{"id":17888,"date":"2012-04-09T02:33:33","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T07:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17888"},"modified":"2012-04-09T02:35:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T07:35:36","slug":"ghostbusters-ready-to-believe-you-peter-venkman-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17888","title":{"rendered":"Ghostbusters: &#8220;Ready to Believe<br> You&#8221; Peter Venkman Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17888\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=left src=\"reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp00.png\" hspace=4><\/a>I was going through my box of unreviewed toys last week and ran across the Ready to Believe You Venkman. Oops. I\u2019m not ready for Nekron Week, I\u2019m caught up on MOTU, I still need to find a few more Marvel Legends\u2026 so what the heck, let\u2019s do a Ghostbusters review.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t mind doing Ghostbusters reviews, but they&#8217;re kinda difficult for me. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17839\">Kobra Khan<\/A> review I can blather on about childhood nostalgia that&#8217;s evoked by a great figure. In a GI Joe review, say <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17703\">Airtight<\/a>, a fantastic figure can overcome the lack of childhood attachment. When it comes to a Ghostbusters review, I&#8217;m just kinda bummed out that they&#8217;re not cooler. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp01.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not that the figures are bad. They&#8217;re serviceable. For this particular figure, the reused head sculpt is recognizable as Bill Murray even if it&#8217;s not spot on. The reused body isn&#8217;t an issue because it fits the need (even though it&#8217;s not movie accurate). But just having the figure doesn&#8217;t fill me with any joy. And I love Ghostbusters. It&#8217;s one of my all-time favorite things. As a toy collector, this should be one of my all-time favorite lines. But somehow, either through something inherent to the idea of movie-based Ghostbusters action figures or through what Mattel has done here specifically, I just feel like I&#8217;m buying these figures on auto-pilot. I always feel like I should stop.  <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp02.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sMmam5i03Vs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>One of the reasons this figure can&#8217;t do much more than be serviceable is the lack of accuracy to the movie. Honestly, I don&#8217;t tremendously care if something is screen accurate, but that would at least be a selling point to help Mattel out with these figures.  If you&#8217;re into screen accuracy, then you can&#8217;t help but notice the little wrong details on this buck body: the coat should be buttoned up, Peter &#038; Ray shouldn&#8217;t have black pocket protectors, and Peter should have a green tie. I don&#8217;t descend into this level of nitpickiness easily (and I actually get a kick out of the metallic blue tie), but it just gives off the vibe that very little joy went into designing this figure too. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp03.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Part of that may just be due to the kit-bashed aspect of the figure. There&#8217;s nothing new here. Any one of us could have made this figure a year-and-a-half ago by swapping heads and taking a Sharpie to the pocket protector. I know I&#8217;m a sucker because I bought it, but it&#8217;s difficult to get excited about spending $35 ($22 plus UPS shipping) on a figure I could&#8217;ve made at home with little effort. There was a reason to buy the figure though, it just wasn&#8217;t the figure itself. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17888&#038;page=2\">Continue to Page 2&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>If you made it to page two, then we&#8217;re finally to the part of buying Ghostbusters toys that is actually a little bit of fun. The ghost. <\/p>\n<p>The Taxi Cab Ghost has faced some derision because when he appeared in the film he presumably had a full body (we never see below the dashboard). And while he did appear to be more &#8216;solid&#8217; than most of the Ghostbuster&#8217;s foes, it&#8217;s important to note that he did enter the taxi cab through the exhaust, so his corporealness isn&#8217;t as cut and dry as it might seem. As I&#8217;ve told Vault, if it really bugs you then you can just imagine that this is the Taxi Ghost as he&#8217;s forming in the driver seat before the man on his way to the Columbia Building hopped in. See? All better. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp04.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Personally, I don&#8217;t mind one bit that the Ghost only appears as the top half because he looks great. He might be one of the best sculpted pieces in the entire line. Yeah, the face itself could be a little more decrepit, but I don&#8217;t really need it to creep me out. The smoky clear plastic coat looks cool and does a great job of bringing this guy back in line as a ghost (as opposed to a zombie), The paintwork over the clear parts is top notch too. We&#8217;ve also got ball-joints at the neck &#038; elbows and swivels at the shoulders &#038; wrists. All around a great piece. <\/p>\n<p>Oddly, the Taxi Cab Ghost is glued to his stand unlike the previous ghosts. <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp08.