Articulation is the same as Egon – ball-joints for the neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Swivel joints on the waist, thighs and calves. Hinge joints on the knees and ankles (with rocker joints). And finally, “Mattel hips” that you can find on most of their boy’s lines. All the joints move well, but the belt details block the legs a bit and the elbow pads prevent the arms from being straight. These are minor quibbles since I can post the figures just about any way I want to, but if there’s ever something for them to sit down in, it may not work well.
For an accessory, all Ray came with was the Logo Ghost. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited by this particular ghost when I saw it in ToyFare. I didn’t mind the idea of the logo ghost as one of the pack-ins, but it actually having the red ring around it seemed silly. Luckily, I wasn’t the only person that thought so – you can pull the ghost’s right arm and head off and remove the red ring. The ghost still has a flat surface where the ring should be, but it’s enough to make me change my mind. It’s a cool pack-ins, especially when it glows in the dark!
When Mattel announced the Ghostbusters figures, I was pretty excited. Heck, before they said what the new line was going to be, I was hoping it would be Ghostbusters. But in the months since August, I’d found myself less and less excited about Ray. It wasn’t the figure, it looked good in the press shots (and turned out just fine). It wasn’t Dan Aykroyd, I forgave him for Psi Factor a long time ago. It wasn’t Ray Stantz, as I said, he’s essential to the team. I wasn’t excited and I didn’t know why. But with the figure here, standing next to Egon, I realized what’s missing. The other two Ghostbusters.
I don’t know when Venkman is coming. Sure, Slimed Venkman is in May, so we should see a regular Venkman sometime after – about a year after we got Egon. That blows. I’m used to Mattel not letting me complete teams (Martian Manhunter!), but there’s just four Ghostbusters and maybe it would have been better to start the line next spring so you could get through the four quickly. Or to release the four as a set at specialty stores. As it is now, I’m going to get Winston for Christmas. But aside from ordering the containment unit (Ha!) in March, I just have to set the three Ghostbusters aside until next Summer. That’s crazy.
Still, that shouldn’t detract from Ray. He’s a good figure with some minor issues. If Winston and Peter are knocked out of the park like Egon was, those minor issues will become even more irrelevant. The team is going to look great together, we just have to get them all first.
Check out our Ghostbusters Classics Collector’s Guide.
My problem is the lack of accessories. $20 for Ray and all you get is an Egon do-over with a new head and a different ghost? Mattel needs to spread the wealth and give us PK meters and the ecto-goggles. I am buying, but they’re ripping us off more than usual.
I know that Mattel as a company has to try and get us to pick up as many as possible, but I don’t like the idea that “Hotel Sedgewick Ray” will include the goggles as a re-issue. It’s one thing if they want to try and offer the guys in different duds (the darker uniforms are a personal favorite of mine), but the accessories shouldn’t be looked upon as something for redos.
This Ray should have his goggles. Egon should have had the meter. They should all have a trap. A poster on the Buzz mentioned alternate gloved hands as a possibility – I like it.
I guess what I’m saying is that I wish the larger toy companies would do something smaller toy companies do and give us an end-all, be-all figure. All the accessories, alternate hands, etc. The play value would increase well past the $20 I paid for it.
Again, the pack-ins are disappointing.
Also, you should raise hell for the messed up hip.
The worst pack-in goes tothe Containment Unit Wall being released next year. It comes with a Walter Peck? He’s a terrible pack-in. XD
Maybe I wouldn’t want more out of the pack-ins if the boxes were’t so big. There’s some room in there.
If he had a non-functional part slip-up, I would be more angry about it.
If I were you, I think I’d contact customer service for a replacement, since he’s still in stock. Why settle for an imperfect figure when you’ve paid twenty bucks?
He’ll probably get one with a bad paint job or something if he sends it back.
LOL. Mattel really got me this time. A kinda sloppy Zodak, wrong parts Ray, and a Teela that’s alternate head will not go on the body.
The head won’t go on?!? That’s just ridiculous!
There was some extra plastic up in there that had to be carved back out.
It sucks there are only two figures so far. If they’d just tell us when they’re going to do regular Venkman that would be something.
Anyone think they’re releasing slime first hoping to get us to buy it as a sub until they do a clean one?
