Ghostbusters Minimates part 1!

Egon and Library Ghost, and Winston and Terror Dog

Height: Ghostbusters 5.5cm tall; Library Ghost approx 6cm tall; Terror Dog approx. 6cm long.

Articulation: 14 points each figure: ball-joint head; 3 points each arm- ball-joint shoulder, hinged elbow swivel wrist; swivel waist; 3 points each leg: ball-joint hip, hinge knee, swivel ankle.

Colors: Egon: Molded tan, black, fleshtone, and translucent red-orange. Painted tan, black, gray, silver, khaki, red, metallic blue, and copper.
Library Ghost: Molded Translucent purple, transparent purple, and translucent lavender. Painted black, white, dark green, and purple.
Winston: Molded charcoal grey, black, fleshtone, and translucent red-orange. Painted charcoal gray, black, silver, red, yellow, metallic blue, and copper.
Terror Dog: Molded black. Painted bone white, dark red-brown (inside of mouth) and red(eyes).

Accessories: Egon: Proton Pack with particle stream, PKE Meter.
Library Ghost: book.
Winston: Proton Pack and particle stream.

Release Data: Released July 2009 as a series of ToysRUs exclusive 2-packs for an MSRP of $6.97.

Author: RAC

(more...)


I'm excited about the Ghostbusters figures Mattel's going to be releasing soon! ...kind of. Well, I'm excited about the figures themselves: they're based off of the movie instead of the cartoon, which I would've killed for as a kid, and they look great. They're also going to be very limited editions and expensive as all hell.

Meanwhile, Art Asylum and Diamond got there first! And just in time for the Ghostbusters game, and the 25th anniversary of the first movie, and the 20th anniversary of Ghostbusters II besides! Ghostbusters Minimates are being released both in a pair of 4-packs available through Diamond, and a series of ToysRUs-exclusive two-packs. Each two-pack has a Ghostbuster and a ghost, but most of the two-packs are variants of some sort. Egon Spengler is the only "clean" figure in this first assortment, in a Ghostbusters I uniform identical to his 4-pack version. Winston Zeddemore however, is offered in a plain Ghostbusters II uniform- neat! I've always loved Ghostbusters, and I pretty much had my eye out for these guys as soon as I heard that they existed.

The Figures

Like the Kubrick line which I presume inspired it, Minimates are small, blocky figures, essentially more elaborate versions of the Lego minifigure. As such they all use the same base body, using paint and custom parts to complete the look of the figure. The base body is reasonably articulated, particularly for the size. The ball-joints at the shoulder and hip don't really move out from the body very far, a problem that can make figures with bulkier pieces a bit tricky, as you'll likely read repeatedly below. Because of the narrow waists and smallish feet, balancing can be a bit tricker than it probably should be, but as long as you've got a flat surface, it can be done. The elbows and knees are hinges, and while the head is technically a balljoint, it sits pretty close to the torso and really only counts as a swivel on the figures with shoulder-pads and/or thicker "vests." Which in this assortment happens to be all of them. The wrists, ankles, and waist are also swivels- they've popped apart on me but have taken no damage and gone back together as though nothing happened. Now, onto individual figures!

Egon

It's as good a likeness as a cylinder wearing printed-on glasses will ever be. One thing that Minimates do frequently that Lego figures do not is make the ears part of the hairpiece, and that's pretty odd-looking to me. They're just little fleshtone rectangles sticking out from the sides of the hair- freaky. A tiny Ghostbusters logo is tampographed onto the right shoulder, and the elbow pads are separate pieces. They slide up and down the cylindrical arm easily, and occasionally have to be pushed up a tad to clear the elbow joint. The torso part of the jumpsuit is a removable piece with a nice level of detail- the torso block itself is black to simulate the Ghostbusters' undershirts. The detail on the jumpsuit itself is pretty nice all told, with details as small as the patch that reads "Spengler" being faithfully reproduced. (It's hard to make out in the photos, and utterly impossible at ordinary size, but the names are there!) It does bulk up the torso and restrict the shoulders, but as I mentioned, the shoulders aren't really all that great to begin with.

I really don't know whether to classify the Proton Pack as an accessory or not, because it's not removable from the torso cover, but since the Neutrona Wand is hardwired to the Pack and is a handheld accessory, I'll treat it as such. The detail on the Proton Pack is astonishing for the size- you can make out almost every cable, capacitor, and random piece of Radio Shack crap on the real deal. Put it this way: there's more detail sculpted into this than on any of the Proton Packs the old Kenner Real Ghostbusters figures wore. The particle thrower is less detailed than the Pack, but the details on the original prop are even finer than those on the Pack, and since we're talking about a piece that has to both fit into the figures' primitive U-shaped lobster-claw hands and peg onto the backpack, something had to give. In fact, the Wand has a new handgrip that's stuck onto the real-life grip at a 90-degree angle, because it'd be all but impossible to the Ghostbusters to hold them two-handed and maintain the proper scale. So it's a concession that I'm gonna overlook, despite usually disliking changes to great prop designs. The set also includes a particle beam that slips onto the Neutrona Wand, which is a nice bonus. It's always hard to mold energy effects in plastic, and the beam looks more... disturbingly veiny, than it does like a crackling energy stream. But it's optional, so if looks more like a tentacle to you, you can toss it in your junk drawer and forget it.

