It’s going to be hard to explain to all of you how cool this is. I’ll try to sum it up in a dollar amount. To build a PKE meter through a GB prop forum, you’re going to drop about $100 on a resin shell and wings, and somewhere between $200 to $300 on the electronics. Toss on top of that paint, sandpaper and your time, it becomes a pretty expensive prop not a lot of people are familiar with.

Well, Mattel is releasing a screen accurate PKE meter later this year. And its cool for two reasons. The first being the price point, around $50. Based off of what I explained earlier, you can understand my excitement for reason one. The second reason is more of an assumption. Could this mean more props from Matty Collector? Master Replica had the rights but went under just before the Ghost Trap was released. Let’s all cross our fingers that we might be getting a screen accurate Ghost Trap from Matty.

Our good friends at One Shot posted a video of their first night at the SDCC. That rat bastard got a chance to see the Ecto-1 in person, as well as some cool collector announcements I’ll do a post about soon. Namely a $50 PKE meter. For those not in the know, that’s roughly $350 cheaper than building the prop for yourself.

JoBlo’s posted an interview with Bill Murray for an issue of GQ. He’s frank (as always) and still hilarious. Here’s an excerpt:

GQ: Is the third Ghostbusters movie happening? What’s the story with that?

Murray: It’s all a bunch of crock. It’s a crock. There was a story—and I gotta be careful here, I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. When I hurt someone’s feelings, I really want to hurt them. [laughs] Harold Ramis said, Oh, I’ve got these guys, they write on The Office, and they’re really funny. They’re going to write the next Ghostbusters. And they had just written this movie that he had directed.

Year One.

Year One. Well, I never went to see Year One, but people who did, including other Ghostbusters, said it was one of the worst things they had ever seen in their lives. So that dream just vaporized. That was gone. But it’s the studio that really wants this thing. It’s a franchise. It’s a franchise, and they made a whole lot of money on Ghostbusters.

Oh, sure, I remember. The soundtrack. The lunchboxes. The action figures.

Right. And it’s still one of the biggest movies of all time. And ever since that story broke, everywhere I go people are like, “So are you gonna make that movie?” I was down in Austin at South by Southwest, and you go at it hard down there—fun but, man, you need to sleep for days afterwards. Anyhow, I got into it one night with a bunch of younger people who were like, Oh, I love Peter Venkman! I grew up with Peter Venkman! We got to talking, and the more we talked about it, the more I thought, Oh Christ, I should just do this thing.

For those that have followed any of my Matty reviews, usually I include a gripe about their ordering being a huge pain in the ass. Their latest press release shows how they’re going to fix that:

Ghostbusters™ fans, your loyalty to this iconic brand is about to be rewarded… I’m thrilled to announce the all-new 2011 Club Ecto-1 – an annual subscription service that guarantees you’ll receive every standard 6” Ghostbusters™ figure released throughout the year!

How Club Ecto-1 Works

•Purchase a membership to Club Ecto-1 for $20 and you are guaranteed to receive all six of the 6” Ghostbusters figures released during the year. You also receive a club-exclusive figure (to be announced July 23rd at our Mattypalooza Fan Panel).

•About every other month in 2011, starting in January, you’re automatically shipped the 6” Club Ecto-1 Figure, for a total of 6 throughout the year. Each figure is $20, plus shipping costs and applicable fees/taxes.

•Exact figures are announced approximately two to three months from each on-sale date. The January, March, and club-exclusive figures will be revealed on July 23rd at the Mattypalooza Friday fan panel at San Diego Comic-Con, then here on MattyCollector.com.

•Figures begin processing (meaning they are billed and shipped) approximately two (2) business days prior to the official on-sale date. Along with guaranteed figures and the club-exclusive figure, this is one of our members’ favorite benefits because they usually start getting their figures sooner than non-members!

•The special club-exclusive figure will be shipped sometime around the first quarter of the year. The figure is included in the cost of the membership ($20), however applicable shipping and taxes/fees will be charged at the time of shipment.

•Special convention items, reissues, stands, or other accessories, are not included.

•All figures EXCEPT the club-exclusive figure will also be available at MattyCollector.com around the 15th of each month without the membership. You will have the option to buy additional figures, but availability isn’t guaranteed and the purchase limit is ten (10) per person.

•The only way to purchase the club-exclusive figure through Mattel is to buy a membership to Club Ecto-1. This item will not be sold separately on MattyCollector.com!

About Memberships

•Memberships are available for purchase from 7/21 at 4 p.m. PT through 8/4 at 4 p.m. PT here on MattyCollector.com. They can also be purchased at the Mattel booth located at San Diego Comic-Con during the convention.

•Once the enrollment period has ended, memberships cannot be purchased until the following year.

•Memberships are $20 each, plus the cost of the figures, shipping, and applicable taxes/fees.

•Your total commitment per membership is $140 (6 figures at $20 each = $120, plus $20 membership fee), plus shipping costs and applicable fees/taxes.

•You may purchase as many memberships as you want during the on-sale period. There are no limits.

•Once purchased, memberships may not be cancelled.

•When you purchase a membership, your credit card will be pre-authorized for the cost of the membership plus the first month’s figure. Your credit card will then be automatically charged every other month approximately two (2) business days prior to the official on-sale date of each figure. For more information about pre-authorizations, please visit the shop FAQs http://bit.ly/c2MP9t.

•Applicable taxes and fees apply and are billed as figures are processed. Please visit the shop FAQs for more information about domestic and international taxes and fees http://bit.ly/c2MP9t.

