Back in Khaki

Returning to something I love.

As I dig into a new chapter of my life that has me the same age as most of the cast of Ghostbusters II in 1989, I find myself falling in love with Ghostbusters all over again. I always hoped that as he got a little older, my kid would enjoy my favorite movie of all time, even if only enough to watch it with me once a year or so. But to my surprise, I am now watching them walk through the house carrying around a plush Slimer, always needing a toy Ecto-1 within reach, and asking to watch one of the films every day. I know this obsession all too well; I've heard all the stories from my own parents about the same behavior at the same age and beyond. Maybe it will fade away, unlike my own obsession, but for now, here I am with refreshed enthusiasm for the entire franchise. 

But 10 years ago, I had walked away from Ghostbusters

By 2016, I had been talking about Ghostbusters online for almost two decades. I was moderating chat rooms and forums, making tutorials, creating YouTube videos, hunting for toys and collectibles in stores, wearing a proton pack and flight suit to showings of the original movie, and waiting for any information about a possible Ghostbusters III. I had also started lots of drama, or just rode along with others–turns out being constantly online and an angsty teen was not always a great combination. By the time I was in my 30s, the fandom was fractured, and I was burned out. How we talked to each other changed, I never found myself lucky enough to travel to a meet-up, and instead of one big forum, we were several websites, many Facebook groups, and some people just vanished as we all got older.

Yes, let's address the elephant in the room, the 2016 remake did have something to do with it.

The drama around the reboot was heavy, probably the worst drama the fandom had ever seen, and it had seen plenty, as these fandoms usually do. I was not a fan of any of it, the drama or the new movie, and I was absolutely sick of reboots in general by this point. But I was part of a greater problem, where my disdain for a seemingly creatively bankrupt movie aligned too well with a group that hated it solely for casting four women over four men. It did feel absolutely forced to me, and I would have rather had a well-balanced and mixed cast, but that wasn't even the biggest problem in my eyes. But none of that mattered as we began this era of heavy politicization of every aspect of everything. I won't spend time in this post discussing my opinions on GB:ATC; maybe that will come at another time. As a very quick summary, I think it's bad, but it has its moments.But, to the people who helped to further fracture a community and suck the fun out of something I love because of your fragile masculinity and sexism, you really suck. Please stop responding to every post about GB: ATC. If you hate it so much, just move on already. 

But, I shouldn't have been that angry.

By the time of the reboot's premiere, I was a full-grown adult having a bit of a crisis over Ghostbusters. Why was I this angry about a movie? Did it really deserve this much of my energy? It didn't, and I was damaging my mental health over a fan forum and a movie. It was time to take a step back and let myself enjoy the franchise without all the extra parts. I'd still pick up some toys, read the comics on occasion, and always defend Ghostbusters II to anyone who dared to mention that it wasn't as good as the original–but I stopped making it a key part of my life and personality. Then, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was announced...

An adult crying in a movie theater.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is flawed, let's get that out of the way, but it was everything I needed and wanted from this franchise by that point. Legacy sequels have now supplanted the reboot as Hollywood's creatively bankrupt option, but seeing the tribute to Harold Ramis and the continuation of the franchise in a way that carried on its spirit (ha) was almost therapeutic. At the height of the pandemic, facing my own mortality and the challenges the world kept lobbing at me, I was hit with a wave of emotion as I watched the ghost of Egon Spengler stand next to Ray, Peter, and Winston before crossing over. The critics be damned, I felt an emotional attachment to this movie, and that made Afterlife absolutely perfect at the time. Years later, that hypocrisy was no longer lost on me; I should have been kinder with the fans of the reboot. 

I had a fever and the only cure was more proton streams.

From then to now, I've been patiently waiting for each new piece of news to be the big announcement, buying proton packs, trying to snatch limited-release action figures before a website crashes, and trying to find which stores still have stock of exclusive releases. Masking up in the middle of the pandemic and trying to find the Kenner re-releases on the shelf was as if nothing had changed since 2015–well, besides the need for a mask and lots of hand sanitizer, of course. While my kid was born just a little too late for the actual hype train of Afterlife/Frozen Empire, there still was plenty of merchandise out there, and that first Halloween, I was quick to buy a toddler Stay-Puft costume just so I had another excuse to put on the flight suit. That brings us back to the first paragraph. Now here I am writing this very first blog post, something completely unplanned, and it was born out of drawing my own version of the logo and making a purpose for it. After all...

Can I tell you something else? It's important. Bustin' makes me feel good. -Gary Grooberson

Proton Packs and Dye bottles

If you decide to stick around, the first purpose of this blog will be to make some more in depth posts about my current "build" of a Proton Pack. I have an Hasbro 84 pack and I've been modding it and obsessing over it. I also want to get a new GBII style suit, having rocked the same one made in the early 2000s from a Khaki Rothco ever since. So a new experiment in dyeing a suit to the correct "Charcoal gray" will happen soon. I also think I want to post along with my watch of Ghostbusters: Night Shift. After that, I have no idea, but I think this will be fun.