Extreme Ghostbusters Kylie!

It must be a rare day, because I'm actually updating this blog. It doesn't happen often lately. 

I'll be the first to admit that I only have so many hours in the day, and most of them don't pertain to pondering  "how can I get a few more views on my blog today?"

But, as we all know, no matter how much time passes in between postings, eventually, I always find some kind of time to update this page and try to entertain and inform at least some of you.

To be honest, I haven't even been very active on Facebook either. At least not on a regular basis. 

Anyways, you didn't come here to see what I've been so busy with lately, you came to read about Ghostbusters!

Today we take a look at Kylie from Trendmasters' Exteme Ghostbusters toy line.

As I mentioned previously on this page, the Extreme Ghostbusters toy line was highly underrated and produced in far fewer amounts than the Rel Ghostbusters toy line that had come out ten years earlier.

While kids of the late 90's were all about Pokemon and WWF toys, the Extreme Ghostbusters failed to hit a home run.

It's not that they were bad toys by any means, but they weren't something that was highly advertised, and the cartoon itself would be on at weird hours of the morning, like 6am where I lived. Name me one child who is bright eyes and busy tailed at 6am that cares about Ghostbusters.

Basically, we can blame the failure of EGB on poor marketing. Really, that's kind of what it comes down to. Had advertisements been heavier, and the cartoon been in a prime Saturday morning time slot, Ghostbusters as we know it may be a whole different thing today.

Kylie was a pretty cool figure. Not since the days of the Real Ghostbusters had we seen a female GB figure. Yes, technically you can count Janine as a GB, since she always came with ghost-busting gear, and often times suited up in the cartoon.

Kylie Griffin is one of Egon Spengler's students, turned Ghostbuster. She embodies everything of the late 90's goth girl, and also has a deep interest in the paranormal.

One thing I love about  the EGB series is that the equipment is a giant upgrade from your average proton pack.

The Neutrona wand is replaced with an easier to manage Plasma Blaster. Smaller, and more powerful, the Plasma Blaster packs an added punch to busting class five full roaming vapors.

The ghost trap was also upgraded and given a new look as well.

Kylie also came with Slimer, who always seemed to find a way to depress me in this series. Naturally nearly ten years had passed since the original boys in grey protected the streets of New York from goblins, spooks, and demons.

Slimer seemed to have aged, and not gracefully, in that amount of time. I suppose it speaks to our own mortality. Egon had aged as well. When they ran the Back in the Saddle episodes, everybody came back looking much, much older than we remember them. 

Again, yes, time passes, we get it, but it's always hard to watch our heroes age.

While Extreme Ghostbusters may not have been what die hard GB fans of the late 90's would have liked it to be, it certainly fit the "slacker, skateboarding, extreme sports, edgy" lifestyle that was present at the time.

Kylie and her upgraded gear, and rather unconventional uniform embody a lot of the 90's culture, but at the end of the day, it wasn't what we were used to, and for many, change is a tough thing to deal with.

Neca Stay Puft Head-Knocker

For those who weren't aware, I did cancel the Halloween Countdown mainly due to lack of time. We'll try again on a smaller scale next year.

But see, the thing about it is, Ghostbusters fits the Halloween theme any time, any day, so it doesn't necessarily need to be part of a special month-long countdown.

Regardless, I was able to score a Neca Stay Puft Head Knocker tonight.

Let's talk about that, it's more fun anyways.

The box, while very neat, bugs me just slightly. On one panel on the back, there is a shot of Stay Puft walking along and we see 2 screens. One has a photo of a Terror Dog. Good enough, right? The other has a photo of Louis Tully, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a photo from GB2.

Yeah, I'm picky.

Sadly, this is the only piece I own from the Neca line.

When they were released, it seems like any store in town that could possibly carry them, didn't.

Don't think that I don't regret it all these years later, especially since most of that line has skyrocketed in price over recent years.

This thing is IMPRESSIVE to say the very least.

Standing about 7 inches tall (I may be a little off, oh well) it weighs at least 900 pounds. No idea how heavy he really is, but even just heavy is a gross understatement.

The moment I set him upright, he wouldn't stop wobbling. It's like an obese marshmallow man suddenly got the urge to do the Harlem Shake. It was a sight to see for sure.

Stay Puft is pretty highly detailed, from his angry face to the cloth ribbon on top of his sailor hat.

Neca wasn't messing around when they turned Mr. Stay Puft into a bobblehead.

To add even further to his detail, and overall amazing appearance, Neca included some crushed vehicles and road at the base on the toy.

While safe to say it's not the rarest collectible in the Ghostbusters universe, it is pretty damn cool. If you ever have your chance to get your hands on one, no matter what, buy it, display it, and love it.

Day 1: Mail Fraud!

 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is OFFICIALLY October 1st! Halloween is upon us!

What better way to celebrate the biggest day of the year for all of the Ghostbusters franchises and fans that to review 31 ghosts in 31 days?

Yes, the Mr. Ghostbuster blog is your place to be this Halloween season for all thing Ghostbusters!

I thought, perhaps, I would ease into this one a little bit. It is, afterall, going to be a VERY long month. Not only do I have a job to deal with on a daily basis, but everything else that comes along with being a grown up as well, so if at some point these reviews become slightly half assed, don't say I didn't warn you.

For day one of our long 31 day countdown, we will take a look at MAIL FRAUD!

Mail Fraud, one of the tougher figures to find from the Haunted Humans line by Kenner, is one disgruntled postal worker.

While he doesn't officially have a name, aside from his ghostly alter ego, works for an unnamed post office in an unnamed city. 

We'll pretend his name is Pat, and he is a carrier for the Bronx Post Office? Cool?

Nah.

