Talk about the your favorite Ghostbusters Collectibles from Mattel, Kenner, and more.
By DSTZach
#4853806
I don't remember saying that specifically, but Series 1 specialty was delayed for diorama reasons, and those reasons are no longer an issue. So they should be closer.
By darthsmozers
#4853851
gold333 wrote:If it's true that these figures feature no transparent/translucent parts (i.e. the leg hose or streams, etc.) I have no desire in buying them.

A lack of the bare essentials of accuracy like translucent parts which were in the movie (and on the Matty collector figures), relegates this line directly into the fisherprice / playmobil kids category.

It's not even as if the figures look very accurate or very iconic.
Comparing these to a toddler's fisherprice toy is a bit of a reach, don't you think? :blush:
By gold333
#4853856
darthsmozers wrote:
gold333 wrote:If it's true that these figures feature no transparent/translucent parts (i.e. the leg hose or streams, etc.) I have no desire in buying them.

A lack of the bare essentials of accuracy like translucent parts which were in the movie (and on the Matty collector figures), relegates this line directly into the fisherprice / playmobil kids category.

It's not even as if the figures look very accurate or very iconic.
Comparing these to a toddler's fisherprice toy is a bit of a reach, don't you think? :blush:
Looked that way in pics with flash, but I gotta say when I saw the Winston figure in real life today it didn't have the plasticy sheen, it looked good.
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By ShiftyHenry
#4853872
I imagine the leg tubing could be replaced. If only i knew what diameter it would need to be...
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By christphern
#4853883
After getting these in, I have to say that the Ghostbusters figures are actually quite nice, outside of a few paint issues on my part. I've heard there are some issues with joints on some of the figures, but mine are mostly fine. I'm a bit concerned about possible breakage on the hoses, and I do find it pretty crap that the throwers can't hook properly to the pack, nor the streams to the throwers, but those aren't REALLY deal breakers for me, as long as DST is willing to listen to complaints and actually fix them. The thrower hose appears to have a thread of some sort molded into the hose, pack, and thrower, and I hope that keeps it from pulling free at least. My trap hose was completely folded over itself in the packaging, like flat. It's caused a nice stress kink that concerns me, but so far it hasn't broken. One thing I do like about the leg hose, which is why it's not clear, is that it's a wire. You can pose the leg hose anyway that you want for posing, which means you can make it look like gravity's doing it's thing if you have them laying down (say, after getting electrocuted by Gozer).

The Louis/Vinz figure, on the other hand, is garbage. The paint apps are all over the place, the shirt is lacking a decent amount of detail, it lacks any accessories, and is the same price as the other figures. They can't even use the diorama pieces as an excuse, as they're a mirror of the same pieces that came with the Ray figure, instead. On top of that, the plastic choices were beyond dumb. The shoulder joint is molded in flesh colored plastic and then painted with blue paint to match the shirt (meaning it scrapes off the first time you pose the figure), and the hand pegs are molded in white plastic, meaning the first time you move the hands, instant white plastic showing through scraped paint. The only reason to pick up Louis, imo, is to have the diorama piece. Otherwise, it's a complete pass, much like it appears Dana will be.
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By ShiftyHenry
#4853913
christphern wrote:After getting these in, I have to say that the Ghostbusters figures are actually quite nice, outside of a few paint issues on my part. I've heard there are some issues with joints on some of the figures, but mine are mostly fine. I'm a bit concerned about possible breakage on the hoses, and I do find it pretty crap that the throwers can't hook properly to the pack, nor the streams to the throwers, but those aren't REALLY deal breakers for me, as long as DST is willing to listen to complaints and actually fix them. The thrower hose appears to have a thread of some sort molded into the hose, pack, and thrower, and I hope that keeps it from pulling free at least. My trap hose was completely folded over itself in the packaging, like flat. It's caused a nice stress kink that concerns me, but so far it hasn't broken. One thing I do like about the leg hose, which is why it's not clear, is that it's a wire. You can pose the leg hose anyway that you want for posing, which means you can make it look like gravity's doing it's thing if you have them laying down (say, after getting electrocuted by Gozer).

