this good just yet. Carlo explains that he used a DIY pop and sculpted the face close to the original figure. One difference he pointed out was to give the head a little more attitude by sculpting an open mouth and to extend the flames of his head for that extra menacing look. The flames on his head is made up of clear resin material, and painted with clear acrylic toner.

Next we move on to Ghost Rider’s Hellcycle. Carlo had an inspiration for this part of the custom when he saw a 1:18 scale toy bike from one of his toys that resembles a bullet type bike, he then carried on to make some adjustments on the look and sculpted the flame effect.

One thing that usually makes customs or statues interesting is the base of the figure. If this custom Pop! already wasn’t awesome enough. It actually has a base that can be lit up  just by shining a light source from the bottom. Through the years, Carlo has sculpted big statues mostly 1:4 scale that comes with this lighted effect. Gathering from his experience, he applied that knowledge on the base of the Ghost Rider. I must say that this is something that didn’t need to be factored in but it was done nevertheless from someone who just wants to give the best to people.

I would like to end with the box that he produced. This box if you try to peek real close, you would be able to see bits of the comic strips from Ghost Rider inside the box. This is of course something that Funko will not do but some of us can dream.

I would like end this review by applauding Carlo for his hard work and hope that he continues to amaze us further with more amazing customs. You can continue to see more of his stuff at these social media outlets:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/igeek.customs/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igeek_customs

These are just some of the upcoming works that he has in store right now for potential clients this month. Feel free to grab these fast as they usually sell out.

Keeping it Custom, Yours Truly

Archdinkles

Disclaimer: All images of Ghost Rider are copyright to Marvel and their respective owners.

All images of iGeek Ghost Rider are copyright to iGeek Customs and their respective owners.

All images of XM Studios Ghost Rider are copyright to XM Studios and their respective owners.