I never really knew if Matty Collector’s Retro-Action The Real Ghostbusters were successful on a financial level for the company. If you believe Mattel (outside of ghostheads) the most popular figure was a 6” Peter Venkman. Unfortunately almost at any given time I saw the Retro-Action The Real Ghostbusters at my local Toys ‘R Us long after I probably shouldn’t have. Which is why when Mattel announced at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con a Retro-Action Janine & Samhain 2 pack I was :::dramatic pause::: taken back and thoroughly surprised. And also to include Slimer and a firehouse diorama, wow! Someone at Matty Collector was thinking outside the firehouse.

Up until this set was announced the only impression we had from Mattel about Janine was based on the promotional art work featured on the card back of the Retro-Action The Real Ghostbusters. The artwork shows Janine’s new look from season 6 (Janine, You’ve Changed) and continuing. It may have been coincidental, as Ghostbusters II had been in theaters a year earlier, this Janine featured later in the series had a similar look to Annie Potts sequel look. I thank Mattel/Matty Collector for not being lazy, for not basing their Janine from the promotional artwork and the later seasons.

Janine as a Ghostbuster would eventually pick two favorite uniform colors. Pink with blue trim in the episodes Standing Room Only, Robo-Buster, and The Brooklyn Triangle. And pink with purple trim during Jailbusters and 20,000 Leagues Under The Street. The only time Janine wore something even remotely close to this 2 pack was in Janine’s Genie. It is curious that Mattel chose the color orange. Maybe they wanted something in contrast to Janine’s red hair. Or it could be simpler then that, Halloween for a $100?

Like her respective employers Retro-Action Janine includes a The Real Ghostbusters style proton pack, which Janine is wearing. You would too if Samhain was standing close to you. A P.K.E Meter, (based off a combination of The Real Ghostbusters and Kenner’s P.K.E Meter) Ghost Trap, and a Ghost Detector are included too. Hey look, this Ghost Detector is actually painted and the P.K.E Meter isn’t backwards!

If you went just by the front artwork on the 2010 Retro-Action The Real Ghostbusters the next figure wasn’t suppose to be Janine at all or even Slimer. As already stated Mr. Stay-Puft is mostly everyone’s favorite ectoplasmic entity. That didn’t mean Mattel had plans to make a Retro-Action Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. I know their’s slim chance to none it will ever happen, I would really like to see a Mego style fluffy marshmallow sailor.

True to every episode + 1 of The Real Ghostbusters Slimer for good, bad, or indifferent was either always around the firehouse or with The Real Ghostbusters. It’s cool that after multiple Matty Collector 6” Ghostbusters came with Slimer, Mattel was able to do something completely different. They even went with a more true to scale version. If one wasn’t sure that really is Slimer, a label as big as the Retro-Action spud proudly proclaims it. If you remember The Real Ghostbusters previous to when Slimer became more of a focal point, Matty Collector’s version should almost make you forget Slimer once came before the main characters.

References: Janine’s RGBs uniform colors, episodes she wore them in.
Reference Credit: Ghostbusters Wiki