Extreme Ghostbusters
Trendmasters
1997 - 1998
Extreme Ghostbusters was an animated series set years after the original The Real Ghostbusters animated series. The premise of the series surrounds the concept that due to a lack of paranormal activity in the city the Ghostbusters have disbanded. Dr. Egon Spengler is the only remaining member of the team who has chosen to stay in the firehouse, monitoring the containment system and watching over Slimer. He makes his new living by teaching a class about paranormal activity at a local college.
When ghosts return, rather than call his old friends back into action, Egon instead seeks the aid of his small class of students to join him in his quest to once again bust the spooks. The only other returning familiar face was Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters original secretary who seems to have forgotten about Louise Tully, and picks up where she left off in her affections for Egon.
Though the show tried to be darker in its image with its rock/punk version of the original Ghostbusters theme, and dark under toned characters, it failed to really capture an audience and revitalize the franchise as Sony had hoped. The end result was only forty episodes with several unresolved story arcs, and character relationships.
Between 1997 and 1998, Trendmasters produced a series of toys based on the show, finding little success in the toy isles. Each Ghostbuster was represented in both a standard and deluxe edition, as well as a handful of ghosts. Unfortunately that's as far as the series got with the exception of the Ecto 1.
Well, let us backtrack a moment. That's as far as the series got in the USA. There were two more items produced and sold exclusively in the UK - The Ghost Blastin' Buster Bike and the Ghost Grabbin' Gyro-Copter. Not only are these two items incredibly rare, they're going to set you back anywhere from $50.00 to $1,000.00 to obtain depending on condition.
DELUXE FIGURES
Eduardo*Egon
Roland*Kylie
The series was fond of using bright neon colors for the characters, a style that was often used towards the tail end of the original Real Ghostbusters line from Kenner.
BASIC FIGURES
Eduardo*Egon
Kylie*Roland
GHOSTS
House Ghost*Mouth Critter
Sam Hain*Slimer
In terms of sculpt and design, the Trendmasters version of the Ecto 1 car is pretty spot on. It's hard to find fault in it at all.
VEHICLES
Ecto 1
Join us next time when we take a look at The Dark Crystal!
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I always thought this was a great line and luckily for me nobody else did, I was able to pick up multiple sets out of the Kaybee toys clearance bins for next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteKaybee's clearance bin was a goldmine back in the day. Always treasure to find there.
DeleteA friend and I were just talking about this series last night. I remember being less than enthused about these when they originally came out (I would have been in 7th or 8th grade) but a year or two ago John from Robot Monster Space Superhero sent me a Sam hain and Kylie figure. They're actually pretty cool. Trendmasters was an interesting company. They seemed to put a lot of attention, detail, and effort into their lines but they never seemed to be able to have a real breakout hit. I loved their Mars Attacks stuff, though.
ReplyDeleteTrendmasters tried so hard to find success in the toy isle, but the problem they kept running into was that they were producing lines based on things that weren't necessarily a hit.
DeleteFrom a collector's perspective, we respect a lot of their work for the unique offerings they had. However from a kids perspective (when the items came out originally) - They weren't hitting any high notes for us.
I have had a few of these figures in the past and would not be surprised if i have more again in the future lol.
ReplyDeleteThey're not the original Ghostbuster's team, but they're still pretty awesome.
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