I am a
little out of my depth in writing a LEGO review. That’s R.T.’s
business.
My
personal history with LEGOs is not glorious. My first LEGO set was
the Forestmen’s Hideout, one of the Robin Hood themed sets that
presumably went along with whatever their castle range was at the
time (the time being 1988). As I mentioned in Episode 26 of the Needless Things Podcast,
once I put it together I never, ever wanted it to be taken apart
again. I love
putting things together. Once. And I’m not much for coming up with
my own constructs. So the bottom line is that a lot of the appeal of
LEGOs is lost on me and for what LEGO’s cost it isn’t really
worth it.
A few
years ago I bought a couple of castles on super clearance at Walmart.
I had a great time putting them together and then sold them to Gnoll
because I don’t have anywhere to put giant fucking LEGO castles.
This sums up my LEGO feelings – I love them, but once I put them
together I’m kind of done with them.
I bought
the set I am reviewing today despite that and against my better
judgment because when it comes to Ghostbusters stuff I just cannot
help myself.
Of
course, the first problem to overcome was that everywhere was selling
out of the Ghostbusters set as fast as they got them in. It wasn’t
a huge deal and it’s not like I was frantic to spend fifty bucks on
this tiny car that I knew I was going to buy and put together and
that that’s where my joy and pleasure would end. But they were
selling out and I wasn’t getting a chance to see one in person.
Of
course, they had tons
of them at the LEGOKidsFest. As happens with
things that I really want but know that I should not buy I picked the
Ghostbusters set up and put it back down. I did this as
surreptitiously as I could, because I knew if any of the friendly
salespeople saw me touching it or even giving it a lingering glance
they would descend upon me like a pack of howler monkeys. Only
instead of howling they would be telling me how great the set was and
how hard it was to find and how if I didn’t buy it people would
call me a fraud and I’d never be allowed to watch Ghostbusters
again.
Not the
first one, anyway.
This was
on my first circuit of the KidsFest, so after putting the set back on
the shelf I very quickly made my way out of the store, avoiding the
attention of the LEGO salespeople.
A bit
later I stopped back in because I had forgotten to take a picture of
the store. I picked up the Ghostbusters set again, but my excitement
and desire made me careless. One of the salespeople descended upon me
and told me how great the set was and how hard it was to find and how
if I didn’t buy it people would call me a fraud and I’d never be
allowed to watch Ghostbusters
again. Or something to that effect.
I
stammered and looked around, not knowing what to do. I knew
that I didn’t need to buy that set, so I shoved it at him and ran
out of the store.
We did,
of course, end up in the store again. Unbeknownst to me my wife had
made a deal with our son where he got to pick out a LEGO set. Here’s
a thing that happens with my wife, though – she has this weird
mental block where she cannot remember that LEGO sets are more
expensive than gold bars. So she had promised him the fifty dollar
X-Men Blackbird (or X-Jet or whatever they call it now) set without
realizing it was fifty dollars.
Well, I
wanted a fifty dollar set, too, dammit. So I grabbed my Ghostbusters
set and did my best not to think about how I didn’t need to spend
the money on it because our beach vacation and Dragon Con and our
anniversary and Lil’ Troublemaker’s birthday and Halloween and
Christmas were all coming up in, like, the
next week.
FIRST
GLANCE
It’s
hard for me to rate a LEGO set other than to say, “It looks like
the thing that it is supposed to be; except made of LEGO bricks.”
Which is what I can say about this from a glance. It’s worth noting
that the windshield is much more satisfactorily designed than the one
on the Back to the Future DeLorean.
All
of the junk on top of the car looks great,
which is appropriate because it took us about three hours to put that
part together.
PACKAGING
This
box is a step above standard LEGO releases. It is made from a much
thicker cardboard and has graphics that are less distinctively LEGO
but a little fancier. This is set #21108 and it has 508 pieces, which
breaks down to a bit less than ten cents per piece. I don’t know if
that makes me feel any better about the price. Some of these pieces
are pretty tiny. Like, if I saw one of those little, clear headlight
pieces in a Target or something, I would not be compelled to buy one.
The tires might be a different story. Those things are worth at least
a quarter each.
I
don’t know if the piece count is the number of pieces that make up
the set or the actual number of pieces in the box. LEGO sets always
have a few extra pieces. I would assume it’s the former.
The
graphics show the ECTO-1 in various states of play and feature a 3-th
Anniversary logo and Egon saying, “Who you gonna call?” Unlike
other LEGO sets this one does not show alternate builds because the
only thing you’re supposed to make out of this set is the ECTO-1
and may the good Lord have mercy on you if you do anything else (with
my set, anyway).
This
is a nice box and I really like the black and yellow hazard stripes
that line the interior once you open it:
The
Bricks
The
instruction manual for this set is as different as the box is. It’s
in three languages, which I normally find really annoying but since
this is a Danish product coming from one of the highest-quality
manufacturers on the planet I will cut them a break. Also these are
the only toys on the planet that aren’t made in China, so that
counts for something, too.
Rather
than the numbered bags we’ve seen in recent years that correspond
to the building steps, this is old-school – six cellophane bags
with no markings other than the warnings not to feed them to your
dragon or use them to insulate your big, furry boots. So the first
instruction in the manual is to open up all of the bags and sort the
bricks by color.
