The Real Ghostbusters Egon Spengler and Gulper Ghost Action Figure Review Wal-Mart Exclusive

Like everyone else in the world, the pandemic has changed the entire world. Unfortunately for me, I'm high risk so I've basically been locked away at my house for months. I decided I needed to get out for a bit so I went to the store with my wife. Being a responsible adult the first thing I did was go to the toy aisle. I know that the new Masters Of The Universe Origins action figure line is due out any time and in fact some are already available for sale on places like eBay so I had to take a look. I didn't find any new He-Man figures but I found something else that was just as special to me, the original 1980's Ghostbusters action figures!

I have to assume that if you're on my blog you probably know what Ghostbusters is, at least the 1984 movie. Despite being a comedy meant for an older audience, kids fell in love with the concept, and before long a cartoon and accompanying toy line was launched. I have three brothers, all younger, but the one was only 15 months younger than me so our interests lined up perfectly. Usually, we would split our interests to get double the action. He had the DC Super Powers action figures and I had Masters Of The Universe figures so while we had fewer overall toys from each line we ended up with double the lines to play with. One of the toy lines that we both had to have toys from was Ghostbusters.

The toys were released by Kenner in 1986 starting with the first wave. This wave included the four Ghostbusters, a Slimer and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man action figure, and the Ghostzapper toy. I got Egon, Ray, Slimer, and the Ghostzapper while my brother had the rest. We both loved Ghostbusters and toy line and we were able to get the majoirty of the toys, at least until we fell in love with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Anyway, I'm going down my local Wal-Mart's toy aisle the other day and I find brand new releases from that first wave. I had absolutely no idea that these were being released and was very happy to have found them. As far as I can tell the entire first wave has been released minus the Ghostzapper but all they had left on the shelf was one Egon and one Ray which I happily bought since they were the ones I had.

Ghostzapper

The funny thing was that the shelves were basically empty but they had must have just put out a box of action figures from the 1990's Spider-Man cartoon. I loved that cartoon as well but I didn't know anything about the toys and never had them so I wasn't interested in them but there was another "adult" that bought every action figure they had, except Mary Jane. If he knows anything about action figures he should have bought the Mary Jane's since the female action figures in a traditionally male toy line usually don't sell very well making them worth more.

These new releases by Kenner Hasbro are nearly identical to their 1986 original release but there are a few differences. The actual action figures look just about perfect with the only changes being the ghost is darker and more translucent than the originals. In all honesty, the carded originals I've looked up on the internet don't look right to me, at least from my memory. The ghosts that come in these new releases look correct to me but it been so long I'm sure that it's my memory that's at fault. The Ghostbusters themselves and their proton packs look just like the originals.

1986 Egon Release

The card itself does have some changes. On the front, the biggest being that above the Ghostbusters logo on the originals is the phrase "WHO YOU GONNA CALL?". The only other change is on the top right corner it said "NO. 80300" and under that "AGES 4 AND UP" while on the new one it just says "AGES 4+".

On the back of the card, the "WHO YOU GONNA CALL?" above the logo is again missing. The biggest change is the bottom right corner because the original cards had a picture of the Ghostzapper and since it isn't for sale it's been covered up by moving the UPC and some text over the Ghostzapper picture.

1986 First Wave Cardback

When it comes to toys I almost always open them because they are toys and they should be released from their plastic prisons but since these look nearly identical to the carded originals from the 1980s I'm really thinking of leaving these sealed up, only time will tale.

I'm very happy I found these and I hope I can get the others to complete wave one. If you like Ghostbusters and grew up with these toys I would recommend picking these up! These action figures are Wal-Mart exclusives so you know where to go if you want them.