Egon also comes with his signature prop, the PKE Meter. PKE stands for Psychokinetic Energy, the force which animates ghosts and by which they can be detected. The PKE Meter prop was actually a "rental" prop which predates the Ghostbusters movie. The original prop began life as an electric shoe polisher sold by Sears, and was used again in other movies such as They Live, and even an episode of Knight Rider. The Minimates version is pretty basic, again because of the question of scale involved. Mine has a splotch of silver paint that falls outside the edge of the screen, and the handle was warped because of how it went into the package. It's packaged on Egon's belt, where it got caught between the slot for the arm and the slot for the leg. The Meter slides onto a peg on the belt firmly enough that you shouldn't have to worry about it falling off. I'd like to get one in better shape sometime, because I'm pretty sure all the problems I have with the piece are unique to my figure.


Library Ghost

The identity and origins of the Library Ghost are given a fair amount of time in the recent (and excellent) Ghostbusters video game, but in the movie all you are shown is that she's a spectral librarian, she stacks books in an inhumanly symmetrical way, and she really wants you to be quiet. The toy is modeled as being kind of halfway between her ordinary humanoid appearance and her ghoulish reaction as the Ghostbusters-to-be execute Ray Stantz' master plan ("Get her!"). The Aunt May bun hair and floor-length dress are seemingly from her normal form, and her face is more monstery, as is the extra piece designed to emulate the fluttering tatters of cloth that surrounded the monster form. I've seen some small figures with separate faces printed on the backs of the head-cylinders- that would've been perfect for this figure, but no go.

Mine was also shipped misassembled, as the parentheses that account for her figure were facing to the back. Likewise, the little indentation in the skirt to allow her one foot to show was facing backward. Easy to fix, and since those are the only distinguishing features on the transparent purple plastic body, it's easy to lose track of them. The skirt completely immobilizes the legs, but she has no trouble standing with it, so no great loss. She also has real-looking hands instead of the little circular claw-things that are standard to Minimates! The reason for this is her one accessory, a book. She can hold it naturally, but not securely. Not as well as Egon and Winston hold anything, for sure. It'll be a bit loose, so be careful of it.


Winston

This is Winston from Ghostbusters II, so there's some surprisingly significant differences between his uniform and Egon's. First of all, it's between a deep blue or charcoal grey, with the Ghostbusters II logo on the right shoulder. And Winston isn't wearing gloves, another thing pretty typical with the blue uniform. Also, since Ernie Hudson shaved his mustache for the second movie, the figure doesn't have one. Smaller details are also different, such as a large yellow box of unknown use on the belt, which itself is now black. This is all tedious, full-nerd costume detail, really only visible on promotional photos from GB2, and they get it all right.

Winston is also wearing a Proton Pack, and this- along with the same particle beam piece that you get with Egon -is his only accessory. It's not a bad choice at all, but if they'd really wanted they could've also equipped him with a slime blower, which is what Winston wears with this uniform on the movie's poster. But that would've required a new mold when all the other Ghostbusters in both this and the second assortment are wearing Proton Packs, so I get why they stuck with that. Especially since Winston is packed with the...


Terror Dog

Here's a clever use of the base Minimates body! The Terror Dogs are the quadrupedal demon forms of Zuul and Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster and Gatekeeper of Gozer as seen in the first Ghostbusters movie. To accomplish this in Minimates form, the figure has a very elaborate demon-dog suit placed over a plain black Minimates body. The figure is standard, with only one change in the standard layout: the forelegs are mounted on a second pair of legs where the arms ordinarily attach. The overall effect is like a tiny Microman Godzilla. The detail is quite nice, though there aren't as many sharp details to capture as there are on the Ghostbusters' uniforms. The folds and wrinkles of the body look right, and the snout is above the point of the upper jaw, where it belongs. Thanks to the angled rear foot pieces, the standard humanoid articulation works okay, and overall this is a neat little toy. The only thing that prevents me from recommending it wholeheartedly is that you can get a slightly neater version in the 4-pack of figures sold through Diamond. That set includes the Egon figure I have here, plus Peter Venkman, plus a figure of Louis Tully that can be converted into a Terror Dog. That is a neat bonus, though I understand why, with all the pieces you need to make the Dog in the first place, why they wouldn't want to do that here.


Closing Remarks

I like these a lot, especially for the price. Right now you can also get a marshmallow-coated Ray with Mr. Stay-Puft, a slimed Peter with clear-plastic Slimer, and a courtroom Peter from Ghostbusters II with the giant ghost that attacks Washington Square in the ghost-attack montage from GB2. Soon, Mattel is going to release their own 6- and 12-inch Ghostbusters figures, and you may well prefer those to these and I wouldn't blame you. Bear in mind, though, that once Wave 2 of the Ghostbusters Minimates comes out in the fall, you'll be able to get all four Ghostbusters plus some nifty miscellaneous ghosts and demons for probably what a single one of the MattyCollector figures costs. And for their size, the detail on these guys is pretty wonderful, particularly on the Ghostbusters themselves.

So let's break it down by figure: Egon and Winston are Excellent, the Terror Dog is Very Good with a warning that a better version may be available, and the Library Ghost Could Have Been Better. If you're a Ghostbusters fan and you're okay with minifigures, it's worth it.

-RAC