Slime Blower
2 min read
The slime blower is a Ghostbusting tool first introduced in 1989's Ghostbusters II. Used only by Winston and Ray, the slime blowers are used to spray positively charged "mood slime" on the inside of the Statue of LIberty, Vigo the Carpathian, and later, Ray himself.
Possibly owing to its brief screen time and a lack of in-depth plans, the slime blower is easily the least popular prop for fans to replicate. Although a number of sets of plans have emerged in the past, there is (currently) no set that gives complete instructions, measurements, and a parts list. A few fans have built slime blowers using plans of their own creation, one going so far as to say that a slime blower is easier to build than a proton pack...if you can find the right parts, that is.
It is worth noting that, despite how they appear in the movie, the slime blowers are not functional without external power. In a number of shots, large cables can clearly be seen running from the backs of the slime blowers to (presumably) offscreen power sources and pumps (screenshot). If the slime blower was an actual piece of equipment, it would be extremely heavy and could not hold the amount of liquid seen in the movie.
It is believed that only two slime blowers were built for Ghostbusters II. The slime blower props used in the film have disappeared and have never been displayed at Planet Hollywood or Universal Studios as several proton packs and ghost traps have. No one is sure of where they're being stored, or if they even exist anymore. It's possible that the slime blowers are simply locked away in a forgotten storage building, or were disassembled so their parts could be used on other props in other movies. Update: A new picture of the slime blower has been posted to Sony's official Ghostbusters website in conjunction with the promotion of the new Blue Ray disk. While not positivly a "new" picture it is believed to be fairly recent which would mean at least one slime blower is still in existance in Sony's warehouse.
A Mark II version of the Slime Blower is featured in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Known as the "Plasm
Distribution System" it is incorporated directly into the Proton Pack and is an important tool in the
Ghostbusters arsnel used mainly to disperse negatively charged "Black Slime." It also featured a secondary function in the 360/PS3 version called the Slime Tether which enabled you to fire a strand of slime fixed to two points used to solve many of the game's puzzles. In the Wii/PS2 version, the Slime Tether is replaced with
Sime Mines. When fired, they disperse a large amount of sime over a wider area.
