The Diamond Select Toys Ghostbuster Select Action Figures Series 2 hit stores recently. The newest assortment comic shop assortment allows fans to complete the main four-some of the Ghostbusters, as well as adding in a Zuul possessed Dana Barrett. These 7″ scale action figures also contain diorama pieces. When you collect all fifteen Ghostbusters releases, you’ll be able to combine the dio pieces to form a massive rooftop diorama from the end of the original Ghostbusters film! Today we’re taking a look at both the first and second series of figures, since we missed shooting the first wave when they hit. The figures break down like this:
Ghostbusters Select Series 1
- Ray Stanz
- Winston Zeddemore
- Louis Tully
Ghostbusters Select Series 2
- Peter Venkman
- Egon Spengler
- Dana Barrett
We have nearly 80 photos of the figures. We’ve pieced together the currently available pieces of the dio as well. You can see the photos and our thoughts after the jump.
Diamond Select Toys – Ghostbusters Select Action Figures
Pros
- Ghostbusters include a ton of accessories
- Included parts & accessories can be used with any of the four GB’s
- Ingenious way to incorporate the gloved hands
- Good articulation throughout
- Solid sculpts
- Strong paint application
- The rooftop dio is going to be amazing
Cons
- Likenesses are hit or miss at times
- Series 1 didn’t have clips for the proto streams to attach
Overall
The DST Ghostbusters are available as standard action figures or a Select figures. The standard action figures, sold at places like Toys “R” Us, are less expensive, but do not include the diorama pieces. The ones we’re covering today are the Select versions. These come packaged in larger stylish boxes, much like the Marvel Select and Universal Monsters Select figures. The plastic must be cut to remove them from the cardbacks. Each figure is held on the try with a few twist ties. Careful placement of the packaging cuts will allow you to place them back in the packaging for storage or display.
The Ghostbusters themselves are mostly great. The overall sculpts are very strong, with a ton of fine details throughout. Things like their belts, proton packs, and elbow pads are all separate pieces. This gives a much more natural look to the figures. The proton packs are removable if you’d like. Folds in the jumpsuits look realistic and each surface is treated very differently.The paint application is also used to great effect here. The figures are covered from head to toe in paint, with multiple color washes throughout, bringing out the sculpt. Very few places show the base mold color and that’s something I really like here.
The Ghostbusters figures also feature some of the best articulation in the Select figure style, including double jointed knees, well cut elbows, multiple points of torso articulation and more. It’s pretty impressive. Each Ghostbuster figure also has multiple interchangeable hands. I was able to swap them in and out without any problems. The gloved hands actually have a pretty smart way of working. The main hand is the swappable piece, with a separate “cuff” that fits between the wrist and hand. This hides the wrist joints, but allows for full movement. Some of the joints can be a little tight, so keep a hairdryer handy if you run into something particularly hard to bend. I didn’t run into anything too tough here, as the joints loosened up a bit during general posing for the shoot.
Dana and Louis are both pretty well done figures too. It’s great to have them to recreate scenes from the first film. They lack the numerous accessories of the Ghostbusters, but do include some of the largest diorama pieces, which helps balance out the value here. Both have a surprisingly good amount of articulation and strong paint work as well. But, make no mistake, the main Ghostbusters are the real stars of the first two waves.
There’s really only two downsides to these releases. The first two Ghostbusters figures were missing the small pieces to attach the proton streams to the wands. With additional Ghostbusters variants coming down the line, fans who go all in will be able to have four attachments so you can cross the streams all you like. The other quibble would be a few of the likenesses. Ray and Winston are spot on to me at this size. Egon is also pretty good up close. Peter seems to suffer the most as Bill Murray’s likeness has been notoriously difficult to nail 100%. But, overall, it’s clear who each of them is supposed to be and the positives far outweigh the negatives for me. These are really fun figure to pose, and with some many secondary characters getting released, you’ll be able to recreate most of your favorite scenes.
There’s a lot to like with the Ghostbusters Select figures. You get a lot of value for the price ($22 to $25 each) and that diorama is going to be extremely impressive when pieced together. We have 79 high resolution images. You can check out soem select ones below, with the full gallery after that.
