Universal Studios Ghostbusters -- Weekly Post for 7-02-14

Well, been a slow week on the Ghostbusters end of life. There really wasn't much in the way of interesting news or articles floating around the web, and the official Ghostbusters Facebook page still refuses to acknowledge anything involving me, so I figured that this week, instead of trying to dig up news, and instead of pulling out an old toy and telling you the story behind when I got it, we could take a trip down memory lane and talk about the Ghostbusters stage show at Universal Studios Florida.

I sadly came from a family that never vacationed. Their idea of a vacation meant a trip to the Omaha Zoo and possibly a stop at the outlet mall. Deprived fucking childhood.

Imagine just a little bit of my disappointment when I finally did get to take a drip down to Universal Studios Florida. Twenty fucking years too late.

In the above photo, you can see the Universal Ghostbusters Firehouse from back in it's heyday on the left (courtesy of Pop Rewind), and the Firehouse in July 2013 on the right (photo on right taken by myself).

First, let me tell you that while one part of me was happy to have located it inside of the park, there was an even bigger part of me that wanted to travel back in time and strangle the shit out of everybody I've ever known for our family being so poor and never taking a trip to this glorious place when it was at it's finest.

Thanks to the video below, those of us who never got to see it live can see it in grainy 25 year old computer screen form. One thing that has always bothered me just a little, but at the same time intrigues me is the fact that the voice overs being done are those of the voice actors from The Real Ghostbusters.

Gone are the days of paid actors posing as Ghostbusters parading around the park in their uniforms and Proton Packs alongside the Ecto-1.

                                     

Gone are the days of exiting the Ghostbusters stage show and having a giant orgasm while browsing the merchandise in the Ghostbusters gift shop.

                             

Gone is everything good. It's just gone. Long gone.

Depressing, eh?

Of course, Universal discontinued the original Spooktackular years ago and replaced it with the Extreme Ghostbusters / Beetlejuice clusterfuck, but luckily, thanks to the magic of Youtube, the memories live on.

Yeah, a pretty pointless post this week, that's okay though, this whole week has been pointless. Just boring, uneventful day after boring, uneventful day.

I'm going to drink.

See you next week.

Holy Crap Look What I Found

YES YES YES YES YES HOLY HELL YES!

This fine little can of The Real Ghostbusters Ecto-Plazm is one of just a few pieces that I need to have a complete collection of Kenner Ghostbusters toys!

These little cans of goop were packed in with the Ghostbusters Firehouse and the Gooper Ghosts.

 I'm fairly positive that they were also sold individually, although my memories of it are a tad fuzzy seeing as my parents refused to let me play with them because it would just make a mess and get into the carpet. 

Stupid parents.

                           

This little can of awesomeness came to me today via an online ad I posted advertising my toy shop. A guy noticed I liked Ghostbusters and said he had this and the Ghost Popper. I picked them both up. Can't let a good Ghostbusters toy not be in my collection, right?

As you can see, the goop is still goopy after all these years. The can is still about half full, with the little nose ghost still buried deep inside. It was hard to get a good picture of it, but hey, I was excited and in a hurry to show it off, so cut me some slack.

Upon barely sticking my finger in there, it left the most heinous residue that I've ever had on me. It's probably going to be best to just leave the lid on, set it on a shelf, and never think about looking at it again. I'd like the slime to receive as little air as possible.

I would like to point out that I have started a Thunderclap campaign in an effort to get more likes and attention to the MR. GHOSTBUSTER FACEBOOK PAGE. Please click HERE or HERE or HERE to pledge your support. It literally takes just 2 seconds and you're done.

Ghostbusters NES Playthrough

Yeah, one of the many bad games in the history of bad Ghostbusters games.

The game itself was kind of a pain in the ass because it seemed like Ecto would always run out of gas at the most inopportune time and slow the game play down even further.

Like the more recent versions for Playstation 2, Wii, and PSP, the game is also very tedious. Go here, catch a ghost, go there catch a ghost, run out of gas, push the car, go here catch a ghost, run out of gas.....you get the point.