Anyways, Mr. Postal Worker here deals with fugly (yeah, I used it) housewives and beer drinking welfare men all day long. He is just plain miserable.

 He used to wake up happy, and ready to go to work until he met Gertrude off of East 9th street, who tried to seduce him while wearing her hair rollers and night gown.

 Perhaps he wouldn't have minded so much had it not been for the mole with three dark hairs sticking out right above her lip.

Day after day of lugging around people's bills and those stupid Pizza Coupons that you get ever Wednesday, he snapped and hung himself.

A little depressing, but one person can only take so much.

He came back to haunt all of his old stops, ready to make the hairs on Gertrude's mole jump off of her face.

Mail Fraud has come to unleash holy hell on every person along his old route.

The Mail Fraud figure was a great toy indeed. The Haunted Humans line was one of the best indeed, taking normal, everyday people in blue collar jobs and giving them the perfect mixture of poltergeist and take this job and shove it.

Mail Fraud transforms flawlessly from United States Postal worker to ghost by lifting his torso up.

His stomach suddenly becomes a mouth clad with razor sharp teeth, his neck tie becomes a nose and his shirt pockets become eyes that glare straight into the depths of your soul.

I do no at all doubt that Mail Fraud would gladly scare the daylights out of anybody who gets in his way.

Now, lets just hope he takes out those people who clog up my mailbox with pizza coupons and grocery ads.

GB Swag at Krispy Kreme!

We are just days away from the start of the 2014 Mr. Ghostbuster Halloween season where we will look at 31 Ghosts in 31 Days! Cannot believe that it has crept up so fast.

I really tried to be prepared for it by writing and doing things in advance, but that really didn't happen like I would have hoped for, so it's going to be a busy month for sure.

But before all of the Halloween fun, we have bigger fish to fry. Er, doughnuts to fry. Yeah, something like that.

So, let's be honest, Lincoln, Nebraska is the worst possible place that anybody could live. We don't even have a Krispy Kreme here!

Luckily, I have friends in low places, and I was able to score the Ghostbusters doughnut box and plastic pail!

Now, I know I should be stoned with the heaviest of rocks for not at least trying the doughnuts, but in reality, they don't sound good to me at all. I'm sure they are good though, but sadly, I'll never know.

The doughnut box is REALLY FREAKIN' COOL!

Decorated with slime green polka dots, and featuring a wonderful Ghostbusters / Krispy Kreme logo mash up, the box is sure to be an excellent display piece in any collection.

I very highly recommend that if you stop into a Krispy Kreme to get your doughnuts, I'm certain that they would be happy to oblige a request for an extra box.

Trust me, you WILL want to have a clean one for display. Way too cool to pass up.

The plastic Trick-or-Treat pail is excellent. My guy who picked this up said it sold for $3.99. I'm going to assume his information is accurate, but if I am wrong, please let me know!

The plastic bucket features a tremendous Slimer sticker on the lid, with the sides of the bucket giving up the same No Ghost / Krispy Kreme logo mash up as well as the GB30 logo.

While I would love to obtain a few more of these, I'm happy with one, seeing as I didn't think I'd end up with anything at all.

Seriously, though, Krispy Kreme did an excellent job with this. Even if it's just a box and a bucket, I'm more than excited to have these in my collection. Well done doughnut dudes.

See you October 1st!

Mail Call!!!!

I was in the process of writing about something else for this site when the mail man came a knocking at my door to deliver me all kinds of goodies.

If you're wondering (trust me, you probably aren't) that "other" post will be up tomorrow.

I was pretty excited to see mister mail man today, as I knew that today would finally be the day that I got the items I had ordered online a week ago.

I typically HATE ordering things online as the wait takes forever. I'm one of those weird people who likes to have the item in my hand the moment the money is forked over.

Regardless of me being weird, lets see what today's mail brought!!!!

First up we have the Real Ghostbusters volume 1 DVD set. 

I had this so long ago, and was nearly heartbroken when it got lost in a move years and years ago.

This set, still factory sealed, was scored off of Amazon for around $8 after shipping. Not too bad.

To make things even better, I only ordered it 3 days ago. Boy, they sure are fast. Big props to the seller for being so quick!

The Ghost Spooker!!!!!!

It's a rare day that I get to add a Kenner item to my collection that I do not already own. I think I'm down to about 5 or 6 items now to have a complete Kenner collection.

Seriously, I have no idea what I am going to do with myself when I accomplish this goal. I mean, obviously I will move on to completing the Extreme Ghostbusters set, and then Matty and whatnot, but the Kenner line, as it was the original, is kind of a big deal for me to finish. It's bittersweet, that's for sure.

I'm not going to go into great detail about the Ghost Spooker since it deserves a review of it's own.

The item was not sealed in it's box by any means, so I took the contents out for a photo, but hey, the box IS there, so it makes it that much cooler, right?

And last, but not least, there is the Extreme Ghostbusters Plasma Blaster!

This is yet another item that I did not already have, but to be fair, my collecting focus for many years has been the Kenner stuff, so I have only picked up the EGB stuff when it is readily available, or cheap.

Again, not going into a lot of detail since this item will get a post of it's own at some point, but like the Ghost Spooker, the toy has been opened and played with before, so I had no bad feeling about opening it to take a photo.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day, when you factor in the Stay Puft pencil sharpener and sealed Ertl Ecto-1A model kit that I picked up locally today.

Can't hate seeing your Ghostbusters collection grow!

I'm thinking sometime after the Halloween season, I am going to ask all of my readers here and on Facebook to show me a pic of their collection, which I will feature in a slide show or gallery here in a future post. It's always fun to see what other Ghostbusters collectors have, and I'll admit, even I sometimes get jealous!

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

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.