Retro Kenner Real Ghostbusters

Retro Kenner Real Ghostbusters

Hasbro

Covid-19 may have delayed the new Ghostbusters movie, but it was too slow to stop some product from leaking out.  Announced at Toy Fair in February, the first wave of Kenner Real Ghostbusters is back as a Walmart exclusive line, and hitting full force now (post-mass hysteria.)

I still have some of my original toys, so I was going to pass on these...until I saw them on the shelf, in-person.  The nostalgia of that purple card and blister pack was just too much to resist.  Plus, along with all the paint scrapes from being well played with, most of my original accessories have been lost to time.  All those great translucent ghosts are back in my hands!  And now I have proton packs without stress marks and broken streams, and can fit on the Busters without the aid of sticky tack.

Gone is the Ghost Zapper, but they fixed Winston’s name! 

There are some noticeable differences when compared to the few originals I still have.  They look a bit puffy...not as crisp in some of the lines.  Just look at Egon’s glasses and hands.  Not a terrible difference.  Definitely nowhere near bootleg recasting nightmares.  Winston’s head seems to have a slightly tilted back look that I don’t remember from the first run.  Other than that, paint is comparable and the GB logo looks great.

The proton packs feature a much less fragile porting system.  Just a straight peg that fits firmly in a round hole, with two little grooves on opposite sides to keep it from rotating.  Hey, if it works for Transformers right, Hasbro?  The plastic used on the packs feels much more durable and less likely to  stress mark/fracture or crack.  The stream system is the same, and feels no less fragile.  While the action gimmick is fun, even as a kid, I wished these were removable.  I mean, the Ghostbusters holster their wands upside down AND in fire mode?  I also wish they had the traps that plugged into the sides of the pack like the toon, but nostalgia beats upgrade and effort, I guess.

The no-ghost logo isn't as clean on the wand compared to the original

The ghosts are more or less the same as I remember.  Gulper and Grabber ghost are my favorites, but that may just have something to do with their colors.  Chomper ghost has the only noticeable difference to the original:  he’s now hollow inside.  Gotta save a few pennies where you can, huh?

Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man have also returned to menace the boys in gray...er...multicolor jumpsuits.  I skipped on Puft, as I still have my original in pretty good shape (and he doesn’t have any accessories).  My Slimer has long since gone, and his rubber food ages before him, so he was worth a double-dip.  I actually found him before all the others and was going to stop there (famous last words).  He’s pretty spot on with the original, maybe even more so than the other figures.  The engraved date stamp is really noticeable on one part of his hinder.

"Slimer!  You're eating my "world's largest" pizza and watermelon!"

Nostalgia will cost you $15 a piece if these float your boat.  I did enjoy cracking these open (I kept the beautiful cards) with my kids and trying them out on the firehouse playset and Ecto-1.  I have fond memories of my Dad bringing me my first figure, Ray, as a surprise.  (My sister got a tea set...her loss.)  My Stay Puft was a gift from a cousin for being a ring-bearer at her wedding.  These truly were some of the greatest action figures of all time.  I mean, where else can you get a good guy, all of his gear, an action feature, and a mini-baddie all in one package?
   









See you next time, when Hasbro rereleases the "Rad Rapin' Ghosts" wave:

The Rocketeer

The Rocketeer

Disney Classics

Diamond Select Toys

I love that someone at Diamond Select has a soft spot for cult, live-action Disney movies.  Tron, while delivering the goods with the core characters, stumbled with the last minute, cost saving measure of deleting the Recognizer ship pieces.  Luckily, the Rockteer is here with a $#%*-ton of accessories to save the day!

Since Funko produced a Rocketeer figure a handful of years back, I had to ask myself if I really needed this one.  Is it worth the upgrade?  Well, yes, and then some...especially if you start with Funko’s terrible quality control in using clear, brittle plastic to secure joints.  While their figure looked great, mine needed a Gorilla Glue leg to hip fusion shortly after being removed from the box.  Also, while it did come with an unmasked head, Diamond Select said “Hold my beer.”

With DST, you get the Billy Campbell head, bare hands, several sets of gloved hands (that you can actually see the pack triggering mechanisms better on), removable jet flames, a flying jet flame display base, card stock pack blueprints...and the pack is removable!  Yes, succeeding where they could not with their Ghostbusters figures, they made the pack removable with a porting uniform chest piece and pegs accessible on the rear left side of the figure.  

