Ghostbusters / TMNT Crossover Issue 1 Review

It FINALLY happened.

After living in the same city together for about three decades, the Ghostbusters and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have finally met.

I was given a copy of Issue 1 of the cross over by a friend of mine for my birthday.

He is pretty much just as crazy about TMNT as I am about Ghostbusters.

I'll admit, I haven't kept up on the TMNT in recent years. I know enough to get by, but overall I only really collect, or care about, the vintage series. Never got into the 2002 cartoon. The Nick cartoon has it's funny moments, but I only really watch that for my 3 year old Nephew.

While I won't go into a ton of detail over this issue, since I know there will be many who have yet to read it, I will give it a brief run down, showcasing some of the bigger things, to give those who have yet to read a general idea of what to expect.

The story starts off with an ancient demon warrior from the past being sent into present time by Krang.

In present day New York, Donatello is working on a teleportation device with some professor dude I've never heard of. Again, I don't keep up with modern day TMNT.

When Donatello suggests that the Turtles, April, and Casey Jones test it out by going to the lair to surprise Splinter, and coming right back, they all hesitate, but eventually decide to do so.

As the Turtles were preparing to teleport, a fly gets in the way and the professor slaps the wrong switch.

Long and short of it, the Turtles get sent to where they were due to go, but in a different New York City.

Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters battle the Bug Eye Ghost.

Yes, I nearly lost it when I saw this. How freakin' sweet is it that in 2014 the Ghostbusters can be alive and well, battling real versions of toys that came out in the 80's?

The boys finish up and get called to a class 7 bust.

The Turtles land in a church in New York where a wedding is taking place. 

Soon after, our demon from the start of the story, the class 7, shows up to raise some hell, and possesses Casey Jones.

That's when the boys in grey walk in and discover not only the class 7, but also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or as Venkman calls them, "Kung Fu Martians"

This is where issue numero uno ends.

I really enjoyed it. 

The only thing I would have liked better would be for the Turtles to already be in the New York that the Ghostbusters exist in.

Maybe have it be 1980 something and they see a news report from April O'neil on the tv and people talking about the Turtles. They go to investigate and figure out the whole mess with the Foot Clan and Shredder, maybe a few ghosts along the way, I dunno.

Anyways, I'd love to get my hands on issue 2 when it comes out. I'll probably have to order it since the only Comic Book store in town doesn't typically carry these.

Trust me, it's on my to do list.

In the meantime, do yourselves a favor and pick up issue 1.

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!

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?

3 Random Things

I thought I would try something a little bit different today.

Instead of taking one bigger item out of my collection and writing about it, I'm taking three smaller items and talking a little less than I normally would about them.

Think of it as my way of somehow justifying having so much Ghostbusters stuff.

Hey, the little shit needs love too, right?

Any who, here are 3 random items I pulled out of my collection to show you.

1: Ghostbusters Key Caps!

I really had no intention of ever putting these on an actual key when I bought them.

I do believe that the sole purpose of purchasing a set of Ghostbusters Key Cap was that they are GHOSTBUSTERS Key Caps. Aside from that, no real reason for needing to have them.

 It gets harder and harder to find anything Ghostbusters related anymore, so when I stumbled across these at the local mall, I couldn't pull out my wallet fast enough.

Though if I ever were to put these on actual keys, I'd for sure be the coolest kid on the block rocking a Stay Puft key.

2: Ghostbusters Energy Drink Can

For a short time I could pick these up at the mall in certain stores (you know, the kind ran by kids who have far too many piercings and like to listen to Phish records?) but all of the sudden they seemed to go away.

Lucky for me, there is a little shop here in town that specializes in weird candy and soda, so they always have them, although I'm not sure if they do anymore since it has been no less than two years since I've forced myself to go in there.

Regardless, I always seem to keep the cans after I drink them. There is just something about throwing a Ghostbusters thing in the garbage that doesn't work well for me at all.

3: Slimer Bike Horn

These may very well have been the best set of toys McDonald's ever offered us.

I can recall the day I found out that Mickey D's had these. The commercial came on TV and it was totally an, "Oh shit! We need to go there NOW, and I don't care if it's not 10:30 yet. Buy an Egg McMuffin but get me the Ghostbusters toy" moments.

I seriously own enough of these right now that I could set them all up and hire a seal to play me a wonderful tune with his nose.

No, I wouldn't buy a seal. My bathtub is too small and I don't like raw fish.

Kenner RGB Firehouse Headquarters

This is a big one for me.

Let's take a little trip back to 1989. I would tell you to close your eyes, but then you wouldn't be able to read any of this. Then again, I'm not too terribly sure that anybody does anyways.

It's quite possibly fall of 1989. We were living in a small town in Nebraska, which we would soon escape with a move to the capital city, which isn't any better. Think of it as just a bigger trailer trash population.;

We take a visit to the "big town" for reasons that I honestly do not recall. I'm pretty positive that we had lunch at Burger King because our crappy little town didn't have one yet at that point.

After our lunch that may or may not have happened at Burger King, we stopped into Target, which our crappy town also didn't have!

