Comments on: Column: The Private Sector – The Kenner Liberation

By: omg

omg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:26:31 +0000

it was 2008 i had just got the ghostbusters movie for my birthday. i found the real ghostbusters cartoon toys at an antique store and had to have them i saw so many sitting there hopeless….at first thought i said “dude ive gotta take this thing!” then i realized i had 5 bucks but the other was another 5….my dad bought it and guess what i got a special deal for being the first ghostbusters fankid of this generation he had seen so now he lets me in on some sweet deals. well no harm done but i always wished i could get 3 more……i held back on it and said nah ill buy em off online which caused me to go into a fury for overpriced toys not getting the things i payed for i still shop for these things but one thing i hate my sister for is one day i was online and found the super rare 1996 super sonic plush for 8 dollars and i told my mom but my sister instead of minimizeing the thing exited out and got on myspace……for 3 years i havent bought,seen or heard of the wereabouts of this toy or those ghostbusters ones….

By: Sky_Hero_Ash

Sky_Hero_Ash — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:31:25 +0000

@Troy – Wow, “Super Sright Features” Winston was my first actual RGB (not a ghost)! Or was it Fright Features Pete Venkman? Dang, I remember exactly how I got both of those, but not which one was first… Either way, followed soon after was Super Fright Features Egon and Screamin’ Heroes Ray. All 4 ‘Busters would hop up on the Ecto-3, Halo’s Warthog-style, and chase after the Galloping Ghoul ghost, until our dog chewed him up. Boo-Zooka and the Boo-Lets became the villains-of-the-week staple after that.

By: ghostbuster jake

ghostbuster jake — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:34:41 +0000

dont feel too bad i have taken every set of mini mates from where i work!

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:25:57 +0000

@Ed – The one I stole? Nothing, save for probably a few non-lethal virii and bacteria.

@Matt – Thanks for the info… curious. I guess as a kid, $60 felt like so much more. But that price point makes a lot of sense.

By: Ed-

Ed- — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:38:56 +0000

Out of curiosity, did Winston have any accessories?

By: C. Warren

C. Warren — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:58:22 +0000

Winston is not “the heart and soul of the Ghostbusters”. That’s Ray.

By: Bennythegeek

Bennythegeek — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:53:38 +0000

Coming from a family of divorced parents, I (like many others) very often felt the hardships of being financially challenged. Thanks to recession, I am in that catagorey once again, but lets not go there. Even though may parents were split up and, at the time of my youngest years, hated each other I still found bennifets in the troubles. Like, gifts from two different families! Even though money was tight the fact that I had holidays and birthdays celebrated with both sides of the family meant that I ended up with nearly the entire collection of GB figures (eventually). Excluding the most rare items (Egons lab). But alas, as I grew up, and moved from place to place and from one side of the family to the other my nearly complete collection dwindled down to nearly nothing… When I was finally living on my own I began rebuilding it through the help of Ebay, garage sales and second hand stores. Unfortunatly, my collection will never reach the glory it once had.

Unless I get my hands on a DeLorean… Or an Ectomobile modified for time travel.

By: Antonio

Antonio — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:25:12 +0000

Heh, my parents also were pretty hesitant to shell out the money to get me RGB figures. But I do fondly remember the occasional toy they’d get me. My mom even still remembers the time I got that toilet ghost. Egon was my favorite figure as well, but I never really got a chance to get the original jumpsuit figures; I still loved that Egon figure in the black jumpsuit with purple stripes, though.

Then one of my best memories has to be the time my mom took me into KB Toys for my birthday, and let me get the Ecto-1 and two figures. I remember getting the beige jumpsuit Peter with green eyes, but can’t remember the other figure I got..

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:20:03 +0000

The Toys “R” Us price tag attached to my box is $59.99 in 1989 dollars.

By: John D

John D — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:50:03 +0000

Awesome article, Troy! The whole time I’m reading, I’m thinking about how I ONLY had the original Winston as a kid and the rest were the imposter Fright Features guys. Until I got some weird re-release of Peter in this glow in the dark suit or something? (which was also at the tail end of my toy-playing days). Finally, years later, I found someone selling all four originals on eBay and my then-girlfriend/now-wife helped me get them for me as a present (a real keeper, eh?).