Anyways, if you're in the mood for a boredom killer, watch a playthrough of Ghostbusters for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Ghostbusters Gumball Dispenser

If yesterday's Puffy Stickers weren't enough proof that at the height of Ghostbusters popularity in the late 80's, our heroes were plastered on anything and everything imaginable, then I give you the official Ghostbusters Gumball Dispenser.

Originally packaged with gumballs, of which I am certain would be long expired, the dispenser was yet another way to make a quick buck off of the Ghostbusters franchise, although in this case, it isn't necessarily a bad thing since the dispenser itself is actually pretty neat.

The "globe" portion of the dispenser is nothing more than a simple rubber sculpt designed to look like the no-ghost logo. While it does it's job identifying what the product is supposed to be, it does weird me out just a little that they gave the ghost a little nose that sticks out. 

I could see this, I guess, being as most renditions of the logo are flat 2-dimensional drawings that don't give us a full range of what our friend trapped inside of the "no" symbol looks like. 

So I guess I'm just finding something to complain about.

The dispenser functions pretty flawlessly. Put a penny in the slot, slide it over, and get your gumball.

I guess, in a way, it's even cooler that it doubles as a bank, although you would have to chew a lot of gum to even receive 50 cents worth on pennies out of it.

                           

While there was supposed to be a key for it, which I'm sure was lost long ago by a child who doesn't appreciate owning the finer things in life, the bottom does twist off pretty easily so that one could collect their money and refill the machine (one freakin' gumball at a time!).

I think I picked this up about a year ago at a yard sale for under a dollar. I had actually been looking for one of these for quite a while at that point.

They really display nice, even though I don't use it to hold any gumballs, but either way, it's a cool item to have in your collection and on your shelf.

Be sure to do yourself a big favor, and go give a "LIKE" to the Mr. Ghostbuster Facebook page. I post all kinds of neat Ghostbusters related stuff on there that you won't see here on the blog.

The REAL Ghostbuster Puffy Stickers

Yes, just proof that our beloved Ghostbusters were plastered on anything and everything at the height of their popularity in the 1980's. I suppose it should come as no surprise that "Puffy Stickers" would be made to bear the resemblance of our favorite ghost catchers.

The stickers pretty much speak for themselves. As the package says, they stick to anything. I've decided not to try and debunk that theory in the interest of leaving them as they are, so we'll assume that after nearly 30 years of being stuck inside of a plastic wrapper that there is a little bit of life left in the goop that binds them to whatever surface you choose to put them on.

All of the core characters are featured here. Egon, Ray, Peter, Winston, and Janine. Interestingly enough there is no Slimer or Stay Puft. I could see excluding Stay Puft, but seeing as Slimer was a huge part of the cartoon series, it makes me wonder why the didn't replace the Real Ghostbusters logo sticker with one of Slimer, being as there is already a plain Ghostbusters logo sticker included.

Now that I'm done nitpicking about Slimer not having his own puffy sticker, I should note that after almost 30 years, there isn't any more puffy to the stickers. They now look like puffy stickers who lost 30 pounds thanks to Jenny Craig.

30 Years of Ghostbusters Memories

MR. GHOSTBUSTER ON FACEBOOK

Wow, my all time favorite movie turns 30 today. Admittedly I was born in 1985 so I was already late to the party, but I didn't see the movie until around 1988-ish. Come on, cut me some slack. I at least had to be old enough to wipe my own ass, right?

I can remember VHS tapes being pretty expensive back in the day, so naturally the only way to get my fix was to force my parents to rent the tape over and over and over. I'm pretty sure that I also resorted to borrowing it from a kid that my mom babysat.

This went on for a little while, and then one of the most painful events in my life happened.

I was about 5 years old, I was at the daycare where my mom worked.

At that point in time, this would have been right around 1990 or so, everyday after lunch, they let the kids perform slave labor and had them volunteer to carry dishes downstairs to the kitchen to be washed.

