3 Random Things: STAY PUFT EDITION

Yes kids, it's time for another edition of 3 Random Things here on the blog that nobody knows exists!

Shhh, it'll be our little secret.

This time, we stray away from the normal "look at 3 things from Mr. Ghostbuster's colletion" and put a little twist on it.

This edition of 3 Random Things will be all about our friend, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!

Stay Puft has long been my favorite character in Ghostbusters. He is just so darn cute. How could you not want to give him a big hug? Even when he is sent to destroy all of humanity, you can't help but love him, and have a very soft spot in your heart, to the point to shedding a few tears, when the boys in grey roast him.

Yes, folks, this time we check out 3 Random Stay Puft items in the biggest Ghostbusters collection you will ever see.

1: Singing Stay Puft!!

A few years ago, I was able to score one of these at our local Toys R Us for about $20., which is a real shock.

See, our TRU is typically the last store in the world to get anything good, and if they luck out and do, they get one case of it. Once that case hits shelves, there is nothing but douchey Ebay dealers lined up at the door (every Friday morning at 10am!!!) waiting to get a hold of it to flip it for seven times the retail price.

Push the little blue sticker on Stay Puft's torso and you'll hear roughly 20 seconds of the Ghostbusters theme!

 

2: Stay Puft Plushie!!

I have several of these, but the first one was the worst one to get.

We were down in Memphis, TN on vacation for a week back in 2012. We had gone into Wal-Mart and spotted him trapped inside of the evil claw machine. 

Oh, but he could be ours should we be lucky enough to master the claw at only $1.00 per play!

$1.00 per attempt to watch this fat chunk of fluff fall out over and over and over and over....you get it by now.

By the time he was rescued and in my loving arms, roughly $30 had been spent. I could have done so much more with $30, but I'll never pass up the chance to bring home a stuffed Marshmallow Man.

3: The Stay Puft Army!!

Over the years, I have seemed to acquire 10 of the original Kenner Stay Puft figures.

On average, I seem to gain around 2 of them a year from various sources locally.

I'll never forget the first one. I was about 4 years old, at day care. I was wearing a Ghostbusters 2 logo shirt. 

Some of the other hillbilly kids decided that they wanted to play Ghostbusters. Shit, man, I was down! They quickly turned me away because I was wearing a Ghostbusters 2 shirt. I should be mad about it to this day, but chances are, those little kids, mullets and all, are probably toothless and digging in the dirt, only dreaming to live in the "big town" these days.

I decided to go off and do my own thing, which I would grow very accustomed to throughout my life. Soon enough, my Dad was there to pick me up and free me from the clutches of the evil day care provider.

In his hands, he had the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!

I could not have been more excited in my 4 years on Earth than I was at that moment. Holy hell, my own Marshmallow Man!

To this day, no matter how many of them I have, I always get just as excited when I get another. Stay Puft always has and always will hold a special place in my collection.

Flashback! My Jennifer Runyon Interview!

Hard to believe that this is creeping up on a year and a half ago now. Back when I had my old website, I did an interview with my good friend Jennifer Runyon. Of course, we talked about Ghostbusters.

The interview even made it to a Yahoo article, a posting about the cast of Charles in Charge and where they are now.

Go ahead, and give it a listen.

Slimer Sours!

I'm only about 3 or 4 years late to the party to talk about Slime Sours candy, but when I got word that our local Bed, Bath, and Beyond had practically a whole damn box full of them, I wasn't going to pass it up.

While I already owned a box, along with several opened and unopened tins, there was just something about the $2.99 price tag that screamed, "Mr. Ghostbuster! Buy all of these! Who cares about bills? We are Slimer shaped sour candies!"

Yeah, it went a little like that.

Or, you could just say there was no voice in my head at all, because I've practically become a robot programmed to buy anything Ghostbusters related when I see it.

The candies come in wonderful white tins with the Ghostbusters logo on them. The tins, while cool, don't serve up much purpose once the candy is consumed, although I could totally see my grandparents using one to take along those all important pills wherever they go.

Hey, it could be a new hipster-ish thing. Keep your pot and Ibuprofen inside your Ghostbusters tin.

The candies themselves are, obviously, shaped like Slimer!

