Ghostbusters General Thread

I have a firehouse. No containment unit though ... Like 25 years ago when AOL was a thing, a guy sold me and my buddy some old RGB stuff for $75. Got a firehouse, an Ecto-1 and -2, a carded Slimer, all four guys, and some other odds and ends. My buddy already had some of that, so we both came out good at less than $40 each.
 
I brought home a firehouse last year from a toy swap, only missing the top part of the containment unit. Wife took one look when I brought it home and gave immediate approval.

I'm liking the look of this new Hasbro 4 pack but do I like it enough to replace the ones I already have? I don't know. Four proton streams are a plus (which should have been standard with the original releases in the first place and not just a Winston accessory, but.........Hasbro). Will we get a Slimer during this line's resuscitation? That would be nice.
 
So YHS (Yes Have Some) put up some videos with the Hasbro product reveals at the Ghostbusters Day event in New York.


If you are not interested in watching the video here is the breakdown of what was revealed:

Ecto-Glow 4 pack (Kenner) for SDCC exclusive. This was already known.
Ecto-Glow Ecto-1 (Kenner) to go with the SDCC pack. Apparently it will be available for preorder starting with SDCC, but I don't think it is exclusive to SDCC.

2 more Ecto-Glow offerings are to come. They were shadows of what the product are so it was pretty easy to guess what they will be. #3 will be a 2-pack of Slimer and Stay Puft (fall 2025). #4 looks to be Louis Tully with an Ecto-Glow Copter (2026).

Then of course the items that went up for preorder today:

Plasma Series 4-pack
1984 Proton Pack

So I was wrong about the Proton Pack. According to the Hasbro designer they were talking with the new Proton Pack is about 80% new and the rest is from the Haslab mold. So would this be the first time Hasbro has officially used parts of a Haslab mold for a non-Haslab offering? If so then we could start seeing some new releases using, at least, parts of a Haslab mold.
 
I'll definitely get all the Kenner re-release stuff. Of all the vintage Kenner Ghostbusters toys I have, I never bought the Ecto-Glow stuff. It just wasn't anything I felt like I needed. Then over the years it became quite costly. But these re-releases will do, and I like the idea of an Ecto-Glow Ecto-1 to go with them. Tully and Copter, Stay Puft and Slimer in Ecto-Glow sounds fun too.

Put me in the camp of folks wanting the Firehouse re-released. For years I have been saying that should be a Haslab. But Haslab, Pulse, retail, I don't care. just give us a Firehouse playset!
 
superdoug55 said:
Ha! Even if I want to buy it (honestly I am tempted) I can’t since Pulse won’t let any of my orders go through for the past 2-3 weeks. After a week they finally responded to me telling me to just use Pay Pal. I refuse to use Pay Pal for a preorder.

I am about to ask for a refund for my premium membership. I don’t understand how it worked fine for years and now it doesn’t for me at least. Sorry, end rant.
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To fix this, I just enter my card as a new card instead of whatever is saved.

It has bypassed this error every time. If you're already doing that, then I got nothing. But this is what works for me, and has bypassed it for friends.
 
Is this 4 pack just a re-release of the first wave but with updated head sculpts?
 
Justice said:

Pixel Dan has a little more thorough look at the Mondo Peter and Slimer.
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Toy Shiz also with a look. I guess they were all waiting for Ghostbusters Day to post. It definitely looks like Mondo oversold their ability to properly wield the proton packs. During one of the booth walkthroughs last year, someone with Mondo implied they would be able to hold them more out front than what was on display, but in truth it looks like the display shots from last summer represent the extent to which those shoulders will go. I'm not really disappointed by it as I suspected as much all along, but it would have been cool to more properly emulate the show's opening when they all draw their wands and fire away.

