League Assignment: Pretend-buy yourself something nice

This week's assignment!

Here’s a blank check, now head over to the Profiles in History Dreier Collection auction and buy something nice for the cave. (You can buy more than one item, but leave some for the rest of us.)

Simple and short...I immediately was drawn to one specific piece and that was the uniform of Private Ryan from the 101st Airborne... I can't tell you how many times I drew Saving Private Ryan scenes in my sketchbook from grade 10 on.  Pretty much set me in the direction of a History Major and now History Teacher... I swear I'd wear this to school when I taught WWII which would be EVERY FREAKING DAY!!!! Band of Brothers marathon!  Anybody got 3 to 5 thousand dollars? :)


(I can't seem to copy or import this image so I'll just use some file shots of Matt Damon from the movie)

Can't not have a toy pic on here!

Brother Midnight is showing off some exorbitantly priced Outer Limits cards

Shezcrafti is looking at more things than my imagination can ever afford

Geek til it Hurts is eyeing up a Jaffa Costume from Stargate Atlantis...I wish they had a Horus or Anubis from the movie...

After These Messages! A couple of my favorite commercials as a kid.

Was there ever a toy, game or product that you remember as a kid where you actually sat through something you cared little for or actually taped a show just to get to watch the commercial?  I'd have to say, as much as I love toys, besides the commercials for Hero Quest and Crossfire (and for some reason Sky Commanders which I never owned) there really are only two major commercials that totally blew me away as in my young years.  Both of which are connected to Nintendo, the Super Nintendo to be exact.   The first one for Super Mario World especially was the keeper.  I remember it aired on a Friday night during ABC's TGIF lineup and the show was Dinosaurs.  (decent enough show...not the mama)

It certainly would be one long wait for Christmas that year!

I remember getting so pumped about seeing the preview for Super Mario World in Nintendo Power in 5th grade and wondering what this Famicom was?  Japan already had it and I was actually daunted by the aspect of a whole new Nintendo system coming out and wondering if I'd be able to handle all of those buttons...Questions arose like "How is Mario on the flip side of that Fence?" "Mario flys with a cape???" "You get to ride a dolphin AND a green dinosaur?????"  It was all just too much for me.  Somehow (I have no idea how) I found out the SNES commercial was airing that Friday night and I just sat there with the VHS player on "record".  Then it happened and I was never the same.  The epic music, the narrators voice, what was shown, bright colors, varied levels, Mario rocking out on Yoshi!... even the lightning bolt SNES logo and the subsequent "Now you're playing with power...SUPER POWER!" got me psyched as hell!  All of these factors culminated in one massive, 16-bit, anticipatory feast for the senses.  This advertisement showed up in October and boy, was it a seemingly endless wait til Christmas morning but (by far) the best Christmas morning I ever had.

Pardon the poor quality but by far my favorite SNES commercial!

The next (set of) commercial(s) pertain-s to another great SNES title and besides Final Fantasy III, along with the aforementioned Super Mario World, this is my all time favorite game.  It's nothing that original as I'm almost certain these three games are on countless top three lists, even more top 5 lists and possible all top 10 lists.  This game is none other than Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.  I remember being stoked for this title since I saw it on the back of the SNES box.  Just that picture was enough to blow my mind with the vibrant colors, the lush depiction of the overworld, a fully realized Link, Larger than life depictions of trees, a river and a bridge and what seemed like Darknut Knights wielding swords, bows AND arrows!  All I thought was "when is this game coming out???"  It wouldn't be out until April 13, 1992 so, again, this would be another long wait.  But I remember both of  these commercials airing around my birthday in late March.  The best part about them is that they were the ultimate examples of what a "teaser" commercial really was. They showed no gameplay; one was a live-action Link traversing climbing death mountain to find the master while the other was a panning camera over desert, swamp, castle, forest and mountaintop to find a treasure room with a sword only to have the sword be an illusion and it be a classic drop-down trap door!  These commercial nailed the feel of the game so well and really succeeded at revisiting the back-to-basics, top-down Zelda style.   You may disagree with me but I think Nintendo can truly cast some fine live-action depictions of their properties...another example being Samus from the Metroid: Other M commercials two years back.  Just like the narrators amazing ability to raise your anticipation in the Mario spot, this one is talking about traversing parallel worlds, light becoming dark, and "a Game that's already a Legend! Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past!"  Well...I'm really to play, are you?

