I’m still digesting everything from Toy Fair – grabbing all those links doesn’t leave a lot of time to look at the pics, but my biggest surprise was from Diamond Select and their new 7″ Ghostbusters series!
I hadn’t heard any rumors about these even being a thing, so I was totally blown away by the first pics of Ray. It was a great first figure to show off because Ray seemed to be the sculpt that Mattel had the most trouble with in their line and then here’s DST nailing it! The new body sculpt looks great and all the fun gear looks to be here: what looks like a removable proton pack, a ghost trap, and the ecto-goggles. All for $25. I’m sold. Then I saw pictures of Winston – now I may be being to harsh because Winston is the best Ghostbuster (don’t both arguing in the comments, it’s just true), but Winston doesn’t look as good as Ray. I went back and compared to Winston’s head shot, but couldn’t get a good set of pics where the angles matched (which might be why the sculpt isn’t as good, there’s much less reference material in Google Images for the best Ghostbuster than there is for his three famous co-workers). The old headshot did make me appreciate the sculpt a little more, but it’s still not as stellar as Ray’s. I can’t say exactly where I think it’s off, but hopefully it’s better in person (I’m told it is).
Here are some comparison pics:
But even better than these two reveals was the information about the line that came out of the show. The first thing is this article from ToyArk about Diamond’s Product listening. Listed with Ray & Winston was this nugget: “GHOSTBUSTERS SELECT DANA FIGURE, WINTER 2015, $24.99”. We’re getting a Dana right out of the gate! I’m kinda wanting a plainclothes Dana, but another tidbit of news from attendees made me guess we’re getting Zuul.
See, DST has big plans for this line. At least twelve figures, possibly some main character variants, but four waves of three figures all from the first film. That’s a pretty good spread. And even better? I’ve got to make some room on the shelf because the twelve figures will include a build-a-diorama of what sounds like will be the top of Spook Central, Gozer’s Temple. I’m sold.
I really appreciate that Ray head sculpt after Mattel released that same pinched one like five different times and never bothered to fix or update it!
😛
Ray looks pretty good, but Winston looks like a generic Black guy. Might be Ernie Hudson…could be Billy D Williams. Whereas Ray definitely looks like Dan Aykroyd.
Still though overall they look great. Given that we already have the 6″ Matty figures, I wonder why this was prompted.
some faces are hard to “translate” into other media. I know there was some discussion in the 90s about Gates McFadden’s likeness for the Playmates NG figures and the DC comic, because no one was satisfied with the final product for either, and they said that while pretty in person, her face likeness was hard to adapt. I’m curious what a 3d scanner could do for her, or a number of others, these days?
Then again, Danny had a somewhat malleable look from SNL to 90s before he just generally puffed out. So getting his likeness down pat calls into question the effort put into Ernie/Winston.
These were a big surprise and look much better than he Matty ones. Looking forward to see the rest of the reveals.
I agree that they do look better than Matty. I wish they came out much earlier, especially given how old the franchise is.
Want.
Could say a lot more but I don’t want to annoy Noisy. I seem to push buttons lately. 🙂
Mattel’s proton streams looked way better. (Unless these are prototypes that will come in clear plastic later.) Of course they wouldn’t sell them to you unless you bought the same figure over and over. I bet you a third party company could have made some money casting proton streams out of clear resin and selling them for $12 each.
These look great. My Mattel Ghostbusters got put into storage when I moved a couple years ago. And my Winston, who is, in fact, the best Ghostbuster, was suffering from whatever they call that white chalky crap that oozes out of a lot of Mattycollector product.
I still think the Mattel figures have some merit, but they’re definitely a more stylized take, whereas DST seems to be going for realism. I’ll have no problems leaving the Matty figures in storage and putting the DST ones on display.
Ray looks great, fivehead and all. Hope they make Winston soon.
I wonder if that build-a-roof’s going to be spread across the whole line. I’m sure I won’t get twelve figures from the one movie, but I’d love to see a huge playset come out of this. Then I can try to find some way to build it.
Janine Please!
Really Matty not doing her was a crime. Also guess that rumour of a Real Ghostbusters line to be all false as well. Thanks Matty. DST has my money on these.
The elephant in the room is Bill Murray. Will the same production delay keep his figure out of the mix or did DST, with some odd magic, do things in a way that the whole actor approval process went much more smooth?
So happy to see the backpacks are removable the first time around. And they seem to come with accessories.
Haw. The issues with the Mattel Ghostbusters figures were all a smokescreen to make everyone glomp onto these like a drowning man a life ring. It’s all planned. 🙂
These look awesome. Matty’s figures look like crap compared to these. Now for DST to make some RGB…and Extreme.
Actually that close up of Winston (the best GB) actually helps a bit, seems closer than other pics they shown. I can’t help it I’m all in on these. I don’t feel bad about the Mattel ones cause who knew? But it really helps me appreciate how awesome these figures look since we have the Mattel figures to compare them too.
Incredible looking figures. Quite the contrast when compared with Mattel’s lackluster effort. However, they still aren’t the Ghostbusters my inner child really wants. I’m still holding out for the Real Ghostbusters.
These will all be at my house, but I’m still more than ready to pony up for some RGB!
Well would people buy Dan Scheoing (sp?) Artstyle figs alla the IDW comic? I would as had some nice designs to me in there.
I would! Especially if they would also do the Rookie, Janine, Ron, Melanie an Kylie. Winston could have his proton pistol!
Egon is best Ghostbuster.