While I'm not a huge fan of sour candy (it's not fine and dandy like you may have been led to believe) there is just something about food shaped like a green gluttonous ghost that draws you to it right away.

Slimer has long been popular with Ghostbusters fans, so it really only made sense to keep promoting him all these years later. Smart move.

While Slimer Sours were initially found in a wide variety of places during the year or so period where Ghostbusters: The Video Game had come out and everybody wanted a piece of the Ghostbusters action, I have still been able to locate them not only at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but at smaller specialty stores as well. They are still out there, so grab them up while you can.

Just don't buy a whole damn case like I did. I'll be enjoying Slimer Sours until I turn 895.

Don't forget, Halloween is rapidly approaching! Here on the Mr. GB blog, I'll be reviewing 31 Ghosts in 31 Days! All part of the Halloween fun with Mr. Ghostbuster! The fun starts on October 1st!!!!!!!

3 Random Things Part II

Before we get into all of the fun of looking at Ghostbusters stuff, notice the new graphic on top. 

Starting October first here on the Mr. GB blog, I will be reviewing one ghost figure every day for 31 days! Talk about having a lot more on my plate huh?

I figured I would put the graphic up now to get the 4 people that read this excited about it.

Marching along now, we continue on in the fun that is looking at 3 more random things from my Ghostbusters collection. I'm not sure how many of these we need to do, but it is a great way for you to check out some of the smaller items in my collection that may not be significant enough to receive a post of their own.

As usual, I'll show you a photo, say a few words about it, and we'll move on.

1: Johnny Lightning Ecto 1-A!

I picked this up a couple of years ago at a flea market. 

They aren't the most rare item in the world, but they are pretty neat to have in your collection. As I recall that particular flea market had a higher than normal yield of decent Ghostbusters stuff.

I walked away with this for $8 and also picked up a box of unopened packs of Ghostbusters 2 cards for $5. Not too shabby.

2: Slimer Bookmark

I bought the Slimer bookmark about a year or so ago from a scuzzbag wannabe antique dealer for $2.

Imagine dropping your spouse off at work before the sun comes up in the early hours of a winter morning, and then driving all the way across town to slip $2 in a dude's screen door while retrieving a Slimer book mark.

Dedication? I think so.

I wonder whatever happened to Billy Davis. Dude is at least 60 and recently fathered a child. 1-888-45-MAURY, remember that.

3: Hot Topic Exclusive Funko Stay Puft!

We decided to eat in the mall food court last night. The mall these days is good for two things. Gawking at weird people who belong in a freak show, and making brief stops to Hot Topic. Yes, brief because too much Hipster shit is TOO MUCH.

The moment I walked in the door, well entry way, it's not cool enough to have actual "doors", I spotted two, yes TWO of these bad boys sitting on the shelf.

I rushed over and snatched one up, looked to my right and saw a sign saying "Entire Store, buy one get one half off" so I decided to take the other one home as well.

I mean, really, would you ever be able to sleep at night knowing you split up twins?

I didn't think so.

If I still have your attention at this point, come on over and "LIKE" me on Facebook. Every like counts, even though I have no goal or anything, it's just cool to have more people to talk Ghostbusters with.

Ecto-Glow Winston!

Holy crap, am I actually updating the site?

In my defense, it's been busy lately. I've had articles written about me in the news paper, been to a showing of Ghostbusters every day for the last 5 days so far, and been working, so it's nice that I finally found a little time to review something on here.

Gearing up for October 1st. That starts Halloween around here. I am going to be doing a "31 Ghosts in 31 Days" countdown. I've been slowly prepping that, so there has at least been some shred of effort being put into this site, most of which you are not yet able to see.

Now that we got the boring "where the hell have you been" stuff out of the way, let's talk toys!

Ecto-Glow Winston was kind of a big deal for me to own. As far as the actual Ghostbusters (Egon, Ray, Peter, Winston, Janine, and Louis) go Ecto-Glow Winston was the very last one I needed.

I was super excited to buy him off of the evil machine empire called Ebay. While I typically hate the hell out of that site, sometimes I must use it to fill in small gaps in my collection.

Now, I know you're thinking that the whole Ecto Glow concept is a bit silly. You're not wrong. Of course it's crazy.

