Review : Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters Select (Diamond Select)

Review : Peter Venkman

Ghostbusters Select (Diamond Select)

Wave/Series : Series 2

Released : July 2016

Price : £19.95 - £22.95

The first wave of Diamond Select's Ghostbuster figures arrived earlier this year to mixed reviews with the first wave giving us Winston, Ray and Louis Tully. Wave 2 is now with us and will complete the Ghostbuster team with Peter and Egon.

Diamond have retained the same packaging design for wave 2, the usual select format with large blister pack that is wrapped in a side panel and backing card. The front of the packaging shows off the figure and all his accessories, with the Ghostbusters text logo down the left hand cardboard wrap round. To the side of this, and as a triangular flash, is the character name and a head & shoulders shot of Bill Murray from the 1984 film.

This same image of Murray is repeated to the side art panel, albeit larger. Underneath this is the Ghostbuster ghost logo. Round the back the card base is a stylised and silhouetted scene of the final battle from Ghostbusters with the beams crossing and creating an electrifying effect at the top of the card. Overlaid onto this is the Ghostbuster text logo again and the "Select" diamond logo. There is then a full length image of the figure itself down the right hand side as you look, and to the left of this is a paragraph that gives you a bit of background about Peter Venkman and his role in the movie. Underneath this text is a further box, edged in a hazard black and yellow effect, which details the other two figures in the wave - Dana Barrett and Egon Spengler.

Once unpacked you are presented with the Peter figure itself along with a plethora of gloved and un-gloved hand options. His proton emitter and proton pack are already attached to the figure, with the proton stream effect packed to the side along with a walkie-talkie radio.

Peter stands 7 inches high, and like most Select figures feels a hefty and weighty piece in hand. The facial sculpt is a fairly good likeness to Murray, but is not helped at all by some pretty lax paint applications with what looks like a thick one tone flesh tone and simply painted cartoon eyes and eyebrows. The mouth is touched with a slightly pinker tone, but there is no attempt to bring out any of the Gentle Giant sculpt with some variations or washes? Peter's hair is also a soft puffy sculpt rather than being defined - and again this is flatly painted in a single brown tone.

If the head lacked any detail, then the rest of the body is swimming in it. It seems that despite the similarities in the suits on screen, each Ghostbuster figure has been given an individual torso sculpt so that each neckline and cut of their body looks different. Yes, there is then some re-use in the arms and legs, but you can forgive this as it certainly doesn't stand out - and where a change is needed it is made. Take Peter's legs for example, he wears his trousers over his boots not tucked in like the other three. This is replicated on the figure. The whole jumpsuit is sculpted with folds of cloth and plenty of zips and buckles. Over this base suit are separate elbow pads and a hefty utility belt that comes equipped with a holster for the Walkie Talkie as well as more straps and gubbins. All of this is painted and then weathered and dirtied up nicely, this is certainly not a Ghostbuster fresh out of the laundry. Diamond have also done a superb job of the Ghostbuster logo on the figures right shoulder, and a pretty decent (but not as good) job on the stitched name panels on the left chest.

The Proton Pack, which is identical to all the other figures, is still a magnificent piece. Yes it is cast in plain black, but onto this are various coloured panels and wires and some really intricate danger warning stickers. These stickers are however placed a little more haphazardly vs Series 1. From the Proton Pack hangs the proton emitter, and on the figure I received this is quite soft plastic and was badly bent in the pack.

The emitter fits reasonably well into the figures hand, and of course you can swap out the hands to a snugger fit and with the option of having them gloved or ungloved, and even with the rubber sleeves on or off to make the gloves short or long. The issue with the emitter comes in when you want to stow it away as it is permanently attached to the Proton Pack, which in turn is permanently strapped to the figure. Diamond have tried to sculpt a clever triangular notch into the emitter and a corresponding lip on the pack - and exactly as I found with Series 1, this fails completely to connect and does not work. The best solution I have got is to swing the emitter over the pack top and let it hang down the left hand side.

The figure comes with a good repertoire of articulation starting with a ball jointed head which allows Peter to look fully round, up and down. Peter also has the luxury or a jointed torso and waist, and this allows some twisting of the upper body to either side. The arms are made up of a ball jointed shoulder, single jointed and rotating elbows and then a pegged wrist joint. This all means Peter can hold his emitter in both hands, as well as having a full range of arm movement out to the side and above his head if you want.

The legs start with the standard Diamond T-Joint which allows each leg to swing out forward and out to the side. The rotation is then achieved by a thigh cut, which does look ugly and spoils the run of the jumpsuit. The knees are double jointed and are better disguised and the legs finish up in an ankle rocker. The ankle rocker is the cruical joint on these figures as it determines the stabilty. Because of the weight of the figure and then the extra weight and balance created by the proton pack this figure is hard to balance out naturally, and sadly the ankle joints are not strong enough to help you out. This was a minor issue on Series 1 but feels worse on Series 2 and much looser and I haven't got through a single day yet without Peter falling over - so much so that stands are now on order.

All the Ghostbusters are packed with the Walkie Talkie, which is a plain black cast plastic and is nothing special. It does fit nicely into the hands and slots into the holster in the belt when not in use. So far Winston has come with the trap and Ray with his goggles. Egon is also coming with a PKE meter, and that leaves Peter with.... well nothing. Sadly there is no extra for Peter and yet another trap in particular would have been an easy pack in to even up all the Ghostbusters.

Series 1 was soured by an issue with the proton stream where Diamond had forgotten an important connecting piece and therefore collectors were not able to put their stream onto their emitter. Thankfully this piece is now included, although the rumored promise of adding spares into Series 2 have not come to fruition. The piece works reasonably well and the proton stream is as good as you will get at this scale. Sadly the issue remains that without Diamond stepping up and resolving the Series 1 issue you wont be posing all your Ghostbusters "crossing the streams" or battling Gozer.

Of course one of the big sellers to Diamond's range is the ability to collect all 15 figures and then assemble the Rooftop scene from the Ghostbusters finale. Peter comes with two pieces of the roof top which will connect up to the side piece that comes with Louis Tully. This then connects to a similar single piece packed with Egon and then finally links up with the other side piece from Ray. These roof pieces are fitting together quite well and snugly and are not seeing any big variations in colouring, which has been an issue before in connecting pieces from Diamond (Chitauri and Hawkeye roof pieces being a prime example). With Series 1 and some of Series 2 in hand you can now start to see the sheer scale of this piece.

All in all Series 2 is a bit of a step down from series 1. The whole figure feels a bit loose in the joints and with some sloppy decal application - as if there has been a rush to get these ones out to the collectors. The inability to stand, and therefore be displayed, is frustrating and not helped by the loose leg joints that have been an issue on Diamond Select figures for as long as I can remember. The emitter being bent and not hitching up to the backpack is also a negative point, particularly when Diamond have tried to engineer a solution but made it too complicated and in the end it has failed miserably to work to any degree.

Thanks to the new movie and a raft of new licences there is going to be a tonne of competition very soon for Ghostbuster figures and although the select are a step up from the Mattel 6" figures, they will be eclipsed by both Mezco and Blitzway. It is fair however to say that this comparison is not eggs vs eggs with the Diamond figures coming in at a £20 price point and therefore a quarter of what you will be paying for Mezco (Blitzway pricing not confirmed). I am going to score Peter Venkman a 3 out of 5, a one point decrease to the score I gave to Winston and Ray from series 1. If Diamond are going to keep collectors in the face of the new licences then there are some niggles to iron out, none more so than how to retro fix the proton stream effects.

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