Mattel’s 12″ Ghostbusters Ray Stantz Figure Who ya gonna call?
It’s not often that I get surprised by a product. I saw
the prototypes for Mattel’s 12" Ghostbustersat Comic Con over the summer. I thought they looked pretty good. I
don’t collect very many 12" scale figures any more. The only ones
worth collecting these days cost a lot of money and I spent way too
much money in the past on mediocre Hasbro 12" Star Wars figures.
If I’m being completely honest I think I might have passed on
Mattel’s 12" Ghostbuster line. $60… this close to the holidays…the 6"
are cheaper…
I think that we can all agree that unless you are a hardcore
Ghostbusters fan that it’s hard to commit to $60 a quarter after only
seeing a few PowerPoint slides and some prototypes behind glass. 1/6th
scale is a TOUGH form to master. So far there have been only a
handful of companies to get it right… Sideshow and Hot Toys being the
top two currently. But what about one of the "big two?" There have
been a lot of attempts to break into that market from Mattel and
Hasbro… with very mixed results.
How does Mattel’s new venture stack up? Like I said, it
takes a lot to surprise me, but they have done it. This is 12" done
right. And the tough part is, you need to see it to believe it. Just
to be sure that I wasn’t looking at it through rose colored glasses, I
invited a few other collector buddies (in the form of Jeremy aka
SpyMagician and Chris aka Flash Ahh-Ahhhhh! ) over to the house today
to have a look at it and they agreed with my assessment of the
figures. They are really well done, and well worth $60 a pop
(especially when you can’t get a Sideshow figure for under $80 these
days).
The thing that was most striking was as I opened the figure,
was everything that I thought to myself "I wonder if …..?." the answer
always came back "yes." The Mattel team put a lot of effort and
thought into their latest dip into the 12" figure pool. Now I’m
excited not only for the continuation of this line, but also Superman
the Move 12" and whatever they have up their sleeves after that.
The 12" Ray Stantz figure will
go on sale at MattyCollector.com on October 15th. The Package Your 12" Ghostbusters Dr. Raymond Stantz will ship with
inside an outer white box like most products coming from
MattyCollector.com, in order to protect the inner packaging. Inside
you will notice that the box has some heft to it. As you can see from
the photos below, he’s well displayed and visible in the inner box, and
the inner box is pretty spectacular. The background in the package has
many of the ghosts from the first film, including Slimer and the
Librarian printed on it, and there are two other ghosts printed on the
outer plastic to give the scene even more depth. At his feet is an
open ghost trap made of cardboard that is part of the packaging.
There’s also a cool new 25th Anniversary logo in the top left of the
package.
The left part of the box that says "Stantz" slides
out fully to reveal a "locker" for Ray’s gear. Inside you will find
the Ghost Trap and trigger, the PK goggles, his walkie-talkie (with
holster) and alternate, gloveless hands. This is another great touch
for this awesome packaging.
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The head sculpt used for the 12" Ray Stantz is
completely different than the one used on the 6" figure. Some people
have mentioned they thought the 12" Ray was a bit more stylized or
"cartoonish" as compared to his 6" counterpart. The difference being
that the 12" heads were sculpted by Mattel’s in house team and the 6"
figures were sculpted by the Four Horsemen. To me it does look like a
young Dan Aykroyd, and that’s what you want. There are some 12"
figures out on the market that you pick up and think, "I look more like
the character than this figure does, and I don’t look anything like the
character." So the fact that the figure is immediately identifiable is
a win in that column.
The Body Mattel has developed a brand new 12" body with some
unique articulation. They really did put a lot of thought and effort
into the design of the form so it will work for a variety of
licenses.
The most interesting new point of articulation is found
in the shoulders and chest. The shoulders rotate forward and back,
but the interesting thing is that the figure’s pectorals move with the
shoulders. It’s a little hard to explain, and since I didn’t want to
undress the complex costume on my figure I couldn’t see exactly how
that worked. So, I asked Mattel if they had any pictures of their new
12" body. I don’t relish the thought of a naked Dan Aykroyd on AFi
any more than you do… but this is science!… well not science, but toys!
The figure also has double knee and elbow joints and
has great articulation in the legs and feet, including the toes. The
joints on mine are just right and he stands just fine without a figure
stand.
Thanks to the gang at Mattel for these shots.
And some action shots of the body
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The Uniform Most 1/6 figures tank in the clothing department. It’s
just so hard to get the materials to behave properly in that scale.
Mattel has clearly worked very hard on this making sure the jumpsuit
with all it’s patches, pouches, pockets and zippers look like their
on-screen counterparts, and they have done a damn good job of it. The
straps and belt work well and look movie accurate. They even put the
zipper on the boots instead of recycling some other pair of boots they
might have had a mold for. The elbow pads hold together with Velcro and
are removable, and as mentioned earlier he comes with both gloved and
bare hands so you can chose which way you want to display Ray. I guess
if you really want something nit-picky, the jumpsuit does come untucked
from the boots in some poses. In those instances… um…tuck them back
in.
The Proton Pack The proton pack is a thing of beauty. It looks SO good
on it’s own, and then to have it light up as well, that’s just the
icing on the cake. There is a button on the base of the proton pack
that when pushed activates the sequence of four lights. I haven’t
counted how many cycles the four lights go through before they shut
off, but it was long enough for me to wonder if I had to push the
button again to turn them off.
All of the decals have actual text on them even at that
scale, and actual wire is used for the tubing and wires. The pack
mounts to the harness frame that the figure wears, but the pack is
easily removable from the harness so you can replace the batteries if
needed. The nozzle attaches to the side of the pack for storage via a
pin, much the way it does on the 6" figures. The paint is sharp and
the pack has some nice dry brush weathering on it.
The Goggles
The Ghost Trap
The ghost trap was another amazing surprise. It would
have been easy to cheap out on it since it’s just an accessory. But
Mattel went the other way and made it amazing. The doors of the trap
are spring loaded with the push of a button, the foot pedal is spring
loaded and the hose disconnects from the trap.
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Comparisons 
There you have it. I really can’t say enough good things about this figure. It surprised me and made me want more.
As I said it really is tough to see how nice this is
unless you see it in person, so if you have any more questions about
the figure or need to see more pictures,
post on the 12" Ghostbusters thread in the AFi forum and I’ll try to get you those answers.
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Subject: Re: Mattel Ghostbusters Figures 
Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:13 am
