The Stiff wrote:I acquired this item from a former Kenner employee - not ebay. The examples that went to auction are now in private collections. As far as the price is concerned, I will only tell you what I was told when I first began searching for an example of my own. I am friends with the individual who originally brokered the Labs that went to auction back in 02 and 08. He told me that he had a standing offer of $3500 for an Egons Lab should one ever surface. He also said that the former Kenner engineer who worked on this project reported that only 3 were made for Toy Fair and for internal photography use - I believe this number to be inaccurate on account that the one used for photography does not match any of the known examples that have surfaced (Kenner typically made 4 to 5 examples at this stage of production). In the end, his only advice to me was "good luck". In any case, if another example ever went up for auction its hard telling what it would fetch. You would not only have Ghostbuster fans bidding, but a vast pool of individuals who love Kenner preproduction and pop culture items.
I'm also curious as to how you acquired it. Was it on ebay? And if you don't mind, how much did it cost you? (Even an approximation would be nice, but I understand if you don't want to say.)
windycitywarrior71 wrote:im also curious if these were ever made. i read somewhere that a few ecto copters made to stores, but I doubt that since ive never seen one on ebay before.Rumors are rumors. Aside from ebay, has anyone actually seen or know someone who has one? This item should've been further along in production than the Lab and Firefrighter (if box art was created and it ended up on the back of the Ecto Glow line, we can assume this). The fact that very little injection mold tooling needed altered (from the Crime Mulcher Police Academy vehicle) before production ready examples could be generated, supports this notion as well. However, the Kenner documentation that I have suggests that the Ecto Glow Copter never reached production ready stage, therefore, never would have made it to retail shelves. This is what is known: the item used for photography was a painted model of the Crime Mulcher Police Academy vehicle (information previously known), what has not been documented is the fact that the wheels on the Ecto Glow Copter actually say "Crime Mulcher" - tooling that would have needed altering before the final stage of production. The documentation that I have lists each of these unreleased items and refers to them as either "painted model" or "inside sample". Another name for inside sample is "first shot" or more commonly referred to as "test shot". This was one of the last stages of toy production before a toy shipped to vendors. Before Kenner launched a toy, such as this, they would generate anywhere from 3 to 5 examples of the toy as working "painted models". The next phase was first shot and then "Engineering Pilot". In short, if the toy actually made it to retail shelves it would've been further along than "painted model" stage. The schedule sheet I have only mentions "painted model" and says nothing about an "inside sample". Until someone can offer better insight on this toy, I will not concede that it ever made it to store shelves
It wouldn't really surprise me if a few first shots made it out of the factory, if in fact it made it to that stage of production. As for the painted model used for photography - we can all dream can't we??? 
JBlake wrote:Wow, quite interesting. Kenner much like other toy makers (Matty being one of them) tend to reuse molds because its cost effective. It didn't surprise me, nor should it surprise anyone else here that they basically painted over the previous toy prototype to make the Ecto Copter. The line at any rate was at a end at that point anyways. All the ideas other than the Egon lab were rehashes at best.windycitywarrior71 wrote:im also curious if these were ever made. i read somewhere that a few ecto copters made to stores, but I doubt that since ive never seen one on ebay before.Rumors are rumors. Aside from ebay, has anyone actually seen or know someone who has one? This item should've been further along in production than the Lab and Firefrighter (if box art was created and it ended up on the back of the Ecto Glow line, we can assume this). The fact that very little injection mold tooling needed altered (from the Crime Mulcher Police Academy vehicle) before production ready examples could be generated, supports this notion as well. However, the Kenner documentation that I have suggests that the Ecto Glow Copter never reached production ready stage, therefore, never would have made it to retail shelves. This is what is known: the item used for photography was a painted model of the Crime Mulcher Police Academy vehicle (information previously known), what has not been documented is the fact that the wheels on the Ecto Glow Copter actually say "Crime Mulcher" - tooling that would have needed altering before the final stage of production.
~Josh
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