Tag: Ghostbusters

30th Anniversary: Funko Pop! Movies Winston Zeddemore

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich.

Early on when Funko was beginning to show (GBI) their Pop! Movies Ghostbusters figures, their wasn’t a pic to be found of Winston Zeddemore. Before Funko could receive an on-line petition ghostheads were assured Winston was to come with an Ecto-1 Pop Ride. While Pop! Movies Winston deserves a company car, fans really should have been able to buy a Pop! Movies Winston Zeddemore from the start. In the later half of Ghostbusters, he does drive ECTO-1 (at least once) and he’d often drive ECTO-1 during The Real Ghostbusters. He wasn’t the only Ghostbuster to do so.

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30th Anniversary: Ghostbusters Funko Pop! Movies Peter Venkman

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich

In August I wrote about the Funko Pop! Movies Ghostbusters vinyl figures I had bought from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I was missing a stand alone Pop! Movies Ghostbuster. To explain the absence I said:

Pop! Dr. Venkman was unavailable as he was looking for a non existent Dana as Gatekeeper Pop!

I knew I’d be receiving a Pop! Movies Dr. Peter Venkman (104) as a gift. With Christmas come and gone, I not only received a Pop! Movies Dr. Peter Venkman, other Funko Pop! Ghostbusters figures as well.🙂

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Save Your Neighborhood In Your 1980s Something The Real Ghostbusters Apparel

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Note: Originally appeared at my personal site, iRich

Since writing about that mysterious ’80s popular characters mail order catalog, ghosthead Lanny D remembered where we could order that catalog from, NOW comics The Real Ghostbusters title. That would make sense as I (or possibly with help) had to order that catalog from somewhere. Fortunately too, I scanned every issue from my NOW comics (Ecto-Containment Print Is Dead Page) The Real Ghostbusters collection for digital preservation to share with other fans.

I was going trough the scans and found an ad from Creative Characters.

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Brickin It! Ghostbusters ‘Villain’ LEGOs

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Australian based company Brickin It, who makes custom Lego mini figures is taking pre-orders for the “New York Terror Team.” That may sound like some elite delta supernatural battln’ Ghostbusters team. The terror isn’t that Ghostbusters legos are putting the fear in yellow plastic, just the opposite really.Read More »

NES Ghostbusters, Now You’re Playing With (Proton) Power

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While I had a lot of fun with the families Atari, (and earlier game consoles that pre-date Ghostbusters, can’t even imagine) their was still more fun to be had with the Nintendo Entertainment System or as the cool kids still say (back in 1988) NES.

My earliest memories of Nintendo came from my downstairs neighbors. Their were two sons, one closer in age and was kinda my friend. One of those kid friendship kinda things. One day while visiting I guess him and his older brother (also in his kid hood) were playing their NES (the one that came with R.O.B!) and naturally (or it was coincidental) the game was Super Mario Brothers.

While I may have played Mario Brothers in an arcade, I had never experienced a Nintendo. They hadn’t popped up around my class (or school) like Piranha Plants. My gaming graphics were the blocks of Atari (the cover artwork was a thing of beauty) and the monochrome blocks of Intellivision from a much earlier childhood.

I don’t remember if I had to have one immediately. Even if I thought I did, my parents resisted until they couldn’t any more. 😀 I didn’t really need one, fortunately my then neighbors one house over who were more like family also had children. Their sons were even older, the one who was much closer to my age (he may have been almost a teen) had a NES (without R.O.B) and plenty of hours were wasted, um well spent developing all kinds of necessary skills for life.

In either 1987 or sometime in 1988 my parents finally would bestow upon me my very own Nintendo Entertainment System! This was the big gift, the kind of gift you pretty much would get for either a birthday or Christmas. I’m a little fuzzy on the exact month and year. I feel like it was a Christmas present because if I believe the internet my “action set” included the NES with controllers, NES Zapper, (which I still have) and Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt cartridge. If we all patiently waited I could have had a “Power Set” bundle instead. I blame Nintendo, even 26 years later.

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Lego Late Holiday 2014 Catalog Features Lego ECTO-1

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When I bought my LEGO Ghostbusters ECTO-1 in June, it was from LEGO’s on-line shop. When I received my order (Rich Collectibles) it included a catalog. I didn’t have any newer catalogs as I haven’t bought any LEGO sets since.Read More »

Ghostbusters II Cereal Movie Mystery Sweepstakes: Meet A Real Ghostbuster

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gb2cerealmeetarealgbpromo

Note: Originally written for Ghostbusters Inc. in 2014 in part with the realism of the Ghostbusters universe.

