People have been waiting for June 15th 2010 for twenty-six years. TWENTY. SIX. Why, do you ask? Well, after all of this time we finally, FINALLY have action figures of all four movie likeness Ghostbusters. The “slimed” Peter Venkman figure arrives on Matty Collector in just a matter of days and the last hold out to plastic has caused me to use a lot of caps lock just in the introduction. As you might be able to tell, I am pretty excited.
I have probably watched Ghostbuster more than just about any other movie. I was also a huge fan of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and toy line. I know that is not anything rare so I know I am not alone in my excitement, and honestly, relief to finally be putting the movie boys together in one complete group on my toy shelf. As if the 26 year ride was not hard enough, it even seemed like touch and go there for awhile with whether or not Mattel was going to be able to produce a Peter Venkman figure (Bill Murray can be a little reclusive when it comes to likeness rights) but last year at SDCC our fears were allayed and now we can have our complete team. Thank goodness.
For the first in what I hope will be a string of Venkman figures (I will get to that in a minute) Mattel offers us a “slimed” version taken from the guys’ first real job at the Sedgewick Hotel. In perhaps some of Venkman’s most memorable scenes, he is attacked and slimed by Slimer himself, ends up in a funky condition before finally getting his revenge on the nasty little spud – an making a cool five grand out of the deal!
There is just about the right amount of slime effect on the figure (if you have Egon from SDCC last year you will get pretty much the same thing) to that he looks gooped up, but you can still pass him off as just having a long day bustin’ ghosts. I know that some early shots showed him with a lot more of the effect but I am glad that Mattel design decided to go with the more subdued, but effective look.
If you have Egon, Ray and Winston you know that those figure share pretty much all of their parts from on to the next and Peter does have several of the main pieces as well, but he does have unique parts where his costume differs from the other three. First and most noticeable is that his pants are not tucked into his boots. I am so glad that they made sure this detail was correct because let’s face it – Pete isn’t exactly overly concerned with making sure his uniform is up to code. Also, appropriate for the Sedgewick scenes he has new forearms and hands for his gloves. There have been some pictures floating around from various online auction recently that show some figures of the other guys with gloves so I hope we eventually get those too. A nice touch.
The rest of his pieces are pretty much the same, from the Proton Pack to the jumpsuit, but the yellow tube that runs from his back to his pant leg is much more yellow than previous offering and is lays more flat, I prefer both of these changes on this figure and I hope they hold over when we get further variations of the Busters. Finally, since he is wearing them, no folded gloves are featured hanging from the belt.
Like Egon, Peter is packaged with Slimer as his ghost, though he is updated with a new expression and he is sticking out his tongue. I mean, who else were they going to include with Peter? If you liked the original version you will probably dig this one too for the sculpt and translucent plastic. However, Slimer and his stand are the only accessories (aside from the non-removable Proton Pack) included with Peter. Now, I know, unlike Walter Peck and his Containment Unit, Pete Venkman is a guy that can get things done and does not need any accessories to sell his figure, still I REALLY wish the walkie talkie was removable for his famous “Come in, RAY!” line, but there are plenty of 1:12 scale walkie talkies out there so you can find one (I took mine from an old Plan-B figure).
This Peter Venkman figure is watershed toy in a couple of ways. First, I really like the figure on it’s own merits – the likeness is good (though I think the un-slimed head shown at SDCC ’09 was even better, can’t wait for that) and he is functional for some great scene recreation posing. However, as noted, we finally have all of the Ghostbusters together. Remember, 26 years and all that. So I think a lot of people will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. However, that by no means means that I want Matty and the Four Horsemen to slow down. We are getting the “We’re ready to believe you” Ray up next, but after that, it is a mystery. I personally am gunning for un-slimed version of Egon and Peter ASAP and another new Ray with his Ecto Goggles. Give them all gloves and we will be good. We also need some more ghosts and secondary characters – c’mon Vinz Clortho! so I hope that Mattel will be able to stay on schedule with this line in the future and really make it big hit, there is still much to do!
*Thanks to Toy Guru and company for sending Pete along and thanks to you for reading. Stay tuned for SDCC next month, I hope we see a ton of great new GB figures!
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