Ghostbusters Plasma Pack Fan Channel Exclusive
Item No.: No. G0405 Manufacturer:Hasbro Includes:4 figures, 4 proton packs, 4 wands, PKE meter, goggles, trap Action Feature:Converts buyer from 40-50 year old to 6-year old Retail:$44.99-$51.99 Availability: November 2024 Other: Hasbro beat Super7 to the punch
Hasbro's Ghostbusters Plasma Pack 3 3/4-Inch O-Ring Action Figures would like the G.I. Joe figures I had as a kid, but I didn't start to get Joes until about 1988. (I like aliens and robots.) Hasbro designed these guys to share a lot of parts, picking up stylistic choices from multiple eras. The figures have swivel-arm battle grip from 1983, swivel heads from 1988-184, and head sculpts that seem closer to sculpting and deco from the comic packs from 2005. The hi-res name patch deco seems unrealistically good in any era, even today, and I've got these things right in front of me. It's a fun set, one I caved in and bought after being repeatedly charmed by Super7's o-ring robots and monsters. Hey, I gotta be me.
There's no way you could get anything this good in 1984, but it's probably pretty close to what you were hoping to get up until The Real Ghostbusters were the Kenner reality of your childhood. I always wanted movie toys, even as a kid, but I'm also willing to take what I can get. And now I've got this, which is pretty great. I'm not going to make you wait until the end to hear that the likenesses are great, the proton pack compatibility could be better, and even at the post-tariff price increases they're still a heck of a deal. I got it late, and I'm glad I got it.
I assume this set exists specifically so Hasbro can say "we're using this part of the license, don't give it to Super7." I would have loved to see even more figures (and Slimer) in this scale, but I'd rather have these four guys than nothing at all. The figures share most of their parts, each having a unique head with Peter Venkman having the distinctive untucked pants over his boots. Deco is pretty much the same on every figure, except the name patches.
The figures all have the same, generally decent range of motion. I'm a little annoyed that the shoulders can't go down more, like the other o-ring figures I have handy. There's a limit how close the arms can get to the body, bu otherwise these guys are great. The legs can swing forward, the knees and elbows can bend, the biceps can swivel... it's pretty much exactly the kind of range of movement you might expect. I would have preferred ball-jointed necks to the swivel necks we got, but I assume they were aiming for 1984. The heads still only swiveled in 1984.
The body sculpts are pretty great. Digital sculptors of the modern era don't tend to do the harsh, deep cuts on wrinkles and belts that we saw in the old days. The jup suits are a bit more subtle, with perfectly nice boots and gloves that aren't quite as exaggerated as older Hasbro figures. Each figure has the proton pack straps sculpted to the torso, which makes sense given the mechanics of these figures. You want a peg on the pack to plug in the back, and that's what you get. The feet are big enough that they can stand without any trouble, with peg holes designed to match the old Joes. Whoever did the bodies seemed to understand the assignment, down to the sculpted cables, belts, and other bits. I love the painted no-ghost patches, and the fact that they painted the yellow cable is a nice touch.
The one design choice that I didn't like is the back of the arms. Most Joes shared the same lower bicep piece - no detail, just a plain undetailed connector to the elbow and the upper arm. These have folds and sculpted bits, plus half of the elbow pad which splits when you bend the arm. I don't like how it looks, and I would have preferred the undetailed arm and maybe have the pad connected to the forearm part. Maybe it couldn't be engineered without breakage. I just don't like the split.
The head sculpts are all pretty great, in a weird space that's too modern for 1984 and too toy-like to be a realistic modern head. As mentioned above, they feel at home with 2005 without being too small for the bodies. I wouldn't say they're perfect likenesses but Ray looks like Dan Aykroyd, Winston looks like Ernie Hudson, Egon looks like Harold Ramis, and Peter looks like Bill Murray. Sculpted detail is a little soft. Deco is nice and sharp, with painted whites-of-eyes, eyebrows, and glasses that rival anything you would've seen in the 20th century. Doing glasses right is tough, and Egon's great. His hair is a little on the soft side, but that seems more or less the score on nearly every line at this size.
No detail is a perfect match - flat metal pins in the shoulders, for example - but everything looks pretty good and feels decent enough for a modern update of this kind of figure. Unlike Super7's hard plastic hands, Hasbro's are a little bit softer. I think they understood the fear of broken thumbs from many collectors... a problem I never personally experienced. I'm really quite impressed with how well these figures stay standing and generally not face-planting while I type.
The accessory tally is great for the price, with gear that is sort of all over the map in terms of what I want and/or should have expected. Ray's goggles are unpainted and fit around his head with no problem. They're pretty much perfect. The PKE meter is a tight fit in Egon's hand, with silver antenna and no other deco. It's slightly better than I would have expected in the 1980s, as gear back then tended to be unpainted with few exceptions. This brings us to the proton pack, with red dots on the back. Kenner's blue packs had no decoration, so this is better than we actually got back then. The wand is connected by a hose that you plug in the backpack yourself, and the plastic isn't super great at bending to be posed well. It's ideal for hanging on the figure's back, but you can get it in their hands with a little effort. I feel this is authentic to what Hasbro would have done back then, as numerous figures had molded (fragile) hoses molded to the gear. Later in the decade we'd get figures with separately molded hoses, like the Hydro-Viper, but those had other problems staying in place. I'd say Hasbro did what made sense here.
The ghost trap went above and beyond, with the yellow-and-black doors on top plus silver and red detailing on the sides. This is absolutely better than anything from the 1980s, and gives most modern 3 3/4-inch collector gear a run for its money. Hasbro should be proud, the gear in the set is generally pretty great. I just wish it was easier to pose the figures aiming the neutrona wands.
As a one-off, I had to pick these up. If Hasbro did The Real Ghostbusters or Slimer or Rick Moranis or Annie Potts in this style, I'd probably show up for those too... but the Ecto-1 is gone and supposedly a tight fit for the figures anyway. I'd say it's a satisfying set if you want more Joe-style figures at prices that are more in line with the 1980s, adjusted for inflation. Sadly these were made for the 40th anniversary rather than when we were kids. Better late than never, right? Grab these if you see them at a fair price, four figures for around $50 is pretty good these days.
16bit.com is best not viewed in Apple's Safari browser, we don't know why. All material on this site copyright their respective copyright holders. All materials appear hear for informative and entertainment purposes. 16bit.com is not to be held responsible for anything, ever. Photos taken by the 16bit.com staff. Site design, graphics, writing, and whatnot credited on the credits page. Be cool-- don't steal. We know where you live and we'll break your friggin' legs.
RSS 
