Personally I’ve never been a big fan of Ghost Rider, however this Venom Funko Pop has changed my mind. This means that Venom Funko Pops have amazing flexibility when it comes to design choices. Due to the Symbiote’s powers to take over characters, Funko have free-range to adapt any Marvel hero or villain to their choosing and let their imagination run wild. The roots of the group lay in Guillotine, a Newcastle metal band featuring Dunn on guitar. "It was very much a Judas Priest kind of affair; Jeff even had the blonde hair, the Flying V guitar and the moustache," remembers Lant. "I came along to a rehearsal, and we ran through a couple of Motörhead and UFO songs. And then I said, 'I've got some ideas for songs of my own,' and so Jeff and I began work on what later became Welcome to Hell, In League With Satan, and a bunch of other early songs." The first of Earth’s mightiest heroes in this Funko Blog list to fall to the Symbiote is the Venomised Captain America Vinyl Pop (#364). If you’re not familiar with the ‘anti-villain’, Venom is an alien Symbiote which attaches itself to a host and can take over entirely. When this happens, Venom displays traits and abilities of the host. In a Marvel Universe filled with superheroes and villains, that also leads to powers too.

However, Venom unravelled with a whimper, their lineup changing, their appeal becoming - as Spinal Tap's famously did - more selective. As the 80s wore on, Lant replaced Mantas and drummer Abbadon, before spending the early 90s pursuing a solo career as Cronos. Mantas and Abbadon, meanwhile, reformed Venom without their frontman, playing some shows in Russia supporting a reconstituted version of the Sweet. "I thought it was tragic, they were like a Venom covers band," says Lant, shaking his head sadly. Ask Conrad Lant - whose working name is Cronos - if he sees any parallels between the absurd events chronicled in This Is Spinal Tap, and the experiences enjoyed by Venom, the legendary heavy metal group he has fronted, on and off, for almost 30 years, and he is instantly dismissive. "That movie was never pointed at us," says the singer/bassist, evenly but firmly. "It was aimed at bands like Saxon, and Samson, and Iron Maiden. They all lived that ludicrous lifestyle; we never did. We were always down to earth, we always had friends who'd give us a slap if we got too full of ourselves." The very qualities that had alienated the British music press would win Venom the respect of this new American wave of metal. In Joel McIver's book The Bloody Reign of Slayer, the group's drummer, Dave Lombardo, tells the author: "We were going to be everything that's not Hollywood; we're not going to be pretty boys, we're going to be ugly boys, and we're not going to write about parties, we're going to write about Satan. [Guitarist Kerry King] liked the whole satanic thing, Venom was a huge influence." There was only one brief instance (a blink and you’ll miss it moment) in the comic books where Cap was subjected to Venom. In an alternate reality, where Age of Apocalypse occurred, there is a single image of Steve Rogers with the Symbiotes head. No other information is given as to why this happened, nor was it ever referred to again.The Venomised Ghost Rider Pop Vinyl (#369) is stunning and easily one of the best in this Funko Blog list. Everything about it has been modified from the original Ghost Rider Pop, from head to toe. Enter awesome competitions via the app for the chance to win your children some amazing toys, games and more! All competitions are free to enter.

Miss an episode on POP, Tiny Pop or POP MAX? Catch up on your favourite shows anytime and anywhere, whether you’re at home or on the go! I've always been interested in satanism," offers Lant. "But we're entertainers, and we used subjects like satanism and paganism to entertain people, like horror movies do. Listening to a Venom album is the same thing as watching an Evil Dead movie. I don't go around murdering virgins in my spare time. It's frustrating when people can't make that distinction; I mean, David Bowie's not actually from Mars, is he? But we were always being misquoted in the press," he sighs, with a shake of the head. "'Venom admit to dancing around a campfire with virgins'? Nonsense." Phil Alexander reviewed the Hammersmith show for the French heavy metal magazine Enfer ("Hell"). "They were as heavy as Judas Priest, as flash as Kiss," he remembers. "Tonnes of pyro. There was all this tension before the gig: would the council allow the show to go on? Would they blow up Hammersmith Odeon? They were masters of PR; I remember one of their early press releases including a photograph of the group standing before a Rolls Royce, under a headline reading 'Venom are rich - very rich.'" Later that decade, Lant reformed the original Venom, playing before 89,000 fans at 1996's Dynamo festival in the Netherlands; though Mantas and Abbadon soon left the fold again, Cronos still leads a rejuvenated Venom. A new album, Hell, has been released, and remastered versions of their old albums have been reissued. Gwen got infected with the Symbiote in the Spider-Gwen comic Volume 2 #25-29 and this addition to the Venom collection gives us a great figure.The body has been beefed up slightly, the chest bares scales with a Venomised Cap logo, there are claws for hands and some Venom lashes wrapped around the shield. What makes this Pop differ from the other recent crossovers is that it hasn’t fully consumed Hulk, with the stance of the figure looking like it is in the throws of Venom fighting with the green beast for dominance (or Hulk is just too big for Venom to consume).

The overall design for the Venomised Iron Man Pop Vinyl (#365) is one of the best on this Funko Blog list.What was a flashy gold and red Iron Man helmet now looks like a medieval knight and gothic monster got together. You still have the general shape of metal, however it has morphed organic spikes that protrude like a punk outfit, along with jagged teeth widening out of the mask to form a mouth piece. Possibly the best Venom Vinyl Pop combo in the Funko Blog list (next to the Loki and Ghost Rider below), the Venomised Hulk (#366) is so exciting to look at, well moulded and well painted, it deserves a round of applause to its design team.