Crossover Archives - Big Angry Trev!

Transformers may be an intergenerationaly beloved franchise that began in 1984, but there is another that began that same year that is just as beloved and famous, and that is Ghostbusters.

Transformers rock! Ghostbusters rock! One involves giant shape-changing alien robots, the other using proton streams and containment systems to catch ghosts. Plus both have cool vehicles and catchy theme tunes!

It’s the cool vehicles (or at least one of them) we will be looking at today. Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters vehicle and a true icon of pop culture. But here Ecto-1 has been given the Transformers Crossover treatment, so for the 35^th anniversary of both franchises we get Ectotron.

The Packaging

Oh it’s just sooo beautiful! Pure 80’s Transformers G1, right down to the transformation steps at the top. And subtly altered with the odd bit of slime and Ghostbusters symbols to show the dual heritage of this toy.

Vehicle Mode

Be still my beating heart! Ecto-1 looks superb here! So much detail! From the grill to the doors to all the various equipment on top, this is an incredibly faithful rendition of the original vehicle. The only downside is that there is no interior detail, but given this is also a Transformer I find this completely forgivable – all those robot pieces have to go somewhere after all.

Robot Mode

Very cool! The colour scheme is mostly white due to the vehicle form, but incorporates some brown as a shout out to the uniforms the Ghostbusters wear. The figure has great articulation which allows you to put him in all sorts of bustin’ poses. Instead of the usual robot optics, he has spectro-goggles such as Ghostbuster Ray Stanz wears. And speaking of equipment the Ghostbusters wear…

The Proton Pack

The roof equipment from the vehicle form transforms into a detachable Proton Pack for the Ectotron robot mode. This is very clever! Not only can he take the pack on and off, but he can also either holster the gun on his back, or can hold it in order to do some bustin’ of his own. Very, very well done – Slimer better watch out!

Worth Getting?

This wasn’t a very hard review to write as I am absolutely in love with this figure! Could it have been better? Perhaps. Inner detail for the vehicle, maybe some more paint apps on the robot mode and some eye and mouth colour on Slimer so he is not just a green blob (though really, the character literally is a green blob). But given this figure is not that cheap as is, it would have resulted in a far higher price tag in order to accommodate all that, and I think he is fine as is.

Personally, whenever not playing with it I’ll be keeping Ectotron in the beautiful packaging as a display piece. Ectotron is currently available at multiple places online or here in Australia at Zing & EB Games stores for around $80. If you are a fan of both the Ghostbusters and Transformers franchises (and let’s face it – who isn’t), then I heartily recommend picking up what, in my opinion, is the best TF crossover toy we’ve ever had!

Got something to say about this figure? Pop it in the comments section below!

I’ll put my hand up to not being a massive Transformers Crossover toy fan. Oh I’ve got a few token ones – a couple from Star Wars, a couple from Marvel, heck – even one from My Little Kitty. So I was kind of bemused when I saw they were making to celebrate it’s 30 year anniversary Street Fighter II Transformer figures.

But then I saw some pics and knew I had to have some!

The Bison/Ryu set didn’t hold much appeal. I thought the reuse of an Optimus mold as Ryu to be particularly poor (I mean really, Ryu has a faceplate now?) but the Chun-Li/Ken set looked great! The only way it could have appealed to me more was for it to have Vega instead of Ken so I could recreate that awesome fight seen between him and Chunners from the great animated movie from the 90’s.

So today I received the figures. Now, unlike other reviews I write, I’ll be going from a purely aesthetic viewpoint as I intend to keep these figures relatively MIB. That means no transforming and minimal removal from packaging. I’ll be including a marketing pic at the very end from Google Search but otherwise all the pics are mine. And I invite anyone who has opened and transformed their figures to pop in a review in the comments section – if good enough I might even add it to the review and credit you!

*I… I just cant bring myself to play with toys these, though by Primus I want to!*

To be honest, I think this is a set you would want to keep MISB, especially given the price tag for what is a couple of Deluxe figures. Chances are you already have these molds as other characters anyway. Ken is redone from Rodimus and Chun-Li is redone from Arcee. I’ve got a couple of each mold (including the fantastic Legends Nightbird) so am able to restrain myself, though I am sorely tempted to see how Chun-Li looks in vehicle mode.

The paintjobs are fantastic, though Ken’s eyebrows look even more ridiculous than in the video game which is no mean feat. Chun-Li is most definitely the stand-out of the two, all the little details and changes in colour work surprisingly well on many levels – just superb!

The box-art is very good, showing the SFII origins of these two. It also shows how each character can be put into one of their special moves, and indeed they are packaged with Ken throwing a Dragon Punch and Chun-Li performing a Spinning Bird Kick, a testament to how artciulated the Arcee mold is.

Do you need these toys? No. But will you want these toys? If you are of my age, you may remember just what a huge deal SFII was, it was a revolutionary game and many of us bought a SNES just so we could play it! I’ve been a rabid SF fan for most of my life, though kinda lost track after Street Fighter Alpha. This set will sit with pride within my display case for years to come.

Got something to add, or actually bit the bullet and played with these toys yourself? Would love to read about it in the comments section below!

Big Angry Trev!

Tag Archives: Crossover

Toy Review – Ectotron

Toys Review – Street Fighter Transformers

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