What Ghostbusters Surprises Is Hasbro Cooking Up For SDCC?

With San Diego Comic Con set to take place on the West Coast a month from now, it's about time to start wondering what supernaturally spectacular surprises the creative team at Hasbro might be cooking up for fans!

Just this month, the team behind all the latest and greatest Ghostbusters products from Hasbro were in attendance at the Ghostbusters Day Celebration in NYC hosted by the Buffalo Ghostbusters. While we got our first official look that weekend at some things we knew were coming, mainly the previously unreleased Ecto-Glow Copter featuring Louis Tully, the team did have a few other cryptic teases up their sleeves.

The first we found most fans talking about even after the event came by way of a mystery sack! Presented to us by Hasbro product designer, Pat Dennis, we reached into the magical sack to pull out a small, molded vinyl figurine of Ray Stantz as seen in The Real Ghostbusters. Other pulls by attendees included the rest of the core team, as well as some familiar phantasmal foes from the animated series as well as the classic Kenner toy line!

Photo By Yes Have Some Podcast

In total, there appear to be 12+ collectible figurines. When asked about the purpose of the tiny buster we suddenly cradled in our hands, Dennis simply replied, "Talk to me after San Diego."

Many have had their own theories regarding the purpose of the vinyl figures, including a potential board game. Meanwhile, we're left wondering if the logical answer is a re-release of the popular childhood carpet ruiner, The Real Ghostbusters Ectoplazm?! Released in the late 80's and early 90's, Ectoplazm was released both with different toys and playsets as well as individually, containing 5 oz of play slime and a mystery ghost! With the 40th anniversary coming this September for The Real Ghostbusters, it could be the perfect way to celebrate the premiere of the spooktacular animated series and incredibly easy as well as smart for the toy titan to produce. We've already seen them venture into this territoru following the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife with Hasbro's Mini Puft mystery "compound".

Today's market still sees an incredible demand for "mystery pulls" from various brands that appeal to consumers of all ages! Hiding eight different collectible figures in each container ensures you can't possibly just buy one, you're going to have to trap them all! Slime, or what is now more commonly referred to as "compound" on its packaging, is also still very popular with a young audience for play as well as sensory purposes. This is also the perfect product to put The Real Ghostbusters back on store shelves, and hopefully not be restricted to a con exclusive or even online ordering. It's our opinion, that for such a play to work the product also has to be easily accessible to everyone. We know we'd personally love to be back on the hunt of our local toy aisles to see what new Ghostbusters goodness is haunting store shelves!

Additionally, the team were also handing out buttons that clearly go all in on The Real Ghostbusters celebration! We were all to nab all three, including a general "Protected By The Real Ghostbusters" button sporting the classic series logo, as well as two other sporting new artwork from Harry Moore; Louis Tully as we'll see included with the upcoming Ecto-Glow Copter, as well as Janine Melnitz sporting a pink jumpsuit and proton pack! So our question is- why Janine specifically? As it stands, we've seen Hasbro re-release a few of our favorite classic Kenner figures, including the initial line up of Ghostbusters as well as ghosts, Fright Features, Ecto-Glow Heroes, as well as some roleplay toys and vehicles. However, Kenner has previously also given us a number of Janine figures in those same lines, none of which have made their way to the re-release slate. Could we finally be seeing the power house that is Melnitz in uniform return to her toy card backing?!

While looking at previous releases, the art featured on the button does come close to some forms of Janine we've seen in the past, but nothing exact. This is seemingly new art from Moore and not a recreation! So is this a re-release, or a totally new Kenner centric Janine Melnitz figure?

In any case, IF we're on to something, you can be sure a new Janine will very likely be a convention or online exclusive as it currently doesn't have any The Real Ghostbusters toy lines to release alongside that we're aware of. Although, that doesn't make us any less excited to potentially add her to the collection.

Note worthy, this is ALL speculation ahead of the upcoming San Diego Comic Con for the strict purposes of community and collector discussion!

So what do YOU think? Are you excited to trap eight different collectible Ectoplazm jars with mystery figures inside? How about a brand new or even re-released Kenner Classics Janine Melnitz? Let's discuss! #ghostbusters #ghostbustersday #hasbro #sdcc #slimer #spirit #staypuft #ecto #80smovies #retrovibes #spookyvibes #anniversary #gbday #danaykroyd #billmurray #erniehudson #haroldramis #paulrudd #finnwolfhard #mckennagrace #carriecoon #ghost #slime #trending #ghostcorps #whoyagonnacall #reportallghosts