Between that and the Pixel Dan vid, I am left convinced that these are going to be good figures even if overpriced. I understand why they are priced where they are, but that still doesn't mean there's a hundred dollars of value in the box. There should be more hands and at least one more portrait (they should all come with a default expression, an angry expression, and a scared one), plus Slimer really could use a a flght stand that puts him at eye level with the busters. I share in the concern expressed by both Dan and Toy Shiz when it comes to that holster on the proton pack. That thing looks like it could become one of those things infamous for breaking where ten years from now figures with unbroken holsters will be coveted on the secondary market. The wire on the trap probably should have been removable for storage and I would have liked a little more color in the beam effect. Maybe Winston and Ray can come with different trap parts to fill these out or even extra beams with a more saturated look (so that we have 4 total of each variety). Also worth noting, both YouTubers are saying these are expected to arrive in July and not June. I think Mondo said they would ship in June so that's probably not a change, but more of a clarification.

 
The 4 pack looks nice, admittedly. I'm not entirely sold on the likenesses for some of them; I actually think the old figures skew a little better in that regard. It would be nice to have the energy effect for all 4, if only for display purposes, but that negates the need for the PKE Meter and the trap, which are iconic props.

The best way for me to commit would be, like others have said, to release some ghosts, and while yes, there are plenty of ghosts they could do, two of the most iconic- Slimer and the Library Ghost, are getting released in the Ecto-1 HasLab, which tells me they're not getting single releases any time soon, if ever, lest the backers lose their minds. The whole "look for more products coming soon" tag does give me a bit of hope, but you never know when that's just the typical required disclaimer.

Still, it's nice to see there's some possibility of new releases. We all thought the Plasma Collection was dead and gone, but apparently not. Gives me the teeniest, tiniest glimmer of hope we may see a couple new Indiana Jones releases in the future, but I'm not holding my breath on that one either.
 
The four pack is cool. I slept on the original releases, I'll likely pick this up, even though Bill Murray maybe looks less like Bill Murray than their first attempt? And second? We'll see.

I really wish I backed the Ecto 1, and at the same time glad I didn't, but I'm definitely starting to feel the "missing out" part of FOMO.

As for the RGB figures, they did seem to send them to more celebratory reviewers. I've been hearing "shill" dropped like 24/7 over the past couple of weeks, especially re: Maximum Hulk, and frankly I don't mind if someone is stoked for their figure and doesn't hold it to a high critical standard. Nostalgic joy is a real thing and I'm happy they're happy and I try not to be cynical with youtubers. And people look for different things in their toys and value isn't always objective.

But I definitely feel like these figures are falling under the "shutup and be happy they at least got made" umbrella. And I don't like when reviewers use half truths to preemptively defend valid criticisms. For instance "MAFEX has more articulation, but those figures are well over $100" just isn't true as a comparison. Almost all of the ones I've purchased over the past 5 years came in around or under $75 shipped. Rogue from Nin Nin was $87.86 complete to my doorstep. But if you really want to go 1:1 with just figure to figure, she's currently selling for $73.44, $27 cheaper than Peter.

Or the "How much articulation does a RGB figure need?" to which my answer is always "as much as you can reasonably put in there." Same goes for any character. The Black Series Dagobah 2-pack Yoda has a really great joint setup for a figure than is like an inch and a half tall, and you could make the case that OT Yoda could essentially be a slug figure based on his movement in the movies. But the articulation is a lot of fun and it makes the figure A+ in my book. The RGB guys are cartoon characters and should be dynamic.

Like Misfit said, the ability to hold the wand at different angles would be nice. Getting the range of a $35 NECA figure would be nice.

But it's weird to compare them to a $3 late 80's kids toy and act like being able to hold the wands with both hands is some sort of major breakthrough in toy tech. It's giving me Super7 vibes. Still excited for these figures, but I'm hoping they make up for the price a bit more with Ray and Winston. They can use those figures to include some accessories that can be shared with the others, like extra glove hands.
 
I guess my feeling is that with Mezco figures costing as much as they do and me not liking how they look at all, the precedent for the RGB stuff is already there even before Hasbros shenanigans.
 
I've only watched the Pixel Dan and Toy Shiz reviews and I thought both came across as pretty objective. I don't really consider that Toy Anxiety one a review and I also think they'd admit they're biased when it comes to these figures. I also don't think there would be much of an issue with the articulation if Mondo hadn't talked up their ability to wield their proton packs better than any Ghostbusters figure before. Maybe they were expressly referring to the Kenner line? I don't know, but that's a self-inflicted wound. The rest of the articulation I can live with because they're clearly prioritizing the aesthetics over articulation and I think that's a valid path to walk with this line. They have enough articulation to satisfactorily wield their wands and there's enough range in the hips for them to sit should Mondo do a thousand dollar Ecto-1 some day. I do think they should have inserted a neck joint into the figures since it could easily sit under the shirt and provide for more up and down range. I'm not surprised by the omission since they don't do that for their sixth scale figures, but I would have liked to have seen it.

