Right now New York is holding the New York Toy Fair for 2014. LEGO had their latest CUUSOO winner, the Ghostbusters and their Ecto 1. I am somewhat surprised to see the stand for the four minifigs. Perhaps those Proton Packs make them want to fall backwards?

This set will be released in time for the 30th Anniversary of Ghostbusters in June of this year for $49.99.

LEGO CUUSOO finished its Fall 2013 review of all the entries that surpassed 10,000 votes. Every review is better than the last, with lots of really cool kits submitted. This time around two Ghostbusters kits were up for review, and the 30th Anniversary kit was selected by LEGO to be released later this year.

The Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary LEGO set will include Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston. As well as the Ecto-1. How cool is that? Pricing and the exact release date are still to be determined. Check out the original submission for more photos, and below is a video showing off the other contestants.

This kid has got it made. His parents made him a Ghostbusters costume complete with an Ecto-1 cart to make his Halloween night a bit easier. You may remember him from when he had a Delorean cart last year. As amazing as that was his parents have stepped up their game this year.

source

It’s no secret to anyone that has met me that I am a huge Ghostbusters fan. My collection ranges from T-Shirts and rare promotional items, to a pair of custom built Proton Packs. My entire life I have wanted a 1959 Cadillac Ambulance to convert into an ectomobile.

Some people fill their bucket list with trips to exotic countries or jumping out of an airplane. Mine is one thing, a car.

Enough about me, now for the video. Star Cars features lots of classic movie and tv cars jam packed with nostalgia. The latest episode features not one, but TWO Ectomobiles. Their owners Sean Bishop and Bryan Fear give the details on why this car is so special. 

Via: Athena Stamos with Star Cars

Dan Aykroyd is doing what he does best, slinging vodka and talking about Ghostbusters 3. Aykroyd was on Larry King Live recently and naturally his second favorite subject came up. Larry brought it up to ask if he will get to have another cameo in the Ghostbusters universe.

In this interview Aykroyd reveals some new information. Or at least some interesting tidbits. Here’s a breakdown:

What’s it being based on?

New researching in particle physics by persons at Columbia University. You will remember this as the university that through Ray, Egon and Peter out inspiring them to start their own company in the private sector. This research being done that begins to affect the dimension we reside in. Perhaps the collider Large Hadron Collider had a hand in inspiring the writers of the script.

Bill Murray doesn’t want to do it?

There will be a “hole” for Bill Murray in Ghostbusters 3. I am sure, Dan Aykroyd knowing Murray as well as he does, figures Bill may decide last minute he would like to be involved. It is nice to know, however unlikely, that Murray can jump in if he so desires.

Do you have the stars lined up?

“We need four new Ghostbusters,” says Aykroyd. “Well, I’ll be there. That casting job is easy.” Interestingly enough, he does not mention Harold Ramis or Ernie Hudson. I would imagine this doesn’t mean anything since he’s leaving a spot for Murray.

My Predictions

The more I hear about this new script the more it is sounding like a mash up of the cartoon Extreme Ghostbusters and Aykroyd’s original Ghostbusters 3 script, Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent. In the Extreme Ghostbusters, the team has disbanded due to a lack of paranormal activity to keep their business afloat. Egon still resides in the firehouse to keep an eye on the containment unit and to keep studying the paranormal. He also teaches a class at the local university on the paranormal. When something occurs to release a bunch of spooks and spectres, Egon starts Ghostbusters back up and recruits some of his students to be the new Ghostbusters.

In Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent there is a tear in our dimension that transports the Ghostbusters into an alternate version of Manhattan cleverly named Manhellton. See what he did there?

I also like the idea that these new Ghostbusters would come from Columbia University, similar to how the original three started the business. This will hopefully help it feel more like a passing the torch film and less like a reboot.

Obviously this is all speculation on my part. But fun to talk about none-the-less. What do you guys think of this information?

Those of you that have read my reviews of Matty’s Ghostbuster line have seen the ups and downs. The lowest being a very expensive Stay Puft turning yellow because of a poor choice in materials on Matty’s part. After Matty cancelled the line and blamed the Ghostbusters community for a lackluster turn out, I had mostly written them off. AJ Quick of Ghostbusters Fans has written up a summary of what happened between the community and Matty Collector, as well as a call to arms for the fans. I will include it in it’s entirety below, but I recommend you visit the site to share your experiences involving Matty Collector.

