Mattel has released these same Ghostbusters molds a few times over the years. this particular release was from the sequel/reboot/remake Ghostbusters movie that came out recently, though for the most part these 4 figures are all the same. The most interesting contrast is how much better these 4 figures are compared to the 4 “new” ghostbusters they were released along side. This isn’t a knock against the whole “all female cast”, this is a knock against the sloppy looking paint and sculpts that the new Ghostbusters figures received.
There are 4 figures here but they are essentially all exactly the same aside from their heads. Some height variance might have been a nice touch but they all use the exact same body, with one minor variance, Peter Venkman has his pant legs untucked from his boots. It’s not a bad body or sculpt though, which is nice. There is enough articulation to recreate most poses you might want from 4 scientists in overalls. The hands are pretty basic but have some surprising bonus features due to the sculp. The right hand is sculpted to hold the Proton Pack gun, which it does well, it also looks fine for a neutral, free hand, at the sides poses, due to the trigger placement on the guns, the figures can also make a nice thumbs up (or down if you prefer) pose as well.
The articulation is also functional enough that the proton packs can easily be removed from each figure. The packs themselves are all identical to each other. There are no other accessories, which is kind of a bummer because they could have easily made a bit of variation by adding obvious accessories like a Ghost Trap, PKE Meter, and maybe one of those little slime grabber dealies they used a few times.
The main variation comes from the head sculpts, which are all nicely done and certainly resemble each of the 4 Ghostbusters. It is the source of my main gripe with these figures, the head sculpts are all nice individually, but there is an odd inconsistency in style. Ray looks considerably more “realistic” than Peter, who looks more like a Bill Murray cartoon.
Head sculpt style inconsistency aside, these are good figures. The body reuse and lack of accessories can certainly be a turn off at the full $20+ price however. Especially considering I believe the previous releases were considerably cheaper. It’s not related to these figures directly, but the apparently lack of quality int he new lady Ghostbusters line up is also disappointing.