As we browsed the toy aisles, looking at glorious 80's toy after 80's toy on the pegs, we rounded a corner and on an end cap was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my entire life.

Yes, a Ghostbusters Firehouse playset.

I begged. I begged HARD.

Surely my parents would just go ahead and snatch that shit up and throw it in the cart, right?

Yeah, no such luck.

I had no real grasp of what money even was, other than the change I had in my piggy bank. I didn't even know what it was used for, other than making a wonderful clanking noise that surely annoyed anybody that came within 14 miles of our house.

With no luck of the "Get Mr. Ghostbuster a Firehouse" front, I begrudgingly settled for a Power Pack Heroes Louis Tully figure. I suppose now I could at least say I left with something Ghostbusters, but at this point, once you have seen the holy grail, trinkets don't hold much appeal.

Christmas approached. It approached faster than I could have ever imagined it would, but I was also 4, and had no concept of time either.

We had made our visit to see Santa Claus, where I was quick to let the fat bastard know that a Ghostbusters Firehouse was the ONLY thing that could possibly make Christmas right for me that year. Mario pajamas were not in my wheelhouse, Lego blocks wouldn't do, and TMNT stuff would only lead to larger Ghostbusters cravings. And let's be honest, it was 1989, the last year in the best pop culture decade known to man. How could I say goodbye to the greatest decade in the history of the world if I had homeless Ghostbusters figures?

Christmas morning soon arrived. There just HAD to be a Ghostbusters Firehouse in there for me somewhere. This was going to be my big day, the day that my Ghostbusters figures would move in to their new home and establish a permanent residence while operating the greatest business in the entire world!

Present after present was opened. Mario pajamas, Lego blocks, TMNT stuff, all there and accounted for. Finally, after all was said and done, and the magic of presents under the tree wore off, I looked around and said, "well, I guess no Ghostbusters Firehouse for me this time..." to which my Dad replied, "Santa must have run out of them."

No, truth be told, Santa's elves didn't work hard enough to fulfill my wish list. Had they not taken so many smoke and coffee breaks, they could have easily boxed up a Firehouse and had it delivered while I slept on December 24th, 1989.

What seemed like an eternity later, I finally got one. I'm not sure how long it was after Christmas, but I got it. At least good ol' Dad made it right where Santa had brutally screwed me over.

All these years later, I still give them shit about not getting one for Christmas that year. Mom could never remember why I didn't get one, but Dad says it's because nobody had any. Apparently they were a pretty hot item that year, which matches up to the story I was told by the guy I bought my can of Ecto-Plasm from. He said his mother drove all the way down to Missouri on Christmas Eve of that year to get him one.

Sir, you made out better than me.

Memories aside, this really is an awesome toy.

The front of the firehouse let's us all no that this is unmistakably the Ghostbusters headquarters. The color scheme is quite different from the movie and cartoon series, but overall not terrible. It does a nice job of fitting in well with the rest of the toy line.

The big red doors both open up and have just enough room to house the Ecto-1 if and only if you remove the seat on the top of the car, otherwise it's too tall to fit inside.

The inside bugs me a little bit, and keep in mind, this is my OCD coming out.

Okay, main level, enough room for the Ecto-1 sans chair on top. Awesome. But the real question is, how in the world are the Ghostbusters supposed to get up to the second and third floors? Should they just magically sprout a set of wings and learn to fly up?

This has always been the big thing that bothered me about the Firehouse. Sure, it's a toy, it doesn't have to make sense at all, that is where the imagination of a child comes in, but for the lover of everything good, why could Kenner not put in a simple little stair case to shut people like me up?

One neat thing though is the pole. You simply put your figures on it via the pegs that fit into the bottom of their feet and watch them spin down on the red platform, just be careful when they finally land, and there is no way in hell that they wouldn't be spewing chunks everywhere.

The Firehouse also came with a can of Ecto-Plazm, which could be poured into the grate on top of the building and onto a figure. Never really got to try that feature since my parents were beyond anal about that shit getting into the carpet. So we'll just pretend I did, and it rocked.

Kenner also did us a big time solid and gave us the Containment Unit to go along with the Firehouse. My only issue, again nerdy OCD, is that you couldn't really store it inside on the building, and there was no basement, so it basically had to sit outside of the Firehouse while you created your own ghost-busting adventures.

Again,. not a big deal, I'm just cranky.

The top portion of the Containment Unit let you put in a ghost figure that would have been packed in with one of your Ghostbusters. Most of them fit well in there, but some did not at all. If you aim for anything from the first series to the Fright Features series, you're sitting pretty good.

Once your ghost was inserted, you slide the top portion over and it deposits the spook into his permanent home in ghost world.

Pretty simple, but there is too much awesome not to mention.

All in all, the Real Ghostbusters Firehouse playset was a good one. Not really anything to break on it other than the front doors, and not a millions small parts and pieces to lose.

Simple, yet effective.

Marshmallow Mess Ray Stantz!

For everything Matty Collector did wrong with the Ghostbusters figures, Big Lots did something right.