The commenters are right, he DOES look like Brock Samson!

Anyway, let's finish it off with some other fine works of children's advertisement.

Sky Commanders

Where is this taking place? Nevertheless, I wish I lived there.

Hero Quest

Because when I play my board games, it's always in a dungeon. Gotta love the "I'll use my broadsword quip" too...why isn't that on a tee-shirt?

Cross Fire

Just as with Hero Quest, my friends would always wear leather and go to post-apocalyptic lightning-filled wasteland behind our houses to play this game.

WHAT COMMERCIAL WORKED ITS MAGIC ON YOU?  LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS! :)

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly News - Star Wars - Battle Beasts - Transformers - lego LOTR

A lotta info has been dropping over the past week with the various SDCC showcases and developer booths.  Here are a few of the prime information pieces I picked up over my scrolling of numerous blogs, sites and pages. 

Love these sets!...totally remind me of the Speeder Bike box from the 80's!

The biggest bummer I read was yesterday when my very fears as spelled out in my previous Vintage Collection Post apparently is coming true.  Hasbro has announced that the Vintage Collection is going on Hiatus (pretty much cancelled)  and being replaced by "Droid Factory" figures.  Whatever their BS reasoning is, we all know it's due to their absolutely soulless and money driven push for forcing an inflated wave of unpopular action figures geared at young children into their only true adult series of figures which, in turn, sold horribly and as a result the fans will now suffer.   I called this a week ago and this was something I really didn't want to be right about.   Not only this but I noticed at the showcase photos and on rebelscum.com that they are also shoehorning in two CLONE WARS figures as well into the Vintage Collection!  While we're at it, how about we start making animated looking classic figures and flooding the Clone Wars line?  Wouldn't that be great?

I LOVE the B and W drawings on the back of the old vehicle packages!

Now we're talking!!!

The silver lining is that there are some very nice figures and sets coming out but even these aren't without some major issues.  On the forums at Starwars-figuren.com, I managed to find some leaked photos of the Vintage Collection AT-AT ROTJ packaging and what really stands out is that there is a VC Speeder Bike and Scout in the corner! ***correction, Rebelscum just posted Hasbro's display of the new speeder and it is not the previous pic on the AT-AT box***   This really looks like the end all be all speeder bike for anyones collection...corrrected petals, newer looking scout, detailing all over, great handlebars.  We finally will have a speeder bike that looks like the pilot is really riding it!



Also, there have been some showings of the new Toys R Us K-Mart exclusive Ewok Scout Pack and AT-ST driver pack.  Nice renditions of harder to get figures and I absolutely love the AT-ST driver.  Always have.   Above is a pic of the Toys R Us exclusive Ewok figure set and a few shots of the last wave of VC figures including Nien Numb, Weequay, Imperial Royal Guard, Lumat and Prune Face.

There are also a pair of 3-pack exclusives from Target which, in total, have 3 new figures adding the VC ranks.  This also pissed me off because, in all honesty, there is absolutely no reason why Hasbro couldn't have released Snaggletooth, Death Star Droid and the Power Droid on their own vintage card-backs but instead are gouging fans now for having to either rebuy R5-D4 or both Boba Fett and Tusken Raiser (Why is Boba Fett in a New Hope set with two Tatoonie characters? Lazyyyyyy, Hasbro)  I'm telling you Hasbro is out to get you, VC collectors.

 
Also, Battle Beasts News posted on their page some info regarding the Diamond Select Minimates Battle Beasts figures and I'm starting to think I'm going to be dodging this collection.  I'm sorry but these figures just don't look like Battle Beasts....they look more like any random anthropomorphized animistic set of heroes and villains from any 90's cash-grab cartoon. (and not one of the better ones)  Also, there are some pictures of random people in this set...I'm not sure if this is a mistake or what is going on here.  We haven't seen everything so maybe this still may work but I kinda lost my enthusiam when I saw the Insectoid with the Goat figure for the SDCC exclusive set.  All I'm thinking is, I'm way more likely to gravitate toward the Takara Beast Saga (although pricier) when I go for reboot Battle Beasts figures. *Photos from 16.bit.com*