The new figure also looks great, and the articulation is comparable to the Funko release.  It beats the latter with double elbows, but sacrificed the double knees.  Not a big deal, as I figure bending his knees in unnatural poses would just lead to getting his calves melted off in the pack flames.  One bend and the ability to point his feet downward was all they needed to succeed.

Funko only wins in one area...and it’s a pretty big one to me.  NO GUN.  You get a gloved hand with a grip-and-trigger finger, but NO GUN.  Is it because Diamond is more of a family line?  Even if DSTs hands were tied on this, I’m glad someone felt my pain and slipped in that trigger finger.  So, thanks, broken Funko figure...yoink!  Thanks for the piece, idiot!

Apparently this figure is part of a line called Disney Classics, which sounds awesome, but is a bit of a head scratcher.  I mean, after Tron and Black Hole (coming up soon!), what else can we expect?  Does this extend to the Touchstone banner?  I would love to see a Dick Tracy line...or better yet, Roger Rabbit!  Keep em coming Diamond, puh puh puh puh please!

Go get 'em, kid!

More "Disney Classics" reviews:
Flynn - TRON
Kingdom Hearts TRON

Johnny Lightning Ecto-1, Proto-Ecto-1, and the Undertaker

Ecto-1, Proto-Ecto-1, and the Undertaker

Johnny Lightning - 1:64 scale

Silver Screen Machines

Everybody can relax, I found the car!  Johnny Lightning has done the famous Ghostbusters ride a handful of times over the last decade or two, but never like this.  As far as I know, this is the first time out for the busted and rusted, black Caddy.  

It is what it is...nowhere near as ornate as the final product, but they did their best with the detailing on the scraped up paint and wear.  It has the two front spotlights (different models) that the finished Ecto has, and also has the single, red rotating light that it doesn’t.  INteresting to see the couple of red headlights as well.  My favorite detail here is the funeral curtains you can see through the windows.

JL also released an updated sculpt of the finished Ecto-1.  It features the most detailed and accurate roof rack I have seen in this scale.  Everything else, from the logos and license plates to the lines and fins, looks cleaner than ever before.  It even has the "clear" spots in the middle windows!  This beats anything Hot Wheels has produced up to this point.  Be careful with that sniffer though...I could see a tumble from the shelf being the end of that.

Even if you have a fleet of 1:64 scale Ecto-1s in your collection already, these are worth getting.  They look great and won’t break the bank at $7-9 each.  Now bring on the rusted “Afterlife” decos, 2020!

































Since this was a shorter review, I’m throwing in a recent clearance pick-up:  the WWE Ghostbusters Undertaker figure!  This was the only one of the five exclusive Walmart figures I couldn't find when they hit before Halloween.  Taker has a huge following, so this ghostly version was quick to disappear between fandoms...even those lousy wrestling fans who scoffed at the overall crossover.  Way to break up collections for GB die-hards, a-holes!

I found this lone figure in the clearance aisle at one of the worst Walmarts for toys in my area (Branson...yuck)...and for only $8!  I lost many an EBay auction around the $30 mark before giving up and pretty much forgetting about this figure.

































Taker looks great in translucent purple.  The darker ink on his many arm tattoos really pop with some backlighting.  On top of that, he comes with a slime green, translucent, world heavyweight title belt.  Since the wrestlers in this set lean more to the side of Attitude Era and beyond, I am pleasantly surprised to see the winged eagle design, aka the greatest belt design ever.

So there you go, some tiny cars and a weird-looking wrestling icon in a coffin in front of a Twinkies cereal box.  Hey, Ghostbusters merch is still pretty scarce at the moment!

BTW, the cereal was not good.  Too sweet (yes, even compared to the actual snack cake) and powdery.  It didn't taste much like a Twinkie either, which I blame on the lack of attempt to replicate a  cream filling.  C'mon, Post...Krave and Pop Tarts cereal showed you the way and you blew it.  Egon would not approve.

Previous reviews:
WWE Ghostbusters Figures
The Ghostbusters of the Ozarks Try Twinkies Cereal