Do… Re… Egon!
Mattel has taken their Ghostbusters line out of hiatus for a brand new San Diego Comic Con exclusive, which will also be offered via Matty Collector next month. Courtroom Egon comes ready to battle the Scolari Brothers in “The Hammer’s” chambers; this is the first figure in the line released since the unfortunate and untimely passing of Harold Ramis, the man who expertly brought Egon Spengler to life, and it completes the Courtroom Trio of the original ‘Busters, and it will likely be the bookend to the line started so many years ago with the very first Egon Spengler figure. I am all about completing the different incarnations of the team across the two movies, so this figure feels like a long time coming.
Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies of all-time, and I count myself as being one of those who actually enjoys the sequel as well. It does not come close to recapturing the perfection of the first installment, but it is certainly not without its charm and hilarious moments. One of my favorite scenes from movie two is, in fact, the courtroom scene. Everything about it hit the right notes for me. From Rick Moranis’ amazingly nervous performance as Louis Tully to Judge Wexler’s bullish rants to the design of the Scolari Brothers, it is a perfect little scene in a flick that struggles to find its way at times.
Now, being the “original character” proponent that I am, the Scolari Brothers have always been my top priority from this scene, but let’s face it, there would be little for them to do if they did not have Peter, Ray, and Egon to fight. The courtroom versions of the former two characters came out in pretty fast succession, but I have to say that I was pretty let down when Egon was not released before the end of the Club Ecto-1 subscription model. So, in terms of finishing off the team, the SDCC release seems like as good a time as any for this figure, especially considering that most of us probably didn’t expect this release to ever happen.
The Egon figure itself is pretty basic, and, as far as I can tell, it has been assembled from 100 percent reused parts. The head is the standard Egon head, and the suit top and pants have been used in the past as well, so like Ray and Pete, the Proton Pack on this figure is NOT removable. Everything seems pretty accurate in terms of build for this figure, and Ramis seemed noticeably thinner compared to the rest of the guys in the movies (I might just have that vision in my head), but in this toy line, his proportions are in line with the rest of the crew. I know that Egon was wearing a grey suit in the courtroom scene, but I cannot decide if I find this deco to be slightly too light in color. It certainly seems like it, but that might just be by comparison to the other two courtroom figures. At any rate, the tie is red with white dots, just like in the movie. Hey, Egon is known for his large cranium, not his hip fashion sense.
Since the Courtroom Battle Ray and Peter figures came with the Scolari Brothers pack-ins, we were kind of out of ghosts to include with Egon. I mean, it would have been rad to have gotten a Judge Wexler pack-in, but that would have been meant a two-pack, so instead, Mattel has included the entire Ghostbusters II shopping list. I mean, Egon here has every missing implement from that film that has not made it into this line yet, even the hot beverage thermal mug (limit one per customer). I suppose we lost out on the free balloons for the kids, but we did get the gigameter, every implement they used that I don’t know the name of, the Jackie Wilson radio, slime ladle, and dancing toaster. Whew, Egon needs a Ghostbusters Logo knapsack for all of this stuff.
All of these implements have been rendered fairly successfully, so you can equip your busters as you like. Not all of these accessories are appropriate for use by this particular Egon (in fact, I am not sure if any of them are), but if you have been collecting this line from the start, there is plenty of opportunity to use them all. The aforementioned gigameter might be a little light in terms of coloration, and I would have to watch the movie again, but it also seems small to me; the ladle might be a bit too big, but I don’t find that to be disastrous in terms of execution. I am assuming the radio is the one they used to make the toaster dance, but I thought that was a big system they actually wheeled around. I like my GBII Egon with the gigameter, so that figure will certainly get that, but the dancing toaster is a nice touch as well, and since we got figures of the boys in Santa hats a few years ago, it can once again be the number one Christmas boutique.
I don’t think any of us have any idea what the future holds for the Mattel Ghostbusters line at this point, so if this figure is to be the last, the line will begin where it started: with Egon. Like I said, this is a nice little bookend and it completes a “team” as the last courtroom figure, so it is nice to have. I am not sure if it will be overly exciting to most collectors, but if you have been collecting this line since the start, it will be pretty essential. This will be up for sale at the Mattel Retail Booth at SDCC, and I am hoping that we will hear more GB news there. After all, they did tease The Real Ghostbusters there almost a year ago. Oh, and if you are not headed to San Diego, you can grab this figure at Matty Collector at the end of July.
*Thanks for reading and thanks to Mattel for sending this sample along for a Preview. Next time, we are headed back to Eternia!
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