Review : Louis Tully, Ghostbusters Select

Review : Louis Tully

Ghostbusters Select (Diamond Select)

Wave/Series : Series 1

Released : February 2016

Price : £19.95

Louis Tully was always going to be the poor relation of this first wave of Select Ghostbuster figures, perhaps of the whole range. He is not a primary hero, he is not a cool villain and in essence he is a possessed accountant in slightly unkempt normal clothes. He has also suffered with some very unflattering promotional pictures of him without glasses. I can say, before we begin, that in hand Louis Tully is a lot better than you may think.... read on.

Louis arrives in the Green ectoplasmic themed Select box, and does feel a bit lost in the giant packaging. This is more around an devoid of any accessories to flesh out the blister, so much so the diorama piece has been brought to the front to fill the right hand side of the blister. The imagery of Louis is his possessed look and this red eyed Louis fills the huge left hand side spine art along with the Ghostbuster logo. Round the back is a full image of the figure (still unflattering) and a decent paragraph about Louis role in the movie. Underneath are the "Also Available" images of Winston and Way and the text "collect all 12" error which as we all know by now is actually "collect all 15".

Out of the pack and Louis stands 6 1/2 inches high, cutting a diminutive figure amongst the larger figures of Ray and Winston - exactly as it should be. I personally think the likeness in hand is much stronger than we expected. It's not Rick Moranis to a tee, but it is a good attempt and the addition of the thick rimmed glasses makes him look so much better. The hair is sculpted in the swept back uncouth look from when he was possessed, and his eyes are actually coloured red to reflect this possession. The hair may have benefited from a darker wash to bring out the detail, but other than this the head is neat and well painted.

Louis is wearing a blue shirt over an orange T-shirt over brown trousers. All of these are a flat colour and don't carry a great deal of detail. The collars of the shirts are a bit soft and feel like they are blending into each other especially as I have some paint bleed around the collar on my figure. The hands are plain and open palmed, they also feel a bit chalky - an issue we've seen on some Funko figures recently. The shoes are the most detailed part of the outfit with some black trim and a different colour sole to the top leather parts. There is also a great touch on the shoes as Louis is not wearing socks so Diamond have painted the ankles a skin tone, something that they didn't need to do as you can only see these ankles if you pick the figure up and look up the pant leg.

Articulation starts with the ball jointed head which can look side to side and also up and down. Shoulders are ball jointed, followed by a bicep split. The elbows are jointed, but no swivel - not that it is needed as you don't need Louis rocking a two handed machine gun or anything. The hands are pegged and can bend back and forth as well as rotating.

There is no torso split, another one missing that we did have on Ray & Winston. Whether this is an aesthetic call to not split the plain shirt or more around "does he really need it". The normal DST hip joint is there, but hurray it's very stiff - brilliant!.The thigh swivels and the knee is double jointed so Louis can be positioned kneeling if you wish. The ankle joint is held back a little by the pant leg, but the feet do rotate as needed.

Where the articulation does its job is the ability to pose Louis in that hunched, almost Neanderthal, crouch that he exhibits in the film whilst seeking the Gate Keeper. By rotating the thigh, bending the knees and then flattening out the feet you can recreate this and that gives Louis a lot more character on display than a neutral stance that we have seen in those promo shots.

My point from the start of this review still stands though that Louis Tully feels like a poor relation, and you also feel short changed vs the sheer amount of gadgets and goodies you got with your Ray and Winston. Not only is Louis dialled back on articulation and paint apps, but he fails to come with a single accessory. Surely the colander head gear that Egon experiments with was a must for this figure - perhaps as a swappable head if it couldn't be made to work over the hair sculpt? I wouldn't have minded either if they packed in a few ghosts or demons with these lesser characters as a further bonus to encourage us to purchase?

I guess the diorama piece is the big draw though for collectors to go all in on this range and buy figures like Louis. Louis comes with the opposing piece to that packed with Ray, the larger triangular piece and it's inter-locking monolith are thankfully an identical finish - so no issue yet with varying finishes on your diorama.

I am not sure if DST spoiled us with Ray, or let us down on Louis - most likely some point in-between. Any collector of a range knows that in order to get a Ray you have to buy a Louis to support him. Louis is not a bad figure by a long shot - decent sculpt, decent articulation and a big hulking diorama piece. He just feels like he needs a couple of bits to elevate him above the average. I am going to score Louis Tully a 3 out of 5.

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