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Another nice little piece is the camcorder accessory. If you watched the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sMmam5i03Vs\" target=\"_blank\">Ghostbusters Commercial<\/A> on page one, then you might also notice that this camcorder looks nothing like the one in the commercial. If someone familiar with the minutiae of Ghostbusters or 1980s camcorder technology wants to jump and possibly tell me the origin of this camera, I&#8217;m game. Again, being screen accurate isn&#8217;t a big deal to me, but if I wanted to really pick apart this figure, that&#8217;s just more fuel for the fine. Luckily, the camcorder is actually a really nicely detailed accessory, so I&#8217;m happy with it. And the better articulated regular Ghostbusters figures can actually make use of it. <\/p>\n<p>And, before I forget, an extra Ghost Sniffer is included. Extra gear is always a good thing for value I guess?<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp05.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Overall, I think the most excited I was for the Ghostbusters line was before it started. It&#8217;s just been a slow downhill from there. And with the 2012 Club Ecto-1 subscription being cancelled due to low sales, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m the only one. If you&#8217;re a Ghostbusters fan, you can look on the bright side and be happy that we&#8217;ve assembled a complete &#8220;Ready to Believe You&#8221; subgroup, but if you&#8217;re like me then you also paid near $35 to finish the team. That stings a bit more than normal. There&#8217;s a cool Lego Batwing set I could&#8217;ve had for that money&#8230; <\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/gbimages\/2012\/rtp06.JPG?w=640\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>There are some upsides though. The camcorder is a great accessory for 6&#8243; lines. I imagine it&#8217;ll get its use &#8217;round these parts. And the Taxi Cab Ghost is a great addition to the ghost lineup. Though as I&#8217;m writing this, thinking ahead to the next ghost&#8230; I realize there isn&#8217;t one yet. Dana has a sculpted base. The Rookie has two new pieces and a new accessory. I suppose there&#8217;s still hope for that remaining 4th figure, but I&#8217;m not ready to believe that Mattel has anything great left in the tank for Ghostbusters in 2012. I&#8217;d like to be wrong, but this line seems just about over. <\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size:175%\"><strong>Check out our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?page_id=1989\">Ghostbusters Classics Collector&#8217;s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was going through my box of unreviewed toys last week and ran across the Ready to Believe You Venkman. Oops. I\u2019m not ready for Nekron Week, I\u2019m caught up on MOTU, I still need to find a few more Marvel Legends\u2026 so what the heck, let\u2019s do a Ghostbusters review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[11,34,10],"tags":[2561,20,774,1180,1472],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-4Ew","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2303,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2303","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":0},"title":"Ghostbusters Classics: Ray Stantz Review","date":"October 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ghostbusters line is on the tertiary of my collecting interest. It shouldn't be. I love the movies. I love the cartoon. I've always had Ghostbusters something around whether it's a t-shirt, a pin, or a Stay-Puft shaped notepad. But for some reason, I'm just not that excited piecemealing my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=199","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":1},"title":"ItsAllTrue Review: Ghostbusters Minimates","date":"July 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6549,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=6549","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":2},"title":"Truetorial: Has Mattel Crossed the Streams?","date":"June 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Normally, I get to express my opinions on toys in the form of reviews. If I have thoughts about a particular line or the job a certain company is doing, I usually work them in there. But I can only do that if I\u2019m buying the toys and in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Toys&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4221,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4221","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":3},"title":"Matty&#8217;s Full March-June Schedule! Hordak, Mer-Man, &#038; Faker Reissues","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"On the MattyCollector News page, Matty has updated their full March through June schedule. Most of it is the same, but we do get our first word of reissues for Hordak, Mer-Man, and Faker. Toy Fans, We do our best to plan when products will be released, but sometimes the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;DCClassics.Com&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=1273","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":4},"title":"Ghostbusters Classics (SDCC): Slimed Egon Spengler Review","date":"August 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For awhile now, I've been buying DC \"Super Powers\" Classics, 25th Anniversary Joes, MOTU Classics, and others. It's like a second childhood. I loved the toys as a kid and I love them again now when they've been rebuilt for my \"adult\" sensibilities (and my \"I have a job\" wallet).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28673,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28673","url_meta":{"origin":17888,"position":5},"title":"Lego #21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Review","date":"July 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ghostbusters&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17888"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17888"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17900,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17888\/revisions\/17900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}