*DST provided these figures for review.
Ghostbusters Select Action Figures - Toyark Photo Shoot
Those look awesome!
The diorama rooftop looks amazing. I love the Real Ghostbusters but I would buy the Dio pieces alone without the figures (not my scale).
Likeness rankings:
Winston: Solid, but not perfect.
Ray Stantz: Pretty damn good, off by only a hair.
Egon Spengler: Pretty much perfect, but his glasses suck.
Peter Venkman: TERRIBLE. He looks like Archie Bunker!
Louis Tully: Very good.
Dana Barrett: Pretty bad, but if you look hard you can see a little Sigourney Weaver in there. But you could also easily confuse this figure with the chick from Blade Runner, IMO.
I've only got the Venkman and I like it. The likeness isn't the best but it's still Bill Murray. My big con is that the ankles on mine are ridiculously loose so he can't stand for shit on his own and then neither of his base pieces have pegs. I sorta feel like I could've waited for the non-select TRU version since I have no plans on finishing the roof display.
Winston: Solid, but not perfect.
Ray Stantz: Pretty damn good, off by only a hair.
Egon Spengler: Pretty much perfect, but his glasses suck.
Peter Venkman: TERRIBLE. He looks like Archie Bunker!
Louis Tully: Very good.
Dana Barrett: Pretty bad, but if you look hard you can see a little Sigourney Weaver in there. But you could also easily confuse this figure with the chick from Blade Runner, IMO.
I was so disappointed by these.
I waited until I had all 4 to open them..
Well, removing the hands was a chore, I broke 4 of them trying to remove them, I used heat to aid with three of them.. But no, and the pegs snapped off in the arm, so I literally had to dig them out. It's awful.
Then the wire for the trap broke almost immediately.. I hadn't even straightened it out, and bam.
Then the connection point for one of the streams broke off after one attempt at applying it. And it doesn't help at neither Ray nor Winston come with the connectors.
Then there's winstons proton pack, which after one attempt at connecting the wand to the back broke at the top of the ALICE frame. Ugh
And that brings me to the connections for the wand.. If they going to use those types of connectors, they better be really well sculpted and molded, but they're not. They all have a tough time slotting in, and a couple of them really don't want to stay.
Then we have the paint.. The paint in spots looks really rough and sort of messy. From a couple feet away they look fine, but up close they leave a lot to be desired.
Then we have the articulation.. No double jointed elbows?.. For figures whose main accessory is meant to be held with 2 hands?.. Anyone else see a problem with that?
Then there are the two black bases included with the TRU releases and the diorama pieces.. The black bases just don't work.. And the diorama pieces don't have pegs.
That brings me to another huge HUGE complaint. The sculpt of the feet.. My goodness, these have to be the worst feet I've ever seen. The bottoms are basically balls, you give a figure with a back pack round bottomed feet and it becomes a real pain in the ass to get them to stand. I REALLY REALLY don't understand it. I do not understand how anyone approved something like that.
I had really high hopes for these.. I was so excited for them. But now I'm just bleh about them. I'd love to see a company like figuarts or medicom get a license for these.. Maybe then we'd get some really great ghostbusters figures. I'd kill for 3 four packs.. One with the original suits, one with the dark grey suits, and a set of the real ghostbusters.. I'd also love to see a bogeyman for the real ghostbusters.
I doubt any of that will ever happen. Mattel couldn't do it right, DST couldn't do it right.. Will we ever get real collector quality ghostbusters? It doesn't seem like it, not in the near future anyways.
It's cool if you like these, but I just can't get behind them anymore.
Also.. I'm by no means the kind of person who is rough with their toys and breaks a lot of them.. I can count on one hand how many figures I've broken.. Hell, I can list them.. The lower leg of the masked berserker predator, the hip of the red predator and that's it.
The bottoms of their feet are rounded? Whaaat?
I can't bring myself to dislike the figure though because it is still a solid representation of one of Murray's best/iconic roles. Also knowing Mattel couldn't do any better makes me feel better, I think.