•Shipping costs apply and will vary depending on the destination, weight of the package, and the shipping method chosen. These costs are billed as figures are processed.

•If you purchase more than one membership at the same time, all figures purchased in a single transaction are shipped together to the “ship to” address given at the time of purchase.

•Should your card expire during the membership period, you’ll be able to update any credit card information. You can also change your billing and/or shipping address.

•Other figures purchased outside the membership (MOTU, additional Ghostbusters™, etc.) are charged and shipped separately.

Remember, Club Ecto-1 subscriptions are only available for a limited time. The 2011 membership subscription purchase period ends on August 4th at 4 p.m. PT, so get one while you can!

Isn’t that cool? So basically if you’re planning on buying all of them, sign up and get an extra figure that no one else will get. Woot!

Alright boys and girls, lots more Minimates to report. It seems like the first few series sold well, so Art Assylum has opened the flood gates on Ghostbusters Minimates. Which of course, is fine by me.

Out this week at most of your fine local comic shops, Series 3 (Marshmallow covered Egon & Winston, as well as GB2 Janine and Walter ‘Dickless’ Peck).

Next up, Toys ‘r’ Us exclusive Series 3 containing GB2 Ray and Peter, Janoz (with party hat), The Mayor, Statue of Liberty and a handful of ghosts.

Now time for the San Diego Comic Con exlusives. First up, the guys in their GB2 gear, but with tan jump suits instead of grey.

And last but not least from SDCC, the “We’re Ready to Believe You” set. This is based off of the commercial in the first movie. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but this is the majority of Minimates coming out right now.

This will be an exclusive game in Japan. Its a new pachinko game. Here’s a snippet from wikipedia about pachinko games:

Pachinko (パチンコ?) is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and gambling. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but with no flippers and a large number of relatively small balls. The player fires a ball up into the machine, controlling only its initial speed. The ball then cascades down through a dense forest of pins. In most cases, the ball falls to the bottom and is lost, but if it instead goes into certain pockets, more balls are released as a jackpot.

Via SlashFilm

Pretty much everyone BUT Bill Murray is saying this movie is going to happen. The most recent edition has come from Harold Ramis:

“And what are you working on now?”

“Well, there’s been a lot of talk about a third Ghostbusters film, which has now become real.”

“Really?!”

“It’s… I can say with some certainty that there will be a third movie. It won’t be out until Christmas 2012, but the work is going on now.”

“You’ll be in it?”

“All the old guys will be back, we’ll introduce some new guys…”

“Egon comes back, huh?”

“Egon, yeah, yeah…”

Also, in this super kick-ass video about a fan Ecto-1 that makes me extraordinarily envious, Dan mentions there being a new Ecto-1 and some new ghostbustin’ gear:

Ecto 1 Maiden Voyage from JTurchetta on Vimeo.

I don’t know how keen I am on a new Ecto 1 or equipment (Extreme Ghostbusters anyone?). But it would make sense to have updated all that over the course of 25 years. Most likely the Ecto-1 would’ve been destroyed at some point. Meh. Mo’ Ghostbusters is mo’ Ghostbusters. I can’t complain.

Harold Ramis quotes via: ABC.

Coming soon to a nerd near you, Matty Collector’s next figures in their Ghostbusters series: Peter Venkman and Walter Peck.

Peter comes covered in slime with Onion Head. Walter Peck comes with the containment unit and a spare trap. Pretty cool if you ask me. Venkman goes up on June 15th and Peck(er) posts on May 17th. Keep in mind 12″ Venkman sold out in just a few days. So mark your calendars if you really want these guys.

via: Matty Collector.com

I have a love-hate relationship with Matty Collectors. On the one hand, I’m stoked to finally have some movie likeness figures coming out. But on the other hand, I feel like Matty needs to get their freakin’ game tight. For whatever reason, whenever a new Ghostbusters figure comes out on their site, they also release toys from some of the other lines. Because of this, their site is completely overloaded and any transaction is occurring at a snail’s pace. At this point you’d think they would have upgraded their web hosting to help accommodate all this traffic.

If this wasn’t frustrating enough, their figures haven’t always shown up in the best shape. My 12″ Egon had some parts busted off the pack that needed to be super glued. And now Peter suffers from having the sides of his head squished during packaging. Seriously. The generic reply from Matty Collector is basically fix it yourself or send it back for a refund.

Let’s move onto the figure itself. I was super excited to start collecting these guys, and now three in… I’m still just as excited.

Let’s go over some of the pros:
• Super accurate pack that lights up.
• Gorgeous ghost trap with spring loaded doors.
• Flight suit is as accurate as can be, from the patches to the key fobs on the belt.
• Extra nerdy accuracy: Venkmans flight suit is untucked as opposed to the other ‘busters.
• Multiple hands to swap out.
• Awesome poses in the package for those afraid to devirginize their figures.
• Fairly low price point at $60 (plus ridiculously fast shipping).

Now for the cons:
• The head sculpts are good, but they aren’t great. Hot Toys puts Matty to shame in this regard.
• These guys have a hard time standing up, kinda wish they came with a stand of sorts.
• Venkman’s exclusive accessory are folded up gloves for the belt. Kinda lame compared to Egon’s PKE meter and Ray’s Ecto Goggles.

All in all I love these figures. I’ll do a review of the 6″ ones in a little bit, they aren’t quite as over the top awesome as the 12″ line. A lot of it boils down to you getting what you paid for. At $60 these are pretty awesome. Hot Toys figures blows them away, but they’re also between $150 and $200. I highly recommend picking these guys up… sadly… they are currently sold out.

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