Happy Throwback Thursday boys and girls! Today I thought I’d look through my toy chest to find some inspiration for todays throwback. Any true child of the 80’s (and early 90’s) wanted to be a ghostbuster. Empty paper towel rolls and backpacks became “unlicensed nuclear accelerators”. Our attics and basements became infested with paranormal activity and we were the answer to the question, “Who ya gonna call”. We must have watched those two movies till the heads of our VCR’s wore down to dust. We also waited with anticipation for their animated exploits every Saturday morning.

The Real Ghostbusters was a cartoon that spawned one of the greatest toy lines of my childhood. The “fright feature” figures, came complete with cartoonish and over the top double take action. Ghastly ghosts like the “haunted humans”, functioned like ghostly transformers. Then there was the “Classic Monsters” figures, which gave us a chance to pit the Ghostbusters against the likes of Dracula and the Wolfman. The line had vehicles like the iconic Ecto-1 and not to mention the countless role-play  gadgets they made kid size, like the proton pack and ghost trap.

The crown jewel of the whole line was the “firehouse headquarters” playset. Of all the fictional places I wanted to live as a kid, the Ghostbusters firehouse fell somewhere between the Batcave and the Ninja Turtle’s sewer lair. For whatever reason this toy graced the pages (and pages and pages) of my Christmas list every year, but that fat prick St. Nick never seemed to get the memo. Most of my childhood friendships were determined by whether or not you were lucky enough to own this plastic masterpiece. For it’s time it was definitely one of the tallest playsets around, with three separate levels. It came with a working containment unit accessory and a container of “ectoplasm”. The “ectoplasm” could ooze through the floor vents onto your Ghostbuster figures and make them feel “so funky”. However, the best feature of all was the working fire pole which would send the boys into action on a call. Even following the years I could legally attend strip clubs, I was never so excited to see something swing around a pole.

Some 20 years later, I finally ended up getting the firehouse as a  christmas gift. Funny enough I unknowingly ended up in a bidding war on ebay for it against my mother and she ended up having to pay over 3x the starting price. That is what you get for waiting so long to fulfill my childhood dreams bitch! Let that be a lesson to you parents out there.