[TobinsGuide]

Personally, my priorities are:

- Replace the wire sheath: Done.
- Correct the wire placements based on photo reference: Done.
- Add an ALICE Frame: Installed.
- Replace the P-clip and visible screws on the cyclotron and bumper: Coming soon.
- Find and install a screw and washer for the side next to the V-Hook.
- Rig a USB powered battery pack in place of the D batteries. (Current approach failed. Investigating other options.)
- Replace the V-Hook bracket. I'm not happy with any of my options here. Stock brackets have different screw placements, I think, from the pack itself. BOK has a replacement V-Hook bracket that is functionally very nice and has compatible screw holes but looks different from the screen-used one. I want to 3D print one in steel if there are no better options.
- Replace the front of the Ion arm with a 3D printed facing that takes 2 screws.
- Replace the Clippard elbows with 3D printed brass or brass-finished steel replacements that fit to the pack and connect to real wire.
- Install wire fittings and electrical tape.
- Replace the split loom with real loom, including exposed wires.
- Replace the remaining wires with 3D printed plug adapters for the pack.
- Replace the Ion Arm Resistors.
- Replace the ribbon cable assembly with 84 replica ribbon cable and make an alternate assembly for it that retains pack functionality.
- Replace the cyclotron lenses with something that looks a screen-accurate gray when not illuminated.
- Possibly replace the Clippard valves.
- Replace the control chip with a fan-made chip that keeps power on. These are being developed now. I'm sure they'll exist by the time I do the rest of this. This is the only step that should require soldering as the control chip is soldered to the vibration motor. No other pack connections are soldered.
- Replace the barrel of the Neutrona Wand with something dirtied up and cloudy.
- Install real hardware on the Neutrona Wand.

Only these last three steps require permanent modding and most of that is to the wand, which is much easier to replace. By that point, I'll probably want to upgrade the USB battery pack.

Other possibilities:

- Get ahold of or make a thin motherboard cover that mounts between the ALICE Frame and the pack motherboard to conceal the screws. Honestly, I like the weight as-is so I'd probably be looking at a very thin vinyl sheet, maybe with adhesive veclow pointing if the edges flop. The ALICE Frame should secure it.

I don't have a huge budget to work with and I have other hobbies so this may be slow-going with stops and starts. At various stages of this, hopefully, if I don't lose motivation, the solutions I come up with may interest some of you and may produce parts you can also use.

This may all shift around as parts become available or inspiration strikes me.

UPDATED:

Sell Geek ALICE frame installation photos:

Pack before frame installation:



Sell Geek ALICE frame, as it arrived, loaded and assembled. You can compare the straps here:



Used a magnet to test that it's all steel:





Installed! Note that the horizontal bar sits too low to use those two brackets:



Side view:

[gamera1968]

I have similar plans in mind for whenever mine is delivered.
Please keep us updates w/ pics if you can!

[tobycj]

- Replace the V-Hook bracket. I'm not happy with any of my options here. Stock brackets have different screw placements, I think, from the pack itself. BOK has a replacement V-Hook bracket that is functionally very nice and has compatible screw holes but looks different from the screen-used one. I want to 3D print one in steel if there are no better options.

I'm intending on offering a more screen accurate male v-hook for the Haslab packs soon. I'm going to start measuring up and designing it this evening, so hopefully I'll have something to offer in the next month or so.

[jonogunn]

- Replace the V-Hook bracket. I'm not happy with any of my options here. Stock brackets have different screw placements, I think, from the pack itself. BOK has a replacement V-Hook bracket that is functionally very nice and has compatible screw holes but looks different from the screen-used one. I want to 3D print one in steel if there are no better options.

I'm intending on offering a more screen accurate male v-hook for the Haslab packs soon. I'm going to start measuring up and designing it this evening, so hopefully I'll have something to offer in the next month or so.

A 3D print file?

[tobycj]

I'm intending on offering a more screen accurate male v-hook for the Haslab packs soon. I'm going to start measuring up and designing it this evening, so hopefully I'll have something to offer in the next month or so.

A 3D print file?

Aluminium. I wouldn't trust a 3D printed v-hook myself, so I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else.

[TobinsGuide]

A 3D print file?

