Hi guys,
This site has been a great help in helping me put together my pack so wanted to share the results! My pack is VERY very amateur, and not screen accurate but let me first set the scene…
It’s October, and I’ve just bought the Ghostbuster game. As a child of the 80s I was very excited about this and the trailers had me stoked. What I was not prepared for was the massive grin I would get strapping on my virtual pack, aiming for the flat top and looking directly into the trap! There and then I was looking for excuses to get to work on making my own pack in time for Halloween. Unfortunatley I didn’t get the chance to start work on it until 2 weeks to go as a result of moving house and the chaos that brings, so I had to downgrade my ambitions slightly.
My aims were as follows:
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Make a pack as screen accurate as I could with the resources I had
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Go for style over substance; i.e if something looked cool, add it.
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Make sure there were lights on the damn thing! (essential)
Here is the finished article:
and in the cold light of day : -
A root around in my dad’s workshed revealed an old powertools case that made a good motherboard. It also gave the pack a weighty, ‘chunky’ look which I felt was good; it would make those not in the know ‘believe in it’ a bit more. The case was black too, which saved me a lot of hassle!
The synchros generator was the top of a sports drink bucket, with some of the edge kept on to give it the appearance of depth. A hole was cut in it for the N-filter which was a hot chocolate container painted black, secured with the help of some glue and a screw.
The cyclotron was, of course, a cake pan, with holes cut for the lights. The ‘washers’ were plastic washers I found in the plumbing section of B&Q (the UK equivalent of Home Dept) and painted black.
For the lights I bought 4 ‘stick on’ Led lights that are used for home decoration. Unfortunatley they don’t flash, and to turn them on you just press down in the front, but I was in a rush and know NOTHING about electronics! The red cover was simply several layers of plastic document covers I picked up from the stationery shop.
The bumper was made from PVC lining used for showers found in B&Q, I heated the edges to bend them into shape. Wish I had gone for a more ‘curved’ look now, but next time maybe?!
The gear box etc were made out of plastic housings used for plugs and light switches. I turned the covers around sometimes as the pattern inside was very interesting and I thought it added interest. The power cell was one of these boxes with a grove cut out and a flashlight inserted through the bottom (after a hole had ben drilled!) and a blue plastic cover placed over it. Not very high tech but fulfilled one of my aims!
Most of the parts were screwed on as I wanted the pack to be robust. There is ample use of black PVC piping and on the side of the pack that is an old cycling mini pump with one of the ends screwed off!!
The thrower is again two plastic switch boxes glued togehter. I had planned to construct it out of MDF but time was against me. I drilled out the holes and inserted the black PVC piping which was such a tight fit that no gluing was required! I had added detail throughout the pack by applying bits of old Star Wars models, agian just to add interest and detail. (See if you can spot the wing of an X-Wing on the main pack!!) The grips were bar tape used on racing bikes, as an avid cyclist I had plenty of it lying around and knew it would give a good ‘grip’ look.
After all that was done it was just left to add in some wiring and the piece de resistance, genuine ribbon cable I found abandoned in my dad’s shed!!! (Could not believe my luck when I saw that!) A bit of weathering and I was away.
Finally the straps were an old military rucksack that my dad had, from which you could remove the main straps. They were attached to a metal frame which I recreated on my pack, and added in another strap for the kidney straps.
Anyway - thanks for reading. I know my pack is no where near as good as you guys but I had great fun making it. It went down a storm at the party I ended up going to, they could not believe I had made it myself. The lights really made the pack come alive and the thrill it gives people to see a Ghostbuster is worth all the effort. I’m already planning my screen accurate pack for next year, hopefully I’ll have a bit more time to complete it! (disapproving girlfriend sold separately!)
My final thoughts:
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This is a fairly big undertaking, even if you are going for a simple ‘look a like’ pack. Take however long you think you’ll need and double it.
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Be prepared to make compromises. Unless you have months or years to complete one, you will struggle to find something exactly the same as in the movies. Further, sometimes it is cool to ‘spice up’ parts of the pack with something a littl emore interesting.
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If I can make one of these, anyone can.
PS - buy black paint. Lots of it.
Thanks for listening - if you have any comments or feedback let me know! Can’t tell you how much of a help and inspiration this site was!
Although it’s only screwed on so hopefully, if needed I can get back in!