On an added note, I just saw some pics of the new Transformers: Fall of Cybertron wave 2 figures at Seibertron.com...still need to grab that pretty cool Shockwave just for the bot mode.  We will be graced with Grimlock, Blaster and Steeljaw...noice! (hit the link to see more)

On top of that, Lego Asia linked the amazing cool Bag End Lego set to tie in with the upcoming Hobbit movie...if any lego set needed to be made associated with Lego LOTR/the Hobbit I'd say anything Shire captures the win!  Now all we need is The Dead City and the Black Gate of Mordor and I'll be even more broke. :)

League Assignment: Getting a little Verklempt over here!

This week's assignment isn't one you really have to think that hard about...we all have that one (or twenty) things that come to mind when this questions is posed. The real question is who wants to admit it?  Here is the weekly Assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

Who cried when Old Yeller got shot? What movie, TV show, book, etc. turns you into a blubbering baby every time you see it?

Really, this is a no brainer for me.  There have been varying degrees of tear-jerker or submissions to my ever growing collection of movies, film, books that have left me feeling misty but I'll just put down a few of the biggies, I'll keep it within the realms of relative nerdery too. Outside of nerd culture, hands down is the ending of Philadelphia when "Don't Turn Your Back on Me" plays...oh my God, I have to turn off the TV.   Another big teary moment is in "It's a Wonderful Life" when young George Bailey cries to Mr. Gower about the poison and his son dying...something about that scene just brings my wife and I to tears every single time.   Plus you have your standard fare of the big time nerd deaths like Yoda, Spock and Darth Vader.   There's the sad childhood movie scenes like Thomas J dying from Bee Stings in My Girl or Forrest Gump meeting little Forrest, you know the part, "But is he....is he smart or is he...?"  Your heart must be stone if that part didn't get to you!  There are the hopeful moments that well your soul too, like the amazing speeches such as Samwise's from Lord of the Rings or Charlie Chaplin's from the Great Dictator or the uprising scene from V for Vendetta as the 1812 Overture bellows for that emotional icing on the cake... Wow, and these are all just honorable mentions!

Chaplin's Speech

Sams' Speech

You did the right thing, George.

Anyway, here goes.

Edward Scissorhands.  Wow, this movie is heart wrenching.  I love this whole era of Tim Burton movies but this one is just so achingly sad even when it's trying to be darkly humorous or satirical.  You feel the loneliness and pain poor Edward is feeling in his meek facial expressions while he reacts to aggressive pleasantness or just downright hostility from everyone he meets.  Even when he has a nice moment it's almost instantly pulled away from him throughout the entire film.  The music can bring a tear to your eye just hearing it in the way only Danny Elfman can through selections of sad, angelic choruses.  But the scene that sticks the nail in my heart every time is when the Inventor dies as he's giving the hands to Edward which inadvertently get destroyed by the very scissor-hands they are meant to replace.  Man, I really don't think you can get any more tragic than that.

The tears are comin...the tears are comin.

My wife disagrees...for her, the ultimate sad moment is none other than from Dr. Who.  It again deals with the death of a character.  (there's a lot of death on this post if you haven't guessed)  This death is that of the Face of Boe.  She saw this episode long before I did and talked it up for weeks.  I still remember her tearfully explaining it to me as we walked through sweltering Philadelphia heat to pay our rent.  Eventually, she sat me down and we watched it and I must say, she was pretty right on about it being a tear-jerker.  Boe essentially saves New New York from total suffocation and annihilation by offering the last ounce of his strength and life force to open the highway overhead gates and allow the toxic fumes to vent....well, the story iteself isn't important but the loss of such a gentle, prophetic creature and to see what became of Captain Jack finally meeting his untimely end is a sad sight to behold.

Very Yoda-esque with the whole "there is another."

Moving on the Television, the single, saddest moment I ever think I witnessed on the ol' Telly was when the Muppets found out Jim Henson died... It livens up at the end but Jesus, as an 8 year old, it was heavy stuff.  Now, I just get teary at the end of the Muppet Family Christmas after they sing "It's in Every One of Us" which gets me thinking about John Denver dying and then I see Jim Henson looking out at all of his creations having a great time... I tell you, this Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day.

