Toy Review: Hasbro Ghostbusters Ghosts, Ecto-1, and Collector Figures

Ghostbusters as a movie franchise has experienced long hiatuses, but as a toy property, it’s rarely gone away. From the original Kenner toys based on the ’80s cartoon through Trendmasters, Mattel, Diamond Select, Playmobil, and now Hasbro, zapping ghosts makes kids and collectors feel good. And a new movie always feels like grounds for a wide new product array. For collectors, the Plasma Collection offers detailed six-inch figures from the new film. For kids, a gimmicked Ecto-1 seems designed to work with smaller, more cartoonish figures. And for fun, a line of ghosts sport action features like so many ’80s figures did. Let’s take a look at the Hasbro Ghostbusters toys the company sent us for review.

First up, the ghosts and Ecto-1, which look designed to fit in with existing and rereleased Real Ghostbusters toys. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man has the most fun feature, where squeezing his legs makes his arms raise and upper body corkscrew upward to reveal what could be called marshmallow guts. Hit a button on Slimer’s back and he too raises his arms and pops upward, though his jaw also drops open. Muncher, the new metal-eating ghost from Afterlife, is a bit different. Raise his upper arms to make the ball of metal in his mouth go in and out. Then push buttons on his back to make the metal objects in his gut push through a translucent membrane.

These may not be super-detailed in movie style, but they’re extremely fun and creatively executed. And though they don’t scale exactly with figures, they’re close enough for play or display.

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Ecto-1 is another story. It’s key gimmick is the gunner seat, but it doesn’t work that well, especially if the firing cannon stays attached. The seat’s as likely as not to pop off when the side doors open. The other feature, a wheeled drone that holsters in the hatchback and rolls out when that door opens, works a bit better. The cannon can also plug into it.

The Real Ghostbusters rerelease Ecto-1 did more, and fit more figures. This car’s made for that Kenner scale; however, the short-statured new Ghostbuster Podcast fits in nicely. Consider the car a mini-rig for him and it works okay.

Podcast is the shortest figure, and as such any others may not work as well. Although for the record, Lucky was the one figure in wave one not provided for review, and Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe, while revealed a while back, doesn’t have a scheduled release yet. (A retail exclusive seems likely.) This is why the build-a-figure remains incomplete for this review. A humanoid Terror Dog, its head obviously comes with Lucky.

Its color scheme gets creative — silver highlights at the top, black body fading into purple translucence. But articulation ain’t much. The cut hip joints allow for basically one pose, and the ball shoulder joints require careful positioning to balance the thing. Wrist cuts give the hands some options.

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The three original Ghostbusters all use the same base body, which represents Ernie Hudson the best. (It’s flattering to Dan Aykroyd, and insulting to Bill Murray.) Though it fits in fairly well with other six-inch Hasbro figures, it’s a little on the short side considering all three actors are six feet or taller. And they come with retro accessories. Stantz has Tobin’s Spirit Guide, Zeddemore has a newspaper full of in-jokes including the want ad, and Venkman has the cards from his shock experiment. (Expect to lose them once the package gets opened — they’re tiny and cardboard.)

For the “old man” body, articulation goes thus. Ball neck, shoulders, hips, waist. Cut biceps and thighs. Double hinge elbows and knees. Hinge and cut wrists. Hinge and rocker ankles.

With the proton packs, the neutrona wands do latch on, but the power cords are thin sculpted plastic, so unless the other end gets securely plugged in, they stand up straight, like so…

On the kid bodies, which both seem unique, aticulation is a bit different. Their elbows utilize disc and pin ball joints, with no bicep cuts. And their ankles, in baggy pant legs, don’t seem to move at all.

Despite the sculpts being different, both have a peg on the left upper thigh that doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. Other accessories attach differently. Podcast has what looks almost like a tiny bottle of Dan Aykroyd’s Skull Head vodka, and it clips to his belt. He also has Ecto-goggles (a tight fit), drone controls, a live Mini-Puft, and garlands of dead Mini-Pufts on his chest and wrist. Trevor includes a mysterious map, proton pack, and a garland of Mini-Pufts that at first seems tricky to attach. It actually drapes over his back, and the key is to hook the legs of that second Mini-Puft from the top around the large hose:

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Likenesses overall seem excellent. Logan Kim is harder to judge than the rest as he’s less familiar, but the Wolfhard and Hudson faces deserve particular credit. Digital face printing doesn’t hurt.

The proton packs clip into the back in addition to strapping around the shoulders and arms for a tight fit. And the proton streams –only included with the old guys — fit the blasters nice and snug. They work better than Diamond Select’s and as well as Playmobil’s, while looking better than the latter.

The Plasma figures retail for the now-standard Hasbro six-inch price of $22.99. The kid-friendly Ecto-1 costs around the same price, which seems like a pretty good deal (at publication time, it’s a discounted Amazon daily deal). The Fright Features ghosts at $10.99 make the best deal. Note that as an affiliate partner with Entertainment Earth and Amazon, Superhero Hype may earn fees from purchases made through these links.

Take a look through the gallery below for more images. Who you gonna call upon to join your collection? Let us know in comments.

Recommended Reading: Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History

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