The fourth assortment of Diamond Select Toys’ Ghostbusters Select Action Figures can be found online and in comic stores now. The latest wave includes three more figures, each with new pieces towards completing the massive rooftop diorama. Features in Series 4 are Gozer the Destructor, a Slimed Peter Venkman and Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck. Each figure has about 15 points of articulation and stands about 7″ tall. After this, there’s only one series left to complete the entire assortment and fans will be able to construct the full rooftop dio!
For this gallery, since we’re so close to completing the dio, I’m focusing more on the figures themselves. With the next series, I’ll be doing the massive build out of the diorama to showcase it in all its glory. DST sent along the figures and you can check out the photos and my review after the jump.
Ghostbusters Select Series 4 by Diamond Select Toys
Pros
- Good articulation on all 3 figures
- Walter Peck has one of the best actor likenesses in the series
- More rooftop dio pieces
- Peter includes a ton of accessories
- Peck makes a really good generic suited figure, perfect for customs
- Gozer includes extra hands and an extra portrait
- Even with heels, Gozer stands with no trouble
Cons
- Peter’s head sculpt & expression feel off
- Gozer’s extra parts could use more variety
- Paint on Gozer’s head sculpts
Overall
At this stage, fans know what to expect from the Ghostbusters Select figures, and it’s getting everyone really close to the highly anticipated rooftop dio. Like all Select series action figures from DST, these come in the familiar book-ish style packaging, with a large clear window in the front, artwork on the side and details on the back. As was the case with Series 3, in this round you get two new figures and one remolded figure.
Peter Venkman is the remolded figure in this assortment. Dr. Venkman features a new head sculpt and a green slime covered paint deco. He includes all of the accessories of the standard release from Series 2. That includes multiple gloved and bare hands, the proton pack, a proton beam, and a walkie talkie. The proton beam also include the small clear clip that allows you to attach it to the wand. The main body sculpt for the figure is excellent, with plenty of articulation, allowing for good range of motion. There are no double joints on the elbows, but the knees are double jointed. The new head sculpt could have used some further refinements in my eyes. The look fits more with a pre-slimed Peter & the likeness for Bill Murray has always been head to pull off (for most companies really). I do like the slimed look, though, as it makes this version of Peter a great companion to a Slimer figure.
The Gozer figure turned out fairly well here. Like most of the figures in the line, the articulation is handled well. The elbows are single jointed, but the knees have the double joints. The range of motion is good, though the sculpt on the shoulders does hinder some directional movement, especially if you’re trying to pose the arms raised. The two head sculpts and two sets of hands are fairly similar to each other. The second head sculpt has a slightly opened mouth, while the second set of hands feature slightly bent fingers. The sculpts themselves are nice, with good details, especially on the Gozer “outfit”. The paint on the heads could use just a little more detail, as the eyes and lips feel simplistic compared to, say, the Dana Barrett, which has some nice gradations and transitions in color. It looks fine from a distance. One thing that pleasantly surprised me was how well balanced she was. Heels on an action figure always seem hit or miss, but Gozer had not trouble standing in static or bent leg poses. She does have peg holes in her feet if you do need to use a stand. Gozer is a good addition overall though, as the whole figure works in-hand. She is going to work really well with the rooftop dio.
For me, the best figure is the wave is Walter Peck. He’s a character I loved to hate in the original film. The head sculpt here gives him a great jerk smirk and the actor likeness is up there with Ray as one of the best in the series. Paint is decent on the head sculpt, with only a too prominent highlight on the lips standing out. Peck has good articulation, in line with the Ghostbusters themselves and the suit look great. I can see a lot of people picking this figure up to customize and use with different head sculpts thanks to having a clean, and well done suit. The figure doesn’t include any additional accessories, but does come with the most dio parts in the assortment.
Check out some highlight photos below, with the full gallery after that.
Backdrop used is by Extreme Sets, check them out and grab your own!
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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