So, with planning to attend Salt City Comic Con to meet Ernie Hudson in July (my daughter is going to lose her ever-loving mind), I’m going crazy obsessive on making sure her costume is perfect.
We got the rubie’s proton pack as a birthday gift for her, which you can see on my
husband’s Twitter if you like.
I was taking a look at it late last night and then my blood pressure started rising as I was finding discrepancies. This thread is going to document them and how I fix/modify them!
looks like rubies is selling spirit halloween proton packs :sigh:
Get a Spongeface cosmetic upgrade kit for it. check the For Sale section here on the forums or hitup ebay :love:
Also getting a 3d printed correct scaled wand for it goes along way. That;s what I did with my kid’s Spirit pack.
I definitely second getting a 3D printed wand, it looks so much more to scale with the rest of the pack due to how small the one that comes with these packs is.
I’ve seen some great work done on these packs, and some small updates actually go a long way, so it can seen overwhelming but I’d start with the simple stuff and build on that. Namely painting it (I just did rustoleum canyon black), replacing stuff like the crank knob, buying some tubes that are the correct color, putting split loom over the one wire that goes to the HGA. Replacing the ribbon cable is an easy fix as well. Adding the rod to the ion arm isn’t too bad either. It’s mostly just taking the pack apart, painting it, then finding the parts that you want to upgrade cosmetics.
I was initially confused by your comment, so I did some research.
Rubie’s is the company that designed and manufactured it. Spirit of Halloween buys from them. If you check out the Rubie’s proton pack info page, you’ll see that you can’t actually buy from that website, but the upper right hand corner has links that say “Dealer Login” and “Where to Buy.” On the SoH page, you can actually buy it.
My daughter is six and a little rough on her toys. If anything happens to the one that came with it, I might just adapt one of my brother’s old toys, maybe like a little kitbash.
Oh, definitely starting small. I only dragged it out because I’m actually custom painting some sneakers for her (I’ll post those in Fan Art at some point) but I was having trouble finding side views for the proton pack. Then I thought hers looked wrong. I definitely want to replace the ribbon cable with a real one (I’m a big enough computer nerd that I have enough parts about LOL) but I’ll just start with comparing/contrasting and doing a little recoloring.
Awesome! Sounds like you all have a ton of fun with this stuff!
Also, it might be worth checking out this thread about the spirit pack mods for a pack meant for a kid, I took a few pictures comparing sizes of throwers in my kid’s hands if you need anything like that for reference, and halliwax did some great work that could be helpful looking to for ideas!
Thanks! This pack’s proportions are perfect for her–I think it looks “full size” on her. I just hope the convention venue is well ventilated–it’s going to be July and she’ll be in a flight suit. I’m replacing the ribbon cable now
They make Khaki suits in kid sizes now. The black is totally unforgiving
https://www.rothco.com/product/rothco-kids-air-force-type-flightsuit
You know, originally I was trying to find brown since she wanted to be Venkman. Then I got lucky and found a dark grey one on clearance at Target and I wasn’t passing THAT up. I do need to get her patches professionally attached though, at least I know where to go (I live right near an Army base, so there’s a place right next to it that specializes in that sort of thing plus repairs).
I did manage to replace the ribbon cable yesterday, but I’ll probably replace it again. Need to go through my bin of antique computer parts. :kylie:
I tried to make this post yesterday but I had stupid fingers that closed a browser window before I pressed submit. Derp. So far, I have replaced the ribbon cable but I’ll probably replace it again.
Okay. So there is fabric/foam badly hot glued to cardboard, which is held in place by five screws. I plan to get some adhesive velcro strips for future easy access.
Quick glance of the inside.
My dainty but clusmy hands had to use a tiny awl to chip at this glue, but it came off easy.
The other end. I was kind of surprised it was held on by real screws. This I was able to pull off without the awl.
Here is the antique IDE cable I’m putting in. I took it off the backpack I threw together for her for Halloween. It used to be in a sheath to make it a rounde IDE cable.
So, one end still has the female connector so I put that end in side for now.
The rest of the ribbon cable is badly held together by some packing tape, but I was able to secure the end without a connector underneath the silver plate. Depending on what’s in my tote of antique computer parts, I may swap this out. Or hit up the thrift store. 
