[RavenEffect]

finding the parts, and instructions are easy, unfortunately some of us are broke and buying all the parts would take a long time for some of us... as it is a decent uniform also often costs ocer a hundred bucks.

So...I see nothing wrong with the rubies costumes... I just wouldn't be caught dead at a con in one. lol...

But for halloween fun, sure.

That's exactly my point. I wouldn't go to a con in one of those costumes because that does kind of seem lame to me. But, what's wrong with owning one? Heck, the way I see it, it is putting money in the franchise.

No offense, but some do get a bit elitist with their costumes, so I say cut some a bit of slack.

That's all I'm saying here. No need to snuff at the Halloween costumes. I think it is awesome that they are even out there at all.

By the way, that cardboard proton pack really does look awesome! Makes me think maybe I can do it after all. I think may just give it a try with with one of the ones posted here that are more affordable.

[Cliff]

Just to give you a bit of a head start here, Raven...

This is my pack, circa three years ago, before I tore it apart to overhaul it:



Nothing more than cardboard, an egg carton, a metal lampshade, random junk from around the house and tons of electrical tape mounted on an old hiking frame my dad got (which, as I found out yesterday, you can get on the cheap from a sporting goods store like Dick's for about 20 bucks).

This is my pack after the overhaul, three days before Halloween last year:



I had an even junkier pack, which I made on the fly on Halloween back in 2002 with a ton of crap, a super soaker and duct tape in under an hour. Would post a pic of that for you, but I don't have one accessible to me.

Just a few tips to give ya a head start, and I hope they help!

[RavenEffect]

Just to give you a bit of a head start here, Raven...

This is my pack, circa three years ago, before I tore it apart to overhaul it:



Nothing more than cardboard, an egg carton, a metal lampshade, random junk from around the house and tons of electrical tape mounted on an old hiking frame my dad got (which, as I found out yesterday, you can get on the cheap from a sporting goods store like Dick's for about 20 bucks).

This is my pack after the overhaul, three days before Halloween last year:



I had an even junkier pack, which I made on the fly on Halloween back in 2002 with a ton of crap, a super soaker and duct tape in under an hour. Would post a pic of that for you, but I don't have one accessible to me.

Just a few tips to give ya a head start, and I hope they help!

Thank you! The pics aren't working on my work computer for some reason (our computers suck), so I'll take a look at this at home. Thanks for the help!

[Cliff]

Anytime, man!

[Daecrist]

I'd just like to chime in and say that I think it's completely possible for someone who is a dedicated tightwad and certified cheapass to get creative with building materials and make a kickass reasonably screen accurate pack for around $200 if not less. It's all a matter of how clever you want to get with your propping.

[Ectofiend666]

*All good valid points - However, this is what we could have had:



*This was the prototype for the Rubies costume - Fittingly more accurate - Eh? ...

*Cheers.

[malcolmhoaz]

true story....back in 06, I decided to head to vegas for halloween so I convinced my wife who was all for it... (till she found out she was pregnant with our daughter a week later....imagine how angry she was when she realized she was gonna be in vegas and not be able to drink.)...so we head up to vegas, and cause they strip had costume contests for like 4 days leading up to halloween, she and I hit one on the 30th at the MGM ( was staying at the excalibure so an easy walk and pretty cool to be takin that same walk that was in V71's on our own video he posted a while back) The name of the club we went into escapes me now but it was decked out to a nightmare on elm street theme. So we get in, the bouncers pull me over and immediately sign me up for the contest,( which was a grand prize of $5000 get me to pose for pictures...and tell me that 4 guys wearing the "blow up packs" also signed up for the contest. Now, I had not seen the rubie guys at all during the time I was there, but they call those who were gonna be in the costume contest up, but a bouncer caught me and asked me to follow him. He said they had something "special" planned for the ghostbusters and me. They call up the finalists who are a batman, the rubies guys and me. They have the guy dressed as batman come up, and honestly the costume was awesome....straight out of tim burtons batman...so I was impressed. The rubies guys come out, start jumping around on stage getting the crowd hyped up as they play the ghostbusters theme song....then they say they have one more finalist....they start with the RUN DMC version of ghostbusters, I have lights going I get up on stage, see the 4 guys...who by now realized they were no longer in the runnning with my costume, was handed the mic to which I said " I'm the best, I'm the beautiful, I'm the only....REAL GHOSTBUSTER". I never saw the look of defeat wash over someone and enjoy it more then I did that night....needless to say I won the contest and netted $5000.....the downside to this....my wife was in the restroom the whole time due to "hormone changes" and she was having what she refered to morning sickness on the baby's watch. So I had no pics to show for my victory....but we did have $5000 to spend on getting ready for the newest member of our family. So anytime I see someone wearing the rubies costume, I can't help but chuckle cause compared to them, we are the best, the beautiful the only...REAL GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!!

[Tralan]

Okay, but to me that makes absolutely no sense. When you spent the money to make the exact replicas, yours looks SO MUCH better, no doubt about it. So, why the Hell should you care if somebody has the store bought ones? Everybody knows there's aren't as good. That should be a point of pride that they were able to make something that looks so much better. I mean, I could understand if the costumes and proton packs looked super awesome. Then I could understand being upset when they were just store bought, but you can certainly tell the difference, and who wouldn't rather have the more realistic replicas?

You mis-understood what I was saying. Your argument was in agreeance with my feelings of the whole thing.

[noslliT]

My first costume was one of those RGB Egon Spengler zinyl jumpsuits with the cheap plastic masks with my blue proton pack when I was a kid. I did buy a rubies costume for the proton pack when I was in college due to lack of funds and now I am making an accurate reproduction. Does it make me more of a fan than the next guy? I don't think so. I do look back on that rubies costume and laugh at it but it's still pretty good for what you're paying for.

