To anyone who reads this,
I am putting together a presentation on the history of GB fandom with an emphasis on the community that has developed around building the fan-made proton pack. My presentation is less about Ghostbusters or the packs as they are represented in fiction, and more focused on the development of these real live communities (both local and web based) and on the development of the pack as a widely standardized (generally speaking) physical expression of that fandom.
For instance, it is my understanding that Norm Gagnon’s plans were the first set widely available. I can also surmise that this all started in some form in 1984. I can also glean some info about the major advancements from the sticky threads on this forum. However, I am looking for info about the experience of people’s involvement in this community, from the pioneers to the noobs.
How did this all begin? How did it turn into what it is now? Who were the major players? How do franchises, conventions, internet, etc. play into the story?
Thank you in advance for any help you might provide! Links to pages/threads where this info is already shared are welcome.
Not that it was the beginning of proton pack building by any means, but I think 2 webpages that really developed the feel of a “community” verses “hey I found some random angelfire web domain that has Norm’s plans hosted” were A.S.A.P. (A Site About Props) and GBProps.com. They were the 2 big players when I started into this fandom back in 2003 and that’s where I met a ton of people, from AJQuick to Exoray, Namebrand, Sean Bishop (Venkman71), Ken Huegel (Volguus), Playskool2000, and several other “Old Guards” of the community. From there, Sean had set up Proptopia; around that time (if I remember correctly), and AJ converted GBProps.com into GBfans.com.
I think the other thing to really focus on in your presentation is the evolution of the fan made proton packs. Up until Sean first offered his V71 fiberglass shells, the majority of fans had to scratch build their gear. The process was much more daunting then it currently is. We had wood, plastic and Clippard parts and that was about it. Everything else was a guess and good luck sourcing it if you figure it out. Ken Huegel was the first person I remember having any real decent resin cast parts at the time.
If you want a little “time capsule” of what it was like back in the early 2000’s, check out AJ’s pack build, found here. That’s where the community was when I first jumped in: scratch built. And the funny thing is, some of those scratch built packs back then still hold their own today. Are they accurate? Not completely but they are damn good non the less. Heck, Playskool2000’s pack is still the go-to image for fan built packs, even throughout this website’s menus.
That’s really just the beginning of it all, for me at least. But Its been 9 years for me now, so I still have a lot more to reminisce about, if need be.
Back in 1996 (ish), there was one place to go for fans of ghostbusters, and it was called the gb homepage, run by a guy named bil embcow (misspelt here for your convenience). The forums there were where many of the original ’ community’ met.
Including a guy who called himself ‘paranorman’’ aka norm gagnon. He created the original plans, and the ghostbusters homepage had an equipment page with a picture of norm’s original proton pack, which might have been THE first ever.
One day I got to thinking how cool it would be to have a website dedicated entirely to gb props, rather than just a page on a larger site. But rather than just do it and post the results, for some reason I asked the forums if it would be cool. This resulted in a guy named eraser99 pretty much beating me to the punch.
I made ’ the proton lab’ anyway, and we each progressed with our sites. In those days, relatively few people built packs, so new pictures were scarce. Eraser99 did steal my stuff occasionally, whatever. The internet is serious business, amirite?
Anyway, I got bored of it, gave away my site, and the story continues there with the rise of gbprops et al. I don’t expect you to believe me, but you asked for the history : this is the truth. my post could very well be deleted by potential revisionists - to be fair I was a real jerk for awhile and probably deserved to be banned, not making any new friends in the process - but any honest forum member who was around in those days will remember the proton lab and all the hard work I put into it…
People, this is already awesome. Thank you. Keep it coming! I’m definitely interested in dates of stuff or estimates if you have them.
bill emkow was the original owner of the ghostbusters homepage.