About a year ago they caused a massive ruckus when they began selling off some of Matty's overstock of Ghostbusters. It started with the 12 inch doll sets from GB2 and spilled over into the 6 inch figures.

In order to keep the Ghostbusters at my local Big Lots safe from Ebay dealers, I bought up every single one I could find. Does that make me a douche? Couldn't care less. I cherish each and every single one of them that I have.

And if you really needed to know, I have 11 of these Marshmallow Mess Ray figures.

Big Lots got their shipment in shortly before Christmas of last year. 11 of them to be exact.

I rushed in and bought a few, all while strategically hiding the rest of them. I mean, come on, this was on super secret lockdown that they even had these, I couldn't let Ebay scalpers get ahold of them.

Little by little, I ended up with 10 of them.

 One night my best friend got ahold of me and was really excited. He had gone to Big Lots and found the only Marshmallow Mess Ray in stock. I must have left one behind. He bought it thinking that he had come across some type of rare sunken treaure, akin to the Shankara Stones in the Temple of Doom.

Yeah, he was a little disappointed when he found out that I had already bought the other 10, but hey, at least he found me the 11th!

Grown men like me who have a 12 year old's brain would probably be quick to dub the figure Bukkake Ray, because, well, it's obvious.

Gangbang Marshmallow Mess Ray comes equipped with only the finest of ghost busting equipment such as his proton pack (with a beam that glows in the dark!), Ecto-Goggles, and walkie talkie.

While some rip on the Matty Collector figures, I can't say that I hate them. They certainly did a great job capturing the likeness of Dan Aykroyd. There have been worse attempts.

And, of course, who could forget that Ray is covered in melted marshmallow goop?

Ray also comes with a no-ghost logo display base, which, in a nice touch of detail, is also covered in spunk marshmallow goop.

And of course, the back of the card has the ridiculous profile on Dr. Raymond Stantz. I'm not even sure the Ghostbusters would keep profiles of their employess, especially one of the owners. Weird, but whatever I guess.

Again, don't get me wrong, there were dozens of things I disliked about the Matty Ghostbusters, mainly the way sales were handled and the way items were priced, but luckily for us real fans that didn't want to just take one for the team, Big Lots was able to offer our wallets a little bit of relief, even if my local Big Lots employees are dicks.

Kenner RGB Neutrona Blaster!!

Kenner's Real Ghostbusters Neutrona Blaster was among the sillier, less practical pieces of ghost catching equipment.

The premise of the toy is that it was a big, awkward neutrona wand that was powered by turning a knob over and over and over..........

And over and over and over.....you get the point.

On the other end of all the knob turning, a bright green chunk of foam that flops around  more than a double sided dildo spins out of control in a giant circle.

I suppose the folks at Kenner thought it would be a wonderful idea to wiggle the shit out of a ghost.

Let's totally rethink the concept of the toy shall we?

Sure, we can make all of the wiggle the shit out of a ghost theories all we want, but perhaps it's actually a very smart and super practical piece of equipment.

Let's say that you're on a call and your Proton Pack ceases to function. You're practically screwed. There is no way now that you will ever be able to trap that class 5.

Suddenly you remember that you have that new, experimental piece of equipment in the Ectomobile. One that requires no charge and runs solely by a hand crank.

It's a stretch, but it just might save your neck this time.

You run and grab the Neutrona Blaster, crank the shit out of it, catch the ghost in your dildo beam, mae it super dizzy by spinning it around in a giant circle over and over again, and throw out the trap, as it drunkenly falls right in. 

Or, you could just wiggle the shit out of it with your bright green dildo.

Funko Stay Puft!

Thought I would take a little time to show you a few photos of my newly acquired Funko Stay Puft figure.

I went shopping yesterday for a few of the Alien ReAction figures, promising myself that I wouldn't get too carried away buying more toys that I don't have room for.

Myself then reminded me that I am totally full of shit the minute I saw Mr. Stay Puft sitting on the shelf.

Having already found Slimer (and later finding Ray and Egon yesterday) I NEEDED Stay Puft like I need both of my testicles.

This gives me a majority of the set, only still needing Peter and Winston / Ecto. Had they had them in stock and sitting right in front of me, I probably would have bought them as well.

Stay Puft just sat there on the shelf with his $14.95 price tag, waiting for me to take him home. 

He just glared up at me making this smiling, squinty eyed face, knowing full well that I was in the store to take him to his forever home, keeping him safe from whatever unruly white trash may have strolled by his purgatory shelf, ignoring him, or just waiting to throw him on Ebay while they sat in their mom's basement.

I can only imagine that he had a sad face before I came along to adopt him. No, he did have a sad face. Don't tell me otherwise.

Stay Puft doesn't exactly tower over the other Funko Ghostbusters figures, but he is indeed about 3 inches larger. A very impressive feat for the company.

I have to admit, I enjoy these. I picked up the full line of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers last year and the Ghostbusters line is just the icing on the cake.

If anybody from Funko is reading this, I love you, send me Winston and Ecto.

That is all, carry on with your day.

Ghost Sweeper!

Kenner's Ghost Sweeper was a thing of genius.

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?