Insanely sad things make me cry.

Overwhelmingly heartwarming things make me cry too.

Lastly, I'll hit two video games (they contain spoilers so be wary)

The first is the sad-sad one and that is from the Shadow of the Colossus when you're right about to finish that game and your only companion dies...wow, I didn't see that coming.  It was just so harsh and really made you wonder if all you just did was worth it.  Agro, your horse is the only friend you seemingly have as you progressively get sicker and sicker and he ultimately kills himself to serve you.  Don't you just feel pleasant now?  I know it's just a game but that part really hit me hard.  I actually stopped playing the game for a while after witnessing that scene.

Granted it isn't like when Artax dies (Shezcrafti covered that little gem)

Lastly, is the happy-sad ending from another great game.  Here, we look no further than Mr. Mario himself at the end of Super Mario Galaxy 1.  If you can make it through the ending when those poor little Lunas all team up to save the day, you have no soul.  Actually, pretty much any Luna scene in this game is pretty gut-wrenching, especially in the Library.  It's just a cuteness overload that if broadcasted into combat zones, would quite possibly end all conflict on a global scale permanently.

Also, as an added bonus and speaking of Mario.  Designer, Ed Peduzzi put this compilation together and it is just the perfect combination of nostalgia, sweetness and music by Sigur Ros to get those tear ducts working overtime.  It really is quite brilliant.

Last one I swear!  If any of you never saw the movie "Smoke" by Paul Auster with Harvey Keitel...watch this last scene.  Blind, lonely, old lady on Christmas while Tom Waits wails the saddest lyrics you'll ever hear.  This one really gets to me.

If you're not sad enough, head over to:

Green Plastic Squirtgun who tells us about the Boy Who Could Fly.

Toyriffic: To see a very hearfelt entry about Fathers and Daughters or

Flashlights are Something to Eat who talks about his very personal choice.

MAD AS HELL: The broken state of the Vintage Collection

Target on the left, TRU on the right...Even with 25% off, Toys R Us still can't get rid of them...

First and foremost, I'm telling you all right now this is a rant.   This is a current break from pleasant musings, toy reviews and pop culture nostalgic nuggets to sway into some official nerd rage.  I've just about given up on the Star Wars: Vintage Collection line from Hasbro and pretty much Hasbro in general.  That's it.  I've had it.  I relatively rekindled my flame of interest within collecting, toys and memorabilia and even from last year of attempting to rebuild my Joes and Star Wars, it has been an uphill battle.  I have no problem hunting from rare and hard to get items but an entire line of figures that just seems to be never stocked???    I remember it was July of last year and all I could find were Cloud Car Pilots and General Lando figures and thousands of Hoth Han Solo Legacy figs yet there were times I made a few great scores.   Meanwhile, this was not the case for 30th anniversay Joe figures as the  racks were empty for months pretty much until Renegades came out and we saw nothing by Scarletts and emo Cobra Commanders warming the pegs.   It took me 3 months to find Sci-Fi, LifeLine and the Techno-Viper and never was able to find the modern Alley Viper or Shock Trooper.   I could only shrug at the hard to find stuff and chalk it up that I must have missed the boat.  No big deal.  If Hasbro wanted to short pack army builders like the Gamorrean Guard or withhold a pretty major player like Wedge Antilles, so be it.

Two Walmarts...At least the one in Shamokin (right) seems to have a post PM wave (even though for some reason they decided to include Logray and Bom Vimdin and a bunch of other repacks...)

Then the Phantom Menace was re-released....