I don’t normally post editorials like this, but I firmly believe now is the time to say these things and bring these issues to direct light. Mattel is the company that we have deserved to handle the Ghostbusters license for the past 28 years, but I think (certainly now that the action figure line is dead) that it is the company that we just didn’t need.

Mattel had been selling Ghostbusters action figures for the last two years, and when they first came out we were ecstatic. We accepted everything that was given to us as pure gold, and restrained as a community to make any negative remarks in terms of accuracy, price, and quality. In hindsight, I was extremely naive to have accepted what we were given, as I’m sure many of you would agree. In the end we were blamed for the demise of the line, due to poor sales, by a ‘cash strapped company’ complaining that the fans were unable to keep the line alive. Mattel, you may know is the #1 toy company in the world, with revenues of more than six billion dollars in 2011, and net income (profits) of over$750 million dollars in 2011 alone. Is it really our fault Mattel has exhausted the Ghostbusters community’s buyer pool? Let’s look at what Mattel (and MattyCollector.com) have been doing to us…

The “White Screen of Death” (WSOD)
When we first started buying figures from MattyCollector, we were all faced with a battle with other fans to fight and see who could purchase their figures first. On the monthly sales, we were having to wait a long time to get through due to a site imposed waiting screen. After 30 minutes or so after the start of the sales, the screens would finally go away and everyone would be able to make their purchases. Why is this a big deal? I read that MattyCollectors shipping service, Digital River ships approximately 27-30 million packages each year (if that number is accurate, I don’t know. I personally think it is a little low). That’s 82000 shipments per day, or approximately 1 every second 24 hours per day. Now, that number doesn’t represent the number of Mattel’s packages they ship, but for all of Digital River’s customers. Why is it that a fulfillment company of this size is unable to handle a few hundred or thousand customers at one time? (Heck, even Ghostbusters Fans had a record breaking 9,400 users on in one 30 minute period on our rinkydink server. The servers at Digital River should be able to do much better, especially given that there are no doubt hundreds of them in the Digital River cloud. One of Digital River’s taglines is after all: “No business is too big or too global for Digital River’s premiere commerce solution.” The wait screen was self imposed by MattyCollector in an effort to instill fear in the consumer. You saw that screen and thought: ‘I better buy one now, heck I should buy two!’ No Ghostbusters figures have ever sold out in under 24 hours. In 2010 the Peter Venkman figure sold out in approximately 26 hours, the other figures lasted days even weeks. The PKE Meter and Ghost Trap were also both available for several days to several weeks. This fear was created by MattyCollector in an effort to sell more action figures and props. Since the line began, the WSOD has almost completely gone away due to (no doubt) complaints from MattyCollector’s customers, and a decrease in sales.

“Sold Out”
MattyCollector has been manually listing items as “Almost Gone” and “Sold Out” in order to drum up further sales through fear and scarcity. Mattel has said numerous times that an item was completely sold out, only to make the item available at a Halloween or Thanksgiving sale at a price 40% off or higher. Those that purchased early on, were rightfully screwed. Prices and value dropped significantly. Now , I do understand that Mattel must keep extras on hand to handle replacements, but not in the quantity they made available at later dates. The “Sold Out” tag was just added to make sales look better than they actually were.

Price Increases
Despite Mattel making over $700 million dollars in net income (profit) the first year the Ghostbusters line was active, Mattel cited increasing costs as the reason to make the already high priced $20 action figures, $22 in 2012, with the final figures costing $25 each. Meanwhile other toy manufacturers were making better quality products, at a much lower price. And let’s not blame the prices on the fact that they were “limited collectors’ items”. The Real Ghostbusters MEGO figures from Mattel were $27 each, WITHOUT a pack in Ghost or accessory, AND were sold at retail stores in higher quantity. Once again however, they were figures that were over priced and extremely low quality. They didn’t actually sell very well, and now (2 years later) you can still walk into your local Toys R Us and find them on the hooks for under $12. I personally sold dozens of them for $10 each in an online sale, taking a loss of approximately $8 per figure, just to get rid of them.

