OK, so it isn’t an official holiday like St. Patrick’s day was (and let’s be honest, most people spent yesterday assaulting their livers until they either passed out or died). But there’s still plenty of reason for Ghostbuster fans to celebrate. Because some of the Ghostbuster toys a lot of them grew up with, toys that will be forever enshrined in their personal Nostalgic Halls of Fame, have returned to store shelves.
Kind of.
The 80’s could well be described as the decade of the Ghostbuster. In between the blockbusting movie that started the whole phenomenon in 1984 and the sequel that closed out the decade in the summer of 1989, The Real Ghostbusters aired Saturday mornings on ABC. While most popular Saturday morning cartoons ran out of animated steam after two or three seasons, The Real Ghostbusters brought everyone’s favourite ghost busting quartet (and their pet ghost Slimer) to life every Saturday morning between 1986 and 1991 (with another season devoted strictly to weekday syndication in the late 80’s).
And it was the cartoon that inspired the toy line from Kenner that filled wish lists and lined store shelves.
The Ghostbusters toys weren’t quite the heavyweights that Transformers, G.I. Joe or the Masters of the Universe were, but they were no sales slouch either. They were arguably the most popular movie inspired toy line this side of George Lucas’ far off galaxy (and Kenner’s second best performer, also after Star Wars). It wasn’t unusual to see kids dressed as their favourite Ghostbuster at Halloween or desperate parents frantically scrambling to find the newest ectoplasmic baddie come Christmas.
Thanks to Hasbro (who bought Kenner and it’s treasure trove of licenses in 1991), some of those toys are making a comeback three decades later. Earlier this week, pre-orders for vintage editions of Ecto-1, the Bugeye ghost action figure and the haunted toilet Fearsome Flush went on sale at Walmart’s online store. They’re scheduled to hit store shelves (exclusive to Walmart of course) in April, though Walmart’s site is currently telling customers to expect delivery on pre-ordered items by August.
Hasbro has released Kenner originals before, most notably Star Wars. This isn’t even the first time the toy giant has released classic Kenner Ghostbusters. They released a numbers of vintage Ghostbuster toys in partnership with Walmart last year, including figures of the original four characters and a proton pack replica. The line must have sold pretty well to prompt this second wave and who knows, maybe we could get our nostalgic hands on the Ghostbuster Firehouse play set this time next year.
Despite the commercial disappointment of the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, the franchise is primed for a revival. Ghostbusters: Afterlife will hit theatres sometime later this year and there’s even word that J. Michael Straczynski (who wore just about every creative hat on the original cartoon) wants to resurrect The Real Ghostbusters. And considering the success we’ve seen with animated reboots recently, he’s liable to get his wish.
So dust off those proton packs and charge those PKE meters, because now is a great time to be a Ghostbusters fan. And a toy collector.
Image via www.cbr.com
