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You’ve always wanted your very own Ghostbusters Proton Pack. Your options have been: find a cheap toy, 3D print, sand and paint your own, pay for someone to do it for you, start with a premade kit, or painstakingly build something even more intricate from scratch.
Here’s a sixth way that might be the easiest and most cost-effective yet: pay Hasbro $400 for this incredible-looking thing:
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Hasbro says the Ghostbusters Plasma Series Spengler’s Proton Pack is based on 3D scans of the actual movie prop from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and it’s complete with lights, sounds (from both 1984 and 2021), a cyclotron you can open up and dismantle, a full set of straps so you can wear it, and apparently an incredible amount of fantastic weathering.
I reached out to my Ghostbusters-loving friend for context, who’s been trying to build his own for years. He was impressed by the price, pointing out that you can easily pay $400 just for a competent body kit to help you build your own, let alone a finished product with this level of detail, and the cost of all the bits you’d need for the full effect can add up quickly.
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Still, if you buy Hasbro’s version, you’ll have the same one as everybody else who does. Some take pride in building their own, just like there’s a community of fans reaching for the perfect replica of Han Solo’s DL-44 blaster or the perfect Star Wars lightsaber. And you’ll still need to figure out how to add a plasma wand: Hasbro’s $125 version is sold separately.
It also could be quite a wait: this crowdfunded toy / prop isn’t scheduled to ship till spring 2023. You’ve got until December 12th of this year to decide if you’re in — with these HasLab products, the company is only promising a single production run. I still wonder if I made the right choice skipping the amazing $350 The Mandalorian Razor Crest, though the Lego version’s not bad.
Like I recently said, there’s never been a better time to be a grown-up kid.