For the various Ghostbusters Cartoon series. Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters and more!
#4945498
So I've been wondering for awhile, why didn't Kenner make ghost busters figures based off tge ghosts from the cartoon? I know that the Real Ghostbusters was not as merchandise driven as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In that cartoon characters were created simply to sell toys. Why couldn't Kenner have done the opposite, create figures from the villian of the weeks? Even some of the back ground ghosts would have made neat figures. Would they of needed to pay the writers and artists of the cartoon?
#4945501
South Suburbs GBFan presented an interesting possibility in this topic, that the non-core character designs may've been tied up by legal red tape from being the intellectual property of DiC's animation studios and/or artists:
South Suburbs GBFan wrote: January 28th, 2021, 3:40 pm Something else just occurred to me: Why did we never get Boogieman, Sandman, what, et al alongside Banshee Bomber and the others on the shelves?

Answer: As with all other things, the ghosts and monsters would have been DiC property too. Kenner's license extended to the core Ghostbusters, Slimer, Stay-Puft, ECTO-1 and ECTO-2. (As an amusing aside, this may also be why the Louis figurine looks like Rick Moranis instead of the cartoon version--presumably, as a side character, his likeness rights came cheap.)

This might be why we got all the Fright Features and Super Fright Features characters as well: Peter in brown; Egon in cool grey; Ray in tan; and Winston in light blue are DiC's characters. But! Egon in black with purple; Winston in a green spacesuit; Peter in a gray suit with waders and yellow suspenders; and Ray in blue with a silver techno-vest...All of these are Kenner properties.
#4945602
It's about half that and half "Kenner just didn't feel like licensing out the creatures from the show." The designer from Kenner, who did the panel at Fan Fest, cited the creative freedom with designing the monsters as the best part of the job.

EDIT: Rather surprisingly, GBFans' spell-check doesn't accept W-A-T even though it's a proper name. (Is there some kind of Hastur the Unnamable thing going on with him?)
#4945611
I'm grateful the ghosts were original because that let me tell original stories with my toys as a kid. That being said sometimes I'd make use of the toys I had to work as ghosts from the show. Did this mock up just for the thread. Can't say I used these exact figures back in the day but they are appropriate to the era. Imagevia Imgflip Meme Generator
#4945659
Again, I find myself at odds with the theories i've read so far, as I think this is less of a legal issue and more of a communication issue/influence issue. I currently am working on a ThunderCats Wiki (which has a section for sister series SilverHawks) and watching the dvd extra "Partly Real, Partly Metal, Remembering the Silverhawks". They do quite a bit of talking about the Kenner toys (interviewing Tom McGrath the Kenner's Marketing Director) and it seems that the writers for the show actually took some ideas from Kenner, mostly those weapon birds/fighting hawks which came with the characters in the toy line. Honestly, considering that they were suggesting stuff to put in episodes is something I couldn't see flying with JMS there. That might be the real reason. If that be the case, maybe we are better off with the questionable toys we got and the decent episodes that were made without the toy company interference.
#4945664
It's more than likely a "both, and" situation. JMS wanted to be free of Kenner's influence; Kenner didn't want to pay any more licensing than they had to. Kenner was paying Columbia for the name, Ray Parker Jr. for the song lyrics, (possibly) Cadillac/Miller-Meteor/GM for ECTO-1; and Volkswagen for Highway Haunter.
#4945793
Actually, the Bug Eye ghost appeared twice on The Real Ghostbusters. Information about his appearances can be found here:https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Bu ... t/Animated

Also, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but in the season six episode "The Slob" when the Ghostbusters go to the Bay Bridge Garbage dump The Glob animates some pieces of garbage including a toilet. When I watched this episode the first time, I had wondered if the animated toilet was a reference to Fearsome Flush from the Kenner toy line.
Last edited by Peter Venkman Jr. on February 11th, 2021, 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
#4945813
Peter Venkman Jr. wrote: February 10th, 2021, 10:06 am Actually, the Bug Eye ghost appeared twice on The Real Ghostbusters. Information about his appearances can be found here:https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Bu ... t/Animated

Also, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but in the season six episode "The Slob" when the Ghostbusters go to the Bay Bridge Garbage dump The Glob animates some pieces of garbage including a toilet. When I watch this episode the first time, I had wondered if the animated toilet was a reference to Fearsome Flush from the Kenner toy line.
In that same episode, the Ecto-Bomber appears, to boot. My recollection has the toy coming out first, the episode later.

But yeah, cross-polination between the toy line and the show was very sparse, especially for the time.
#4972548
Coover5 wrote: September 13th, 2022, 6:57 pm Didn't want to start a new topic just to ask...

Was I the only one who thought Granny Gross Ghost was supposed to be the librarian from GB1?
As a kid that's what I had assumed.
#4972674
As a kid, I was always a little bummed we didn't get a toy version of the Japanese Ecto-Ichi from Attack of the B-Movie Monsters. That thing was toyetic as heck.

Image

I also wanted some Peoplebusters action figures.
#4972677
ghoulishfright wrote: September 17th, 2022, 4:51 pm As a kid, I was always a little bummed we didn't get a toy version of the Japanese Ecto-Ichi from Attack of the B-Movie Monsters. That thing was toyetic as heck.

Image

I also wanted some Peoplebusters action figures.
Cool as heck, plus it might've caught the eye of a few Back to the Future fans and gotten a few crossover sales from fans of that trilogy. You can't tell me the team wasn't thinking about the flying DeLorean when they drew the Ichi up.
#4972717
@Golishfright: Yeah, Ecto Ichi would have an amazing toy likewise I would have gladly paid for People Busters action figures. Also, it still surprises me to this day that the toy line never had a boat or any type of watercraft for The Ghostbusters to use. Ironically, when Playmobil was making the Real Ghostbusters sets Winston was released with a Wave Runner.
ghoulishfright liked this
#4973166
joezlo wrote: September 14th, 2022, 10:23 am It's crazy that Swamp Thing had 5 episodes and a more comprehensive character line of toys than GB.
I was surprised as an adult when looking at imdb to find out that Swamp Thing only ran for 5 episodes. It's bolony it got a DVD release but other cartoons did not.

Also, you'll all insist I am wrong, but I swear there was an episode in the early 90s that had the ghost toilet in it. I do remember that.

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