This
terrified me.
Every
once in a while one of my son’s little jerkbag friends will come
over and when they leave one or more of his LEGO sets is no longer
fully assembled. The worst instance of this came from the Batcave
playset being swept off of a table and busting apart to the point
where the only option was to take the
whole damned thing apart and start over.
Obviously we were far beyond numbered bags at this point and color
sorting was the only option. I tried to help with this, but had to
quit after roughly ninety seconds to avoid having an aneurysm. I do
not know how my wife and son managed this, but God bless them.
I
will admit that the set seemed somewhat less intimidating after we
got the pieces sorted. Also, Lil’ Troublemaker is way
better at sorting pieces than I am. When you have thumbs like garden
trowels it’s tough to pick up those little pieces. And to text.
There
are a number of printed bricks in this set – a few with the
Ghostbusters logo, the proton packs, and the computer. I prefer this
to stickers.
ASSEMBLY
I
feel like this took longer than 110 minutes or so to assemble, but we
watched Ghostbusters
2 (I
had seen the first one much more recently and didn’t feel like
going downstairs to get the cartoons) while we put it together and I
don’t think we went too far past the end. It might have edged over
two hours with little breaks and stuff where we didn’t turn the
movie back on. I’m not sure.
The
chassis was a little tedious due to all of the outward-facing pegs
for the fins and stuff. It’s never as much fun building the base
parts. But once you get into the details and gimmicks things get
awesome. The way the windows were designed was pretty ingenious and
the interior of the ECTO is great with the computer station, though
we’re having a little trouble figuring out how to fit all of the
proton packs in the back. I’m also slightly disappointed that the
back doesn’t open and have a little slide-out piece for the packs
to sit on.
The
top was the best though. Seeing all of the crazy parts that comprise
the top of the ECTO-1 come together and be represented with LEGO
bricks was great.
MINIFIGURES
Lil’
Troublemaker took point on these. The likenesses are great. Ray is
overly exuberant, Egon looks stern, Peter’s eyebrows have that
wiseass slant, and Winston is serious and has his little mustache.
Rather than full last names the patches on the minifigures have
initials.
The
proton packs were assemblies unto themselves, each one consisting of
many LEGO pieces. The finished product snaps onto a collar with a
stud on the back that is around the minifigure’s neck. The wands
snap onto the packs or into the figure’s hands just fine.
Also
included are a ghost trap, two walkie-talkies, and a piece that is
supposed to be a PKE meter. I feel like the Ray minifigure should
have had goggles on his head or even an extra hair piece with goggles
over the eyes.
I
love the fact that this set came with a display base for the
minifigures. It has a cool design and a brick with the Ghostbusters
logo printed on it.
FINAL
PRODUCT
The
wheels spin, the top lifts off, the ladder extends, and the little
turret thing rotates. There’s plenty of fun interaction here. And
on the shelf everything looks fantastic. There’s no denying that
this is the ECTO-1 and that the minifigures are Ghostbusters. This is
clearly a high-quality licensed product that will fit right in with
all of your other licensed LEGO sets. I feel like LEGO did a great
job creating this thing.
All
of the Ghostbusters and their gear can't fit inside, which is disappointing. The extra little bits of gear do add play value and the
wheels spin nicely, which makes the car fun to drive around.
This
set is solid, but I feel like it could have been a little better.
LEGO has to decide where the balance is between price point and
features, though. If they had included a Slimer (me and Lil’
Troublemaker felt like this was a huge oversight), made the car big
enough, made the doors work, included different hair pieces with
goggles, and done all of the other little things that would have made
this set perfect the thing would have ended up costing a hundred
bucks or more.
Of course, you can also make your own Slimer like Lil' Troublemaker did:
He felt Slimer's exclusionwas as egregious an offense as I did.
OVERALL
And
that, in the end, is probably my biggest issue with LEGOs – for the
price you pay you are getting an interpretation
of something. It isn’t a big deal with castles or spaceships, but
when you get into licensed stuff I start to get nitpicky. Heck, even
Batmobiles have a bit of freedom. But that’s the difference – if
you’re a LEGO collector then I would imagine your need is to have
these items, vehicles, or playsets adapted into the world of LEGO.
But as a regular toy collector I want accurate representations of
whatever the thing I’m buying is. I’m not saying that LEGO did
anything wrong at all, I’m just saying that this once again proves
that LEGO is not really my thing.
Bottom
line is that if you are a LEGO fan that wants a LEGO Ghostbusters set
this ECTO-1 is going to make you happy. Me, I’m probably going to
donate mine to Lil’ Troublemaker’s ever-growing LEGO world.
4
out of 5
Part
of my reason for buying this is my desire for an ECTO-1 toy. I didn’t
even spend one second considering buying the ridiculously overpriced
one Matty was offering, but I do still want one. I think my best
option is likely to be the one from the Real Ghostbusters line and
that could cost me almost as much as Matty’s would.
The
most important lesson for me here is to not buy LEGO sets for myself.
If there’s one I want, just save it as a gift for Lil’
Troublemaker.
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