My Top Five Favorite Ghosts from Kenner’s The Real Ghostbusters Toy Line
This post is part of Show & Tell, a retro blogging event hosted by Retro Ramblings.
This week’s topic is toys based on movies or television shows.
Well… COVID has finally caught up with me, and so this week I’ve been laid up in bed watching TV and not doing much writing. Still, I wanted to participate in this week’s Show and Tell and so I’m going to do something I very rarely ever do and I’m going to make a list post!
That’s right, this week I’ve going to break down my top five favorite ghost toys from Kenner’s The Real Ghostbusters line that I owned from my childhood. Without a doubt, my favorite toys were my Ghostbuster toys so it’s only fitting that I pay homage to a cartoon toy line inspired by a live action film!
5. The Mummy Monster
Similar to The Mummy in The Monster Squad, this mummy was not an officially licensed Universal Monster Mummy but was clearly inspired by the legendary monster. If I’m honest, the toy was not a lot of fun to play with. He didn’t stand up well and he was very fragile when you put him together. If you put his arm on and his head, then squeezed legs together, his arm would fall out and his head wrapping would also fall down. It was a great effect, that I used often, but I wish the toy was designed just a bit better for actual play.
4. Mail Fraud
A mail man toy? Who’d ever want that? Well… add some crazy teeth in his stomach and I did! Mail Fraud was a neat toy that very quickly changed into a monster. I remember loving that his tie seemed to move quite a bit during the transformation.
3. Granny Gross
I adored this toy. I mean, it’s a granny and that shouldn’t be appealing to kids, but the strangeness of the design did it for me. I loved that she had the creepy little eye hiding under her hat and it was very easy to engage her jaw and create a sort of eating action when attacking other characters.
2. Bug-Eye Ghost
This was one of the ghosts that received a re-release a few years ago, and while not the most creative, it’s larger size (it was bigger than a regular figure but not as big as Stay-Puft) made it unique. If you squeezed on the body of Bug-Eye the giant eye ball would pop out. It didn’t always work and sometimes took some effort, but it was worth it for the cool effect.
1. Stay-Puft
Come on, how could I be anything else? Stay Puft was bigger than the other toys, and solid. Not LJN WWF figure solid, but it had a bit of heft to it and it held up well to battles against The Ghostbusters. It’s obviously, not to scale, but that didn’t make it any less cool. Thankfully, it was one of the first re-released Ghostbusters figures a few years ago and I was finally able to replace one of my favorite toys of all-time.
Be sure to check out the other Show and Tell participants:
Jason talks about the extremely rare Over the Top toy line
I loved the mail man as a kid. The toilet “Fearsome Flush” was always my go-to.