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.
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In the late 90's, it was kind of the "in" thing to try and keep 80's cartoon franchises alive and well.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suddenly became Ninja Turtles, The Next Mutation, which added a 5th turtle, a female named Venus. Needless to say, this live action nightmare failed after only one season, and Venus was never heard from again.
Ghostbusters wasn't ignored either.
In the late 90's, talk of Ghostbusters 3 was all the rage. Wait, it still is. I guess some thing don't change. Either way, talk of a third movie was alive and well in 1997. Rumored stars who would make up a new team of Ghostbusters included Chris Farley and Will Smith.
While rumors of a third movie swirled around the fledgling World Wide Web, Ghostbusters fans old and new were treated to a cartoon series that served as a sequel to our much beloved Real Ghostbusters.
Egon Spengler led the pack with a new team of Ghostbusters, his college students. Kylie, Eduardo, Roland, and Garret. Janine returned to serve as the secretary, and we even got an older, really depressing version, of Slimer.
Naturally, with a new Saturday morning cartoon hitting the airwaves, we just had to get a new set of toys, right?
Among the figures and role play toys, there was the Plasma Blaster! A much upgraded version of the neutrona wand. Ghostbusting in the 90's, I guess.
Before we delve into the Plasma Blaster, I think we should pay homage to this little shit on the box.
If you'll recall, most of the children on the boxes for the Real Ghostbusters toys were very clean cut, coming across as looking like Timmy from Lassie.
That was so 80's.
The 90's, the late 90's in particular saw society move into a much more extreme, hardcore, edgy lifestyle. Jerry Springer was giving America daily brawls featuring cross dressers and strippers with hoo hoo's the size of beach balls. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the foul mouthed WWF Champion. Playstation and SURGE soda were a much better couple than Ross and Rachael.
I think you get it.
Look at little Mister Attitude on the box. Dressed all in black, hat on backwards, ready to bust some ghosts, flip off a cop, and explore the world of internet porn.
Okay, maybe that was just me, I don't know.
I think the packaging definitely suits the time period and the Extreme theme of the cartoon, as we of course know, nothing said extreme in the 90's like a backwards hat. You hippie.
Oh, this toy.
The Plasma Blaster requires about 99 different batteries to operate. And they aren't the kind that tend to be laying around the house either. Nope. We're talking LR44's, C's, a Mazda MX3 battery, a small generator, and something big enough to electrocute a horse.
While we go through this review battery free, just mesmerize yourself with the complexity of this toy.
Oh, where to begin.
Jesus H. Christ, they made this one a little complicated, didn't they?
Just looking at this thing makes me feel like my 93 year old grandpa trying to figure out how to stick a tape into the VCR.
No, really, he got it like 20 years ago and I still don't think he knows how to use it.
The Plasma Blaster is equipped with several features that make anything from the RGB series look insufficient.
There are easily more lights and sounds available on this thing than any pre-2001 Cell Phone could possibly offer.
First, we have a nifty little radar that allows us to scope out a spook and fire a missile via the touch of the button in the middle. I like to think of it as the button you shouldn't touch for any reason, but totally touch in a panic.
You can just imagine your first day on the job, being handed your own Plasma Blaster, and Egon saying to you, "See that button? Don't ever touch it, under any circumstances."
But you do anyways.
The missile that shoots out even lights up.
How does one fire the Plasma Blaster?
Well, glad you asked.
There is a little red button on the handle that, when pushed, supplies us with lights and sounds. Of course, you can't just pretend that there is a proton stream coming out of the end.
Trendmasters one upped Kenner on this one.
While Kenner just gave up long pieces of foam, Trendmasters gave us a giant, yellow, plastic dildo to clip on to the end on the gun.
If all else fails, and you cannot find any of the 97 thousand batteries to power this little toy, take a selfie and try to make a bad ass face. Cigarette optional.
God, my bad ass face makes it look like I REALLY have to poop.
Is the Plasma Blaster a terrible toy?
Not by any means. However, much like the rest of the EGB line, I think they lack the overall simplicity and style that the RGB toys had. I don't think they changed for the worse, but I do think it was something that the 90's, and Ghostbusters fans, weren't quite ready to accept.
In recent years, EGB has found a following among a handful of original fans, but most purists refuse to give it the time of day.
Myself? I'm glad there was a EGB. I liked it. It wasn't what it could have been, and was very different from what I knew and loved growing up, but some kind of Ghostbusters is better than no Ghostbusters.
Plus, without EGB, we would have never gotten the Back in the Saddle episodes, which remain some of my favorites to this very day.
If you'd like to see this thing actually light up, check out the video, which was not made by me, but some guy who sounds like Crocodile Dundee, who makes a weird farting noise as the beginning. It's a terrible video, just so you know.
While never officially appearing on the Real Ghostbusters cartoon, it was a wonderful brainchild of the Kenner toy company, combining the technology of a Street Sweeper (although it more closely resembles a midget Zamboni) with high tech ghost busting equipment.
Before we go into detail about what the toy does, here is where I get nit-picky.
The front of the box advertises the Screamin' Heroes figures using this machine. Good enough, right? I guess Kenner couldn't resist also peddling the Power Pack figures as well, seeing as the instructions on the back of the box has that line of toys using the Ghost Sweeper.
I suppose it's just complaining when there doesn't need to be any, but it would be cool to at least use the figures in the art on the front of the box. I would have assumed there were plenty of them still available, even if they photographed the back of the box after they did the cover art.
Now that I'm done being way too nerdy and splitting hairs about a cool toy, let's find out just what it is that the Ghost Sweeper does.
As seen above from the shots on the back of the box, the Ghost Sweeper is just that, a ghost sweeper.
Instead of the Ghostbusters acting as exterminators, they have decided to take to the streets and clean up New York's spooks that have chosen not to terrorize the usual home or business.
Equipped with a neutrona wand, the sweeper cruises up and down the mean streets of New York, ready and waiting for something to go bump in the night.
Once a ghost is located the proton stream is fired. As opposed to the typical ghost trap, the ghost is held in place by the proton stream while the sweeper inches closer, eventually trapping the ghost inside of the built in cage.
I like to imagine that there is some kind of proton stream force field that prevents the ghost from escaping.
Here is where things get a little iffy.
So you've had a long night of patrolling the streets, and you've swept up a ghost. Good enough, right? Well what exactly are you going to do with it once you get back the headquarters?
I cannot imagine that they would just open the cage door and trap the ghost using the traditional method of doing things, so I will go out on a limb, using what little is left of my 4 year old child imagination, and say that there is some kind of hookup on the machine that allows a trap to be attached. The trap is inserted into the containment unit, and the ghost transfers from the sweeper to his eternal resting place.
Yeah, a little far fetched, but hell, they didn't exactly break it down for us when they created the toy now did they?
