REAL Ghostbuster VHS Covers!

Every day that I spend inching closer and closer to 30 years old, I realize a little more that I probably own too many Ghostbusters things that I cannot for the life of me justify having.

That doesn't stop me from keeping them, or buying more, but it sometimes feels like I have them for no reason.

Then I remember that I have this blog thing. Somehow, posting these things here to share with everybody makes the guilt go away just a little.

During the past week, I've had a hoard of Ghostbusters VHS tapes come my way. I already have shelves packed, no, crammed FULL of Ghostbusters VHS, but for some reason or another, I cannot turn them down.

It started lastTuesday morning when a friend, well, more like a guy that I run into quite a bit who knows I'm into collecting Ghostbusters, knocked on my car window in the Salvation Army thrift store paring lot holding up a REAL Ghostbusters VHS tape. 

If that wasn't enough to tickle my fancy for the day, as fate would have it, a friend of mine, who is every bit obsessed with TMNT as I am Ghostbusters, sent me a message with a glorious pic of another REAL Ghostbusters VHS tape and 5 Filmation Ghostbusters tapes that he had picked up for me.

I truly believe that the gods of VHS tapes were watching out for me that fine day.

I decided that since these two fellas were so nice for picking these up, I would semi-reward their thoughtfulness by dedicating a post on the blog to the insanely WONDERFUL artwork found on the front of some of my RGB tapes. 

No, these aren't all of them that I have, these are just the finer examples. Some sleeves are pretty beat up, and some are missing all together. I guess only the best ones make the cut for this post.

A FRIGHT AT THE OPERA may very well be my favorite RGB episode. The reason behind that is that when I was just a few years old and already hooked on the show, I would get a little emotional every day when it was over.

Luckily, we got our very first VCR and my mom decided to record as many episodes as she could fit on to a tape. The episode at the beginning? A FRIGHT AT THE OPERA.

I vaguely remember carrying around a stick pretending to be the conductor of the orchestra from this episode.

Yeah, I was a little odd.

The cover here is AWESOME, perfectly depicting our four heroes fighting the Valkyries. 

Who are you going to believe? Me, or a guy who pulls ropes?

THE REVENGE OF MURRAY THE MANTIS is another classic, as the team prepares to cruise in the Ecto-1 for a parade but the giant ass bug balloon is possessed.

What ever will they do?

Release the mother fucking STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN TO KICK THE SHIT OUT OF MURRAY THE MANTIS!

As show on the cover, that's just what he did. Stay Puft delivers a mean bodyslam. 

PLAY THEM RAGTIME BOOS is one that I don't mind watching, but not in my top 5 by any means.

The cover here is actually pretty damn cool for an episode that I don't rank too highly on my list of personal favorites. A rock n' roll ghost show, if you will.

And lastly, KNOCK KNOCK. This one I actually do need to go back and refresh my memory with as it's been far too long in between viewings.

I picked this one up off of Ebay a while back. The seller turned out to be somebody who lives about 3 blocks away from me, so when I saw it listed, I just messaged him and made arrangements to head right over.

The art here is something we have all seen before. It, of course, is the shot that was featured in a bunch of promotional junk when the series first came about. It also is the same shot that is on the REAL Ghostbusters metal TV tray.

If you're sitting there thinking that you're now dumber for having read about VHS tape boxes, I really can't blame you, but it's the little things that I enjoy sometimes.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!

If you missed the boat on this WONDERFUL say no to drugs video from 1990, you ought to be kicking yourself pretty hard.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue was a promotional video aimed to keep kids off drugs while warning them of the dangers they face falling into the spell of the evil marijuana. Okay, I have some different opinions of reefer, but I'll keep those to myself. No, I'm not a stoner, but I don't condemn those who are.

Anyways, literally every cartoon character from the 80's that we know and love is crammed into this tape.

We're talking Slimer, the Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Michaelangelo, Garfield, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Huey, Dewy, and Louie, Alf, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Winnie the Pooh, among others.

The premise of the film is that a young girl named Cory wakes up to discover that her older brother , Michael, has stolen her piggy bank so that he can go buy some drugs.

The "Cartoon All-Stars" take action to help Cory, but more importantly to show Michael the dangers of abusing drugs and the road he faces, all while trying to rid Michael of his evil new pal, Smoke.

The real highlight is hearing Simon, in his wonderful Chipmunk voice, say marijuana.

Seriously, this video could easily overtake Yo Gabba Gabba as the premier thing to watch if you're stoned or drunk.

I found a copy of this long loved classic this morning at a thrift store. I haven't seen one of these anywhere in about 10 years, so needless to say, I was pretty excited. Almost to the point of jumping and shouting inside of the store, but nobody wants to see that. I get enough weird looks for being a grown man who buys far too many toys.

I thought I would take a minute to share with you, and let you watch this for yourself. Trust me, if it's not a nostalgic slap to your senses, nothing is.

Egon Week: Funko Pop Egon!

Egon week continues today with a look at the Egon Spengler POP figure!

Nearly a year ago now, the folks at Funko issued a whole series of their famous POP vinyl figures dedicated to out favorite movie of all time, Ghostbusters.

The initial set gave us Egon, Ray, Peter, Winston with the Ecto-1, Slimer, and Stay Puft, along with about 6 billion different variants and comic con exclusives of each figure.

While I have indeed reviewed Stay Puft before, I feel a little silly for not having covered Egon. I suppose it worked out for the best, since now I can review it for Egon Week.

Dr. Spengler comes to us all bug eyed, as only Funko can do, equipped with some of his favorite tools of the trade.