All my Kenner figs (besides the eBay four) are somewhere at my parents’ house. I do wish to liberate them from the confines of a hot and musty attic… someday.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:18:15 +0000

Here’s a fun research question to pose to the reading audience at home: what was the retail price on the Firehouse Headquarters? I’ve seen the K-Mart ad from the clearance sale where it was around $40 – but memory seems to recollect that it was upward of ninety bucks…

By: Kevinj319

Kevinj319 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:29:28 +0000

This article helped remind me to be thankful to my family for the things they provided to me as a child. We were not well off by any means. Quite the opposite, actually… yet I had every ghostbusters toy I ever wanted. Even the s***ty Frightened ones. (What was up with those anyway?)

I guess it also helped that I was the first born of my generation… I didn’t have any brothers, sisters, NOR any cousins until I was 6 years old. 6 years of being the only child, only grandchild, and only nephew to half a dozen aunts and uncles. Looking back, I had quite the payload on holidays and birthdays.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:56:03 +0000

i was the oppisite, egon was the one i couldnt find, i had the fright features egon but not the proper one with the pack. I found him one day at a second hand shop but he had no pack, but as soon as i got him i never used my fright features egon i just used the pke meter from him for my proper egon

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:49:12 +0000

@ForeverYoung – Not to worry, 95% of my old toys are now long donated. And I contribute to a local toy drive every year at Christmas here in LA. Because of the remorse? Probably not. Just fun to think that I’m sending a Star Wars toy to an excited kid that’s actually going to play with it – not bitch about the head sculpt and how the pantlegs are tucked in.

@Del – As do you, sir.

@Mike – Funny enough, I have no idea if it’s even still there anymore. But you’ll need a plane ticket to Colorado to do so.

@Chris – I ended up having two of the Fright Feature Egon’s (with the white suit and blue tie) and found a way to permanently lock the second one’s head in the “Frightened” position. He became one of the Peoplebusters.

@Alex – You should try giving it back now, see what happens.

@John – Perhaps karma paying me back, shortly after returning Winston to his original home – I ended up getting the “Super Fright Features” Winston, who was in the cool Containment Unit-proof suit. His Fright Feature was hardly ever activated.

By: ForeverYoung

ForeverYoung — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:59:48 +0000

That wasn’t as bad as I imagined when I read he stole it. If he still felt remorse, he could donate a few toys to a toy drive now that he’s older and that would be more than enough to appease kharma.

By: Del

Del — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:29:19 +0000

Wow dude,just wow. Your articles rock so hard.
Del.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:01:06 +0000

All’s fair in love and Ghostbusters…or in this case love of Ghostbusters. Where’s that doctors office? I never had an original Winston either, I may just have to make a trip to see if its still there.

By: Chris M

Chris M — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:34:01 +0000

Egon was my first too! I was very lucky to have all four of the ghostbusters in the jumpsuits (I still do). Altho i had to get a second egon once i completed the set because my original egon’s head broke off and couldn’t be mended. So the the headless egon became a ghost for the ghostbusters to bust ala citizen ghost! I must admit i didn’t like any of the variants kenner produced even as a child, i only put up with fright features Jannie cos it was the only figure of her at the time.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:54:54 +0000

I stole the original RGB-Ray in the age of 8 or 9… from my cousins toy-box (full with Ninja Turtles and Masters of the Universe) in the early 90s. Oh well, Ray is still here to remind me what a bad person I am. Even if I bought another one at ebay. It feels strange to have don’e something like that but it is senseless to give it back to my now 30 years old cousin because he gives a damn about Ghostbusters (!!!!!!! can you believe it?). So I’ll take care of Ray till his little plastic-skeletton is rotten one day. And now, I’ll get my pills

By: John Mitchell

John Mitchell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:41:39 +0000

Egon was my first also. I never got an original winston till I was around 15 years old. Its so sad I didn’t get to enjoy any of them until it was too late.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:32 +0000

Already a correction… my math/fuzzy memory was way off… I was actually seven at the time of the crime. Even worse. I was plotting Heat-like robberies at age six, apparently.

By: Jon the action figure buff

Jon the action figure buff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:57:27 +0000

With 8 years old you already had a conscience? *applaud* most kids would never think twice on returning it, your parents must have done something right. While we're at it check my history of the action figure for an entertaining read that made many others, just like Winston, possible.