Okay, so I was already a little confused when I saw prequel figs on vintage cardbacks from the very beginning.  I personally hate the prequels and, in all honesty, they were the sole reason why it took me a decade to dip my feet back into the Star Wars pool.   Nothing has ever turned me off to something I previously loved so much like these movies to this franchise.  But I'll save you a Phantom Menace / prequel rant.  Head over to redlettermedia if you want to see in almost the format of doctoral thesis why these movies very well destroyed all that was well and good with the galaxy far, far away.   Nick May also did an article on SongsofSalmon explaining in his words why the Phantom Menace ruined the Vintage Collection.  Great read, btw.  Nonetheless, all I saw in prequel figs on vintage cardback was asshole characters taking up my original trilogy character's spots and peg space...and not selling well either. (Take a look on amazon's prices, you can get a Kit Fisto for 6 bucks!)  So now, not only were the vintage collection figures being overtaken by prequel entities but now, they were completely REPLACED with said entities...AND from the worst movie in the series... AND in the largest ever produced wave (of 12)  Could you ever imagine 12 Original Trilogy figures coming on Vintage Cardbacks???  I'd be so happy!  But this is reality we live in and usually the opposite happens as it is now.   So anyway, these 12 dickface figures have been sitting on the shelves in every major retailer in the country for 7 months now with seemingly no end in sight.  We've seen (or not seen for that matter)  3 additional waves of figures produced from Hasbro and they have yet to see the light of 90 percent of the major retailers in the country... so what will become of these series?  Are they ever going to make it to the shelves?  I could totally see Hasbro just passing right over them because after this, I  truthfully believe Hasbro hates its' adult fans and customers especially in the Star Wars collections and really fear that the overstock and production of PM figs is going to have long term negative effects on the vintage collection in general.  Some number cruncher in Hasbro's sales department doesn't give two shits if it's a Battle Droid or Grand Moff Tarkin sitting on the shelf.  A stagnated line that actually is costing you money will lead you to only one conclusion, drop the line or scale it back because it's "too risky."

Granted, this is K-Mart and they haven't restocked their Star Wars stuff for over a year.
How are they still opened?

 I've been stopping by TRU, Target and Walmart on a weekly basis for about 28 weeks now.  Why are these retailers holding onto these figures that nobody wants???? I see these shelf spaces...the same Ric Olie Figure is still there at the Dickson City Walmart!  The same young Anakin Pod Racer Pilot is still in the Wilkes Barre TRU! Quinlan Vos (who the hell is this shitface?) is all that is left in the Pittson Walmart!  This is weeks now!  Why aren't these stores taking on new inventory?   It is there! It is ready to order!  Wouldn't you want things actually selling off pegs in very valuable location spaces in your store instead of having dead zones in your toy departments?  I wondered the same thing even before the PM series with the last small one.  Speaking of which, did anyone remember the last pre-PM wave that came out and the hell it was trying to find the Echo Base Trooper or Ponda Baba? (This could easily be a problem when an entire wave is made up of 3 figures...cause that makes sense right?) 

Look at this horrible mess...So I get TWO Jar Jar figures out of 7? Cornucopia from Hell.

Why ever would we get 12 figures shoved down our throats for any toy line is what I want to know?  Hasbro has been downright stingy with many of the figs we wanted to see and get (C-3P0...AT-AT commander)  Then we not only see a 12 figure wave that nobody asked for but an additional Phantom Menace Series for all retailers and an "exclusive" 3d series for Walmart!  3 God-Damned series for one movie?? Do you think that's enough?   How many Anakins and Obi-Wans can I get?  This would be like if Ford was making a new car and looked at the potential buyer market and saw...we have 1 million potential customers....well lets produce 3 million cars! In each of our subdivisions! This would be suicidal policy!  But once again, Phantom Menace knows no bounds in being able to destroy all it touches.  Lucas can't seem to shove this shitty set of movies down our throats enough within re-releases, tweaks, promotions...Darth Maul is coming back for the Clone Wars (I don't care), Jar Jar in carbonite is the FOCAL POINT of the SDCC figure set!!! I don't care if he's frozen...ha ha, no seriously stop devoting molds and figure space around the worst chracter in cinematic history.  That is ultimately what this whole thing is about... buying sets of figures we hate so we can get the little taste of the true vintage figures.  (even the Sandtrooper is a Special Edition one with the stupid scanner droid)  I guarantee we will see a senator Jar Jar before we ever get a Moff Jejerod, Momaw Nadon or Squid Head in the VC.   Turn on any Star Wars feature on Spike TV and what is it?  Prequel!  Want more figures? Prequel!  Well...there's always Galactic Heroes and Fighter Pods or Transforming Star Wars crap to take up some more space.  All I want are the 3 figures per wave that they will produce that won't be  short-packed and not pay 20 dollars a piece on Amazon, am I asking too much???  Is anyone else feeling the same way I do here?