Aluminium. I wouldn't trust a 3D printed v-hook myself, so I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else.

Not even 3D printed metal?

[tobycj]

Aluminium. I wouldn't trust a 3D printed v-hook myself, so I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else.

Not even 3D printed metal?

I've zero experience of 3D printed metal, or even where I could get it done, but I assume it would be better than a normal 3D print.

[TobinsGuide]

Not even 3D printed metal?

I've zero experience of 3D printed metal, or even where I could get it done, but I assume it would be better than a normal 3D print.

So, I'm seeing that the GBFans V-Hook setup apparently works near-perfectly but that the holes are too big on it and the pack holes need to be drilled out.

[tobycj]

I've zero experience of 3D printed metal, or even where I could get it done, but I assume it would be better than a normal 3D print.

So, I'm seeing that the GBFans V-Hook setup apparently works near-perfectly but that the holes are too big on it and the pack holes need to be drilled out.

I saw AJ's video, and it does look to work well. I'll be replicating the Afterlife v-hook though, and it will work with the existing Spengler wand v-hook too, whereas the GBFans one requires the wand v-hook to be replaced as well, and is more akin to a GB1/2 hero v-hook.

[TobinsGuide]

Pack before frame installation:



Sell Geek ALICE frame, as it arrived, loaded and assembled. You can compare the straps here:



Used a magnet to test that it's all steel:





Installed! Note that the horizontal bar sits too low to use those two brackets:



Side view:

[One time]

Weird. That frame looks like a Rothco?

It should fit the horizontal bar clamps. It does on mine?

[Mercifull]

Weird. That frame looks like a Rothco?

It should fit the horizontal bar clamps. It does on mine?

SellGeek did say they commissioned it from someone else. Could be the Rothco design just made with steel instead of aluminium. I dunno. I don't have one to really compare.

[TobinsGuide]

Weird. That frame looks like a Rothco?

It should fit the horizontal bar clamps. It does on mine?

SellGeek did say they commissioned it from someone else. Could be the Rothco design just made with steel instead of aluminium. I dunno. I don't have one to really compare.

There are very subtle differences from the Rothco. The shape of where the frame connects on the back is different. The indentations on the center bar are at different heights. The curve of the outer braces is at a different angle.

I think Sell Geek essentially went to an unknown company who KOed a Rothco but with higher build quality and more expensive materials and made a bunch of small, arbitrary changes to avoid getting sued. They obviously don't want to reveal the company or we could probably go buy another run direct and cheaper.

In the end, when wearing a pack, nobody will be able to tell a difference between this, a Rothco, or a Fox 10 feet away. They'll see that the pack is suspended on a frame and maybe that the kidney pads are tied to a round connector, unlike the GI issued LC1 with a flat strap connection point.

I mostly got this because I figured it looked milspec (accurate to Afterlife) and because it should probably never bend or snap. I figured it was worth a one time extra $50 to get insurance that it wouldn't bend or snap and it was a bonus that they threw in the insulation, pre-cut and ready.

The top and bottom vertical brackets are doing most of the work. The middle vertical bracket sticks way out from the frame in an uncomfortable way and isn't really bearing any load. I might remove it or I might pad over it.

The Afterlife packs in the movie used padding on the crossbar when worn and this would cover up most of the mounting technique here.

That gets into a funny screen accuracy question since I think the packs on screen were always padded when worn and never padded when not worn? So from an in-universe perspective, the padding doesn't exist. But from the perspective of capturing the same feeling the actors had when filming, the padding is nice. This is not unlike the question of whether a replica pack should have sound or where the sound should come from.

[TobinsGuide]

Oh. And the Sell Geek has one quick release on the left strap.

I think current Rothco straps have one quick release on the right strap?

But used to have them on the left strap and may have done both straps at one point?

And that at least one of Phoebe's packs had two left straps with quick releases? Obvious answer being that the Afterlife prop folks bought multiple straps to get two quick releases.

In any case, from a deep dive, I gather that Rothco and Fox had different frame designs in different production runs. Fox sometimes uses steel crossbars, which is the only other case I can find of steel being used and it wasn't on the outer frame as well like this. They're designed to a set of loose specs rather than a single design. Some Fox frames don't have the spacer mounting brackets on the bottom bar at all.