As I dropped off my load of dishes that were covered in grade F slop, I ran back to the stairway. Before I could successfully reach it, I was swept off of my feet by a toy car. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. A lady, I think her name was Joan or something, picked me up. I attempted to stand, and fell right back down. I was scared shitless. I'd never be able to walk again.

I was taken to the hospital where I was X-rayed and put into a cast for a broken leg. Real freakin' fun.

I was taken home and put on the couch, which would be my permanent place of being for the next several weeks. My Dad had called my Mom from work and said he was bringing something home for me. I pretty much couldn't have cared less at that point because I had had a very long day at that point, I was in pain, tired, and irritable.

My Dad arrived home that night with the "something" he had for me. I looked with my eyes half opened in my drug induced state of being and was handed my very first copy of Ghostbusters.

I've never been without a copy. I don't even want to know how many copies of the movie I own these days. My guess would be upwards of 30. Don't ask why.

I was always a fan of the cartoon. It's what started this whole obsession. While the details of how exactly I fell in love with Ghostbusters are pretty fuzzy, I've never known a world where I didn't place it at the highest of pedestals.

The REAL Ghostbusters cartoon was such a big thing for me growing up. It was what I got out of bed for every day. As long as I had my Ghostbusters, everything would be okay.

That is, until each episode ended. Each day, when the closing credits would roll, the tears would start. I really have no idea why I would cry when the show ended, but I did, and remember doing it.

The purchase of our first VCR in late 1980 something was a turning point for the waterworks that ensued each day. My Mom started recording the show every day, enough to fill up an entire video, to which I one day exclaimed "Now I don't have to cry when it's over!"

Yeah, Ghostbusters always struck a chord with me that nothing else has ever been able to strike.

The Summer of 1989 was fun. Ghostbusters 2 came out. I remember my Dad taking me to see it at the drive-in theater. The only one I've ever been to. Our local Hardees got a visit from Ecto 1-A. Yeah, it was a good time to love Ghostbusters.

My 4th Birthday arrived just a few short months later. I wanted a Proton Pack. So badly.

I recall the whole day. Almost. My parents got me a cake with the Ghostbusters logo on it, we had Ghostbusters plates and napkins, and just when I thought the party couldn't at all get any better, I got a Proton Pack. And then I had to pose for pictures for the next 79 minutes.......

The other day I wrote about getting my first Ghostbusters toy, even though I had been promised that Santa Claus was bringing me some. He did. I scored quite a few Ghostbusters toys that year. The next year, I hated the guy

Christmas of 1989. I'll never for get it. That was the year that I wanted a Ghostbusters Firehouse playset more than anything else in the entire world. The first time that I was ever made aware of it's existence was when we took a trip to the town I now live in, and visited Target. There, at the end of the toy aisle sat a whole shelf of them. I begged and begged and begged. I wanted it so bad. Sell my kidney for all I care, just get me the damn thing! What did I leave with? A Power Pack Heroes Louis figure......

I'll give you a moment to let my bitterness sink in and float all around you.

Well, Christmas rolled around. How could the fat guy let me down? I mean, it's Santa of all people. The big morning came. I opened everything. Legos, Mario pajamas, Ninja Turtles. No Ghostbusters Firehouse. I was lost. I was 4 years old, and totally lost. I just remember looking around and saying "Well, I guess no Ghostbusters Firehouse for me" to which my Dad replied, "Santa must have run out."

While I still cringe at the thought of a dude who makes toys all year long slighting me of the one thing I wanted more than my own internal organs, I did finally get one a short time later.

While never really getting much of a spotlight for having the largest collection of Ghostbusters anywhere, I have been able to do some pretty cool things like meeting Ernie Hudson in 2005, and getting to know people like Michael Gross, Robin Shelby, and Jennifer Runyon over the last year or so. I'm pretty lucky for that.

Sometimes, I wonder, what does it all mean? What's all of this for?

I can't answer that, nor do I really want to know, but whatever my love for Ghostbusters means, I've been enjoying the ride all of my life, and look forward to another 30 years of making more Ghostbusters memories. Whether it was crying because my show ended each day, or eating donuts and drinking Ecto-Cooler while watching, or getting in trouble for repeating every single bad word in the movie, it all means something.

