Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire comes out this week and I was racking my brain to come up with some type of Ghostbusters-themed list. I’ve settled on just going down memory lane in regards to some of the Ghostbusters toys I had as a kid, because I was wild about that stuff! I enjoyed the movies, even the second one, and was big into The Real Ghostbusters cartoon!

There was even one Halloween where my parents made my younger brother a full-on Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume, which was all puffy and awesome. I would give so much to have a picture of that somewhere. I had a store-bought Egon Spangler costume to go along with him that year, so it was that really cheap, plastic clothing smock and mask with thin, stretchy band around the back. But I had some bonus goodies to make that costume really shine!

Join me after the jump to just admire some awesome Ghostbusters toys and whatnot from over the years.

6. The Real Ghostbusters action figures

We kids were big fans of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon in the 1980s. I can’t speak for it now, but I still have vivid memories of that show. I can still remember the horror of the Boogeyman! And that one episode where they all developed some facial feature of a monster on their torsos, like an eyeball and a mouth! So we had plenty of those original action figures, both ‘Busters and ghosts. For some reason, I don’t think we had Peter Venkman…but we had my favorite, Winston Zeddemore!

5. Ecto-1

Not only did we have the action figures, but we had a couple of vehicles as well! We had the helicopter/motorcycle hybrid, but the crowning jewel was the Ecto-1 car. I love that car. It’s probably my favorite pop culture vehicle these days. The Batmobile is great, but there are so many variations, whereas there’s only one Ecto-1 (not true, I suppose). It’s big, it’s fun, it’s so iconic, and it worked great as a vehicle. We played with that thing until all the doors, stickers and accessories came off. The husk is still in my parents’ basement somewhere.

4. The ape from the other Ghostbusters cartoon!

As sacrilegious as this might sound, we also watched the original Ghostbusters cartoon, with the two doofuses and the ape. We never watched the live action version from before we were born, but we watched the cartoon, with the spooky elevator and their own haunted, talking car. I always wanted that car…but I don’t know if they made toys. Anyway, we had the gorilla — named Kong — and he was a standout action figure for many years. I don’t remember if I played any crossover games between him and the Real Ghostbusters. I wish I had, because that sounds rad!

3. Ecto-1 LEGO

I love LEGO more than Ghostbusters, but once upon a time, they came together in some glorious ways. First up was the LEGO Ecto-1. When it came out, I was still poor and foolish. Over time, I gained money, but stayed foolish, so I went ahead and treated myself to this beauty! And beauty is true. It’s a gorgeous LEGO model, in dazzling white, with all four Ghostbusters and their proton packs! Then I went and bought the Ecto-1 LEGO set from the 2016 reboot, which isn’t as nice, but is still fun! Both have a good spot on my LEGO shelf.

2. Ecto-1 fancy LEGO

Several years later, in time for the Afterlife movie, LEGO came out with a giant Ecto-1 set, no longer mini-fig scale. This set was, like $300, and by then I had a lot of money and was especially foolish! So I bought it! And I have yet to build the darn thing. It’s gathering dust on my floor. Why haven’t I built it yet? I have no idea. I guess I just keep waiting for the right time to tackle this big beast, but said right time just hasn’t presented itself. Maybe someday…

1. All the childhood gear

Tops among all Ghostbusters toys I have had in my life, possibly because my parents loved me and my siblings so darn much, was the child-sized Ghostbuster gear. We had all the good stuff: proton packs with blaster, the PKE Meter and the Ghost trap, all sized to be real gear for kids. You could wear the proton packs on your back, and they had a little holster on their sides for the blaster wand. And the trap could roll, and was air-powered to open when you stepped on the button. The PKE Meter would twirl! I used all this stuff in my Egon Halloween costume, and just had total fun with them in general. Those things were the bee’s knees, I’m telling you!

——————-