At this point in the Real Ghostbusters toy line, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were dominating toy shelves around the world. Ghostbusters, in the eyes of many kids, had lost their luster. 

The big shiny new super cool Ninja Turtles were where the toy market was at, and would continue to be until a few years later when Power Rangers took over.

The Ecto Glow line was Kenner's last attempt to keep our heroes relevant.

Large quantities of these figures were not produced, sadly, making them much harder to find than their earlier produced counterparts.

Our pal, Winston, comes equipped with his Ecto Glow uniform, as well as a mask and Proton Pack to bust the Ecto Glow Wrapper Ghost.

I'm seriously trying to think how glow in the dark equipment could fit into catching ghosts. As silly and strange as it may sound, here is what I came up with:

Ghosts are running amok in New York City, destroying everything in sight. A select few were electrocuted by a downed power line, causing a major power outage in the city.

Still with me here? Yeah, I know, stupid, but keep going.

Ready for action, the Ghostbusters are equipped with their all new, top of the line, glow in the dark uniforms and Proton Packs to take care of the power munching spooks.

Again, stupid, but really the only scenario, save for "everybody jumped into a vat of glow in the dark goo" that really could work.

I should note that on the back of the card, the unreleased Ecto-Glow Copter is advertised, meaning Kenner was all into doing it until some big wig saw sales numbers and decided to totally pull the plug on production. Had they held out for another few months, I'm sure we would all still be playing with Ecto-Glow Copters today.

It was clearly a rushed judgement to pull the line on the series as several other items were in the process of being made, such as Egon's Lab and the Backpack Heroes set, among a few other things.

It was a great run for Kenner and The Real Ghostbusters, but it had to come to an end at some point.

I have always wished that the Trendmasters Extreme Ghostbusters Toys would have caught on a lot more along with the cartoon. That could have been the big revival for the Ghostbusters, but I think the 90's wasn't ready for it as the Ninja Turtles were already being revamped to a live action show, and Power Rangers were starting to plateau in popularity. 

While everything big that we have grown up with has been remade at some point (Ie: 2 more Ninja Turtles cartoons and a recent movie, Power Rangers is still on TV, Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, etc) Ghostbusters has yet to really get that type of treatment.

I think if they were to release a new cartoon, based on the same characters, they would do pretty well with it. I can definitely see it being a contender for kids' attention.

And of course, a new cartoon series would mean new toys.

A boy can dream, can't he?

FEARSOME FLUSH!!!

Fearsome Flush was awesome in the fact that he was a stand alone toy. 

Unlike the Gooper Ghosts or Haunted Humans, Fearsome Flush was just kind of by himself. Sure, there were others that weren't attached to a particular series. It was almost like an "every ghost for itself" kind of thing. Ghosts that were a little to scary or gruesome to be bundled in with others only to get lost in the shuffle.

Fearsome flush had that special kind of scary to him.

Fearsome Flush always had his own special spot in my Ghostbuster's Firehouse play set. I typically would keep him on the second floor. My reasoning for that was that the main floor was a little too crowded with Ecto-1 (unless of course it was parked outside) and third floor was just a little too far to make it if you really had to pinch a loaf.

Naturally, he had to be kept inside of the Firehouse. I mean, after all, he did have the Ghostbusters logo emblazoned on his seat, right?

 I can't imagine little Johnny down on 10th Street having his very own Ghostbusters toilet.

The concept of the toy is fairly simple.

 Let's use Louis as our test subject, since he is rather small and defenseless. 

Louis has had a long day of doing taxes, pretending to be a Ghostbusters, and hitting on Janine.

 He has been so busy that he forgot to make a bowel movement after lunch, which is a typical thing for him to do.

 Louis likes to run on a schedule.

Little does Louis know, something got out of the Containment Unit and possessed the crapper. 

It doesn't just want your feces, it wants your blood, and will stop at nothing to get it.

Normally, the feature on Fearsome Flush would be activated simply by rolling it, but for purposes of killing Louis, it wasn't

No action figures were harmed in the making of this post.

Ghostbusters Cereal Box!