I'm not sure that anybody involved with the movies will ever see this, no matter how big or small of a part they played in it, words cannot express how much they all mean to me, and how every single one of them has in some way or another made me who I am today.

And for Harold Ramis, who passed away a few months ago, I always wished I could have met you and let you know that Egon was always my favorite. Pretty sure there was even a 2 week period in my childhood where I refused to answer to anything bu Egon. Rest in peace, Harold.

Happy 30th Anniversary, Ghostbusters.

MR. GHOSTBUSTER ON FACEBOOK

30th Anniversary Celebration! INTERVIEWS!!!

Hey kids, as part of all of the 30th Anniversary fun going on, I just wanted to throw up these interviews that I did a little over a year ago with none other than Michael Gross and Jennifer Runyon about Ghostbusters! Give them a listen below!!

REAL Ghostbusters toy commercial!

I don't have a ton of time today, but wanted to post something. How about a Real Ghostbusters toy commercial featuring the Ecto-2 along with my favorite series of figures, Fright Features!

P.S. It would have been much cooler to play with these had they actually made a whole town of buildings. It's like my Ghostbusters Headquarters was located in the middle of a corn field.REAL

1999 Ghostbusters Taco Bell commercial

I know, Taco Bell, the drunk food from the gods that will surely leave you with a hangover AND the runs the next morning. 

Back in 1999, the company and their racially charged stereotyped dog were promoting the "Grande meal" which came with a coupon for a free video rental at Blockbuster.

Check out the promotion below. 

\Now, clearly, mom and dad were none too smart in choosing Taco Bell for dinner. Those Gordita's were sure to keep little Johnny and Suzy up all night, but where they did go right was snatching up their free video rental coupon and choosing Ghostbusters for movie night.

Of course, the little dog was hungry for S'mores as Mr. Stay Puft exploded, but the one thing that really irks me about the ad is the fact that it's 1999 and this poor family doesn't already own a copy of Ghostbusters!

Perhaps they had lived under a rock, or maybe they were part of a cult that didn't allow them to watch movies, and they escaped in the middle of the night, rented a home in beautiful San Fernando Valley, and were just discovering Ghostbusters and diarrhea in a shell for the first time?

Yeah, probably the second one.

Hardees' Ghostbusters 2 banner!

One of my favorite pieces in my collection is my Ghostbusters 2 banner that hung outside of Hardees during the restaurant's promotion.

These banners would have hung outside of every store in 1989. While they were seen by thousands of people, undoubtedly only a small number of them survived.

As with any type of promotional material, there were surely a large number of them that were sent straight to the nearest dumpster once the promotion ended, and the number of them that were smuggled away were stashed carefully in some one's home or ruined by irresponsible people who thought that it wouldn't ever be a collector's item.

The journey to getting my banner began late last year. The last one that I had seen pop up on Ebay was over 10 years ago, though, I'll admit, I didn't always go searching for them, so one would assume that they did indeed pop up a little more frequently than that.

The banner in question from last last year was up for auction. I put in a bid of $35, which then turned into $122 by auction's end. My stupid high bid was locked in, and the banner just had to be mine, right?

Wrong.

Somebody out there outbid me by 50 cents at the very last possible second. Let's just say that for the next ten minutes or so, I let out a string of obscenities that went something like

"Fuck fuck fucking son of a mother fucking bitch fucking fuckers mother fucking piece of fucking shit. Fuck."

Yeah, I got pretty passionate about this banner.

Well, as luck would have it, the Ghostbusters junk gods looked down on me, because, about a month later, another was listed.

I put in a starting bid of $20, and by the end of the auction, it was still at $20.

Yep, I got verrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy lucky. The banner totally flew under the radar of Ghostbusters fans everywhere for a whole week.

A plus was that the banner was being sold only about 45 miles away from me, so it arrived very quickly. I'm pretty impatient when I turn over my hard earned money for good online, so I was a happy guy to receive it almost right away.

