One of the better looking Phantom figurines to ever hit the market is available for pre-order now.
Phans who browse the various Facebook groups dedicated to the Ghost Who Walks, particularly ChronicleChamber's own PhantomCollector page, have been privileged enough to see this unfold and develop. Jerome Dizon, who has conceived and commissioned the fully articulated 1/6 scale figure through his company D's Custom, has been teasing phans with progress photos over the last few months.
Around the turn of the new year, Dizon announced that the prototype was complete and that he was now ready to take pre-orders for a very exclusive and limited run.
As the photos in the gallery below demonstrate, Dizon is justifiably proud of the finished product, "Our custom made Ghost who Walks is made out of ORIGINAL head sculpt, original tailored costume, original sculpted Devil and [very limited] Skull Throne. Accessories (boots, knife, belt) are also hand made, even the rings on both hands ... all hand made, built from scratch. It took D's Custom at least 2 months to complete the project. For the body, we used Hot toys muscular type fully articulated body."
It's a project he has been happy to lead. "It was my original idea to produced the figure. Living in Australia almost all my life I know how big The Phantom phanbase [is] and also know that there is little merchandise, especially a fully articulated 1/6 figure ... I'm guessing all the big boys (major companies) do not want to take the risk to produce one."
One of the joys of watching the prototype in development has been the way in which Jerome has responded to phan feedback. Devil has grown considerably in size after a comment that mountain wolves would be larger, while another response to phan feedback was to announce that purchasers would be able to choose between traditional "white" eyes in the mask, or "visible" eyes as per Billy Zane's portrayal in the 1996 film.
Only 25 of these high-quality figures are going to be produced: 15 of these will be the Phantom figure with guns, belt, knife and Devil; the other 10 will also include the Skull Throne. At the time of writing, 6 of the 10 Skull Throne sets have already been spoken for, while only 10 of the 15 figure-only sets remain available.
As you might expect with such a good looking product produced on a very limited run, these are only for phans with deep pockets. The Skull Throne set is priced at $AU750 while the regular figure is $AU600. Both are sold with free shipping Australia-wide; international orders will pay registered postage. PayPal is the only accepted mode of payment.
Many phans will be disappointed that these are not licensed by King Features, nor are they mass produced and more affordable for us to buy them. Jerome Dizon also laments not being able to deliver these, citing the costs involved. Nonetheless, phans lucky enough to add one of these to their Treasure Room will be acquiring a very special piece indeed.
Any phans wanting to place a deposit and pre-order their figure should contact Dizon via email - interested Sydney-siders are invited to make arrangements to see the prototype in the flesh.