I’m putting together a Ghostbusters outfit for something to do as part of a longtime ambition, and for Halloween (or Hop-tu-naa as it’s known here) this year my friends are getting together in a medieval castle for a ‘haunted night’ so I figured I’d make the effort!
I’ve been working on the accessories recently, and thought I’d share some of my progress. I bought a job lot of toys from eBay and decided that I’d refurbish them, making them semi-realistic - basically what the toys from the cartoon might look like if they were used in the film series, as many guys on this site have done before me.
I really enjoyed putting these together. They’re no masterpieces but I’m really happy with the transformation. The weathering isn’t too apparent in these pics, as I wanted it to be quite subtle, but it’s there. Really makes a difference!
For the trap, I began by gluing the trap doors shut - I didn’t want a functioning mechanism to go wrong - and then flat spraying the trap with primer and matt black. I then added the new handle - an old metal stem for a solar-powered garden light - before painting the yellow onto the trap doors and the chrome detailing by hand. I then weathered using a dry brush and added the decals.
Same process for the pedal, only it took longer to dry thanks to the rubbery plastic used.
I finished it off with a length of plain black PVC hose from eBay.
The stickers that I used were just the standard HProps ones, trimmed down to fit. I know they’re not in the right place or anything but I’m happy with them where they are.
The one you can sort of see inside the trap is there because the square knob that was supposed to go there got lost when one of my cats leapt up onto the table and ran off with it in his mouth, never to be seen again.. so I stuck a warning sticker in there to make it look like it was a dangerous exposed part!
I’ll grab some close up pictures when I get back from work.
Thanks! As for the handle I just wanted to bring it a little closer to the movie-type trap, and the solid bar worked for that. The handle on the original toy didn’t really resemble either the movie or RGB trap handle, so like the middle antennae on the PKE meter, it was time for it to go.
I didn’t remove them, and I don’t think you’d be able to without snapping the rods that hold them in place. I actually glued them shut as I didn’t want the doors to flap open all the time, and I wasn’t bothered about the mechanism working anymore.
Sorry to hijack a little, you can remove the doors as I did on my RGB conversion, once yu have the trap apart you will be able to see how they fit in. You need to add pressure to the middle of the door and eventully it will pop out. Go careful though! lol. There is also a worrying moment when it pops out cause it makes a hell of a noise and sounds like it’s snapped!
Here’s the link, you can see the doors removed in the second picture:
Yeah, I guess you could. What I did was actually secure the pedal wire to my belt with a tiny cable tie, and used the existing hook on the Kenner trap. It wasn’t great and actually fell off several times - thankfully the cable ties held it on.
Modding the hook is definitely on my revisions list!
Good luck with your conversion, can’t wait to see it. I love old toys getting new life breathed into them.
You could use the same flush mount picture hanging brackets that we used for our traps and our gun hangers on our packs. You’d probably need to add a inside bit of wood, plastic or aluminum to strengthen the bracket attachement point on the trap I’d think though, or at the least substitute the wood screws the flush mount brackets come with to nuts and bolts, with some washers to spread out the stress on ther trap body.
My solution for attaching the trap to my belt wasn’t particularly elegant, but it worked just fine. I picked up a quick release key ring at the local hardware store and just attached it:
It doesn’t interfere with the rolling and it’s nice and simple for removing and attaching to the belt.
Thanks!