Who you Gonna Call??? Top 10 Scariest Ghosts on the animated Real Ghostbusters and standout Kenner toys

My absolute favorite illustration from the series...I guess this is how they caught Slimer.

Some of my fellow collectors hearken their current collections all the way back to their first childhood memories.  For me, my current collections like Transformers, GI Joe, Battle Beasts and Star Wars didn't hit my periphery until I was about 7 or 8 however the collection and cartoon franchise I was die-hard for from the very beginning was the Real Ghostbusters.  I remember one Saturday when my parents put on the movie and loving the eggs cooking on the counter, the floating library books, Peter's spray gun in Dana's apartment (it's technical), the waist high swing door between Janine and Peter's "office"...hey, these were things my 4 year old brain noticed.  That right there, spawned an obsession.  From here on in, it was an unending quest to find everything from Ghostbusters' cereal, Ecto-Cooler, the McDonald's GB Happy Meal Toys, Shrinky Dinks, Color Forms, Sleeping Bag (which I still have), the NES game was the absolute first Nintendo Game I ever got (and had my dad return when we disappointedly found out it sucked to hell...in exchange for Legend of Zelda so all was good) and let's not forget...the AMAZING ACTION FIGURE LINE! 

The Best drink ever made...ever.

On top of this, the film was countered by an extremely well animated and written animated series dubbed "the REAL Ghostbusters."  Real was included because it had to distinguish itself against Filmation's 2 month running animated Ghostbusters series based on the live-action 1975 version called the Ghost Busters featuring the adventures Jake, Eddie and Tracy the Gorilla portrayed by Bob Burns, Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker (Tucker and Storch of F-Troop Fame)  The animated Filmation series explains we are watching Jack and Eddie's sons who now inherited the business from their fathers. Side note: as a standalone show, Filmation's Ghostbusters was definitely worth checking out.  It had neat villains, wackier animation and a pretty damn cool Ghost Buggy (their Ecto-1 as a old-school Rolls Royce "Silver Ghost") and used a lot of pretty cheesy but clever name puns...Hauntquarters, Prime Evil, Spirit Shackles.  It also produced an awesome Toy line from Schaper/Tyco that can pull a pretty penny on the vintage toy market now.

I gotta say, super cool headquarters and vehicle for the imposters. 
The base reminds me so much of the Weebles Haunted House.

Anyway, back to the Real Ghosbusters.  They produced some amazingly cool Kenner toys however I always found it strange that they never reflected the characters from the cartoon besides the original four Ghostbusters.  Even Slimer looked more menacing in this rendition.  This mostly changed with the modern renditions from Minimates and Retro Action and we even got some movie accurate stuff from McFarlane and Neca.  The cartoon series not only started with a beautifully drawn introduction but also had some great voice talents including Lorenzo Music (of Garfield fame) and Arsenio Hall.  On Top of this were the really great stories and super creepy ghosts.  Some of these things scared the hell out of me as a kid and even watching them now, I think to myself, kids' shows today don't have anything like this.  It's right up there next to the Inhumanoids in the scare factor.  The only thing more modern stuff had in this department was Invader Zim and that got cancelled for being "too scary." So on to today's list which will be a two parter: the first being the top 10 most memorable/scary ghosts from the animated series and my top 10 favorite Kenner Ghost figures. (Gotta keep it toy related!)

10. Boogaloo - From the 1989 Ghostbusters Halloween Sunday Night Special. He sings which is lame but God is he Satan incarnate. Huge, red, wreaks havoc, stomps things, mouths for knees, that's all you need to know.

9. Samhain - The namesake coming from the Gaelic word for Halloween.  He made numerous appearances within the Ghostbusters canon having some episodes centered around him (the Halloween ones) and making a few cameos.  Adorned in tattered robes with his evil pumpkin head and freaky teeth (still creeps me out), he is one of the Ghostbusters all time arch fiends.  He also possesses the ability to command spirits and has his own set of trolls and goblin minions to help him in his dirty work.

8. Peoplebusters - These ghosts are the antagonists in the episode "Flip Side." They are really unique takes on Ray, Peter and Egon and have great ghostly effects like exposed ribs, discolored eyes, Ray has a hand for a foot, Egon has a tentacle mouth on his face, you know the standard fare for ghost adornments. They shoot ecto-plasm from the bizarro fire-house which I always thought looked like urine tanks. Nonetheless cool, hostile and out to destroy. Even complete with a skeletal ghost Janine answering the phones. Nice.