The Louis/Vinz figure, on the other hand, is garbage. The paint apps are all over the place, the shirt is lacking a decent amount of detail, it lacks any accessories, and is the same price as the other figures. They can't even use the diorama pieces as an excuse, as they're a mirror of the same pieces that came with the Ray figure, instead. On top of that, the plastic choices were beyond dumb. The shoulder joint is molded in flesh colored plastic and then painted with blue paint to match the shirt (meaning it scrapes off the first time you pose the figure), and the hand pegs are molded in white plastic, meaning the first time you move the hands, instant white plastic showing through scraped paint. The only reason to pick up Louis, imo, is to have the diorama piece. Otherwise, it's a complete pass, much like it appears Dana will be.
I have to disagree on Louis. I thought the figure was garbage...until I opened it. The sculpt is great. The shirt *could* use a bit more detail...but so could the proton pack. It's a toy. The lack of accessories is because they HAVE to make up the tooling costs somewhere. The busters (and likely other figures in the line) have a TON of accessories. which is great, Louis balances out those other figures. Much like the Ray and Peter variants in the main line, and the inevitable OTHER variants help to even things out. Not every figure can come fully loaded and expect to keep these at $25 a piece. The likeness to Moranis is pretty good too, on par with Ray and streets ahead of Winston.
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By christphern
#4853915
I can certainly expect accessories and better detail and paint apps. Mattel gave us a unique sculpt, closer to screen accurate paint apps, and a fair amount of accessories, for less money. The likeness is better than the Mattel figure (which wasn't terrible itself). But if you're going to charge a premium for a figure, you'd best be able to justify it. I don't feel that a somewhat, though not exactly unique sculpt (it's a rubber sleeve over a presumably generic body), really crap plastic choices, shoddy paint apps, no accessories, and frozen joints justifies the $25 price tag. Particularly when it's a figure that most people will only get for the diorama pieces.
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By ShiftyHenry
#4853925
christphern wrote:I can certainly expect accessories and better detail and paint apps. Mattel gave us a unique sculpt, closer to screen accurate paint apps, and a fair amount of accessories, for less money. The likeness is better than the Mattel figure (which wasn't terrible itself). But if you're going to charge a premium for a figure, you'd best be able to justify it. I don't feel that a somewhat, though not exactly unique sculpt (it's a rubber sleeve over a presumably generic body), really crap plastic choices, shoddy paint apps, no accessories, and frozen joints justifies the $25 price tag. Particularly when it's a figure that most people will only get for the diorama pieces.
Are you forgetting that Mattel gave us the exact same sculpt for every jumpsuited ghostbuster? DST busters share parts, but enough is different to make them unique. Louis is a unique sculpt with no reuse. The separate shirt piece is to hide articulation. Unless they try and do an I possessed version.
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By christphern
#4853927
Which we all know they will give us a normal Louis, at full price, with, once again, no accessories. Louis should have been a cheaper figure, period. It feels cheaper, half the articulation on mine didn't work as the joints are locked, the paint apps are really sloppy, no accessories, and bizzarely stupid plastic choices. That sleeve that covers the articulation also renders said articulation worthless as it won't hold a pose, and it hinders the articulation. Of the line, I'd say it's the one that feels closest to a Playskool toy.

And while the Mattel figures may have reused molds, at least half of the accessories, of which they were fairly loaded with if you include the ghosts (which we have to buy separately at full price with DST) didn't break straight out of the package, like a lot of DST's have. Add to that that at least all of Mattel's actually WORKED, which is more than can be said of DST's, and Mattel (through magic, apparently, since DST couldn't figure it out) managed to make the thrower actually attach to the pack. The paint apps on the equipment are just bizarre as well, what with green trap knobs, yellow paint instead of gold, red paint instead of copper, an incredibly cartoony looking ribbon cable, etc. There are a LOT of problems with the quality and design choices of these figures. The busters have enough redeeming qualities to save them for me. Louis does not. Had the GBs turned out half as bad as Louis, I'd have washed my hands of the whole line and walked away, never looking back.
By DSTZach
#4853936
First off, if anyone has problems with any figure you bought, contact customer service. I'm primarily talking about breakage, as there are remedies for stuck joints -- sticking it in a freezer for a few minutes will often work for those. Sorry if anyone thinks the paint applications are sloppy or cartoony, all the figures I have seen so far are pretty tight, nothing I would consider inferior to what past lines have offered. I think the ribbon wire looks great.

