Ghostbusters Minimates Part 3!

Height: Ghostbusters and Gozer 5.5cm tall; Marshmallow Man 6.5cm tall; Slimer 5.5cm tall with stand.

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. Slimer has 6 effective points of articulation: ball-joint shoulder, hinged elbow, swivel wrist.

Colors: Ray: Molded tan, black, fleshtone, and transparent red-orange. Painted tan, black, gray, silver, khaki, red, metallic blue, and copper.
Gozer: Molded white, translucent white, black, and fleshtone. Painted pearlescent white, magenta, red, black, and fleshtone(ears).
Winston: Molded tan, black, fleshtone, and transparent red-orange. Painted tan, black, gray, silver, khaki, red, metallic blue, and copper.
Mr. Stay-Puft: Molded white. Painted blue, red and white.
Peter: Molded tan, black, fleshtone, and transparent red-orange. Painted green, tan, black, gray, silver, khaki, red, metallic blue, and copper.
Slimer: Molded clear green and colorless clear plastic. Painted black, pink, white and green

Accessories: Ray: Proton Pack with particle stream, Ghost Trap, Ecto-goggles. Gozer: None.
Winston: Proton Pack with particle stream. Mr. Stay-Puft: None.
Peter: Proton Pack with particle stream, Radio. Slimer: Stand.

Release Data: Boxset 2 released October 2009 for an SRP of $14.99. Slimed Peter/Clear Slimer released as part of Series 1 and rereleased in a "Best-of" wave in early 2010 at an SRP of 6.99.

Author: RAC

(more...)

After a longish break, the continuing Ghostbusters Minimates reviews return! This time we have the second mass-market boxset and one of the TRU sets that was not exactly my first choice. But Venkmans are not making themselves, or weren't at the time...


The Figures

Once again, the first part of this review features the rundown of the base figure's articulation. Not the best in the world, but the Minimates have enough going for them that I don't hold it against them.


Ray

Ray is in all respects except color and facial expression identical to the Previews-exclusive version, down to the same goggles and Trap accessories. His expression is serious- I almost want to try and ascribe it to a specific scene in the first movie but I can't think of which one it'd be. There's one painted detail on the figure that only GB1 Ray and Egon have: there are tiny printed-on bootlaces on the front of his legs. Man, that's a fine detail. Man, I need new glasses because I never noticed it before.


Gozer

This is actually the only figure in the boxset that's not available anywhere else. Gozer the Gozerian- just to use the most common of the five or twelve names used in the film -looks like a Yugoslav fashion model in a sheer white bodysuit with a bunch of weird stuff glued to it. Because, in practical terms, that's what she was. There's squiggly little lines tampographed onto every part of the body except the upper arms to represent the bits of weirdness on the costume. Except for the fuzzy and shiny bits, the costume was supposed to look closer to Gozer's slightly pearlescent skintone- the impression I always got was that her body was covered in some kind of ectoplasm. Here, the color of the body and face seem basically unrelated. The face should be pearlier or the body should be closer to the color of the face.

I think I'd rather they either make a new torso mold for female figures or stop trying to print curves onto them. It looks particularly bizarre on the chest, which looks almost exactly like this: ( )( )I guess the lines below that are supposed to represent the shape of the stomach rather than the hips, because some of the weird lumpy stuff falls outside of those lines. That assumption helps things a bit, but not much. The face has the opposite problem, and looks too feminine. Gozer was supposed to look weird, androgynous and unsettling, and the minimalist Minimates face just doesn't cut it. The weird flattop hairstyle, however, is molded nicely.


Winston

While the body's identical to the GB2 Winston in part 1 (except in coloration and version of the Ghostbusters logo, as with Ray), the hair is new and the face is noticably different. GB1 Winston has a part and a mustache, while GB2 Winston has a new hairstyle and is clean-shaven. Even at the age of 9, when I first saw Ghostbusters 2, I thought that they did this specifically so that Ernie Hudson would look more like the animated version of his character.


Mr. Stay-Puft

If you want to get really technical, the second Ghostbusters boxset has two versions of the same character. Gozer likes to have the target dimension choose the form it'll use to do the destroying, and Ray famously chose the least dangerous thing that he could think of: a mascot from a made-up (but apparently now available in the real world!) brand of marshmallows.
Here, as with the Terror Dog and other distinctly nonhuman figures, Mr. Stay-Puft is formed by a full-body suit with pieces for the torso, arms, legs, and head. You could damn near stuff the thing with mini-marshmallows and get it to stand on its own. (I'd hate to have to clean it, though.) There's also a washer between the torso and the hip piece to make the figure noticably taller than the Ghostbusters. We're not even going to pretend there's any kind of scale to this line, but I do like that the Marshmallow Man is tall. The arms move very slightly at the shoulders but the elbows get full range. The legs move very slightly, and you may or may not get knee range depending on how you've turned the waist. Since the head is just a cap on the blank white Minimates head, it turns in a complete circle.


Peter

Slimed Peter was not my first choice, but at the time I got this it was the only Ghostbusters 1 Peter that was readily available, and TRU's website had it for half-price. Surprisingly, Peter and Egon actually share a torso block! The belt falls in the same place, and the accessory mounting post falls in the same place. Unlike Egon though, Peter has a radio to put on that post- the radios are the same molds as the yellow lifesign monitors for the GB2 figures. It only fits in his hand by the narrow part at the top though.

As the name implies, this Peter has a green splatter deco to represent the scene where he's attacked by Slimer in the first film. The hairpiece is the same as on WotP Venkman, and has the same problem with turning a little easily, but the face, besides being slime-splattered, is a new and very startled expression. Of course by the time he was slimed Peter looked more chagrined than startled, but it makes for a more interesting figure.


Slimer

I wanted a nice, normal Slimer to accompany the glow-in-the-dark version, but I don't think this is it. This Slimer is the same mold as the glow one, except in clear green plastic to look nice and ethereal. I'm not sure how well that works with the Minimates torso clearly visible inside the figure. What is a neat touch though, is that the torso has a variety of foodstuffs printed onto it so when the light shines through you can see what Slimer's been eating. It's just as hard to get that torso pulled off as it was before, and since clear plastic can be fragile sometimes it worries me. The printed-on face is much smaller and more scrunched-looking than the glow-in-the-dark figure, but still distinctly the first-movie version. Which makes more sense in a pack with a GB1 Peter, of course.

The stand here is a plain piece made of clear, slightly cloudy plastic. It has no detail to speak of looking like an inverted golf tee. It's slightly angled, which helps Slimer look as though he's flying forward slightly- more nice attention to detail. You could turn it around to make it look like he's backing up if you like- it's stable either way -but there is a distinct front and back.


Closing Remarks

I've just about got all the movie Ghostbusters Minis I want now- though there are some more that need reviewed. The Ghostbusters II boxset Mattel put out over the holidays cost around $70 depending on when you tried to buy it- for a similar amount of money I've gotten at least two of every Ghostbuster plus a variety of ghosts, extras and pan-dimensional entities. Can't beat that.

Once again going by figure: Peter, Ray, Winston, Mr. Stay-Puft are Excellent. For deco reasons and his tiny face Slimer is Very Good and Gozer is Good, also for deco reasons. To Be Concluded!

-RAC