Review : "Geared Up" Louis Tully, Ghostbusters Select Series 6 (Diamond Select Toys)

Review : "Geared Up" Louis Tully Ghostbusters Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 6 (Ghostbusters II) Released : February 2018

£24.99

Pros : The body is not a re-use and has been resculpted in Tully's smaller frame. Cons : Glasses are too bulky and attached wonky. The cable quality between backpack and gun is poor and snaps easily.

After 5 waves and a total of 15 figures based on the original 1984 Ghostbusters movie, Diamond Select have moved to the 1989 sequel for the next 3 waves of the 7" figures. We have 9 figures planned for the Ghostbusters 2 line which includes versions of the main cast along with Janosz, Vigo the Carpathian and the figure we are reviewing here, "Geared Up" Louis Tully.

The packaging remains familiar to fans from the front with the green theme that fades to a dark card-back. There is a new yellow & black hatched trim added to the bottom of the name plate along with the 15 years of Select figures logo. We of course also see the Ghostbusters logo changing to the Ghostbusters II logo.

The side panel, a feature of all Select figures, remains in place but has moved from a movie still to a blown up image of the figure. This is the same change that Diamond have taken with the latest Gotham series and for me it looses the impact of the side spine as a display piece and also creates a significant difference between the first 5 series, and this 6th series.

The card back has moved to predominantly black with more of that hazard trim. We see an image of the figure which is obviously an early image as it shows the yellow hosing on Louis' leg which is actually clear on the figure. We see the "also available" figures in Series 6 of Ray Stantz and Vigo and there is a final image of the new build-a-diorama - this time we get the frontage of the Ghostbusters firehouse which will be included across the next 5 series of figures.

Louis is strapped into the inner plastic tray with twisty ties. He is surrounded by a selection of alternative hands, a walkie-talkie, a ghost-trap and the FX proton stream piece.

Behind the main tray is a second tray containing the diorama piece.

This is Louis Tully's (Rick Moranis) second appearance in the 7" Select line. This Ghostbusters II version is a revised head sculpt and is a much better Moranis likeness than the original version.

The paint is a basic skin tone and then the eyes and lips are painted over the top of this. The hair is a single tone brown colouring with a very patchy lighter colour across the top - although this effect makes Louis look like he is thinning on top rather than adding definition to the hair. Another paint issue is the earmuffs which are black, in the movie they were a greyer tone - nitpicking I know. The head has a bigger issue however in relation to Louis' glasses. These remain too thick, an issue we had on the first figure and also on Egon, but they are also glued on crooked so it looks like Louis has just had his glasses knocked sideways off his face.

While the attention to detail on the head is not up to scratch, you an see some other real gems of detail round the figure such as the GB2 logo on the shoulder and the various safety warnings on the proton pack. We even have the name plate as Spengler, which is film accurate as Louis took one of Egon's spare uniforms to go out and tackle the ooze at the museum.

I had expected the body to be reused from one of the other Ghostbusters figures, but thankfully the whole body has been redone to match the smaller frame of Louis Tully. It is however most likely a resized sculpt from the original Egon than a special sculpt for Louis. Had it been specifically sculpted we would have seen a baggier uniform and upturned collars. Louis stands just about 6" tall, making him quite a bit smaller than his original figure, which is obviously odd, and a good head shorter than the other Ghostbusters figures

The only considerable change between the uniform Louis is wearing vs the original 1984 based figures is the shoulder logo and that yellow pipe changing to a clear one on the leg.

Articulation weighs in at the standard 16 points. Head and torso are ball jointed with a good range of movement. The legs use a t-joint hip with a thigh swivel just under neath. The knees are then double jointed and the ankles are on rockers. While this on paper is a good range of leg movement, the amount of packs and parts on the belt will stop you moving the hips by much and the knees therefore will only allow some wider action stances.

Like nearly every Select Ghostbusters to date, Louis is awful to stand. We've employed a Protech Vintage Star Wars stand to keep Louis upright in our reviews and into our display.

The arms are a combination of the ball jointed shoulders, rotating elbows and a pivot wrist. The elbows would have been better being a double joint as they can only just and so bend enough to hold the proton thrower in two hands.

The hands include a similar suite of options as we are familiar with from earlier figures. As well as the skin tone hands that Louis comes fitted with there is a a second pair of skin tone with slightly wider grip, and two pairs of gloved hands. The gloves employ the separate rubber sleeve piece so the gloves can cleverly be used as long sleeved or short sleeved. The black gloves are accurate to the movie scene so we will keep these in place now.

Louis carries the same sizes Proton Pack and thrower as has been included on the other figures. While it is a individual piece, it is not removable as such. It connects to the thrower by means of a thin pipe.

Sadly there has been some quality reductions in the materials for the piping which snapped on mine within a few minutes. The same is also happening on the GB2 Ray. The rear of the pack is painted in a similar style to the others in the line, although the wiring is significantly brighter in the yellow and red colouring.

The FX piece slots into the end of the thrower and holds in place very well. This is still too matt in colour for me and needs to be translucent and glossy to get near what we see on screen.

Other accessories included are the Walkie Talkie. This is a simple cast piece in black plastic that can be held in the hand or clipped into the belt. As we mentioned earlier, the lack of a double jointed elbow does rob you of having Louis posed with the Walkie Talkie to his mouth.

Louis also gets a Ghost Trap. This is the same trap as was included with Winston. While Louis never used this in the movie, it is a good addition to supplement the line as we've only had one trap so far to share between all the Ghostbusters figures.

The trap is made up of a main trap piece and a foot pedal, connected by another thin pipe. The rear of the trap is socketed and this matches the peg on the belt so the main part of the trap can be mounted. This does leave you with having to do something with the pedal and the best I have found is to push it between the figure and the back pack

Louis comes with one of the parts of the main doors of the Firehouse, with a smaller door inset into it. At such an early stage it is difficult to envisage the scale and quality of this thing - but it is disappointing that the door is already marked across the centre out of the pack.

Louis is not the most exciting of figures to help launch the Ghostbusters 2 line, but I accept he does warrant as much of a part in the line as Janosz. The figure seems to be scaled down to make Louis smaller, but misses opportunities to make the suit look baggy. There are some bigger quality issues like the glasses being glued on crooked and the proton stream that straps. And the first diorama piece of my new 15 piece diorama is already scratched straight out of the box.

Diamond will need to up their quality if they are going to keep people interested in this line. I would seek replacements for this figure and the diorama, but the supplier I purchased from has sold out. I will reach out to Diamond's service and see what we can do?

I score Louis Tully, Geared Up, a very disappointing 2 out of 5.