I should probably start this one off by letting you know that this is going to be one of many posts where we look at old Ghostbusters cereal boxes. This just happens to be the one that was easiest to pull off of the shelf without knocking 200 other things over.

Now, on to what we came here for.

You remember Ghostbusters cereal, right? If not, watch this wonderful commercial and we'll talk afterwards. Don't worry, I can wait.....

Okie dokie, now that we've either been refreshed, or newly introduced to the cereal thanks to the magic of Youtube, let's have a serious talk for a moment.

The cereal itself tasted like butt. While I cannot pinpoint exactly what kind of butt it tasted like, I would imagine it would compare to that of a dead Squirrel.

The downfall of the no ghost logo shaped pieces was overshadowed only slightly by the marshmallows. Marshmallows can seem to help anything taste okay, even dead Squirrel ass. However, from the depths of my memory, which has been clouded by lots and lots of beer, the marshmallows always seemed to be a little on the stale side, but hey, what can you really expect from a company that makes dog food?

Now that I have told you the product inside of the box all but sucked, let's look at the box itself, because it absolutely makes up for the bad taste of everything inside.

One of the ever so popular features on select boxes were the holograms on the front.

 Not all boxes were made this way, so when Ralston-Purina cranked these bad boys out, kids knew they had to be special enough to make mom and dad spend $3 or $4 on it. And believe me, fighting with parents while trying to convince them to pick up a box of breakfast sugar can be one of the most daunting tasks that a child of any age can possibly undertake.

This box features a hologram of resident slob Slimer munching the shit out of the cereal. I mean, if Slimer was down to eat it, we could at least give it a shot, right?

On the back of the box, which to this day is an important place to put advertising and further make any child scream and cry until they get something (as if buying the cereal wasn't enough) we are given an offer for a Real Ghostbusters VHS tape. 

This actually isn't half bad. This might even be borderline genius. What could make life better than eating a Ghostbusters themed cereal while watching The Real Ghostbusters? Perhaps a side of Ecto-Cooler, but that may be overkill, or maybe not enough.

By the way, notice how the family is gathered around, as if staring into a treasure chest discovering a Real Ghostbusters VHS tape. I mean, I'd be cool with that over a box full of gold.

Nutrition Facts are without a doubt the most boring part of any edible product. Nobody in their right mind really wants to know that they are putting total garbage into their body which will surely lead them to a future of diabetes and heart failure, so Ralston-Purina decided to jazz things up a little and put Slimer down at the bottom, chewing away at the information as if to give a big, "Kiss my ass" to the FDA. 

Slimer, you rebel.

Lastly, the proof of purchase. How can you not fall in love with something as simple as a proof of purchase when it's in the form of the no-ghost logo?

Again, I say that while the product inside was typically less than wonderful, Ralston-Purina went well out of their way to make the box as awesome as it could possibly be, because everybody knows that when you are sitting at the table, eating Ghostbusters cereal, you probably want to stare at the box as if it's an artifact that only a few will ever lay claim to having seen.

Fright Features Peter Venkman!

What's not to love about the Fright Features series? Kenner gave us a whole line of figures that prove that the "I ain't afraid of no ghost" line was all a bunch of crap. It seems a little counterproductive to release a set of Ghostbusters who aren't supposed to be afraid of ghosts, yet they are totally afraid.

The Fright Features series, however, was actually a big hit, and one of the most popular in the entire line of toys.

While I have wrote briefly about Egon already, I think today would be a good one to talk about Dr. Peter Venkman. Actually, when is there not a good day to talk about Venkman? I can't think of one.

Each figure, naturally, had their own "Fright Feature" hence the name. Venkman's feature was activated by pushing his left arm in towards his chest as though he were having a massive heart attack and begging you to call 911.

Once you heart attacked the left arm, his jaw would drop, his eyes would bug out, and his hair would lift about 14 inches off of his head, totally foreshadowing the fact that Bill Murray would be bald. 

Okay, really though,  it's a figure based on a cartoon character, so naturally there can be no realism attached to it. Of course his hair is going to fly up high in the air while his face screams, "I just made a boom boom and it's wet." 

Venkman came with the Gruesome Twosome ghost and the Hook Shot, his obvious weapon of choice.

