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!

Christmas 2014

This won't be a terribly long post, as I have plenty of family things to get to, and I'm sure most of you are pretty wrapped up in your own Christmas / Holiday fun, but I wanted to take a few minutes to not only wish you all a Merry Christmas, but also to show off the neat Ghostbusters stuff I got this year!

Typically, I'm a pretty big Scrooge when it comes to the holidays. They just seem to be best left in the past when you had all the joy and wonder attached to it. As you get older, it seems to wear off, and you fill the role of gift giver and hand the role of gift getter to a younger generation.

The transition is quite hard. It's never fun knowing that your best Christmas memories are far away in the past.

However, there can still be some fun and excitement involved. Alcohol DOES help!

This year Mrs. Ghostbuster let me open one of my gifts early. And what an excellent gift it was:

Yes, FINALLY I am the proud owner of the Ghostbusters LEGO set!

This probably took me a good two hours to put together with minimal breaks. I'll admit, I'm not the best LEGO putter togetherer by any means, but the Ecto-1 was indeed a daunting task to assemble.

After spending a large amount of time putting it together, I can kind of see what the big deal is about LEGO sets. They are indeed pretty fun. 

Now I really have to stop myself from ever buying more, because I could really see myself getting highly addicted to LEGO products.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Mother In Law's. Most people dread their extended family, but I kind of like mine. They are fun people.

My Mother In Law, with a little bit of help from Mrs. Ghostbuster, nailed it this year with 3 AWESOME GB shirts. I may or may not be wearing the Stay Puft shirt as I write this.

For those who may wonder, I am pretty positive these came from the JC Penny website.

As we returned home, ready to unwind and not see or hear another child's scream for at least a century, Mrs. Ghostbuster gave me my last gift, and boy, was it AMAZING.

I am now the proud owner of a giant ass Ghostbusters logo.

My wife knew I wanted this one BAD. A friend of mine sent me a photo of it from a comic shop that is a little over an hour away from here, and Mrs. Ghostbuster had it sent to our door just in time for Christmas Eve!

It's made of thick foam, and measures close to two feet across. Looks spectacular on the wall as well. The perfect addition to the Mr. Ghostbuster HQ.

And the perfect end to Christmas of 2014.

Be sure to stop on over to the Mr. Ghostbuster Facebook page and share what you got this year!

Retro Action Egon Spengler!

This is my favorite part of the day. Really it is.

The part of the day where I get to take a little bit of time out of my schedule and write about Ghostbusters.

I know that not a lot of people read this, and I know that this little site and my Mr. Ghostbuster Facebook page will never be the biggest in the world, nor will they ever be cared about by the big fish in the sea, but to me, it's fun. It's been 25 plus years of collecting and loving Ghostbusters, and I enjoy sharing it with whomever will listen.

Today's fun comes in the form of Matty Collectors Retro Action Egon Spengler figure!

I know a lot of GB fans, myself included, have complained about how Matty produced and handled the Ghostbusters figures, from the overall quality of the toys to the price, they did the fans wrong.

However, these Mego-style Retro Action figures are pretty sweet.

A couple of years ago, a local closeout store had a couple Egon figures for about $5 each, which compared to their normal almost $20 price tag, was a hell of a deal.

I always kind of had this bond with Egon. The very first item in my collection, at age 3 was a Fright Features Egon figure that I begged hard for inside of the toy aisles at Wal-Mart.

The figures themselves are all pretty much the same as far as body molds go. They all have super highly articulated joints, which is a good and bad thing,

Having so much articulation makes for some awesome poses, but it also makes it hard for them to stand up on their own from time to time.

Egon comes clad in his Real Ghostbusters jumpsuit and equipped with a PKE Meter and Proton Pack.

The Proton Pack design, to me, is a few steps above those from the Kenner line. This one has color to it (other than a plain, flat blue) and the neutrona want hooks in flawlessly. 

Overall, I'd give the Retro Action RGB line a 7.5 out of 10.

The figures themselves are great, decent design, wonderful accessories, and they really bring back the fun of seeing Ghostbusters toys in stores.

The only gripes would be, as mentioned, the fact that there is almost too much articulation, making it hard for them to stand on their own, and also the normal $20 price tag. A little expensive for the average buyer, like most of the Matty items, but enough for collectors to pay it.

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

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.

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.

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.