The Real
Ghostbusters have already been presented in this blog, and now I will proceed
with the story of the Filmation Ghotsbusters, although chronologically, I
should have written this first. The Ghost Busters was a CBS live action TV
program for children starring Forrest Tucker (Spencer), Larry Storch (Tracy) and Bob Burns in a
gorilla suit (Kong). The program was produced by Filmation and consisted of two
complete seasons (15 episodes). It was premiered on the 6th
September 1975, and aired Saturday mornings in 1975 and Sundays in 1976.
Unfortunately, and despite its popularity, no more chapters were ever recorded.
A few years
later (around 1984), it was known that Dan Aykroyd was working on a script to
make a film based (or inspired) by “Ghostbreakers” from 1940. Due to legal
rights, this name had to be changed to “Ghostbusters”, and at this point the
executives at filmation thought that it might be a good idea to turn the old TV
series in cartoons, but Columbia (that was producing the film that later became
so famous) tried to stop it. They filed a lawsuit against Filmation to avoid
the usage of the Ghostbusters name in the cartoons. The court ruled in
Filmations favour and for a payoff, they accepted to include slightly change
the name to “Filmation’s Ghostbusters”, gave permission to the film to use the
name as planned, but for licensing, Columbia was forced to use the name “The
Real Ghostbusters” in all their licensed products. Maybe because of the term
“real”, many children on my age thought at the time, that the Filmation
Ghostbusters were a “copy” of the ones we had seen on the cinema, although it
was actually the opposite.
The
Filmation’s Ghostbusters cartoons tell the story of the children of the
characters in the live action series, to prevent any royalties problem.
The figures
were produced by Schaper, since no “big” toy company would risk producing toys
that could offend Columbia Pictures. Anyway, although the company was not very
well known, they got to produce wonderful and qualitative figures: Beautifully
sculpted, well finished, with bright colours, correct articulations and even
some accessories. They even published a short comic book that was given away
with the figures. Even some vehicles were produced.
Schaper was
a toy company based in Minneapolis
and founded in 1949. It is known for being one of the first toymakers that
extensively used plastic in its toys. In 1986, Schaper was acquired by Tyco.
This explains why the American blisters are marked with the Schaper brand,
while the Europeans are sold under Tyco license, but manufactured by local
toymakers like Comansi in Spain
or GIG in Italy.
Curiously, these same license holders also had in their catalogues the
Dinoriders line, also Tyco toy released at the same time than these Filmation
Ghostbusters.
The figure
I bring today, is, unfortunately, one of the less important figures in this
line. The Hunter was one of the evil characters in this series, and the only
one I own today 100% complete (it came without any accs.). Due to its scarcity,
it is very difficult to find loose figures complete with accs. The three main
characters include guns and backpacks that are extremely rare to find.
Information
for this article was mostly taken from: Tomart’s Action Figure Digest Nr. 92.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: Haunter
- Alternative Names: Viscid (Italy), Cazador (Spain)
- Toy Line: Filmation Ghostbusters
- Year: 1986
- Company: Schaper, Tyco (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figure: 15 cm.
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