Egon is seen holding his walkie-talkie (are those even a thing anymore, or did cell phones kill them too?) and his trusty PKE Meter.

Egon is also equipped with his Proton Pack, a necessary tool to complete any ghost catching adventure.

While I totally get the fact that these figures are supposed to be likened to caricatures as opposed to actual likenesses of the subjects, they have always seemed quite silly to me. I may be old school seeing as I know these things a super popular among collectors, but hey, that's just me.

The one thing I have noticed with Funko's Pop figures is that the overall quality can sometimes be quite lacking. In Egon's case, the no-ghost logo on his right arm is nearly upside down. I have seen many a Pop figure that has paint runs on it, or random spots of wrong colored paint in various places. I suppose that goes for any toy though. They are always susceptible to production flaws.

While I do think they make awesome display pieces, my only major gripe would be the fact that there are indeed way too many exclusives with this line. There was the main line, a Hot Topic exclusive Stay Puft, Marshmallow mess exclusives, and slimed exclusives among others.

While it can be fun to collect so many variants, it can be way too expensive as well, which sucks for people like me who tend to be completists when it comes to Ghostbusters.

I know I didn't devote a ton of time to Funko Egon, but as I have said recently, I just don't have a lot of time to make these things big and fancy. Quick and painless is going to have to be how it is for now.

I will try to write up a few more Egon related posts before the end of Egon week. Meanwhile, don't forget to LIKE Mr. Ghostbuster on Facebook and Follow Mr. GB on Twitter at @RealmrGbuster

Egon Week: Screaming Heroes Egon Review!

Yes boy and girls, it's officially EGON WEEK!

Egon Week was my little brain child to honor the late, great Harold Ramis, who passed away one year ago on February 24th. Sure, on the 24th of this month, there will be many a tribute out there to Harold, but why just one day?

As the kick off to Egon Week, we'll be looking at one of my favorite figures of  Dr. Spengler! Kenner's Real Ghostbusters Screaming Heroes Egon!

Kenner no doubt had a herculean task to accomplish when releasing he next series of figures after the wildly successful first series and Fright Features lines.

They indeed struck lightning in a bottle yet again with the Screaming Heroes.

Here, Egon is decked out in a red flight suit, worn underneath what looks like a very high tech leotard. Nothing says Ghostbusters meets Jazzercise quite like these figures.

This particular Egon figure was great because not only does red look absolutely badass on him, but he also came with a PKE meter!

Sure, the first series of figures had the Proton Packs, but the Sreaming Heroes Egon came with a friggin' PKE METER! The absolute PERFECT accessory for Egon.

The whole premise of this series was that you would take the included ghost and attach it into a hole on the hero's armor. 

The ghost would stay into place while you twisted part of the figure. In Egon's case, he twisted at the waistline. 

Go ahead, grab your Screaming Heroes Egon figure really quick. We'll do this together.

Got it? Good.

Now get the big ugly blue ghost. 

Don't have one? Well, I suppose any of them from the line will do.

You got the green one that came with Venkman? Okay, that works.

Lock it into place and twist Dr. Spengler around a whole bunch of times until you hear a bunch of clicking noises.

Got it? Okie dokie.

Once wound tight, there was a small red lever on the waist. When the lever was moved, Egon spun around fast enough to poke an eye out if you weren't careful enough.

While I tried at least seven and a half times to get a photo of Egon spinning, it constantly came out looking like he was trying to strut his stuff on the cat walk.

These figures were indeed nothing short of fan-freakin-tastic. With the idea that the boys in greay (or red in Egon's case) are out doing what they do best, and a sneaky ghost clings on to them and gives them one of the best "oh shit" reactions known to man, Kenner has us hooked from the start.

To keep up with all of the Egon Week fun, don't forget to come and "LIKE" Mr. Ghostbuster on Facebook and FOLLOW Mr. Ghostbuster on Twitter at @RealMrGBuster!

Egon week continues through February 24th!

Video Review: The Real Ghostbusters Carrying Case

I know that there probably isn't a ton of people that watch these things, but in the interest of keeping the blog around, this is the ideal option.

I don't have a ton of time these days to just sit around and write up a big blog post about Ghostbusters merchandise, so it's much, much easier to do a 6 or 7 minute video and sit back and let it upload while I get other things done.

This will probably be the standard format of this site for the time being, if not permanently.

I will try my hardest to do at least one of these every week, that way I don't feel like I've totally given up on running this site. When I first started it, I promised myself that I'd always try to make time to post stuff and talk about Ghostbusters on here. I know a video may not be the ideal option for some, but it's what is going to keep this website current for a while.

Today we take a look at the Rel Ghostbusters action figure carrying case. Enjoy the video. No it isn't perfect by any means, but maybe some day this videos will be a little more flawless and far less awkward.

Follow me on social media! Search "Mr. Ghostbuster" on Facebook and @realmrgbuster on Twitter!

Ecto-3 Video Review!

Wow, I'm actually taking the time to update this site, weird!

Truth be told, I'm snowed in today (yet again) and cannot get and real grown up work done, so I took a few minutes to do a video review of Kenner's Ecto-3!

Yes, the video is kind of, shall we say, awkward, but they'll get better with time should I decide to keep doing them.

Anyways, if you're snowed in and getting ready to go crazy, as I am, hopefully this will provide you with a few minutes of relief.

Don't forget to "LIKE" Mr. Ghostbuster on FACEBOOK and "FOLLOW" Mr. Ghostbuster on TWITTER!