Note: Originally posted at my personal blog, iRich.

If you’re not familiar the Ghostbusters movie that became a worldwide phenomenon could have been called Ghoststoppers. Ghostbusters, not to be confused with The Ghost Busters is a ’70s TV show. As Ghostbusters was being shot in 1983, Columbia, today Sony Pictures hadn’t secured the rights for the title. While filming the “end of the world is upon us” sequence with the Ghostbusters and a lot of extras shouting “Ghostbusters!,” then Associate Producer Joe Medjuck called Columbia to (my words) give them that extra push to secure the film rights. After Ghostbusters became a juggernaut, The Ghost Busters cashed in. When Columbia was ready for a Ghostbusters cartoon series, they stuck it to Filmation by calling it The Real Ghostbusters. It took 11 first season episodes, Citizen Ghost is the back story that explains why the animated Ghostbusters are more realer then two guys and a gorilla.

Unlike the cleverness that is Back To The Near (Future), (iRich) I don’t want to call all my blog posts about my Ghostbusters flight suit, “Who Ya Gonna Call?” When I was sitting here with the cursor blinking “it just popped in there” and Ghoststoppers is it.

Last time I talked about Ghostbusters, I wrote about the “franchise” or group I’m apart of, Ghostbusters New Jersey. For putting together the new site, Bill was building me a Belt Gizmo and was helping me with my existing Ghostbusters prop replicas. I still didn’t know when I would order a new flight suit. I really wanted to, come October the demand can exceed supply. Other then ghostheads and certain professionals who actually need a flight suit that isn’t 100% military spec, who are all these people? The sites I knew about were out of stock or back ordered. Between known research and a thorough search, I found bdu.com. They had a Tru-Spec khaki flight suit in my size in stock! I would only have to wait until October 14.

While I was waiting Bill and I met up on Sunday to talk GBNJ biz, complete my new Belt Gizmo, do some upgrades to my 13 year old Proton Pack, make my Mattel/Matty Collector Ecto-Goggles more comfortable to wear, and take the stitches out from my good patches. The next day, at the end of the day UPS delivered my flight suit.

Company Critique

Sometimes you know when ordering on-line from a new (to you) company, you’ll be able to trust who you’re buying from. BDU and their other retail sites is one of those companies. I was tired when ordering my flight suit. Auto fill provided my shipping/billing address. If this makes sense the way the layout is, is different then other sites I buy from. I erased part of the information and filled most of it in manually. Without realizing it I completely forgot to fill in my street address. In less then 24 hours Arien from the company emailed me to inform me he was processing my order and to tell me of my oversight. I replied to “edit” my information. He was an excellent customer service representative. BDU’s communication in general about my order and shipping it was perfect. Thanks to UPS ground I had my flight suit in about 5 days.

I don’t want to get overly detailed about the different types of flight suits. The one most ghostheads have had (including myself) in years past are from Rothco. It’s made from cotton/polyester, uses a thinner material, and the zippers are plastic. My new flight suit, a Tru-Spec 27/P is made with a cotton/polyester twill, brass zippers, and is of a higher quality.

Having a Tru-Spec flight suit for me is like practically having a screen used one. The real flight suits are military Nomex ones. Now that I have my new flight suit I need to take it to a tailor to have the patches sewn on. Having the patches saves some money. At a later date I’ll order a new name tag patch for a related project. I’m pretty sure I have additional “no ghost” logo patches.

Bill also provided me with a resin leg hose connector, clear hose, (the actors had yellow hoses) and a “widget” to connect it to my khaki web/pistol belt. The movie version of the leg hose connector was made from rubber. While I wouldn’t mind a rubber one for some flexibility, a resin one should be fine.

I’m going to use the same Markwort volleyball kneepads (used as elbow pads) used in both Ghostbusters movies. The originals may have been gray without dyeing. Most fans today buy white and dye them gray. Mine weren’t any different. I may re-dye them to make them a little darker. I won’t make that decision until I wear them with the patched uniform.

The biggest expense to putting together a Ghostbusters uniform are the boots. Years ago I had a pair of paratrooper jump boots that had buckles. Certainly not screen accurate. They were cool looking and could also be used for my then Matrix costume. The jump boots were also a pain to put on. It made me wonder recently if they teach soldiers how to strap them in record time. Part of the truth was I wasn’t that in shape and my calves were big. The actors wore Corcoran Carolina 10″ Jump boots with side zippers. You can still buy modern Corcorans, they can be expensive. Fortunately there is an alternative for less. I’d like to buy a pair when I can.

If you’re new to putting together a Ghostbusters flight suit, I wrote an article years ago (which needs to be updated) for my site, Ghostbusters International.

Photo Credit: Tom Hume