When GHOSTBUSTERS II™ was headed for theatrical release Ghostbusters Incorporated, Ralston, and then Columbia Pictures mutually agreed to move forward from our Slimer! and The Real Ghostbusters cereal to fully concentrate on GHOSTBUSTERS II.™ With a soon to be blockbuster movie came product and cross promotions. The “sequel” version of our cereal was a natural fit. To be part of the bigger picture it needed more then a large “no ghost” sequel logo. Once it was planned out, the companies were taking a sequel sized gamble. If this didn’t work we couldn’t go back to giving away free gum, stickers, and Diamond Dazzle scopes.

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Ghostbusters Cereal: At A Premium

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GHOSTBUSTERS™ cereal was already pretty awesome. You already loved Ghostbusters, you loved cereal, how could the experience be any better? Two words that went hand in hand with children’s breakfast cereals, Free Stuff. More known by its less fun name, premium. When it comes to cereal and getting stuff their were different ways kids went about it.

  • Its free (once parental unit bought your cereal) when cereal companies put the premium inside the box. If it was a bigger item, it may have been plastic wrapped to the box. As long as a “bad kid” didn’t steal it at a grocery store.
  • Sometimes what the cereal company gave you is part of the cardboard box and you may need adult supervision to cut it/them out. Which was more then fine because we couldn’t imagine Ghostbusters cereal would ever be discontinued. We didn’t even know that word until the future.
  • Sending your lunch money, multiple PoP, (proof of purchase) and maybe mailing supplies.
  • A premium could have been the “get all your hopes up” and “make your dreams come true” by entering the Official Sweepstakes.

The Real Ghostbusters Cereal Glow In The Dark Door Hanger

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This The Real Ghostbusters cereal premium let you know when you were at a grocery store two things: Slimer will upstage the “no ghost” logo whenever he has the chance. More importantly, Ralston lead kids to believe they both needed and wanted a one sided door hanger made out of cardboard. At least it glows in the dark. By way of solar energy! Wow, the cereal industry was ahead of its time.

We gave it little or no thought, (because “why worry?”) how did Ralston make just that one part of the box glow? Was it safe? Was their a hotline our parents could call? I don’t remember or can attest to in front of a jury of my peers how well a box size image of Slimer glowed. I haven’t tried to test a nearly three decade year old cereal box.

Hey Ralston! I’m onto you in my 30s. “Slime zone” with an exclamation point is adult code where the end result is kids cleaning their bedrooms. No wonder this cereal went away. As a kinda consolation, Ralston provided a one sided cardboard “Back Off! I’m A Ghostbuster” badge. To you, this “flip open” I.D badge was important, adults would only play along while you pretended for so long. You knew it was cool and kept it within easy reach by your The Real Ghostbusters stuff.

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Brickin It Customs Lego Gozer Mini Figure

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Australian based company Brickin It, who makes custom Lego mini figures is now selling a LEGO Gozer mini-fig!

It’s whatever it wants to be. – Egon.

The “destructor” figure from head-to-legs are brand new, reworked, and reprinted by Brickin It.Read More »

Ghostbusters Cereal: A Retrospective

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Note: Originally written for Ghostbusters Inc. in 2014 in part with the realism of the Ghostbusters universe.

With the blockbuster success of GHOSTBUSTERS,™ Ghostbusters Incorporated slowly began to license company trademarks for merchandising. Oddly enough considering what began to make my employers successful products for consumption hadn’t been considered yet. Until a trip to a supermarket by Drs. Stantz and Spengler. The “cereal aisle” was filled with popular characters of the time. C-3PO’s, E.T., Gremlins, Mr. T, G.I Joe, Garfield, Rainbow Brite, and others from a video game console company that may or not have directly ripped us off in years to come. One cereal was missing and it isn’t the obvious one.

After Dr. Stantz accidentally turned a company mascot against humanity the Stay-Puft Corporation almost went out of business. Their business partners had no choice, but to pull remaining stock of all things Stay-Puft, including Ray’s favorite cereal, Mr. Stay-Pufts. A cereal that once contained grains and Mr. Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (Men?) marshmallows which naturally stayed puffy in milk.

Still feeling bad about what happened, my employers were discussing the void in the cereal industry. Winston Zeddemore was skeptical if kids, let alone adults would eat a Ghostbusters™ themed cereal. After Drs. Venkman and Stantz met with Ralston (today Ralston Foods), Dr. Venkman was willing to stake Spengs’ reputation on people starting their days with GHOSTBUSTERS.™

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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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