I suppose the best comparison for these are Mezco, which is another boutique style brand that routinely solicits figures for over 100 bucks. I'm not a fan of Mezco, but they do tend to include a ton of accessories with their stuff and Venkman is light by comparison. I do expect to come away thinking the value just isn't there for what I've already paid for, but I also expect to still like having these in my collection.

And for the price of one Mondo, I could get all four Ghostbusters from the movie. I don't think I will though. I bought a Plasma series Venkman back when they came out just to mess with and because he was always my favorite Ghostbuster. It's fine. I even got the Afterlife Venkman which came with the plasma stream. That accessory is pretty terrible though because it's gummy and droopy. Hasbro really needs to use an acrylic or something, but I'm guessing these new figures will all feature the same. That Murray likeness is pretty bad though to the point where I was wondering if they lost the likeness rights. Aykroyd looks more like Willem Dafoe to me too.
 
Yeah, at the end of the day it's a matter of taste and preference. I guess I just don't like the hand waving over some of the issues.

Toy Shiz says in his review "as far as articulation, I think a lot of people are going to have that notion that for $100 this thing should be able to do backflips, karate moves, and everything else. It has the right amount of articulation to do everything I would expect a Real Ghostbuster's Peter Venkman to do" which I guess is just a line of logic that I feel straw man's the articulation criticisms and hand waves some of the figures failures. Same with Pixel Dan's "right amount of articulation without breaking up the sculpt" (paraphrasing) which I just don't get. For $101, find someone that can do both.

Like - the NECA Sesame Street figures get more range out of their joints than Venkman does, and that's accepted as a general positive advancement over the Palisades from 20 years ago. And that's a $35 figure. For Venkman, the neck/head is basically just a swivel, the waist is just a swivel, the knees don't even get 90, the legs can't go out to the side really. And just by ToyShiz's character:articulation ratio logic alone, I'd imagine he'd be more dynamic than a puppet.

Conversely, if S7 had the audacity to release a $101 Venkman figure that was this exact figure, I think people would be crying *foul about the price vs articulation and amount of stuff in the box, regardless of whatever influence Hasbro had (did they even take a huge chunk of the profits, or did they just say they need to be over $100 to be non compete?) The QC of course looks better than S7, you're not seeing bits pop off during the reviews, or the joints coming floppy out of the box. And the matte/paint apps look beautiful and way better than anything S7 has done. But it's also nearly twice the price of a S7 figure, so that kind of balances it out. Samhain is really absurd at $100.

Ultimately I don't mean to knock these too hard because they are beautiful figures, I'm excited for the line, and I am happy Mondo is making them. I'm buying the busters, and the Egon 2 pack. I'd rather pay $101 for a Mondo than $55 for a S7. But I'd rather pay $55 for a NECA than a Mondo or a S7. Or pay NECA to make me an actual $101 figure with the same standards they are doing their Toon TMNT. Or give NECA $200 for a 2-pack because I think I'd really have an "ultimate" set.
 
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My investment is the future MOTU line, but yes: these are just smaller versions of their bigger figures, which look gorgeous but don't articulate half as well as you'd even expect going in knowing their rules and limitations.
 
AgentHemlock said:
Conversely, if S7 had the audacity to release a $101 Venkman figure that was this exact figure, I think people would be crying *foul about the price vs articulation and amount of stuff in the box, regardless of whatever influence Hasbro had (did they even take a huge chunk of the profits, or did they just say they need to be over $100 to be non compete?)
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My understanding is it's a non-compete thing. I don't think Hasbro gets a dime for these figures, they just have a monopoly on the brand and scale at 100 bucks or less via their licensing agreement. Mondo is likely the one taking the plunge on these because their sculptor basically did them for free and they probably think they can sell this to their customer base where as NECA or someone else would probably struggle.
 
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