I do think the slimed one comes first for that reason.
Once we get to March and Peck hits, we’ll be back on the bi-monthly track. But I don’t see them doing Slimed Venkman and regular back-to-back. I’d peg September ’10 as the earliest we get the regular Venkman.
Glad you posted the on the GB Forum! I’d never heard of the site before and that checklist is great!
Loved the “Four Hours” shot!
Thanks! Glad to have you over!
I want these so bad, but I already missed Egon. 🙁
I wouldn’t skip Ray (if you have the funds) a clean Egon will be out sooner or later.
And I kinda want one. I didn’t mind before, but when you put them together Egon looks silly.
I think the logo ghost would look better molded in white. GID is cool and all, but it doesn’t look good in regular light.
I agree with this, although it’s slightly better in person than in pics IMO.
Agreed on both counts.
How dare you sir! Psi Factor was an awesome show, at least for the first season.
That show ruined a lot of lives by not being clear it was a TV show. 😀
The funny thing is that I don’t think you or I ever saw it past the second season. Frewer was on for two seasons and then he left the show and it STILL kept going for a year…
The proton packs really should come with streams to cross. I know Bobby Brown’s kid brother really wants some.
Yes, that has been the biggest thing missing!
I want total fanservice from Mattel here too. The unslimed Venkman is minimum 11-12 months away – he needs the proton stream and he needs to come with four of them.
seriously dude, you paid 20 bucks for that? and you’re NOT going to complain about the hip? seriously, if you buy the fig and want to mod it, that’s your deal… but to suffer a pretty big factory imprefection for a 20 dollar toy… you’re letting them steal from you. if that was a 14 dollar terminator fig you snagged at TRU, you’d return it in a heartbeat, or you’d contact NECA… why let mattel off the hook?
It’s not really suffering though. A whole left leg is suffering. Or if an arm where missing. This piece blends in for the most part – just the hole is there and I’m going to make it work for me.
Okay, honestly, you’re talking about roughly $30/figure. If you’re like me, you try to group purchases to lower shipping costs. With Mattel, that plan is thrown out the window most of the time. Think about this, if you are only interested in collecting GBC, you’re waiting months between figures. Sure, Ray is still available 2 weeks after his release, but there is no guarantee he’ll be around in Dec when Winston is released.
I skipped out on SDCC Egon because I didn’t and still don’t understand why he is slimed. And the fact that they’re using the same body and the lack of true accessories, I can’t justify these purchases. I’m not going to complain about the proton streams because they’d have to be really long to look cool on figures of this scale. Coincidentally, that brings me to my obvious (and only) alternative: Ghostbusters MiniMates!
Hell, I never collected any minimates before, but I found the Venkman/Terror Dog 2-pack at TRU, and I love them. I picked up the Winston/Terror Dog pack yesterday. And you know what else? Proton streams! Yeah, I don’t prefer this scale more than 6″ figures, but in this case they offer a readily available assortment, large variety of characters, and probably best of all, affordable! And when you compare costs for what you can get, minimates beat Mattel. For the price of the first three figures in GBC, you can basically assemble the whole team (w/ alternate versions), secondary characters and bad guys!
I do get the benefit of the figures averaging out to $22.93 a figure because all of us at IAT make one large purchase, but you’re still right about not being able to combine the spread out releases.
I don’t know if it was ever confirmed, but I’ve always been convinced that Egon was slimed because Bill Murray interfered with Mattel’s plans. He was supposed to be the slimed one in that exclusive, but they didn’t have the likenes yet and Egon got switched in. It would have been better for them to drop the slime entirely. On the brightside, a clean one will come out eventually.
The Minimates are sweet too! I own all of them so far and they’re great. But I love my 6″ scale stuff too much to pass on Mattel’s offerings. And I want them to get to RGB figures sooner rather than later.
You guys can’t just scrub the slime away with acetone? Someone send me their Ghostbuster figure and I’ll figure out a way to do it for free! 😀
Oh, forgot to complain: THE PACKS ARE SCULPTED ON!? WTF!? YOU BUFFOONS! >:[
I kinda wanted these but I already missed Egon. I just don’t know if I want to start a new line.
I read the word bubbles in that last picture in the characters’ voices, heh.