No alternate Louis planned, this is the only one. There will be a Ray variant and a Peter variant in the 15-figure series, but those are the only two duplicate characters you will need to buy to build the diorama. (Although you will probably want to buy two of the Terror Dog.) There will be other GB variants (all from GB1) available elsewhere that will not include diorama pieces, but they are not required purchases.

Sorry if anyone thinks Louis is not worth the price -- the cost of making a Louis is not far off from the price of making a Winston or Ray, believe it or not. The GB bodies, while tooled differently, are mostly one color, and their gear is obviously painted the same, while Louis is 100% unique paint applications, multiple colors that require more spray guides. I assume that is where the cost balances out, but you can ask the president in Ask DST: http://www.artasylum.com.
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By christphern
#4853942
Look, I don't really want to start anything, but it is worth pointing out that there are serious issues with these figures. You can get defensive, but it doesn't change it. I really think that with these pics I'm going to give you, even you could see that.

First, we'll start with the 'Busters themselves.

Now, I mentioned joint rub on Vinz, but it's a problem with the GBs as well:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... zkziuj.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... d6c4wn.jpg

In fairness, the GB ones aren't as bad, as they're MOSTLY covered with the elbow pad. It is still there, however, and it does happen on the reverse side (where the black square mostly hides it). The only reason I point it out is that your company used a more tan plastic with the joint pegs:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... bnspb6.jpg

Seems to me that might have been a better choice for the elbow joints, but perhaps that's just me?

Winston seems to have a parasite that's burrowed into his neck:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... 9ofsng.jpg

Ray, apparently, is auditioning to be the next Spock (it's FAR more noticeable in person):
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... nqdth4.jpg

One of Winston's hands nearly snapped off when I went to remove it out of the package, something that many a Youtube reviewer has had happen:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... yq0ybz.jpg

I really don't get what's going on with the Trap paint apps:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... xcphlz.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... k28wwa.jpg

I mean, green knobs on the front? Yellow paint apps instead of gold? All of that detail and no grey ribbon cable (not a deal breaker for me, but I don't get why it was avoided considering the other apps)? Also, my trap was shipped with the cord like this:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... qmpecy.jpg

If it's hard to see, the trap cord is folded over on itself, causing a nice stress crease, which you can see here:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... ydtnlp.jpg

At least one Youtuber has had their cord snap off, so this concerns me for longterm durability, although maybe that's just me.

The ribbon cable looks like this:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... pnsz9j.jpg

Which, if we compare that to the film:
http://www.gbfans.com/images/equipment/ ... e/7/19.jpg

It's just laughably bad. I mean, there's hardly a bright color on the film one, whereas there's NOTHING but bright colors on the toy.

Now, moving on from the GBs, let's have a look at Louis. This is how Louis' shirt looks in the film (note the striping)
http://www.gbfans.com/images/ghostbuste ... ps/128.jpg

This is the DST version:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... pxd8zq.jpg

On top of lacking the striping, you might notice a fair amount of paint bleed from one color to another, along with some pretty bad streaking of the mustard colored shirt, where it wasn't painted heavily enough to actually cover the blue rubbery plastic.

