Not Now Comics Volume 2, Issue 5

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During 1992 when N O W Comics (Ghostbusters Firehouse) were in their “now better than ever” phase, they began a new run with some new stories for their The Real Ghostbusters title. This could be a blanket statement, outside of the comics their was very little to support Ghostbusters. The hit series had ended a 7 season run a year earlier, Kenner had ended making The Real Ghostbusters toys, and Ghostbusters II™ had come and gone from theaters, at least to people’s homes.

Whether any of that played a factor in Now’s decision to end the RGB comics run I don’t know. They had been looking ahead from the Tobin and the Maze of Time story arc that had been prevalent during volume 2. The next comic, issue 5, originally scheduled a month earlier would have featured an interesting story about a ghost who for whatever reason hangs around the Pentagon and of course threatens the survival of the human race. Or at least it would if The Real Ghostbusters probably couldn’t have “zapped and trapped” in time.

I don’t know how much of issue 5 Barry Petersen, Neil Grahame, and Jim Brozman completed. It wouldn’t surprise me if the script/story is on-line. Checking out the cover, it seems to have a Ghostbusters II influence.

30th Anniversary Ghostbusters Screenings Clifton/Wayne AMCs

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On Friday, August 29, 2014 Ghostbusters New Jersey personnel went to meet (GBNJ) with our fans (or they might have been ghostheads) for a 30th Anniversary GHOSTBUSTERS™ Cinemark screening. I didn’t go because of the drive back to central Jersey at a much later hour. The same night the North Jersey Ghostbusters (Facebook) and friends were meeting with fans (GBNJ) and seeing a 30th Anniversary GHOSTBUSTERS™ AMC screening. That’s the location I was planning to go to. Either way I was too tired to drive.

I was going to need as much rest as possible because on Saturday, August 30, 2014 I was headed north to familiar residential and business areas. To try not to be too tired and not get back that late I chose to see a matinee showing of GHOSTBUSTERS™ at the Clifton Commons AMC with a friend of mine who lives in the area.

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It was most likely the 1:15 show time, there weren’t many people at this screening. No costumed or potential Ghostbusters recruits. I had my uniform and gear with me, in hindsight sorta wish I would have worn it anyway. As I was wearing my licensed Ghostbusters t-shirt circa 2008 at least a few people, including a kid said Ghostbusters excitedly and were complimentary, more about the franchise then the threads.

After the screening my friend and I tried a replacement Italian restaurant (the same location had previously been another chain Italian restaurant) which I could recommend if we were Italians and lived in Italy. As the sun was beginning to set on a cloudy afternoon with light rain I was debating if I would still drive further north to meet up with North Jersey Ghostbusters at 6:00 before their screening at 7 PMish show time.

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30th Anniversary: Ghostbusters Funko Pop! Movies Stay-Puft

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

The Funko Pop! Movies Stay-Puft has arrived!! No 30th Anniversary Ghostbusters celebration would be complete without the marshmallow man. Is he a man though? After all he’s made of marshmallows. At some point the philosophical questions had to be thought about.

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3oth Anniversary: Ghostbusters Funko Pop! Movies Vinyl Figures

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

In March 2014 Funko, a collectible toy company announced their Ghostbusters Pop! Movie Vinyl figures were coming for Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary. Previously I wasn’t too familiar with Funko products. When it came to vinyl figures, I knew more about Mighty Muggs from Hasbro. I found out about them for the first time a couple years ago. When I saw Mighty Muggs at US toy retailer Toys ‘R Us and bought two retailer exclusive licensed Marvel Iron Man 2 figures.

What’s the difference in brands? Mighty Muggs are a bigger scale and seem to have decal graphics for clothing, skin, and hair. Pop! Vinyl Figures generally are 4 inches in size, look more realistic, are known for their circular black eyes, their heads can move, more detailed skin, hair, and clothing. Depending on the figure, will come with its known accessory that isn’t removable.

Both companies did or do share similar licenses that include characters from Marvel, DC, and Disneyfor starters. Pops! are meant to be collectible and continue with licenses for classic and more recent television shows. Of course movies too from back in what I like to call the day to present.

When they were announced most of the pop vinyl line would be available in May. The Winston Pop! Movie figure would be available with the Pop! Movie ECTO-1. For most retailers product 109 continued have its release date moved. The item may be available at the end of August. I’ve seen an on-line retailer through Amazon list an October release.

Not surprising I’ve liked these figures almost immediately. They’re the vinyl figures I would have wanted from the beginning and didn’t even know I needed. When they became available closer to the end of April I was getting ready for vacation. Between travel expenses and things like bills I knew I’d have to wait until June. With the LEGO Ecto-1 Ghostbusters set coming out, at the time I felt I’d have an easier time finding the Pop! figures during the summer.

Near the end of July while on a trip to the nearest Barnes & Noble (one of two national chains, the other being Hot Topic that I know of that carries Funko Pop! vinyl figures) they had Dr. Venkman, (104) Dr. Stantz, (105) and Egon. (106) Slimer and a different size Pop! would come from Amazon first week of August.

Pop! Dr. Venkman was unavailable as he was looking for a non existent Dana as Gatekeeper Pop! Pop! Dr. Ray was more then happy to help a ghosthead and collector out.😉

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30th Anniversary Lego Ghostbusters ECTO-1 Photo Shoot

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The photo shoot has come!

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On June 6, 2014 (two days before Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary) I wrote about Lego’s 30th Anniversary Ghostbusters ECTO-1 set. My review didn’t include the build as I hadn’t had the time to put it together. My burden with running two Ghostbusters web sites. By June 12, 2014 I had made more time then I would have liked to, to not only build the first official Ghostbusters Lego set, review it with kinda incomplete photos. After a few edits since I had said I wanted to take more professional pictures. I finally made the time today to take those pictures and have a little fun with them.

