This was intended to be a very simple kitbash of two of the figures from the Ghost Rider movie line from Hasbro.  Like many other collectors, I was not fond of the small ball-joints in the hips of most of the movie figures.  Fortunately, the deluxe Ghost Rider that came with his motorcycle had ordinary-sized ball-joints there.  The downside was that his arms were long and apish-looking.

I just wanted to swap in some normally-proportioned arms from another Ghost Rider figure and call it a day.  It became a bit more complicated than that.

The kitbash started off fine - I boiled and popped the arms off of my two figures.  The arms needed a bit more force to remove, due to some solid construction from Hasbro.  I noticed then that the pegs were not the same size on both figures.  They were wider and deeper on the destination figure, so that would require a little more work.

That would have been simple enough on its own, but I noticed that the head on the destination figure was really low in comparison - it had almost no neck the way it was.  Plus, even though the head was on a peg it lacked the up / down movement of a ball-jointed neck.  I decide then that I would need to raise the head, and that's where the fun began.

Attempt number one was intended to get this done in one fell swoop.  The "neck" on the figure was the figures spinal column, since Ghost Rider is a skeleton.  I didn't want to try to extend that upward, so I decided to build up the bottom of the head.  After reshaping the original peg from a mushroom to a ball, I used some Apoxie to extend the skull, wet the peg with water, and shoved the head onto it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good bond between the Apoxie and the head, so that was a failure.

Instead of chucking the Apoxie, with attempt number two I tried to build a "socket" directly on top of the peg.  The Apoxie was partially cured, so I knew it wouldn't stick - I applied a thin layer to the peg and let it dry.  After it was cured, I drilled out the bottom of the head so the socket would fit, and glued it on.  So far, so good.  The problem was that the weight of the head caused it to flop around quite a bit.  I made the big mistake of trying to tighten up the socket using superglue - I managed to fuse the socket to the peg, and in the process I ripped the peg right off. 

After weighing the options, I decided to build a new peg.  I found a round peg I had managed to destroy in a previous custom.  I drilled a small hole through it.  I also drilled into the base of the spinal column where the old peg used to be.  I then measured and cut a small brad to fit, threaded it through the peg and into the neck, and superglued it all.

So, third time is a charm, right?  I started with a fresh amount of Apoxie and rebuilt the "socket" again, this time on the newly-built peg.  This time it was nice and snug.  I inserted and glued the socket into the head, and all was good - until I tried to reattach the arms.

In-between all the socket forming and curing, I had widened the peg holes in the arms and shortened the pegs on the shoulders so the new arms would fit.  I heated the arms in some hot water - I managed to get one on fine, but the second one slipped, and in the process I managed to knock the head off of the figure.  The socket I made shattered, so I'd have to start over yet again.

For my fourth attempt, I decided to use Oateys, for the fast curing time.  Luckily, no mishaps this time around.

The rest was pretty straightforward.  I painted over the blue drybrush on the original figure with Testors Flat Black.  I retouched all the silver parts with Liquitex Silver.  And I painted some orange and yellow in his mouth, since I remembered being able to see fire through his open mouth in the movie.  I messily painted his chain with some Testors Gun Metal.

Finally, success - for something that doesn't look a heck of a lot different from the starting pieces!  At least he can look up and down now.  I really wished now that I took some WIP shots - I certainly had enough opportunities.