Now, I can't get the hand joint rub to photograph properly, but the shoulder joint rub is so obvious you can't miss it:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... 8jmdzh.jpg

What boggles my mind on this, though, is that your company used a light blue colored plastic to mold the joint pins:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y207/c ... wblysp.jpg

At the end of the day, the problems that riddle the figures from one side to another are numerous. This isn't even speaking to the GBs including accessories that simply don't work (the blast streams). Now I know, you guys are mailing out connectors, yadayadayada. What kills me on that is that it should have been included with the figure to begin with. My understanding is that you simply couldn't figure out how to attach it to the packs. I don't understand how that's possible, considering that the Minimates figures all included blast streams that could attach just fine to the thrower. And when backed into a corner by complaints, you guys cranked out that attachment bit quite quickly, which tells me it wasn't a matter of not being able to figure it out, especially since you effectively copied Mattel's method of attaching the blast streams. I can't say WHY you wouldn't have shipped them, but there must have been a reason. And I'm curious as to why the throwers aren't able to properly attach to the packs? This issue was solved 30 years ago in the Kenner line. Mattel did just fine with their figures, so I can't fathom why these wouldn't work. I understand that maybe the idea was accuracy, but I'd rather have slight inaccuracy over an ineffective feature.

Also, since the hands on the GBs are recycled from one to another with different skin tones (for Winston and everyone else), there was only one tooling cost there. So if Vinz cost as much to tool as a GB, then it still poses the question, why doesn't he include ANY accessories? I don't get it. A colander, pizza slice, coffee pot, something, anything would be better than what we got (ie nothing).

/shrug

Like I said, for me Louis was a wash, and had the positives of the GBs not outweighed the negatives, I'd have washed my hands of the whole line and just walked away. I really don't understand how these could have gotten approved with these problems, or how they got through QC. I mean, it's not like DST is new to the action figure line. The Marvel Select line, for example, has been going for years, and is amazingly praised by youtubers that I follow such as Glenn Webb. I have a few of the DST Stargate figures, as well. On that note, though, really, you guys should REALLY rethink your plastics for accessories, because they're WAY too brittle. The blast streams share a similar issue that I had with the staff weapons from the SG1 line, in that they snap REALLY easily in areas. I saw one review where the guy's blast stream snapped not once, but twice.

I really hope that you guys spend a bit more time making sure future figures don't suffer from these problems, or at least some of them. If not, you may find a massive decline in sales for the next wave, and I imagine it will only get worse as it goes on.
By DSTZach
#4853945
If you are worried about your trap or wrists, contact customer service. They may have replacements for you. Send photos.

I do not know if the pegs are cast or painted, and why other joints appear to be treated differently, but I can look into it -- although I think if we could solve elbow flaking, we would have by now.

As to the wands, we fixed a problem that arose in production -- that means it didn't arise in development, so we can't fix it before it happens. We weren't "backed into a corner" -- I saw the issue, made sure the team was aware of it (they may have already known), and they fixed it. Their solution turned out to be better.

The rest of it... I have no response for, really. Obviously, more detail is better than less detail, but if you aren't happy with the quality of this Ray, Winston and Louis, at this price, then I cannot guarantee that you will get more happy with future waves. I think the quality here is high, and the likenesses are great, and not just because I work for DST. I've been collecting and judging toys for a long time, and looking at what has come before, these are better. The small mark on Winston's neck, a barely discernible pointiness to Ray's ears, a little more color on a ribbon cable, an unpainted square in Louis armpit, missing stripes of a slightly different blue... these criticisms are coming from comparisons to real life, not to similarly priced and scaled action figures. I'm not sure how many people would call a half-inch ribbon cable with individually painted wires "laughably bad," regardless of what percentage of the wires were painted in the film. I've looked at how the wires were handled before, and I'm not a fan -- I wonder how people would feel if we had left them all gray?
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By elsoldao7
#4853957
Zach, I can only say, I love ALL of the figures! I didn't get the dio wave just because I'd have nowhere to put it. But these sized figures, with this many accesories, & quality, at this price are awesome! Interchangeable hands/gloves! I seem to recall many members of this forum buying multiple of the same Matty figures JUST to be able to display all the guys with gloves on... (& each of them were more expensive than these...) I for one don't mind the minor paint issues, I love painting & tweaking my figs to make them just slightly better. I'm just happy we got a Ray with goggles that fit!
I think DST is doing a awesome job & I hope to possibly see a GBII wave someday! (Or an accesories pack [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES])
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By YHSCraig
#4853958
I've been a toy collector my entire life and the one thing that I still don't understand are you collectors. This happened with the Mattel line and now we're seeing it with DST. Yes, you can take a figure and nit-pick, complain, etc. but why? What's the point? We're getting a minimum of 15 new Ghostbusters figures that build a temple diorama. That's insane.