I can't bring myself to dislike the figure though because it is still a solid representation of one of Murray's best/iconic roles. Also knowing Mattel couldn't do any better makes me feel better, I think.
i didn't realize mattel was also rereleasing the classic ghostbusters in stores.. i would've LOVED for them to give them their real ghostbusters color schemes.. i may have bought them if that were the case. but no, they're the standard releases without any accessories and a BAF piece to complete the "no ghost" symbol.
right now i have the DST ghostbusters displayed in a detolf.. but winston and egon are leaning against 1/6 clone troopers, ray has recently started leaning against the door.. and peter is actually standing on his own, but who knows how long that'll last.
it'd be different if the little black base's included with the toys r us releases actually worked. but they don't.
i'm just disappointed. there's just so much potential. i really don't understand the elbow choice either. i mean, if they weren't going to give them double joints, they could've at least improved the range of motion, but no. it's frustrating.
in my dreams.. hot toys would give us perfect 1/6 scaled versions of each ghostbuster, and figuarts would give us the real ghostbusters plus the bogeyman.
My Egon and Peter arrived today. They both look great from a distance, but they each have a few visible issues up close. Egon has some sloppy paint, in particular his hair is unpainted in some noticeable areas. I almost broke the peg on his left hand trying to swap it out for the gloved version. And it kinda looks like someone has taken a crafting knife to the corner of his left eye (probably a moulding error and at least it's hidden by those awful glasses). Venkman looks OK in hand, but the likeness is not great and his eyes are extremely small/squinty. In my opinion Ray and Winston are better in both production quality and character/actor likeness. Still it's nice to have the four main heroes back in my collection after I sold off my Matty versions (a while back) in favour of this upcoming 7" line. My Ghostbusters figure collection is now complete again.
Ghostbusters Select Series 4 - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark - News
The Peck likeness is amazing, probably the best of the line. Gozer looks good. But ones again, Venkman looks like dogshit. I guess that, like William Shatner, Bill Murray has one of those faces that are hard for sculptors to capture. *sigh*
I got the first wave of these, but the constant tipping over of the Ray and Winston figures put me off of them. They tip over even when using the peg stands. Also, for some reason, part of the proton pack on Ray broke and the wire on the neutrona wand snapped off in a place I hadn't even bent it.
At first I didn't mind the sculpt so much but it seems like it got worse starting with the second series. The faces are way too smooth and lacking in definition and lines.
Eh, I think the Mezco figures look good enough. I might get them sometime. Hot Toys collecting is too expensive a hobby for me.
Ghostbusters Select Series 5 and Rooftop Dio - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark - News
"The ability two swap out the two style of horns was a nice touch. Fans who don’t want two versions won’t have to pick up a second one and will be able to display the figure with the desired horns."
What kind of fan wouldn't want BOTH versions of the Terror Dog?!? They're a pair! I guess you can get the second dog from TRU that does not come with a diorama piece so you don't get stuck with 2 pieces.
Speaking of which, which figure comes with the lenticular backdrop? Is it the Terror Dog? That lenticular backdrop looks really good.
What kind of fan wouldn't want BOTH versions of the Terror Dog?!? They're a pair! I guess you can get the second dog from TRU that does not come with a diorama piece so you don't get stuck with 2 pieces.
Speaking of which, which figure comes with the lenticular backdrop? Is it the Terror Dog? That lenticular backdrop looks really good.
People have complained, a lot, about variants coming with Rooftop pieces. So 2 of the exact same figure with slightly different horns probably wouldn't have gone over very well.
Even though I sold off my collection of these, because I was very disappointed by the figures inability to stay standing up, even with a stand, I picked up the ghost and zombie, because they are creepy enough to fit in with my horror stuff. The zombie can't stand at all, so I will probably cut him off at the waist & display him crawling.
Is anyone able to take some photos of the 'busters next to some NECA figures for a scale comparison? I'm realllllly tempted by the upcoming GBII Ray but I don't want him to tower over Reeve Superman or look Jason Voorhees in the eye haha
Luckily, I just picked one up solely for the Santa hat.
Keep reading: DST Ghostbusters - Toyark Galleries - Page 2
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