In 1986 Kenner released the first wave of Ghostbusters toys labeled "The Real Ghostbusters" and these toys were geared more towards the kids cartoon show rather than the movie. The toys were great and were some of the most successful toy lines released in the 1980's. Today (to kick off Lost Entertainment's Halloween countdown) we will be looking at some of the monsters and ghosts which were released to battle the mighty Ghostbusters.
GRANNY GROSS
You may look at the above picture and think what a sweet old lady, but don't be fooled with one press of a button this old coffin dodger turns into one satanic bitch from hell!
FEARSOME FLUSH
Fearsome flush was a very unique toy to say the least. It was a toilet on wheels which when pushed would turn into a face which snapped its jaws. Although it was a great toy and a great idea fearsome flush never hit the big leagues when it came to my action figure role playing. I mean there's not much you can do with an evil toilet in terms of story line. Still pretty cool though.
MINI TRAP GHOSTS
Now if anyone owned these bastards then they will know how much these fucking things hurt! With the same mechanics of a mouse trap I do not know how these toys passed the safety check thing. Open the mouth touch the tongue and BANG the jaws would snap shut with your fingers trapped inside. The orange one had sharp teeth and the purple ones massive front teeth hurt even more. I hated these and still do.
SPEED AHEAD
Speed Ahead was another unique toy from the Real Ghostbusters line. When you put the cord inside the toy and ripped it out the toy would races along the floor with sparks flying out of its mouth. Cool toy but yet again he never fought the the Ghostbusters much during my playtime.
MR STAY PUFT
Now I may get heat for this but fuck it, I never really like the Marshmallow man much as a kid. As an adult, yeah I would display this toy if I had one today but as a kid I hated it. The reason why is simple, he was the same size as all the other figures. Mr Stay Puft stayed locked in a box with the mini traps and Speed ahead.
SLIMER
Slimer now we have hit a real prime time player. The Slimer figure was awesome (even if it did not stand when displayed) and it had a few points of articulation. Slimer had a running war with my Ghostbusters figures for quite some time before the newer sets of figures were released. My Slimer was well evil and went round killing GI Joes before the Ghostbusters came along and sorted him out.
BAD TO THE BONE
Bad to the Bone was an awesome figure which my late grandfather got for me. I loved this toy when pressed the spines together the rib cage would open and close to trap other figure inside. Once inside the figures mouth would open and the eyes would bulge out, I remember once this figure had Ray trapped inside it for a week and was making him do all kinds of evil deeds like the burning of a playmobil school!
DRACULA
The Real Ghostbusters released a line of toys depicting the Hollywood monsters like Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, the Hunchback and so on. The Dracula toy was the only Dracula or vampire toy I had ever owned. The Dracula toy also went on a rampage through my figures and with the help of a red felt tip pen all of my blood soaked dreams came true.
X COP GHOST
The X Cop ghost was badass. Not only could you use him for Ghostbusters play but he could be used for any type of action figure related law enforcement and even went great with my Terminator 2 figures as a makeshift T-1000. X Cop was a traffic cop who when you pressed the button on his back would turn into a skeletal monstrosity.
THE MUMMY
The Mummy looks cool and looked cool on the packaging but he was a bit of a disappointment. The limbs would fall off all the time beyond control. They were meant to fall off and were still attached by a shoe lace like string but it was still mega annoying. He ended up with the mini traps as well!
MAIL FRAUD
Mail Fraud was another unique character who was pretty cool. If you lifted up his shirt his torso would morph into a monster. He ended up being part of the security team that would accompany my Hasbro WWF wrestlers to the ring in latter years.
TERROR TRASH
Terror Trash was just your average bin man but there was always something a bit shifty about him.
Oh yeah thats it! When he puts the trash can on his head he turns into a giant mutated fly. This was a cool figure and was another great bit of creativity and design. And now we go on to our final part..
THE ECTO-PLAZM
Yes the slime, the gunge, the gak whatever you called it we all loved it the Ecto-Plazm!! This was the stuff which had parents moaning at their sons for leaving stains on the carpet ten years before they should be. The Slime was great you could do whatever you wanted. It could turn your figures evil or turn them good. It could boil them to death or save them. The Ecto-Plazm will always go down as a champ when the Ghostbusters toys are mentioned. The GhostBusters Fire House had holes in the roof so that the Ecto Plazm could drip and pour from the ceiling.
Well thats all for today more Halloween madness this week!
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