It now hangs above my man cave, and believe me when I tell you, many minutes a day are still spent glancing up and admiring it. If you ever get the chance to buy one of these, go for it. No price is too insane as it's truly a rare item that makes any collection pop.

Welcome, First post and stuff

I really hate these things. First post of a new website. Always weird. It's like, should I introduce myself? Should I tell you that I like long walks on the beach? Should I give out my social security number?

Regardless, I'm Mr. Ghostbuster. I'm sure a vast majority of you have been following me on the Mr. Ghostbuster Facebook Page for a while now, so you already know that I'm a Ghostbusters addict and that my collection goes beyond being able to be described as "hoarding"

There is hoarding, and then there is "Holy shit." I'm more along the lines of "Holy shit."

Another thing I typically hate about these "first posts" is that I have to try to tell you what in the hell it is that I hope to accomplish by even having a website.

I suppose what I will do is not only show off my collection, but also do little write-ups about Ghostbusters products new and old. I'll probably also post the occasional news story here or there, as well as some fun things like commercials and such.

Basically, it gives me something to do in my free time, when I'm not running my own toy business.

How often will I update this page? Hell, I have no idea. It could be once a day, once a month, or once a year. It all depends on how much motivation and time I have to do anything. Sometimes, a lot, sometimes, none at all. 

Think of it as Christmas morning each time I do decide to update it. No, Christmas is too infrequent. Think of it as a surprise check for $2.56 that you got in the mail because you over paid on something. Yeah, that one.

I decided that for my first post on this thing, that I would review one of my favorite products. In fact, it's the one that started my holy shit collecting habit,

I give you, the first figure that I ever owned, the Fright Features Egon Spengler.

 I can recall it like it was yesterday.

It was late fall / early winter of 1988. I was just a hair over 3 years old. Christmas was rapidly approaching. I had been begging non stop for Ghostbusters toys. Each trip to our small town Wal-Mart made the craving for molded plastic figures worse.

At 3, I was an impatient little fucker. I still am. I could only hear my parents say "Santa will bring you some" so many times. It was like a weight that kept pressing down on me harder and harder until I finally snapped.

One night, they gave in.

As we approached the toy aisle, the usual begging began, again followed by the "Santa will bring some" line.

This is where it gets pretty fuzzy.

Something happened, an event that I really don't remember as clearly as the rest of the story, but something happened that caused them to cave in. Had they finally decided just to shut me up? Was Santa really going to bring me some? Were they on sale? Seriously, it's driving me nuts.

Either way, I don't remember, but I did walk out with a Fright Features Egon!

First, the positive.

The figure itself is really neat. You push on his arm and he gets a wonderful "Oh shit, a ghost" look on his face. 

Also, how could you not love the uniform? Kenner made a smart move by realizing that while their first set of figures was indeed popular and performed well on store shelves, they needed to up the ante and put a little something extra into the next set.

I mean, really, how great would it be if every series of figures featured the guys in their suits from the first line? Not so much. Kenner got bold, and inventive, and said "let's give these guys different uniforms for different situations. Who cares if they aren't ever going to be featured in the show. Kids are going to beg their parents to own it either way"

\

And indeed we did.

Now, the negative, which is really only one thing. I know, you already know. I don't even need to mention it do I?

Yep. The tie.

The absolute worst thing Kenner did was add the tie to Egon. Why? Did blue not go with white? Nope. It was the fact that after about 30 seconds of semi-aggressive Ghost chasing, the damn thing broke off, never to be seen again.

Think I'm kidding?

Here. Here is a shot of 99% of my Fright Features Egon figures. NONE of them have a tie.

I did manage to get lucky and acquire on with the fashionable neck piece still intact. He now sits in a plastic time capsule, never to be opened and ruined by human hands again. Just you watch, one day, it may very well be the last Egon to have a tie.

Anyways, that's the first post. We'll see about a second one sometime in the next 42 years. Although I am planning a little something later this week for the official 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters.

Catch ya later

Mr. Ghostbuster.