Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?

Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?

Have you or any of your family ever seen a spook, specter or ghost?

If the answers is ‘yes’, then don’t wait another minute! Pick up your phone and call the professionals!

Ghostbusters!

Our courteous and efficient staff is on call twenty four hours a day to serve all your supernatural elimination needs!

We’re ready to believe you!

I LOVED Ghostbusters as a kid. I still do, but Ghostbusters was, for me, one of those two or three things a kid discovers that he or she absolutely loses their mind over. I had dozens of the toys that were released by Kenner in the late eighties and early nineties. One of my earliest memories was of watching a VHS copy of the movie in my parents’ bedroom. My father came into the room holding one of the Proton Pack accessories from one of my Ghostbusters figures and asked how I could watch the movie without something to protect me from ghosts. So, for me, Ghostbusters will always bring out warm memories.

As I grew into an adult collector, I always hoped that movie-accurate versions would come out. Around seven years ago, they did. Produced by Mattel, these figures were gone from shelves very quickly. In fact, I can only recall seeing one item from this line in stores and it was a deluxe box, the type that sits around for awhile simply because of its high price. Now, some of them go for pretty high prices on secondary markets. Mattel even made life- size prop replicas of some of the Ghostbusters equipment that can fetch prices of over a thousand dollars.

So, when Diamond Select Toys announced new Ghostbusters figures, I was very excited to finally be able to have screen-accurate versions of the characters. Then they announced something even cooler, that deluxe versions of these figures would each come with a diorama piece that when assembled would create the rooftop scene at the film’s finale! The little kid inside me became ridiculous happy to learn this. Well, the first series has finally arrived. It should be noted that standard versions of these figures minus the rooftop diorama pieces were released a little over a month or so before these deluxe versions came out at about ten dollars cheaper. I think that is a very cool thing for Diamond to offer knowing that there are many collectors who may not care at all about collecting the rooftop scene. Instead of the diorama pieces, these basic versions come with a standard, black figure stand. Series 1 consists of Winston Zeddemore, Ray Stanz and Louis Tully. These figures come in the standard, large packaging that Diamond uses for its Select figures.

The side and corner of the front window of each package features photographs of the actors from the film.

The two Ghostbusters come with a wide assortment of interchangeable hands both gloved and ungloved, a walkie talkie, Proton Pack, Neutrino Wand and Proton Stream.

 

 

Louis comes with no accessories, just rooftop pieces.

Ray and Winston each come with a unique piece of Ghostbuster gear that can be used between each of them. Ray comes with his Ecto Googles which he used in the film.

 

Winston comes with the famous Ghost Trap, which when stepped on will trap a ghost held in a Proton Stream.

Ray and Winston each have a clip on their belts for the Ghost Trap to be attached to.

 

One nice thing for variation is that the Trap clip is not on the same place on each of these two Ghostbuster’s belts. The elbow pads are also a separate, non removable piece of soft rubber for accuracy, like the gloves.

 

The gloved hands actually consist of two separate pieces: a hard plastic hand and a soft plastic sleeve. This adds a nice little touch of realism that may have been missed by molding the entire glove in hard plastic.

 

The walkie talkie can slide into a holster near the right hip on each Ghostbuster.

 

A specific hand was included to hold the walkie talkie.

The Proton Packs themselves actually sit in a frame that connects to the straps that go over the Ghostbusters’ shoulders. The Packs are non-removable. Like in the movie, the Proton Pack with these figures is separate from this frame, another touch of detail that I could see other companies just not doing out of convenience.

The Proton Pack is decorated with stickers to recreate the warning sings on it.

Now, we come to the Neutrino Wand and the reason there was a delay in this review. I’ve had these figures for about a month now, but I had to wait to do the review for one very specific reason. This first series of Ghostbusters Select and the second that’s coming this spring do not have holes in the end of the Neutrino Wands for the Proton Stream to plug into.

 

It’s clear the Streams are meant to be plugged in by the small tab at the end. I took to Twitter when I discovered this, assuming I was doing something wrong. I discovered that it was, in fact, a manufacturing error and that Diamond Select Toys was aware of the issue. I also found out that by contacting the company’s customer service department, that clips that would allow the Streams to be attached to the Wand could be sent to me in the mail. I also found out that these clips will be included in Series 2 packaging. So, I contacted Diamond via email and less than a week later, two clips had arrived to me in the mail. It was very nice to have such a fast and polite customer service experience.

The clips attach to the end of the Wand and a tiny hole allows the Stream to plug in.