Quality and Repetition
I will be the first one to admit there isn’t a lot you can do with 4 main characters, that wore typically the same outfits during the movies. The first figures that came out, I loved, we all loved. They looked very good and were sculpted by the elite “Four Horsemen” team. Once we were presented with the four main characters, we were given a multitude of variations each one using the same bodies, the same heads, and re-used outfits from other lines such as Batman (despite Mattel denying this). It was lazy, the quality of the figures and the collectability of the figures was poor and eventually the line was taken over by Mattel’s in house team of designers. The figures, while were still good, suffered. The likenesses (mainly due to rights) suffered on the Louis, Dana, and Vigo figures. Quality and sales went down as prices went up, and yet it was the fans who were blamed.

Overpriced Shipping Costs
I wrote a lengthy topic on the shipping costs from MattyCollector a few weeks ago, that can be read here. To summarize the findings, I found that Mattel (Digital River) shipped all UPS packages regardless of where they were going, as if they were going to the furthest location in the United States away from them. I was able to prove that Mattel not only overcharged by a minimum of 16% but as high as 919%, not factoring in any UPS discounts or surcharges. Everyone should be upset about this. Over the course of the Ghostbusters line, most fans have overpaid by $40 or $50 on shipping alone, that’s 2 or more figures you could have gotten for free. It gets even more grim with an item like the PKE Meter, which has the shipment calculated at 3.5lbs per box, when in reality the weight is closer to 1.5 to 2lbs. This overage has resulted in me personally having been overcharged by 500% on two separate shipments. Another shipment pricing disparity can be quickly seen by adding a large number of items into your cart. Mattel’s shipping calculator breaks, and starts charging astronomical prices for shipping for no apparent reason, usually with a jump of 80% by just adding 1 more item to your cart. When contacted about this Mattel denied these allegations, even though anyone can go directly to their site and verify this information.

Billing and Shipping Problems
We have seen firsthand a number of problems with MattyCollector (Digital River) in regards to billing and shipping practices. Mainly having to do with subscriptions, and the now dead Club Ecto-1 subscription service. Some fans have reported that MattyCollector would ship orders to old addresses, despite having updated the address on file. Some were charged for subscriptions even after they were cancelled, or after the credit card had expired. We even saw reports of fans having received opened boxes with the action figure completely removed, or used (open) items sold as new. Most spectacularly and recently when Mattel shipped out the green Slimer “rewards” for having subscribed to Club Ecto-1 for 2012. They shipped them to addresses on file from July 2011, when the subscription was created. They didn’t as much as contact subscribers to ensure the addresses were correct, nor bother checking their customers’ current addresses already on file. When contacted about this, MattyCollector (Digital River’s customer service) said it was the buyer’s fault for not having the correct address already updated… and that is despite some fans having ALREADY updated their address. And regarding those Slimer rewards that were mailed out at the end of 2012, which had come far later than they had promised, Mattel only shipped one Slimer independent of how many Club Ecto-1 subscriptions were purchased. Mattel stated that they wanted to get the Slimers out before 2012, and would be sending the remainder out at a later date. I believe that this was a complete mistake on Mattel’s fault, and they didn’t have enough Slimer’s to cover all the subscriptions. The replacement Slimers were sent out 1 month later, which is just about exactly the amount of time it would have taken to produce more. Those that had their Slimers shipped to the wrong address are left with nothing, as MattyCollector will not send replacements to the corrected addresses on file.

Fan Treatment
When the line first started, Mattel was great to engage with the fans and were actually doing some phenomenal work. I was personally involved with some decisions regarding the 6″ figures in terms of accuracy, and was contacted to help on the Vigo, and the 6″ Slime Blowers a full year before they would be released, and provided input on a Gozer character. Ghostbusters Fans was seen as a resource for Mattel to use to improve their products, and also as a great marketing channel. We were given special information, even figures for review, well before they were released to the public. Once the line was decided to be officially dead in 2011, we were cut off completely. Despite having basically been the go to resource (aside from the archives at Sony). Once the line was on its way out… so was our community as far as Mattel was concerned.

The poor treatment of the fans didn’t stop there. I was actually banned from MattyCollector’s forum in 2011 for simply participating in a discussion about what Ghostbusters figures I had personally purchased, and for defending our website against the flock of rule breaking former members that migrated to MattyCollector’s website. Another fan reports having been banned from MattyCollector’s Facebook page for merely pointing out a grammatical error on one of their posts.