7. Killerwatt - This electro ghost had the ability to haunt any electrical appliance and although he himself wasn't the scariest of all ghosts, the haunted renditions of everything from drills to saws to vacuums to ecto-1 all had some really innovative design and possessed cool scare factor. This series did such a great job at making stuff look so menacing with bulging, bloodshot eyes and bared gnashing teeth. This episode was one of the earlier ones and they really added some nice stuff like powering up the proton packs, the crowd cheering...it really emulated the best points of the film and watching it again, I had a smile the whole time.

6. Sandman - Kind of misguidedly harmful, Sandman wants to put everyone to sleep to prevent war and violence...okay. However, this causes our dreams to manifest themselves within the planes of reality and once Sandman is threatened, the dream manifestations transform into nightmare beings. Not a good mix...on top of this, Sandman is extremely weird and evil looking and has one of the creepiest voices you'll ever hear. I did love some of the dream ghosts though...super creative and that Easter Bunny was pretty horrifying. I remember having the sticker book to accompany this episode and loving the screen grabs, it also had some neat 3d effects too. Score one for nostalgia!

Awww....Aren't you cute?

holy hell....

5. Victor - Oh man, what can you say about this little hellion from the episode, "Victor, the Happy Ghost"? He starts out as a cute, harmless stray ghost with big sad eyes and almost looks like a Suessian Who crossed with Casper. But when his true colors form, watch out! He's an evil looking monster that could double easily on any Tales of the Crypt. Those eyes are what really do it for me.

4. Boogieman.  Holy shit, this guy is terrifying.  One of the scariest episodes around and a super powerful enemy.  He thrives on our fears and has the ability to appear out of any child's closet he wants.  That face....oh boy, that face.  Even his netherworld was freaky as hell with perspective-bending angles, Escher-esque doors and a layout that puts the Winchester House to shame.  Egon is pretty much rendered useless against him and once you hear that voice you'd know why.  This was another reason Ghostbusters worked so well.  The voice talents especially on the ghosts were amazingly well casted.

"Wat"

"Precious"

See the resemblance above?  You better run, Sylvester!

3. Wat - Makes his appearance in the episode "Mrs. Robinson's Neighborhood." Personified by a sweet old lady with her cute little birdie, Precious who transform into horrendous demonic true forms...the birdie reminds me a lot of the Jekyll and Hyde Tweetie Bird episode on Looney Tunes.  The old lady is horrifying, the bird is freaky, the whole house is a horror show with haunted oven, keyhole, chairs, books, topiary, you name it.  Even the malevolent "Wattttt" that is yelled through the house can give you the willies. 

If this door talked to me, I would listen.

The Real Ghostbusters: Your source of Childhood Psychological Trauma since 1986

2. The Doomsday Door- From the episode "Knock, Knock"... that's the most horrifying door you'll ever look at in animated form next to Rodin's "Gates of Hell" He warns in a hellish voice, "Don't Open Until Doomsday" which is a nice nod to the Outer Limits canon. Needless to say, the workers he warns ignore him and open him unleashing subterranean bedlam into New York's Subway System. Everything is possessed from the Trains to the graffiti on the sides. (My favorite set of ghosts in any Ghostbusters episode) Until right now researching this, I never knew why I was afraid of the word "Soon" and why eyeballs were associated with it and after finding this pic, enow I know...so weird.

Don't make him angry

Yeah, this will kill you.

Oh my God...

1. The Class 10 / Toy Ghost - This one was from the pilot episode of the Ghostbusters series entitled, "Ghosts R' Us" where a trio of poltergeists set up their own bogus ghostbusting services to put the real Ghostbusters (see what they did there?) out of business.  This all goes wrong when they look to enlist a buddy haunter of theirs in a toy factory only to find he's been (we can guess killed) replaced by a class 10.  This one reminds me of the Dianoga from Star Wars with big tentacle Eye, gaping hell maw and long appendages...  That voice and the enraged moans he makes...all I'm saying is if you hear it, run like hell.  He then haunts and enlarges a set of toys (big wheel, cymbal monkey, jack in the box) to take on a huge demonic beast who pretty much almost takes out the Brooklyn Bridge.  This episode got a lot of flak from parents who complained this was just too scary for their kids to watch.  Glad ABC went on with the show even though you will notice the scariness does get gradually toned down as the series progressed.


