GHOSTBUSTERS was one of those flicks I had a story about. I went to see it the very first day it was out, and thought it was hilarious. I just happened to stumble on a shirt that same weekend, already emblazoned with the Ghosbusters logo. Remember, this was twenty years ago, and they were usually a little slower on the uptake when it came to movie related merchandising.

So I buy a shirt for myself. That following Saturday night I wear it to a, uh, "gentleman's establishment." It was a huge hit with the dancers, and one even took it off of me to take up on stage with her. She wore it - at least to start - as the deejay played the song that made Ray Parker Jr. famous, along with the term "Who ya gonna call?".

Yep, that's the story. I didn't say it was an interesting story, although it involved nudity. I suppose EVEN that wasn't enough to make it all that interesting.

Here it is, twenty years later, and NECA has picked up the license to produce action figures based on the original film. The first series includes Gozer, Zuul, Vinz, and Slimer. The extremely observant in the crowd will notice that there are no actual Ghostbusters in the line up. That's due to some issues around getting the actual actor's to sign off on the likenesses, and NECA is still working on it. They don't want to settle for a generic version, and you have to respect that.

They aren't the subject of tonight's review though, but I did review them here if you're interested. Nope, this column will cover the the deluxe figure from the assortment, the big, the bad, and oh so fluffy Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. He's popping up at various specialty stores like Media Play or Sam Goody right now.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man"

This is one big honking figure, standing at about 16". Sure, that's not really to scale - he was a hundred feet tall in the movie - but it's still a far cry from the little puny version we got in the '80s. He runs around twenty bucks, depending where you pick him up at, and is what is called "rotocast." That means a very specific manufacturing method was used, but what it means to the collector is that he's hollow. Can you imagine how heavy something this big would be if he was solid plastic?

Packaging - **
NECA went with the usual open box, commonly used for the newer large roto-cast figures. The text on the back is pretty good, with some basic humor and information about the specific figure and the rest of the line. But it won't protect the figure at all, and won't hold up to either shelf wear or storage time. Worse, the white and blue paint on the is going to get rubbed quite a bit before you ever get him home.

Sculpting - ***
NECA went with a very particular look from the film, and some folks have felt it was the wrong move. Ah, controversy!

Mr. Puft is pissed. This isn't the sunny, smiling version we first see when he first pops up. No, this minion of Gozer looks like someone just used his momma to make s'mores. Lots of folks have said they would have preferred the friendlier version, but I think this evil, mean look works well, and it is right out of the film.

Another big plus here is the "stucco-like" texture to the marshmallow skin. It adds realism, especially at this scale. Had they made him smooth plastic, he would have looked like a huge dog chew toy. They have also gone with cloth for the ribbon on his hat, which is a nice touch.

Still, it's a fairly straight forward sculpt, and there's nothing amazing here. Something seems slightly off about the proportion of the hat to the head to the body, but it's not serious. It's a solid sculpt (even it my three-year-old daughter thinks he's a snowman), but not surprising.

Paint - **1/2
There's already some controversy around the paint aps as well, particularly in terms of the bluish wash used to highlight the sculpt. And while my score is a little below average, it hasn't got a lot to do with the use of the wash.

That's not completely true, though. I think the wash produced shadows on the body nicely, and added to the overall impression of detail, but they went a tad too far with the face. Mine has quite a bit of blue on the cheeks and face, and it's a bit of overkill. Rather than highlight the sculpt, it takes away from it, and makes him appear to have a blue van dyke.

But if that was the only issue, you could add another half star without a problem. Nope, my big issue was around the blue of the collar, and its inconsistency. It looks like there are spots that were touched up by hand with a brush, and I looked at four different figures and saw the same thing on every one. I suspect that's because the figure is susceptible to scratching, especially at the plant.

The eyes are fairly clean, although the lines are a little shaky that define the edges. The white is fairly consistent, although that's likely to be due to being cast in the color initially. In general, the paint ops are decent, but not exceptional.

Articulation - **
There aren't many points, but at his size, I'm not surprised. He has a pretty good ball jointed neck, shoulders and hips. The hips don't do much, and the arms only do slightly more, but with rotocast you never get too many joints. It's tough to get the hollow pieces to work with joints, although companies like Toybiz and Mezco have been making big strides in this area.

Accessories - Bupkis
I thought about it for a whole 30 seconds, and nothing obvious came to me, but I think if you spent a little more time on it you could come up with something that would be a worthwhile accessory. At this price point, they needed to have something else in there to entice you.

Fun Factor - **1/2
The issue here isn't that this wouldn't be a fun toy - it's that no kids are likely to know who this is. This is a big figure for big kids whole love the old movie and have wonderful memories of seeing it the first time around. This category won't go against him in the overall very much, but it's still worth pointing out.

Value - ***
Toybiz is making rotocast figures in the 12" range for around $10. Other companies are making them in the 18" range for $25 - $40. That means twenty bucks seems a pretty fair price, but not an amazing value. Then again, if you consider that the small figures cost at least ten bucks each, it starts looking pretty good.

Overall - **1/2
Stay Puft doesn't get as good of an overall score as the smaller figures, especially Slimer. As I mentioned in my other review, if you can only buy one figure, buy Slimer. But if you're a big fan of the old film, this guy is definitely worth taking a look at. How much you like him is going to be very dependent on how you feel about the angry expression and blue shadowing. If they work for you, you'll be extremely happy. If they don't, you'll probably pass this guy up.

Where to Buy -
I picked him up at the local Media Play, and he'll also be at Sam Goody and Suncoast stores. On-line options include:

- CornerStoreComics has him for $18, plus they have the rest of the series available.

- Killer Toys has him for $19, plus they have the other figures in the line available.