Through all of this, Mattel has always blamed the problem on the fans. ‘The fans didn’t buy enough products. There wasn’t enough interest. Not enough fans purchased subscriptions… etc.’ All of that was poor planning and marketing on Mattel’s’ part. They were doing things as cheaply as possible to make a buck as easily as possible, and viewed the Ghostbusters license as something they could do easily, while making a premium amount of money. Ghostbusters fans are more frugal than that.

The Hoverboard Fiasco
While not directly related to Ghostbusters, the Hoverboard from Back to the Future is a great example of Mattel’s poor business practices and possibly fraud. A year ago, Mattel set out to build a prop replica of the Hoverboard from Back to the Future. They offered them for pre-order early last year and finally shipped in December of last year. The fans were promised a high quality prop replica on par with the PKE Meter and Ghost Trap that Mattel had previously released. What fans got was an inaccurate plastic pink board with stickers, despite being promised so much more. During previews at San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con a “prototype” was shown which was promised to be only a prototype, and that the final version would be much better. To ease fans’ minds, they allowed orders to be cancelled after NYCC, but still promised that the fans hadn’t seen a final version yet. The fans were promised the special holographic lenticular film would be used, and on the final version it was absent. Mattel promised the hoverboard would be as accurate as possible, but neglected to say it would be as accurate as they could afford to make, while still generating a large profit. Once the pre-orders were in, they dropped the ball and coasted with a ‘good enough’ attitude. Customers are left with the closing opportunity to return their hoverboards for a refund and to be left with nothing.

Meanwhile… NECA, McFarlane, Hasbro, Diamond Select Toys and others are making higher quality action figures and prop replicas for more obscure franchises at a lower price.

I personally believe that at this point in time, the only competent company that can release anything up to the standards set forth by the community is NECA. Not the NECA we knew 10 years ago when they last had the license. But the current NECA that is now producing amazing prop replicas, and amazing action figures and displays. We as Ghostbusters Fans should stand up and ask Sony Pictures and NECA to work together to produce the next level of Ghostbusters props and action figures that we DO deserve and we DO need right now. Sony should allow the license to expire after the lackluster Ecto Goggles are released, and shop it to a more competant company like NECA.

Do you have a MattyCollector horror story, or want to add to this story? Post in this thread.

Please share this was as many fans as you can. Ghostbusters fans aren’t the only ones to bring these problems up, nor will we be the last if the company does not change.

-AJ Quick
Webmaster of Ghostbusters Fans
http://www.GBFans.com/

I know, I know. More Ghostbusters 3 news. It seems like the “will he / won’t he” has finally ended with a regretful won’t. Recently Metro.co.uk interviewed Dan Aykroyd about Ghostbusters 3 and Bill Murray’s involvement. Here is what he had to say:

Is Ghostbusters 3 finally happening?
Yes, we’ve got a brilliant new writer on it and we’ll be passing the torch on to a new generation. We’re working on it to make it just right to satisfy our fans. I’m confident we’ll be in production in the next year.
It’s been a long process, hasn’t it?
Yes, but now we’ve got the studio on side. We’ve tried a few concepts which weren’t right but now we’ve got a good structure and will make it happen.
Is Bill Murray doing it?
No, I can tell you he won’t be involved.
How do you feel about that?
It’s sad but we’re passing it on to a new generation. Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn’t seem to be coming and we have to move on. It’s time to make the third one.

It is sad news, but it is nice to have some kind of resolution to all of this. I love Bill Murray and think he was an integral part of the success of the series thus far. Will Ghostbusters 3 be able to stand up without him? I guess only time will tell.

Via: GhostbustersNews.com

You can hear the fans audibly groaning from around the globe. Mattel released this press release regarding the “thank you” gift for those that signed up for the subscription service before it’s cancelation.

While this is completely free and was by no means necessary, it is still a let down. At least in this Ghostbusters fan’s opinion. This is now the fourth version of Slimer made available by Matty. Just because it is the “number one most fan-demanded ghost” doesn’t mean I need 4 of him. This being the exact same as the first version, but he glows in the dark. I guess it’s a good thing Matty was planning to discontinue this line, because I don’t know that I could keep putting money into it.