Honorable Mentions -

Cthulhu - Gotta give a nod to some H.P. LoveCraftian references from this baddie from the episode "Collect Call from Cthulhu."  This episode certainly does do this regenerating, tentacled, gaping razor toothed maw possessing monster the justice he deserves. 

The Anti-Ghostbusters - Came on the Collectors DVD set from the movies...this is the one that ties the movies to the show by explaining why the ghostbusters changed from their monochromatic uniforms.  Peter is supposed to dispose of the spirit charged uniforms from their battle with Gozer and Stay-Puft but he doesn't and the suits become ripe with spectral energy creating the anti-Ghostbusters...not all that scary but just a really neat episode... Toys R Us is putting out these four green faced figures as a collector's set.


Now, onto the top 10 Kenner Ghostbusters Ghosts!!!

10. Bad-to-the-Bone - What ghost series would be complete without a skeleton? This guy is awesome with opening jaw, budging eyes. Also had a weird wishbone-like tail section and jail door swinging rib-cage.  Classic Ghostbusters.

9. H2-Ghost - Two for the price of one, bonus set of blue evil-eyed ghosts...Works as two separate entities or as one singular rubbery monster.  Squishy, Squeezy and Shoots Water.  'Nuff said.

8. Mail Fraud - One of two of the Haunted Humans Series on the List. He had a great transformation and really looked menacing. I remember feeling bad for the mailman character, whoever he may be...even as a standalone mailman figure, this works.

 7. Sludge Bucket - This "Gooper Ghost" was part of a 3 set and was my favorite. He reminded me a lot of "Pizza the Hutt" from Space Balls and had a feature where you could fill him with ecto-plazm that was packed along with him which blew bubbles. He had budging blue eyes, a gaping mouth and a movable red tongue (which also was a totally easily breakable piece).

6. Terror Trash - My second Haunted Human...was one of the more disgusting Ghostbuster Ghosts as he flipped the trash can over his creepy face to reveal a bug head out of the top with slimey puke smeared across the front, along with a pincer mouth coming out of his chest (very Aliens)  and translucent wings that emerged from his legs...Totally took a hint from Jeff Goldblum in the Fly. Even the trash can in normal mode had gross looking bones on the top piece very much like the Kenner Beetlejuice molding on his Vanishing Vault.

Animated debut

5. Bug Eye Ghost - Here's a Kenner figure that actually made it into the cartoon except for a slight color change. Small beady evil eyes? Check. Spooky face mold? Check. Giant, pop-out, Glass, monster Eye? Super Check!

4. HighwayHaunter - This toy line released a number of cool ghost vehicles, a plane, scooter but this VW "Bug" is the real winner.  Transforms into a cool insectoid with a little ghost engine in the boot.  Vibrantly Colored and expertly built, this is a great addition to a Ghostbusters collection.

3. Jail Jaw Ghost (Trap Version) - The only pack-in ghost you could get with an accessory which was an exception to the rule since most of the Ghostbuster 1:1 scale accessories didn't include ghosts. This was a remake of Ray Stanz's Fright Feature figure but this time he was redone to GLOW IN THE DARK! SCORE!

2. Grabber/Wrapper/Gulper/Chomper - these were the original little mini ghosts found in our cardinal set of ghost busting heroes.  This was the modus operandi for the rest of the franchise as ghosts got crazier in their designs and all had an "attack" and "captured" mode where they could latch onto each individual hero but could be connected onto each weapon.  These, in my opinion, were the absolute best.  Gulper was my hands down favorite though.  (they also had great packaging art with each individual hero)

1. Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man - Probably many of our collections started with this original Ghost.  Truly bringing the movie in to meet the series.  He was constructed of a softer plastic pieces with an articulated set of arts and head but had great paint and detailing.  Only problem was his white color stained extremely easy and I'm sure many a young kid got marker, grass stains and dirt all over this poor guy.