Ghostbusting Old-School With Mattel's Retro-Action 'The Real Ghostbusters'
Yes, you CAN believe your eyes, cause we’re not screwin’ with you! Mattel is indeed releasing figures from The Real Ghostbusters animated series, and they’re doing it in their Retro-Action style. Why release an 80’s property using a cemented 1970’s style? Why not?! It’s “crap on a stick” you say?! No need to jump to rash judgments, friends! Nostalgia is all the rage right now, for better or worse, and these ghost-trappin’ heroes are about to be back on the racks at the local Toys R’ Us! We, here at MTV Geek, were fortunate enough to score a few of these guys early, so let’s take a closer look at 3/4ths of Series 1 of the Retro-Action The Real Ghostbusters line of figures.
The Real Ghostbusters did pretty well for itself back in the day. The animated series lasted from 1986 all the way to 1991 and continued the adventures of our favorite paranormal investigators as they fought evil in New York City, and all over the world. The show was fantastic, yet the toy-line far outlived it thanks to the many, many original concepts for ghosts, and those sweet-ass rides! It seemed like everyone wanted the Ecto-1… ahhh, memories. The original figures were released by Kenner and featured some of the best damn action features to ever exist; hence, the very vocal disappointment by some fans when Mattel announced that the Retro-Action style was their choice with the animated characters. We were quite repulsed by the idea ourselves; but, after getting our hands on these Real Ghostbusters figures, we can surprisingly choke back some of that bile, for the time being.
All 3 (4, including Venkman) Ghostbusters figures feature the same body, differentiated only by their headsculpts. The heads are done up really well, and give the likeness of each character as they appeared on our TV screens all those years ago. Egon has the most complicated sculpt, not just because of his attached glasses; but, because of his epic hairdo featuring a pompadour AND a sweet rat-tail! We may never know why Egon went blonde and wild for the cartoon and we don’t give a s@#t, because it just makes him that much better! Ray and Winston are a little simpler, which is fitting. They’re both smiling because… we guess they just love their jobs, or have been sleeping with the “mood slime” again.
Paint on these figures is non-existent, except for the heads. They are molded in the correct skin colors with details like the hair, eyebrows, and eyes painted on. Intricacy and shading are not the name of the game here, but thankfully clean lines are. Yep, all of the paint is right where it should be. Gloss paint is used for the hair on the guys, and their eyes are white with black pupils, furthering the look of the animated series. Usually we’ve got some gripes or “slop” to complain about… hmmm, looks as if this is gonna be a short paint discussion. Ah well, move along then.
Egon, Winston, & Ray (&Peter) share the same articulation as all previous Retro Action figures… and tons, and tons of figures from throughout the 1970s. They feature a swivel head, swivel/hinge shoulders, hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, ball-joint waist, ball-joint hips, hinged knees, & hinged ankles. Not too shabby for a decades old design. All of the joints move smoothly, and none are loose/broken. While this is definitely adequate for what they are, these Ghostbusters figures still manage to have trouble holding their particle wands effectively due to the lack of swivel biceps. Nostalgia failed us on this one, folks.
The costumes and accessories help these figures to make themselves worthy of your collections. The jumpsuits are one piece that stay fitted to the figures thanks to a Velcro strip running down the back. They’re color-coded just like they were in the animated series and even feature a cleanly applied Ghostbusters logo on the right shoulder. The stitching is tight and is overall very, very, well done. Each figure also sports a belt and a pair of boots. The boots seem kind of clunky, but are the style of the line. Each figure comes with a Proton Pack. If they didn’t we would have immediately written an internet rant, the likes of which haven’t been seen in ages! These are made with rubber straps that slip onto the figures and stay securely. Like the classic figures, all the accessories are blue, with red and yellow highlights. The particle can be attached to the packs by a peg, when not being held in the figures hands. All 3 figures also came with their own individual accessory. Egon was packaged with the PKE meter. Funny thing about it is that it’s modeled after Kenner’s toy, and not the version shown on the animated series. Winston scores the Ghost Trap, which sadly does not feature opening doors; but, has the cord and foot pedal attached. Ray comes with the Ghost Sniffer as seen in the original Ghostbusters film. It’s blue and yellow like everything else and has been adapted to fit the style of the figures.
That’s our look at the Retro-Action Ghostbusters figures from Mattel. Peter Venkman rounds out the series and, while we don’t have him, we’ll assume he’s of the same high standard as these other 3 figures. You can pre-order these figures at most online toy retailers and should be able to start snatching them up at Toys R’ Us very soon. We’re gonna leave this review with a little bit of odd R.G.B. history: Arsenio Hall voiced Winston Zeddemore in the animated series, even though Ernie Hudson tried out for the role. Nope, Ernie couldn’t even catch a break playing “himself”! How weird is that?!
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