And actual military frames can vary. I guess the DoD went to a variety of defense contractors with loose specs, who placed bids to manufacture the frames. And those specs were designed around mounting cloth ruck sacks. Different runs of the GI frames have different crossbar heights and widths. The Proton Pack Is Not A Toy on Youtube had trouble with his GI LC1 frame because of the bar widths whereas other people have had no problem.

This was probably never noticed before because people using these frames as intended had cloth attachment points to the frame. And Ghostbusters prop makers and fans drilled holes through the center crossbar to mount packs. I doubt anyone ever measured the height of the cross connector or the bar widths on all screen-used packs to look for variances. It wouldn't be relevant unless you used brackets like this to mount the frame.

I am seeing now that genuine frames and milspec vary, even from GI to GI and Fox frame to Fox frame.

If I had to guess, the OG 1984 frames are probably all the same because they were probably sourced together as surplus from a single production run only a few years after they were produced, so they were probably part of a new, unused lot of surplus from a single source. The 1989 frames might vary beyond being LC2 in some cases and were more likely used or modified.

But having a military issued LC1 frame is probably no guarantee that what you got is identical to a 1984 Ghostbusters frame, despite that being conventional wisdom.

Because those were probably made over a range of years by different defense contractors at different factories to supplied military specifications. Which might not have specified bar widths or decorations elements or instead supplied a range for those features.

Again, you'd never notice with a cloth sack or if you mount it with a hole drilled in it. You'd only notice with bracket mounting.

But now I want to see comparison photos packs using GI issued LC1 frames to see if the LC1 frames all match one another. My hunch is that they don't because people are having different outcomes on the Haslab pack using the "same" frame.

I know for a fact that Fox has varied from run to run on design and materials. And that Rothco straps haven't stayed consistent.

I thought about putting Rothco straps on this but, frankly, these straps feel really good and don't slip. And I know the Rothco straps I get on Amazon probably likely won't be identical to the ones from the movie due to changes in the quick release. And a screen accurate setup would have me using a left strap on my right shoulder. And Rothco straps are known to slip.

At the end of the day, what any of us do is just as likely to be accurate to what the Propmaster on GB4 does as what anyone else does unless they just reuse the Afterlife prop. All of this stuff is built to specs, not formed out of a single mold unless you're buying repro parts.

And while I think the Afterlife pack was cast from a hero pack from Ghostbusters, if it weren't for the fact that cosplayers and prop replica enthusiasts had preserved those molds, Ben Eadie probably would have done what Hasbro did and made an idealized pack from measurements and photos.

Heck, he might have done that anyway for the cyclotron disassembly scene. No way did the hero pack with the spinning light fixture contain a cyclotron inside.

The Hasbro pack is probably the first and only pack produced that has both cyclotron details when you remove the bump connector and shock mount AND working lights. Wow. That JUST hit me. We SEE it all as one pack because that's how the movie presents it but thinking back to actually having seen photos of the props, there's no way you could have both the interior parts and a working light setup on the screen used packs. They used two different packs that were different inside the shell for the movie. And Hasbro figured out how to do it in one pack.

I almost have a feeling they're going to use a modified Hasbro pack in GB4. Weather it up. Replace the fake wires. Probably disable rumble and sound for filming purposes. Maybe adjust the LED. Replace the microcontroller to keep it always-on.

That's probably a heck of a deal for a stunt pack for Ben Eadie compared to the time/expense of fabricating one. Plus, it's about 10 pounds lighter, which probably matters for McKenna Grace since she's had back surgery.

A hero pack, obviously, you'd try to use the real thing with mods as needed.

But I bet the new movie has a few of these packs for stunt purposes. There's no way that wouldn't save a ton versus fabricating stunt packs AND get better results. Heck, I doubt Hasbro would have limited the production company to an order of five of them. It would actually make a ton of sense for Eadie or Reitman or Sony to have a storage unit with 25 or 50 Haslab packs for various uses. They did use Spirit Halloween traps in Afterlife, after all.

So we could be owners of a screen used model of prop proton pack by the end of the year.

