{"id":2303,"date":"2009-10-28T07:16:18","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2012-06-13T21:50:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T02:50:20","slug":"itsalltruereview-ghostbusters-classics-ray-stantz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2303","title":{"rendered":"Ghostbusters Classics:
Ray Stantz Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>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 GB’s together month-to-month. Of all my SDCC exclusives, I was the most lukewarm to Egon (he’s s a cool figure) and in that Twitter feed<\/a> to the right you can see me tweeting back-and-forth with ActionFigurePics<\/a> about how I just wasn’t excited for the upcoming Ray before he got here. Ray is up for review today, but does he rekindle my interest in the line? <\/P><\/p>\n

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I can’t pick a least favorite Ghostbuster. Winston was always my favorite, followed by Venkman, and then Egon. So Ray should be my least favorite, but I don’t think I could characterize him that way. Ray was clearly the heart of the team. You couldn’t see Egon and Venkman hanging out together. You knew they functioned as a group because both were friends with Ray first. Ray and Egon talked shop. Ray and Peter talked movies. Even when they added Winston into the mix, he was fastest friends with Ray. Ray’s the identifiable guy. He wasn’t the smart one, or the cool one, and he wasn’t the new guy. So, almost by default, he ends up being the most important Ghostbuster – the guy the team was built around. I don’t think of Ray first when I think of the Ghostbusters, but storywise, he’s very important. No Ray? No Ghostbusters. I’m going to have to remember that going forward.<\/P><\/p>\n

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If you picked up Egon, you know what to expect of Ray’s sculpt from the neck down. I don’t like that all the Ghostbusters will have the same body, but I don’t think they needed four unique bodies either. The guys are all between 6′-6′ 2″ and of average build (I think of Ray as fatter and Egon as taller, but that doesn’t come from the films…). So, technically, they can all have the same body, but some variety might be nice. Maybe I’m still traumatized by Playmates Star Trek: Voyager line. They did the whole crew with only three bodies – tall man, short man, and woman – ugh. Maybe when Mattel gets to Venkman, who should have some different pieces, the ensemble will look better. I can only hope.<\/p>\n

So, what makes Ray unique is all in his noggin. Of itself, the head sculpt is okay. I can see Aykroyd when I look at him, but it does seem a little small compared to Egon. I don’t know if it was resized in production, but if it were a little bigger – or even if the neck were a little more slender, I’d probably be a lot happier with it.<\/P><\/p>\n

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I did have one blip on my Ray. Unbeknownst to me until I opened it, Ray has two left hips. I haven’t decided if I’ll try to go through Mattel’s Customer Service and get it replaced yet. It lines up okay for the most part, so it’s only a minor annoyance. At $20, we should be expecting near perfection, butsince I haven’t heard of rampant QC problems on the figure I’m just going to assume I drew the short straw. On the upside, I might end up being able to use the extra peg hole (for the hose when on the proper side) to attach Winston’s trap to the figure.<\/P><\/p>\n

The proton pack isn’t an accessory since it’s attached, so I consider it part fo the sculpt. It’s identical to Egon’s, but the wand and tube are made of a sturdier plastic this time around. The upside here is that the wand is not as warped by the packaging, but we might lose some durability over the long run. It feels a bit brittle comparatively. <\/p>\n

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The paintwork on the figure is decent with one exception. The paint apps on the head bring out the details. The proton pack work is excellent. The little silver details on the zippers and clasps are sharp and the tampos for the name and logo are perfect. But I’m going to have to touch up the paint around his collar. The black t-shirt wasn’t painted to the edges and wasn’t painted at all where the neck attaches. It’s not bad from a distance, the overall shape is right, but up close it’s annoying. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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Articulation is the same as Egon – ball-joints for the neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Swivel joints on the waist, thighs and calves. Hinge joints on the knees and ankles (with rocker joints). And finally, “Mattel hips” that you can find on most of their boy’s lines. All the joints move well, but the belt details block the legs a bit and the elbow pads prevent the arms from being straight. These are minor quibbles since I can post the figures just about any way I want to, but if there’s ever something for them to sit down in<\/em>, it may not work well.<\/p>\n

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For an accessory, all Ray came with was the Logo Ghost. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited by this particular ghost when I saw it in ToyFare. I didn’t mind the idea of the logo ghost as one of the pack-ins, but it actually having the red ring around it seemed silly. Luckily, I wasn’t the only person that thought so – you can pull the ghost’s right arm and head off and remove the red ring. The ghost still has a flat surface where the ring should be, but it\u2019s enough to make me change my mind. It’s a cool pack-ins, especially when it glows in the dark!<\/p>\n

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When Mattel announced the Ghostbusters figures, I was pretty excited. Heck, before they said what the new line was going to be, I was hoping it would be Ghostbusters. But in the months since August, I\u2019d found myself less and less excited about Ray. It wasn’t the figure, it looked good in the press shots (and turned out just fine). It wasn’t Dan Aykroyd, I forgave him for Psi Factor a long time ago. It wasn’t Ray Stantz, as I said, he\u2019s essential to the team. I wasn’t excited and I didn’t know why. But with the figure here, standing next to Egon, I realized what\u2019s missing. The other two Ghostbusters.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know when Venkman is coming. Sure, Slimed Venkman is in May, so we should see a regular Venkman sometime after – about a year after we got Egon. That blows. I\u2019m used to Mattel not letting me complete teams (Martian Manhunter!), but there\u2019s just four Ghostbusters and maybe it would have been better to start the line next spring so you could get through the four quickly. Or to release the four as a set at specialty stores. As it is now, I\u2019m going to get Winston for Christmas. But aside from ordering the containment unit (Ha!) in March, I just have to set the three Ghostbusters aside until next Summer. That\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n

Still, that shouldn\u2019t detract from Ray. He\u2019s a good figure with some minor issues. If Winston and Peter are knocked out of the park like Egon was, those minor issues will become even more irrelevant. The team is going to look great together, we just have to get them all first.<\/em><\/P><\/p>\n

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Check out our Ghostbusters Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 GB’s together month-to-month. Of all […]<\/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":[2561,55,333,20,332,2569,2560],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-B9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31395,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=31395","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":0},"title":"SDCC Armchair Coverage: DST Calls up the Ghostbusters","date":"July 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6549,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=6549","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":1},"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 "Toys"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=1273","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":2},"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 "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17888,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17888","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":3},"title":"Ghostbusters: “Ready to Believe You” Peter Venkman Review","date":"April 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28673,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28673","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":4},"title":"Lego #21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Review","date":"July 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3261,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3261","url_meta":{"origin":2303,"position":5},"title":"Ghostbusters Review: Winston Zeddemore (& Ecto-1 Ornament)","date":"January 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days after Christmas, I finally received what will be the centerpiece of my Ghostbusters collection, a movie accurate figure of Winston Zeddemore. As I said in my Ray review, I really can't pick a least favorite Ghostbuster. Each one has their strengths and their importance to the overall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303"}],"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=2303"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19155,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions\/19155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}