[/via Ghostbusters News]

A while back we reported how Matty’s Stay Puft was turning yellow and falling apart. Last night GhostbustersNews.com reported the official response from Matty:

Ghostbusters™ Customers,
Hopefully, the vast majority of you have been enjoying the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figures we offered here at MattyCollector.com and San Diego Comic-Con last year. After an exhaustive investigation into the issue of why some of the figures are yellowing, here’s what we’ve discovered:

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figure was fully tested and approved prior to being offered for sale. The figure passed all standard product tests, as well as a specialized test specific to the new foam material used. The yellowing some figures have experienced didn’t appear until a number of months after the product’s release. The yellowing is due to an unforeseen chemical reaction between the paint and material used in its construction.

Because we stand 100% behind the products we sell, we’re offering full refunds to any customer who would like to return their defective figure. We’re sorry but we won’t be able to offer exchanges. We will, however, gladly refund the original price for figures purchased either at MattyCollector.com or our booth at San Diego Comic-Con, as well as refund the original cost of shipping for figures shipped from MattyCollector.com. And in both cases, the cost to return the product to our warehouse will be covered by us.

If you would like a refund, here’s what to do:

If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com for Pickup at SDCC
For orders that were placed during the voucher pre-sale and picked up at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price will be issued on the card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.

If You Purchased at the MattyCollector.com SDCC Booth
For those customers who purchased the figure directly at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will create a ticket and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a check for the original purchase price will be issued and mailed to you at the address you provided to the agent. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.

If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com During Our Post-SDCC Sale
For orders that were placed during the post-SDCC sale at MattyCollector.com and shipped directly to you, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price and shipping will be issued on the original card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us.

Finally, we know how much you like the giant diorama package that came with the figure and we’re happy to leave it with you as a “thank you” for your business. If you choose to return your Stay Puft figure, you won’t need to return the diorama package to receive the refund.

To learn more about what we’re doing to continually improve, please read this article. Delivering the most fan-demanded designs in the highest possible quality is truly our top priority and we appreciate your business!

–Matty

So in a nutshell, they are willing to give a full refund including shipping. Plus, you get to keep the diorama and the box. They just want your busted Stay Puft. I imagine trying to return it at the SDCC booth would be quite the cluster. I am a little torn myself.

Will you be returning yours? Or keeping it?

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time the Ghostbusters have been worked over by He-Man.

A sad day for Ghostbusters nerds, but not all that surprising. Most of us saw the writing on the wall after Matty cancelled the Club Ecto subscription plan. Scott Neitlich, Mattel’s brand manager in charge of the Ghostbusters license confirmed the cancelation:

After we did not receive enough sub holders in 2012, we could not get additional development resources for more figures so we move the most fan demanded figure that was already in development to the SDCC slot. Fans really do vote with their purchase and the sub not selling was a big red flag that we don’t have enough customers for the 6″ GB line right now.

In other words: Not enough money coming in to justify producing new figures. The Ghostbusters line was outsold by the DC Universe line, as well as the Master of the Universe line. There is a lot of speculation as to why this is the case.

Honestly, had GB sold in the realm of MOTUC or DCU we could talk more figures, but at the end of the day, we just don’t have enough customers to keep the line going. Only the core movie 1 figures sold at the numbers we needed, and really of these, only Peter did well. After that, all figures, including fan demanded figures like Vigo, just did not sell the number of units we needed to produce more figures. We can only make figures when their is a customer base buying them.

If you want my two cents on the matter I think Matty focussed on quantity of figures released over quality of them. While there are some real gems in this set, there are just as many recycled figures. I understand these measures were taken to help save some money with production costs rising. For me, it feels like Matty came just short of awesome on most of their Ghostbusters releases. My latest review for the Rookie figure is a great example of this. Another could be the Ghost Trap with the grinding gears or Stay Puft with the liver condition that turns him yellow.

All of this said, I am still really grateful that we got something. There was quite the drought for a long time for fanatics of the series like myself. I think now my pocket book will be thankful that this line has been discontinued. On a positive note, Matty has said it will address some form of a refund for fans that purchased the Stay Puft. And the “thank you” for those of us that signed up for Club Ecto is still in the works. Matty also announced it plans to continue producing larger Ghostbusters items next year. And in the unlikely event that Ghostbusters 3 does happen, they will be all over it.

Thanks to Proton Charging for the great write up that brought this to my attention.