Space Ghost enhancements

[MIB41]

I was so frustrated with that Space Ghost figure, I decided to dive in and try and enhance him. I was fairly satisfied with my alternative. I ordered a white Dr Mego body and white jump suit. The first thing I noticed when I put the Space Ghost head on was it sat perfectly on the shoulders. I mean there is ZERO gap space...and ZERO rocking. The head fits snug and looked right. That was my first surprise. So what I did was remove the cape and emblem from the original suit and custom fit it to this new white suit. Boy did I get happy fast.



I have it set up so that black section of the suit is not stretched out so far, so it doesn't look nearly as large and reads (to me) more like it's part of mask.



Having Dr. Mego's white body and better fitting suit just makes him read more like what I was wanting. I left the boots on for now, but I might end up taking those off, because they're really not needed here. But I thought it definitely cleaned up his look measurably and took away allot of the manufacturing issues that bothered me.



Note this is the standard white Dr. Mego body and not the swivel arm version. But it definitely beefed him up and took away that awkwardness in the head and neck region. Plus the white body completely eliminated all the grayish tones the smaller FTC black body was creating on that flimsy white outfit (which is now officially trash). I know it won't fix anything that ills the head sculpt but it definitely makes it read better for me. I know it's not perfect by any stretch, but I thought I would share what I did to fix what I could. I need to get that emblem down a bit more, but it feels like a new figure for me. I'm happy now.

[TomStrong]

Looks really good!

[TrekStar]

Very nicely done, looks great.

[greensavage2000]

Yeah that looks good, real good. Nice fix and thanks for taking the time to post it.

[TRDouble]

Looks great!

I am confused with how you did the black part though. Did that come from the old suit?

[MIB41]

Looks great!

I am confused with how you did the black part though. Did that come from the old suit?

Thanks! I took apart the black piece and cape section from the original because those two are sewn together. I had to cut out the decal because it was incorporated into the stitching so that came off with the cape and black section as well (all one piece). I attached them to the white jumpsuit and added back the accessories (belt, cuffs, boots). It was a pretty clean swap. I do have a piece of the emblem coming up though. I need to seal that better. The rest you can really credit to the white Dr. Mego body. It buffed him up where he needed it. For me, that resolves the scale issue on the neck because now he has stocky shoulders and chest to transition into that neck.

[ODBJBG]

I do like the buffer body on him. I need to see how he looks with the Type S buff arms. Great mods MIB.

[starsky]

wow you did a great job! he looks great!!

[sprytel]

Tom, I think this looks loads better... with the raised collar sitting closer to where it actually belongs and covering up the goofiness at the bottom of the head. A shame you had to do this, but great job on the upgrade!

So, not to be dense... but I want to make sure I understand exactly what you did. Let me try to repeat your instructions back to you and validate some assumptions in what you are saying. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this.

1. You removed the boots, belt, and cuffs. These are designed to be removable (i.e. not sewn into the suit).
2. You cut out the triangle around the original decal, fabric and all.
3. You un-stitched the seam between the black and the white of the original FTC costume. This gave you a single piece that had both the black neck part and the yellow cape.
4. You sewed the black neck / yellow cape onto a white Doc Mego bodysuit. <-- this is the step I am the most fuzzy on... is it like a dickey? did you have to modify the neck of the bodysuit?
5. You added back the boots, belt, and cuffs.
6. You glued on the fabric triangle containing the chest decal. The emblem is attached mostly to the white bodysuit, but the top covers the part where the black neck part is sewn on.

Did I get that right?

[TomStrong]

I do think the boots clean his look up a bit and the dickie helps too. I made a custom but didn't have any idea how to do that. I just used a sticker for the emblem but still had the age old Mego problem of non sticking. I think FTCs and MIB41's fixes look great. 14336456469_47584c050c_o.jpg

[MIB41]

Tom, I think this looks loads better... with the raised collar sitting closer to where it actually belongs and covering up the goofiness at the bottom of the head. A shame you had to do this, but great job on the upgrade!

So, not to be dense... but I want to make sure I understand exactly what you did. Let me try to repeat your instructions back to you and validate some assumptions in what you are saying. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this.

1. You removed the boots, belt, and cuffs. These are designed to be removable (i.e. not sewn into the suit).
2. You cut out the triangle around the original decal, fabric and all.
3. You un-stitched the seam between the black and the white of the original FTC costume. This gave you a single piece that had both the black neck part and the yellow cape.
4. You sewed the black neck / yellow cape onto a white Doc Mego bodysuit. <-- this is the step I am the most fuzzy on... is it like a dickey? did you have to modify the neck of the bodysuit?
5. You added back the boots, belt, and cuffs.
6. You glued on the fabric triangle containing the chest decal. The emblem is attached mostly to the white bodysuit, but the top covers the part where the black neck part is sewn on.

Did I get that right?

Almost. The only part of the white costume (from the original) that remains is what the emblem was attached to. So after I cut the seams from the white outfit, I still had some careful trimming to do to accommodate the decal because that had to stay. The emblem literally runs through where the cape and black portion of the outfit are stitched, so I didn't want to tamper with that in order to separate them. It all literally came off as one piece. So all I had to do was position it how I wanted it and then I took a hot glue gun and attached it by running a small line of hot glue along the inner seam where the cape and black material meet. With my experience, hot glue and fabric are as strong as liquid nail material. It's not coming off. But I also only wanted to use it on that seam and then a little more liberal as it became just the black material in the back since I wanted that seated firmly on the outfit. The last item to seal was the emblem but I didn't quite get that down all the way. The problem with hot glue is you have to move fast because it dries fast. But that's an easy fix. I can dab just a bit on a tooth pick and feed it into that space where I didn't get any on the emblem and press it down. It won't be coming back up. Sorry if that all sounds tacky, but I have found if I can attach things like that cleanly, they work out better and read smoother since my sowing skills are poor. Because I hugged the under seam line with the glue, there's no effect of matting and the cape moves freely and the black material is not restricted. It's as if it was manufactured into the outfit.More importantly there are no visible signs of adhesive either. If I can't do it cleanly I won't do it. You just have to take your time and map it out how you're laying it down by positioning it exactly as you want it to read. Hope this helps.

[Spyweb007]

Looks great after all your work, glad to hear that the head is causing the neck gap problem.

[sprytel]

Yep, that was a big help. Thank you for the clarification.

[emeraldknight47]

Definite improvement over what FTC originally sent out. I'm still scratching my head over the brilliant mind that put a black body into a white jumpsuit. I know it was to compensate for the cowl/neck issue, but it seems like it would have been better for the final product to have used the "dickey" approach you used. I'm guessing it was a financial decision. I like the addition of the white boots; they give him added stability and likely would save him a small fortune in laundry bills!

[The Bat]

Great Job! You fixed him!