So, once I had the clips, I was finally able to pose the Ghostbusters firing their iconic weapons!

The Wand is able to connect to the Proton Pack as seen in the film. A small, triangular wedge on the Pack kind of slides into two tabs on the Wand.

 

Aside from the facial sculpts, hand color, name tag, Trap clip on the belts and bonus accessory, the figures are the exact same. This doesn’t mean they are the same sculpt, they are different. Just that other than these noted differences, they have the same appearance. They feature a hose that runs from the left thigh to a small box on the back of the belt.

The Ghostbusters logo and name patches pop nicely.

These figures both feature great likenesses of actors Dan Akroyd as Ray and Ernie Hudson as Winston.

Now, we come to the last figure, Louis Tully. Unlike the other two figures of this series, Louis has no accessories, and his glasses are not removable.

Louis features the likeness of actor Rick Moranis as possessed by Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer when he flashes red eyes at a horse and buggy driver. I think this likeness is the weakest of the three in this series, but is by no means bad.

Regarding the rooftop diorama, both Ray and Louis come with the same far end rooftop piece, only reversed for each end of the roof.

Winston comes with the altar-like piece on top of which Dana and Louis make good on their names of ‘Gatekeeper’ and ‘Keymaster’ and bring forth Gozer.

Shortly before the International Toy Fair in New York City earlier this month, Diamond released this photo of what the diorama would look like fully assembled.

 

As you can see, it’s massive. You need to keep in mind that these figures are each seven inches tall. It’ll contain multiple pillars, the entire door frame into Gozer’s dimension and even the Terror Dog statues when complete!

 

This shot came from my friend Jon over at CobraShadowJoes. You can check out an entire gallery of the Ghostbusters section of the Diamond Select Toys 2016 Toy Fair booth thanks to The Toyark right here. Both of these sites are excellent sources for toy news not only around Toy Fair, but all year long. If you enjoy any of the products you’ve seen here, definitely check them out.

I’m happy with these figures, but they are not without their issues. Ray and Winston fall over at the drop of a feather and can be very difficult to pose in any position beyond just normal standing. The paint applications are sloppy in some places, the Neutrino Wand has trouble saying connected to the Proton Pack and the alternate hands can pop out fairly easily. But, all in all, I’m happy to have them. I finally have the screen-accurate Ghostbusters I’ve always wanted and am really looking forward to the ghosts later in the series and how the diorama will look.

I’ll be bringing you a review of Series 2 containing Peter Venkman, Egon Spangler and Dana Barrett this late spring.

 

You can buy Series 1 here or preorder Series 2 here from BigBadToyStore.

 

It’s perfect that these figures are coming out when they are. This summer will see the release of a reboot of the franchise under the same name. Directed by Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, this new Ghostbusters will feature a female cast of Ghostbusters. Actresses Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon will play the four main characters. Anyone who is even slightly in tune with pop culture knows that this film has stirred up a great deal of controversy. It received more than the usual groans when remakes are announced because Ghostbusters is so beloved. But, many people complained an all female cast is too different and was the result of an recent increase in feminist ideas in the news and culture. You can read more about the controversy surrounding the film and read actress Kristen Wiig’s response to it here at the iDigitalTimes.

My only wish for this film was that it was officially a third entry in the series as opposed to a reboot. I have no problem with the casting at all and I plan on seeing it in theaters. I understand not liking remakes and I agree with what seems to be the general consensus that nine out of ten of them are terrible. I used to host a podcast called “Shitty Movie Night” about bad movies, so I’ve seen a bunch. I look at it this way after so many years of remakes. Remakes are like cars. You can own an old version of car, like a Camaro, and also own the brand new, updated version. You could enjoy driving both of those very different cars for very different reasons. The existence of one doesn’t negate the existence of the other. But, if you prefer one for whatever reasons, stick with it. If you have a problem with the female casting, I would just say reserve judgment until you see it. There have been plenty of awesome female protagonists from Sarah Connor to Furiosa. And if it still bothers you for whatever reason, I’d say you have some questions to ask yourself because the issue is with you.

At the time of this writing, the first trailer for the new Ghostbusters is set to premier online in just a few days. The above images are the only type of glimpses we’ve been given so far. I just gave my thoughts on the film before seeing it. In a few months when I review Series 2, I’ll give my thoughts on the trailer and then I should be able to review Series 3 after finally seeing the film. See how my thoughts and feelings pan out.

 

 

You can check out Diamond Select Toys on Twitter @CollectDST and on their official site.

Thanks so much for reading, I’m Ash and you can follow me on Twitter @Ode2Ash