[RavenEffect]

Okay, but to me that makes absolutely no sense. When you spent the money to make the exact replicas, yours looks SO MUCH better, no doubt about it. So, why the Hell should you care if somebody has the store bought ones? Everybody knows there's aren't as good. That should be a point of pride that they were able to make something that looks so much better. I mean, I could understand if the costumes and proton packs looked super awesome. Then I could understand being upset when they were just store bought, but you can certainly tell the difference, and who wouldn't rather have the more realistic replicas?

You mis-understood what I was saying. Your argument was in agreeance with my feelings of the whole thing.

I guess I did misunderstand than. "My bad" as the kids say these days LOL! ...Do people even still say that?

[80sguy]

Well one thing is for sure, these things at least look better than the Ben Cooper costumes in the 80s. I saw one of those in a Antique Mall once and god, it look really horrible, even from a kids point of view. But the kids sized RGB proton pack is still pretty cool to me, even to this day.

[Zack]

Hope he doesn't mind if I post it but I always found Thiago's picture on proptopia a few years ago funny He said shortly after the pic the guy ran off like "get away from me"

[80sguy]

LOL The prototype suit is starting to look better.

[CJay]

I like the prototype. Heck, had they probably used that instead of what got released, I might have probably bought it...but somehow I think my other issues with it would have preceded me actually liking it.

[PeteVenkman_Jedi]

I think the costumes look like ass. What I really hate is the defeatist attitude of un-creative people that give up with out even trying to make something, accurate or not, and get pissy when actual creative types call them on it. If you are going to give up before you even try to do something you deserve the jeers you get.

"But I know I'll never be able to make it before I try so what's your problem?" Nothing would ever get done in the world if everyone thought like that.

I remember when Halloween was ALL about making your own costumes. Nowadays people are just lazy and unimaginative. You don't need a fortune to make a good outfit of any kind unless you are an accuracy nut but that is whole other ball of wax.

And don't even get me started with lazy, uncreative people that hang around on prop sites giving hell to people who actually like to build and do anything creative they can.

[Tralan]

I always just saw them as a way for non-hardcore fans to dress up in something fun without dumping tons of cash.Obviously, they aren't as cool as a true prop piece, but then, the person wearing the blow up one doesn't care enough to build. He wants to be a Ghostbuster for halloween. That's all that should matter.

[80sguy]

I think the costumes look like a**. What I really hate is the defeatist attitude of un-creative people that give up with out even trying to make something, accurate or not, and get pissy when actual creative types call them on it. If you are going to give up before you even try to do something you deserve the jeers you get.

"But I know I'll never be able to make it before I try so what's your problem?" Nothing would ever get done in the world if everyone thought like that.

I remember when Halloween was ALL about making your own costumes. Nowadays people are just lazy and unimaginative. You don't need a fortune to make a good outfit of any kind unless you are an accuracy nut but that is whole other ball of wax.

And don't even get me started with lazy, uncreative people that hang around on prop sites giving hell to people who actually like to build and do anything creative they can.

You seem to forget that not everyone who buys these is a hardcore Ghostbusters fan, and some aren't just willing to commit time to make an accurate costume. Sometimes it has nothing to do with laziness as much as it has to do with, not into it that much.

There is nothing wrong with buying one of these because either way, it's promoting the franchise. A cheap costume is a cheap costume, and it really annoys me that people can get pissed off at something so stupid as buying a costume just because it's not as good as an accurate one, or, because they didn't make it themselves.

What difference will it make to them? Isn't good enough to know that they are a fan of the franchise if they are wearing it? They may not be hardcore but still, would you rather have it that none of these get sold at all? Cause I wouldn't, since it'll show how bad a move it was to license it if no one buys it, and we all know that isn't the case.

People getting mad at it just because it's cheap? So what? You have your costume, they have there costume. No biggie. Besides, these things are mass produced, and again, probably not gonna worn more than once or twice.

[malcolmhoaz]

Hope he doesn't mind if I post it but I always found Thiago's picture on proptopia a few years ago funny He said shortly after the pic the guy ran off like "get away from me"

That is priceless LMAO

[Astro_zombie]

hahaha that picture right there kind of sums up my views on this topic. I see nothing wrong with the inflatable pack and such, especially if its just a one time thing. On the other hand, screen accurate props are the ones that get the WOW factor. At comicon Philly I went in my semi movie accurate gear and my whole pack was 100% cardboard, my buddy went in the costume because hes dirt poor right now. Anyway long story short I got what seemed like 400 photos of me taken. I couldn't even look at anything while I was there because so many people were taking photos, I felt like a celebrity. But my friend only got a handful of about 10 or so.

Really like I said I don't see a problem with it, but in the end we're the ones that get all the attention, even if the pack someone builds isn't accurate everyone still seems to be wowed over by it. Simply because it took time, skill, and its just so much more imaginative than inflatable vinyl.

[Zack]

Yeah I guess the costume is "okay" until a guy with the real deal walks in the door. The ladies love it, am I right? Halloween night at the bar, there was a girl caressing my 3/4 split loom. I almost slimed myself right then and there. Girls asking where I got it saying "I made it" and said there are nerds out there much like the Star Wars nerds that build GB stuff. She was like "I love nerds"

There's something very empowering about carrying that heavy thing on your back.

[Dan AKA]

Yeah I guess the costume is "okay" until a guy with the real deal walks in the door. The ladies love it, am I right? Halloween night at the bar, there was a girl caressing my 3/4 split loom. I almost slimed myself right then and there. Girls asking where I got it saying "I made it" and said there are nerds out there much like the Star Wars nerds that build GB stuff. She was like "I love nerds"

There's something very empowering about carrying that heavy thing on your back.

When would you like me to schedual your appointment with Freud?