I like to imagine that after Venkman was scared shitless by the Gruesome Twosome ghost, he promptly collected his thoughts (and wiped!) and hooked the little bastard.

Oh, yes, there is a small problem. Kenner didn't pack a ghost trap in with the figure. What do you do with a ghost that you have hooked but can't trap?

Well one option would be to wear it over your shoulders, making a bold fashion statement. Cruise on down to Time's Square and pick up some fine women, or a sailor, or a hooker, whatever tickles your fancy, I guess.

However, wearing ghosts around your neck as a fashion statement can only lead to bad things happening.

They may just latch onto your hands, rendering you totally unable to function or lead a normal life ever again. How can you possibly eat a hot dog with ghosts on your hands?

I guess the moral of this post, if there is one at this point, is to always carry a trap, and NEVER, I repeat NEVER wear a ghost as a fashion accessory, even if it will increase your chances of meeting the woman of your dreams.

See these bad boys in action in the video below!

Weekly Post! Ecto-Charger + GB/TMNT Crossover and Other Junk!

Well, it's that time again huh?

It's a few days later than I normally do this, which is fine because all of about 20 people even read these anyways, but here is a random edition of the weekly post.

I don't really have a set theme this week, or one specific thing to talk about, nor do I really have the energy to put a big thing together, so it is what it is I suppose.

I guess we should start with the big news coming out yesterday. IDW Publishing it setting forth with a four issue Ghostbusters and Teeneage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover.

For children of the 80's, this is as big as it gets. The 2 biggest franchises of the late 80's and early 90's are finally meeting up. Having lived together in the same city for nearly 30 years, one wonders how they have just now discovered each other? Regardless of how long it took for the two teams to finally cross paths, this is indeed big. If anybody at IDW sees this and wants to hook me up with a copy, I'd gladly give you some pub for it. My local comic shop doesn't stock anything other than moldy old super hero crap.

Hey, I almost made a joke. Somebody big seeing this page, that's a good one.

I had a lot of fun putting together the bonus post from the other day which featured a few random Ghostbusters commercials. I'm debating putting up a videos section, but that's probably a long way off at this point,. I do plan on trying to update this page a little more often.

So let's do a toy review huh?

Last week we looked at Kenner's Proton Pack, so naturally it's only fitting that this week we look at the Ecto-Charger aka Kenner's version of the Slime Blower.

For knowing as much random, useless crap as I do about Ghostbusters, I still to this very day have no idea why this toy wasn't just called the Slime Blower. Apparently Kenner found it necessary to change the name. I guess "Slime Blower" sounded too much like a bad nickname for a dirty hooker named Sally that works downtown.

Anyways, the toy, much like the Proton Pack, is basically a big chunk of hollow plastic. Believe me, there is a major downgrade to this toy. The biggest of them being the straps.

The Proton Pack had straps that were already in place, whereas the Ecto-Charger has straps that hook over a little peg at the bottom, which would always find a way to come off right in the middle of sliming something.

There is one pretty decent upgrade though.

The gun itself is a nice upgrade to the neutrona wand on the Proton Pack.

The gun has a fold out handle and a button you push to make a giant bright pink dildo shoot out. It's almost as if this was made to be some kind of secret sex toy. Admit it, you're thinking about it now. Better call Sally the Slime Blower.

Nothing fancy to this toy, no major bells and whistles, but it was a decent toy to add to your Ghostbusting arsenal.

When I got my Ecto-Charger, I was on the verge of turning 5. I'm actually pretty sure that was my birthday present that year. I really have no idea. There may have even been a Simpsons cake involved.

How about something a little random?

I love VHS tapes. I mean, seriously, I own nearly 30 copies of Ghostbusters on VHS. No, I'm not kidding, even though I wish I was, but look at the ad. Way back in the late 80's, a copy of Ghostbusters on VHS would run you about $20. Freakin' nuts eh?

I have posted before about how I came to own my first copy of the movie. Maybe I'll tell the story again some day for those who don't scroll through this entire blog. Just maybe.

Let's end the post with a fun video.

Without a doubt, one of the most popular Real Ghostbusters episodes, "Citizen Ghost" 

Coming up next week? Ghostbusters Cereal boxes! Neat!

See you next time

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!!