I used Matty Collector’s foamy Stay-Puft with their “Ghostbusters city” diorama.*

*No actual marshmallows or a certain classic car were harmed during the photo shoot.

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SDCC: Matty Collector The Real Ghostbusters Figure Line

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Matty Collector The Real Ghostbusters figures?

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During Mattel/Matty Collector’s SDCC panel it was announced that The Real Ghostbusters figures were coming in 2015. If Mattel was looking to surprise a fan base that generally has grown distant with how one toy company has handled Ghostbusters figures, they succeeded. Mainly because without a complete new movie, ongoing comic, no new current cartoon, and mainstream merchandise in stores I don’t think any ghosthead expected new Ghostbusters figures.

In recent years Matty Collector had made all 4 The Real Ghostbusters in the Mego/Kenner style of the 1970s as part of their Retro-Action figure line. Which was followed up with a Retro-Action Janine/Samhain 2 Pack. As I’ve previously said from a business point of view fans never knew how successful these figures were. Also at the time Matty Collector didn’t seem interested in similar figures to their Ghostbusters lines.

Details seem scare and Matty seems to have learned their…

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Lego Built A Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man For SDCC

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LEGO, the plastic brick masters who produced this summer’s ECTO-1 with mini figures set made a very large Stay-Puft marshmallow man which will be on display at next week’s San Diego Comic Con. Keep in mind should Lego decide to produce a Lego Ideas Stay-Puft, it’ll probably be closer in scale to what Brent Waller created.

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Photo Sources: Lego

30th Anniversary: Print Isn’t Dead

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

If you’ve long lost track of how many times you’ve seen Ghostbusters in 30 years, you might want to try a different way to experience Ghostbusters phenomenon, through the printed word. That would be physical print, not computerized robot text. When Ghostbusters was in theaters the first domain hadn’t even been registered yet. That wouldn’t happen until the Ides of March in 1985. If you’ve been a ghosthead for three decades or nearly as long, you’ve probably owned a Ghostbusters book, magazine, or comic.

If you were old enough you could have joined the Official Ghostbusters Fan Club (GBI) within a month of Ghostbusters June ’84 release. I wasn’t, sadly missed out, and wouldn’t remember the club until my twenties. Ghostheads which do include myself are trying to get that printed material to put on-line, if it exists. 4,000 years from now we’ll have an answer.

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Kenner The Real Ghostbusters Monsters Art Reimagined

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Imagine for a moment if Kenner was around today, similar to Playmates Toys. And that they’re a licensee for Ghostbusters. Still producing, similar to reptiles that became ninja mutants The Real Ghostbusters figures. It stands to reason Kenner (owned by Hasbro) Kenner would update either the figures, card art, or both.

I don’t foresee that happening officially, it didn’t stop me from wondering what that could be like. Canadian artist Phil Postma did more then wonder, he took our imaginations as ghostheads and created new The Real Ghostbusters inspired card artwork for Kenner’s Monsters figure line.

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I’d love to share all his The Real Ghostbusters card art, out of respect and a kind of internet etiquette I’m sharing only a small number of his pieces on Ecto-Containment. To see all 13 “Monsters” art, Phil’s other Ghostbusters art, and more of his work, visit his site.

Art Source: Phil Postma

30th Anniversary: Ghostbusters Single Glow In The Dark Record

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

The music I made my own most of the ’90s had changed directions and my tastes were changing. Around 1999 I got back into talk radio, to the point I was accepted into broadcasting school. In an age before podcasts, it wasn’t that hard really. A bit of a regret today, I either gave or threw away CDs I thought I didn’t a care about. It wasn’t to embrace the new way to buy music, by downloading it. Around thirteen years of people doing that, and something began to happen. Or at least it went mainstream as music will.

A need to physically hold and listen to recorded music, have new experiences you don’t get from MP3 files, to relive good and bad times with a no laser vinyl. More commonly known as a record. You can’t hold MP3 files. You can’t really look at cover art and liner notes. Until music appears more out of a cloud then it does now, you can’t collect gigs of recordings.

I wouldn’t come to that realization with either CDs or records well into adulthood. Looking back to the late 1980s and during the 1990s I associated vinyl and one of my area record stores as a place with aging hippies and possibly stoner types.

This record store I’m thinking of was run by a Jerry Garcia looking guy who would play similar music. He seemed knowledgable enough, I’d go there to perhaps buy a new popular artist on CD. What I couldn’t appreciate then was guys like him, shops like his were going to go away. Its that way with any subject and knowledgeable people. Its more then just the information, its the experiences. Reading about them sometimes isn’t enough.

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30th Anniversary: Ghostbusters On The Record

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

Intro

The movie GHOSTBUSTERS (which was the highest grossing comedy until Home Alone:/ ) had a numero uno song to accompany it. Before it made some Halloween sampler in the coming decades, Ray Parker Jr. wrote and sang “Ghostbusters,” which remained #1 on some Billboard charts for 3 straight weeks. Apparently Tina Turner was tired of everyone asking “Who ya gonna call?” and wanted to know “What’s love got to do with it?” Did she not understand love and a lot more had everything to do with “Ghostbusters” success?

Everyone really loved “Ghostbusters”, except for Huey Lewis. You would think he understood the power of love which was way stronger then a new drug he wanted in January of the same year.

That wouldn’t have stopped Ray Parker Jr. Columbia Pictures, and Arista from releasing both “Ghostbusters” and the complete soundtrack on various media of the era. Within and outside the US, the Ghostbusters single and the soundtrack were available on various vinyl sizes, cassette tape, and eventually compact disc.

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