- August 16th, 2016, 3:06 pm#4877293This is the age-old discussion that separates replica builders from people who want to play pretend ghostbusters.
I think replica building comes from a desire to hold in your hands something you've seen on screen, and I readily acknowledge that imagination plays a huge role in coming up with an original idea. But it's hard to get creativity to line up with aesthetic and execution, which results in a lot of weird unrecognizable stuff strapped to a car that could only possibly make sense if there is significant explanation of their own fiction.
This introduces a different subset of builders: people what want something more in line with their own tastes that bears only the most tenuous connection to the original concept, and really only works well with people who want to play as pretend characters instead of replicating something recognizable or creating a themed tribute.
Maybe their car looks different because their abilities are limited, but most often it's because - in their minds - they have rationalized these decisions as making sense for ungrounded, convoluted, over-throught, or high-concept reasons. "Well if the Ghostbusters were real then they'd probably have such and such" is a common fallback argument.
To each their own, but I think the fun of owning a replica is creating something that hits the right "notes" in a persons memory as to what the Ghostbusters car was. Nostalgia is bred from familiarity, so deviating from what makes an Ecto-1 familiar to people who have seen the movie is key to that car being appreciated. In my mind, the "notes" can be dumbed-down to "white station wagon shape with logos, red accents, blue lights, and gizmos on top." But this discussion has raged forever and people will come up with any reason to put emergency lights on a car...
You tell 'em I'm postin'! And Hell's postin' with me!