[One time]

Here's a unicorn mod:

Change the rumble motor to something far more powerful AND program it to rumble the instant the intensify trigger is pulled on the wand

[TobinsGuide]

Here's a unicorn mod:

Change the rumble motor to something far more powerful AND program it to rumble the instant the intensify trigger is pulled on the wand

That's PROBABLY a new microcontroller. Granted, folks are developing those.

I'd wager that the way to get a truly powerful rumble motor is to use something not intended as a rumble motor.

When I was a kid, I took a G.I. Joe backpack with a ripcord powered helicopter. I turned it upside down and attached the blades of the helicopter to my Real Ghostbusters firehouse with rubber bands or something. I'd pull the ripcord and it would make the whole firehouse shake like an earthquake.

A proper rumble motor, even a quality one from a game controller, is designed to generate a light buzz. I think what you want is more. Or maybe multiple rumble motors.

[One time]

Here's a unicorn mod:

Change the rumble motor to something far more powerful AND program it to rumble the instant the intensify trigger is pulled on the wand

That's PROBABLY a new microcontroller. Granted, folks are developing those.

I'd wager that the way to get a truly powerful rumble motor is to use something not intended as a rumble motor.

When I was a kid, I took a G.I. Joe backpack with a ripcord powered helicopter. I turned it upside down and attached the blades of the helicopter to my Real Ghostbusters firehouse with rubber bands or something. I'd pull the ripcord and it would make the whole firehouse shake like an earthquake.

A proper rumble motor, even a quality one from a game controller, is designed to generate a light buzz. I think what you want is more. Or maybe multiple rumble motors.

Agreed. But it's not just the power of the motor. It's the fact that it should activate INSTANTANEOUSLY when the trigger on the wand is pulled.

[tobycj]

And while I think the Afterlife pack was cast from a hero pack from Ghostbusters, if it weren't for the fact that cosplayers and prop replica enthusiasts had preserved those molds, Ben Eadie probably would have done what Hasbro did and made an idealized pack from measurements and photos.

I almost have a feeling they're going to use a modified Hasbro pack in GB4. Weather it up. Replace the fake wires. Probably disable rumble and sound for filming purposes. Maybe adjust the LED. Replace the microcontroller to keep it always-on.

That's probably a heck of a deal for a stunt pack for Ben Eadie compared to the time/expense of fabricating one. Plus, it's about 10 pounds lighter, which probably matters for McKenna Grace since she's had back surgery.

A hero pack, obviously, you'd try to use the real thing with mods as needed.

But I bet the new movie has a few of these packs for stunt purposes. There's no way that wouldn't save a ton versus fabricating stunt packs AND get better results. Heck, I doubt Hasbro would have limited the production company to an order of five of them. It would actually make a ton of sense for Eadie or Reitman or Sony to have a storage unit with 25 or 50 Haslab packs for various uses. They did use Spirit Halloween traps in Afterlife, after all.

So we could be owners of a screen used model of prop proton pack by the end of the year.

The moulds for the Afterlife packs were new, not preserved from '84/'89. They cast the Super Hero pack that Sony still has in their possession, so it's not really anything the fan/cosplay/prop community influenced

Ben Eadie didn't make the Afterlife packs. He was the prop master on set, but he didn't make the packs. They were outsourced to a prop house in LA, and then finished up in Canada I seem to recall.

99.9999999% certain they won't use Haslab packs in Firehouse. They made AMAZING stunt packs for Afterlife (they even cast rubber ALICE frames), and the studio will 100% have held onto those, so they're more likely to re-use those, than go to the effort of modifying a Haslab pack. Gotta also bear in mind with 4K these days they can't get away with stunt props looking a bit ropey like they did in the past, and a Haslab pack would take a lot of work to stand up on screen alongside a hero pack.

[Mirandajoye]

Not even 3D printed uno online metal?

I've zero experience of 3D printed metal, or even where I could get it done, but I assume it would be better than a normal 3D print.

So have you made the metal 3D version?

[tobycj]

I've zero experience of 3D printed metal, or even where I could get it done, but I assume it would be better than a normal 3D print.

So have you made the metal 3D version?

Yes, available on my etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1470894 ... roton-pack