Last month my wife and I took a trip to California to visit family and go to Disneyland. In the middle of the trip we took a day to tour LA, and made a point to stop by the Sony Pictures lobby hoping to get a view of some Ghostbusters props. I was pretty excited to walk in and find the semi-hero pack was the first thing on display. Here was one of the packs that I based my own pack build on just a month earlier. While the jumpsuit and hero pack weren’t currently on display, I did get over 130 high-res photos of the semi-hero pack. I definitely learned a lot about it that I hadn’t noticed before. Hopefully, others will find these useful, too. Sony Lobby Ghostbusters Proton Pack | Flickr
We then decided to go on the studio tour in hopes that we might catch a glimpse of the Ecto-1. Again, I was pretty excited to turn a corner 15 minutes into the tour and find it just sitting there! I was able to grab a bunch of photos, then the guide let me return for 10 more minutes at the end of the tour. Damn, that car is so beautiful. Unfortunately, even though it was restored only 5 years ago, it is already starting to fall apart again. If you can, I highly suggest taking this tour. While there isn’t a ton of backlot to see, there is a lot of history. For instance, we also visited the soundstage where they filmed the Gozer temple/ rooftop scenes in GB1. Anyhow, enjoy the Ecto-1 shots! Ecto-1 | Flickr
My God, these are amazing reference shots! This needs to be stickied to go along with reference shots taken in the past! I’m going to be building a GB1 hero, but these will still help immensely! Thanks!
Man, it looks like you had a lot of fun! Its amazing getting to see a semi-hero pack and the car up close. I’m sure these reference shots will be a great addition to what we already have.
There is one thing I want to point out though. . .
I’m assuming a tour guide at Sony showed you a sound stage and stated it was where they shot the rooftop scenes? I ask because Sony (and Columbia) studios is located in Culver City, the old MGM studios, which Columbia moved into back in 1990. The rooftop scenes were actually shot over at the Warner bros. Ranch (formally Columbia Ranch) backlot over in Burbank on stage 16.
That doesn’t take away how awesome it is to get a tour of the famed MGM studios, because I’ve also done that tour and its amazing! I just wanted to correct that small bit of misinformation.
When I was there last year, the guy from archives said they were removing the suit and hero pack from display due to wear and tear of it being in direct sunlight for so long. It seems like they only have the semi-hero pack out now in the lobby.
Ah, that’s my bad. The tour guide said it was the largest stage there, so I assumed it was the GB rooftop stage. I hadn’t realized that Columbia hadn’t moved over at that time. Thanks for the clarification.