These are $25 figures. (Actually the TRU versions were $12) This is not a premium format figure and the reality is that if you want an extremely detailed and 100% accurate movie figure, you're going to be spending a lot more money. I know someone is going to come eback and give me a bunch of examples about where I'm wrong but for me, I'll just stay over here being ecstatic about my new Ghostbusters toys. Thanks DST!
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By DSTZach
#4853962
Just for the record, I am not trying to dismiss criticisms or discussion, I just think the figures are being looked at too closely for anyone's own good. GB fans have been pretty spoiled when it comes to awesome collectibles, and there are lots of lines to choose from. I'm assuming the 1/6 figures are pretty detailed and accurate, because size and price allow it. We try to make items that are detailed and affordable, and I think we do pretty well. Not saying we're perfect, but we aim high and try to correct any fixable issues.
Last edited by DSTZach on February 10th, 2016, 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By elsoldao7
#4853965
I think the only way someone is gon a get a super detailed, true to screen, 100% kick ass figue, it's probably gonna come from Hot Toys. & Expect it to be in the $300 range.
(& they'll still complain about a missing screw on the pack or something...)
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By DSTZach
#4853966
Or to make it life size and put on the outfit. :)

I think extensive studying of actual props, and re-creating them from scratch, and making sure a costume is spot-on, has given many GB fans an eye for the details, so of course they are going to look for them in a figure. But re-creating them in 1:10th scale is not always feasible. Not impossible, but not feasible when cost and reproducibility is a factor.
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By Json
#4853971
I preordered the first and second wave from BigBadToyStore as soon as they were available. I've preordered from them several times in the past, and have never had any issues getting my order. However, reading here how these may be limited to 6800 per unit and people already receiving shipments has me a bit worried.

Anyone who ordered from BigBad receive their figs yet? I'm gonna be crushed if my pre-order doesn't ship and i'm forced to deal with scalpers and prospectors.
By DSTZach
#4853974
You will get them from BBTS, I know for a fact that their Series 1 inventory is on the way. Series 2 is a little ways off.

I do not know where the 6800 number came from , but a number on the side of a shipping box only relates to that batch, not the full run. The Select versions of these figures are not limited editions.

Do not pay scalper prices, we plan to keep these in stock.
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By christphern
#4853976
It's not an "unpainted square", it's paint scraping. If the parts had actually been molded in that color, like, say, I don't know, the Mattel figures, then you wouldn't HAVE paint scraping. Sure, the colors are probably better, having been painted, but if they were molded in those colors, you'd at least have it less noticeable. The ribbon cable was done on Mattel's figures better, for less money, on a smaller scale figure. As I pointed out, the pointedness to Ray's ears is REALLY distinct in person, it just doesn't seem to photograph well. Personally, I don't care how well it photographs, it needs to look good in person, period.

Now, these may not be premium format figures, true. But most, if not all of my complaints, are issues that aren't new to DST products. That's one of many reasons why I wasn't thrilled by the announcement of these figures. I've owned DST products in the past and not been thrilled by any of them. If I'm a minority in that camp than so be it. I'm okay with that. At least I'm being honest in my opinion, and not just sitting down and shutting up because people disagree with me.

