Today's Ghostbusters Afterlife trailer gave us just a tantalising hint at the return of original Ghostbuster Ray Stantz, as we see a familiar looking book shop and hear a familiar voice answer the phone and say, "We're closed." While we already know that the surviving members of the 80s busting team will be back in this true sequel to the original 1984 movie and its 1989 sequel, and not in just some blink an you miss it cameo. As is only right though, it looks like Jason Reitman is going to make us wait to get sight of the guys in action, but we have still been given our first sight of Winson, Peter and Ray as the aged busters thanks to the reveal of Habro's Plasma Series toy releases.
The new Ghostbusters: Afterlife images show the full range of the toys being released to tie into the movie's upcoming release. As well as figures based on the likenesses of Lucky, Trevor, Podcast and Phoebe, the new generation of Ghostbusters played by, in order, Celeste O'Connor, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Jim and Mckenna Grace, we get old versions of Bill Murray's Peter Venkman, complete with white hair, as well as Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz and Ernie Hudson's Winston Zedmore both rocking a greying look. Dressed in their classic uniforms, it sits alongside the comments made by Murray and Aykroyd in relation to the strenuous work of getting proton packed up again after so long to almost confirm that we will be seeing all three former Ghostbusters letting loose their streams once again.
The other interesting thing from the toy reveal is the additional "build a ghost" figure, which comes in separate parts with each human figure, and is listed as a Sentinel Terror Dog. While we have seen the return of the Terror Dog in the trailer, and considering the strong links to Gozer and Ivo Shandor from the original movie, in this iteration the Terror Dog looks almost to be walking on two legs with almost Loki like horns protruding from its head. From Jason Reitman's breakdown of the trailer, we have been told that a spectral version of the Terror Dog will also feature in the movie, and the new figure clearly alludes to that too. It is clear that this time around the Terror Dog will not just be a charging mutt possessing the likes of Dana Barrett, but something much more terrifying.
Along with the figures, Hasbro are also releasing a number of other related products. Mini Stay Puft 3-packs were announced and went up for pre-sale last month, and in this new batch of products we have new Fright Features figures of each of the four new young Ghostbusters that are a hark back to the original 80's Real Ghostbusters toys by Kenner, a remote controlled ghost trap like the ones seen in the car chase scene in the trailer, a Ghostbusters based version of the board game Clue, a Mini-Puft Popper that lets you blast your friends with little foam marshmallows just like the retro Kenner Proton Blaster.
Today's trailer release has made it a long wait until November for the Ghostbusters movie all fans hope it will turn out be, and the toy releases have only helped elevate that expectation a little more.
