This article covers items in a prototype phase, as in unfinished products.
15" Backpack Heroes: Egon Spengler a prototype figure. During the production, til the very end of the lines run in early 1991; Kenner was always brainstorming new ideas to sell in The Real Ghostbusters line. However, some of the ideas were either not approved, alternated, or fell victim to the Hasbro merger in 1991.
15 Inch Back Heroes: Egon Spengler[]
Much of the information for this toy prototype was provided by collector Josh Blake.
At some point in the fall of 1990, along with the development of the ill-fated Back Heroes came a developing idea to release Ghostbusters Heroes in 15 inch size figures that had a built in talk boxes that gave out phrases for the characters. The same idea was done in the Beetlejuice line for Beetlejuice.
Besides having a talk box, the ghost popping out of Backpack gimmick would also be used. Egon (believed to be the only one prototyped for this idea) would have been dressed in the same colors as in the cartoon series including the pink accent color. The ghost used in the prototype was the Grabber Ghost. The Proton Pack was a mockup to show the mechanic of the ghost pop-up feature. The Particle Thrower which connects to the Proton Pack which looks very closely based on the cartoon version (most of the time the weapons were based on the Pilot).
In January of 2016, the handmade mockup sample surfaced thanks to collector Josh Blake, which noted he got the item from a former Kenner designer. He noted that it was made from a thin plastic that was shot internally and then hand painted on. Egons uniform was handmade from the softgoods dept and the backpack was mocked up in prelim. He noted that the accessories were very fragile. Josh at the time was offering the item for $7500.
Gallery[]
All images of the prototype were provided by collector Josh Blake. Permission was granted for reuse on Ghostbusters Wiki by Josh Blake.