The blast stream issue never came up in development? Seriously? Your employees CAN'T be that incompetent. I mean, if you're sculpting two pieces that are supposed to fit together and you don't include a way for them to do that, and then ship said figures out with said defect is just unfathomable to me. Same goes with their inability to attach to the pack, in my eyes. If you can't figure out how to attach the thrower to the pack with your current sculpt, maybe you should rethink your sculpt. At this point, every Ghostbuster is now going to ship with, in my opinion, defective proton packs.

These figures LOOK okay, but at the end of the day, they're not great quality. Whether it's cheap feeling materials, sloppy paint apps, part breakage, accessories that don't work, whatever, that's not a mark of quality in my eyes, regardless of how they look. For the record, I'm okay with paying a premium for a figure, so long as the figure justifies it. I collect a variety of different figure lines and statues, and pay hefty price tags from time to time for them, depending on the line. But when I look at figure lines like Marvel Legends or Star Wars Black Series, or even Mattel's various Movie Masters lines, you get quality, accessories, build pieces, and fairly decent detail for less cost. Yeah, you get mold reuse among the figures, sure. And you know, it's great that we're getting different sculpts with the different figures. But if they can deliver high quality and such with their Marvel Select line, or I assume so given reviews, there's no excuse in my eyes for them to cut corners so drastically with the quality of these.

And for the record, I made a full GB costume, proton pack and all, over a decade ago. Doesn't mean I can't expect a quality action figure if I'm dropping my hard earned cash on them.
By DSTZach
#4853977
The fact that make you made your own proton pack was kinda my point. You are comparing a 3" pack to a 2-foot pack you have in your house. It is not going to match up. I'm glad you like the previous ribbon cable. I do not own that figure, but I have seen at least one picture in a review, and while it certainly has more gray, it also does not hold up under 2x magnification -- which is the max you should be zooming in on a 6-7" action figure. I think ours comes off pretty good, as far as looking like real individual cables.

If the pointiness of your Ray's ears is so imperceptible that it doesn't show up in a photograph, that is unfortunately not an issue anyone can do anything about. Pulling a plastic toy out of a steel mold can create variations of a half-millimeter in numerous locations. I did not notice it on mine, and it would need to be pretty pronounced for me to even mention the word "Vulcan."

I believe I said the stream was originally going to be a pegged piece. I don't know about review samples, but the final product had manufacturing issues and omissions that made that not work. Saying that you can't believe it doesn't make it any less true. If someone missed something, they missed something, but we obviously caught it before making Series 2, and we are offering fixes for Series 1.

If you think we use cheap materials, they are the same materials we make our Marvel figures out of -- you continue to praise them based on other people's reviews, so maybe you should see if any of those reviewers are reviewing GB, and see what they say. Plastic is a cheap material -- it's why they make toys out of it. If the exact type of plastic (in terms of hardness) is different from another company, maybe that company is making a more durable toy that is meant for younger hands, but that more durable material may also not take paint as well, and may not allow for as much variation in depth in the mold, two things that are (usually) more important to adult collectors. It is not necessarily a matter of cost, there are manufacturing considerations.

And yes, the unpainted spot was caused by scraping. My comment was only that the result is a small unpainted square, usually in a not particularly visible location.

In the end, it sounds like you weren't thrilled with DST products you purchased before, and these figures match up with prior experience. Sorry we weren't able to change your mind about us.
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By Json
#4853982
DSTZach wrote:You will get them from BBTS, I know for a fact that their Series 1 inventory is on the way. Series 2 is a little ways off.

I do not know where the 6800 number came from , but a number on the side of a shipping box only relates to that batch, not the full run. The Select versions of these figures are not limited editions.

Do not pay scalper prices, we plan to keep these in stock.
That's good news. Thanks, Zach!

I'm planning on picking up the entire line, and i refuse to pay scalper prices. It's why i don't have the Matty version of Winston.
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By AlTheRelic
#4853987
Zach, I just read that you guys are making reboot minimates, how I wish it were Extreme Ghostbusters instead.
By DSTZach
#4853989
Not mutually exclusive. We actually designed some Extreme sets at one point. New GB media is always good, might help more product happen, from all eras.
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