Do any franchises or non affiliated Busters plan on checking out the new Proton Pack replicas being released by Spirit Halloween? From what I understand Spencer’s Gifts will also be carrying them. I wanted to go full uniform and take some pics of it and give an online shout out to Spirit Halloween for releasing such an awesome pack.
I’m not gonna lie, as a guy that isn’t the biggest fan of props (I’m an action figure guy myself) I think this is an awesome piece aesthetically wise & the fact that it has electronic functions & a reasonable price as well.
I’ve contemplated getting one to have at our events table since the pack is small and the thrower even smaller.
It would be great at an events table for kids who want to put on a pack
Got an email saying the preorders had been pushed back to mid-September.
Alex
Got that email as well on one of my orders.
But some of mine (from other orders) have shipped and will be here tomorrow or Thursday.
For the price I am thinking of it. I am also thinking of giving it a different motherboard that still has a slot to access the electronics and also give it a real Alice Pack Frame. I can also add the big red sticker to the motherboard that is missing on the spirit prop. If the pack looks too shiny I may pull the stickers and recoat it and replace the stickers then scuff it a bit with some silver to give it a worn look. For the price you really can’t be too upset with it. It’s only 20% smaller than the ones we would spend hundreds of dollars to make.
Surprised none of these have found their way to eBay or Amazon yet.
So, of my order, 2 of the 7 that arrived are broken. The Clippard valve on the wand seems to be a common break point, because its the exact same break on both.
IMG_4565 by terrordan9, on Flickr
That said, I still can’t believe how nice these are for the price. They’re a great first pack for a lot of folks. Obviously a bit small (though I think the pack is less noticeable than the wand when wearing it). Overall, really a cool pack.
I can’t wait to start customizing. Hoping that some people share their great ideas and mods. I know a couple guys from my group are talking about video game packs.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a big problem for Spirit with people returning their packs.
On the plus side I wonder if the stores would give a discount if you take one of the packs with the broken parts?
I myself wouldn’t buy these packs they look cheap and small. I’d rather make a pack. I’ve made about 6 so far and even some for my kids all hand made. People are better off buying a cheap shell.
3 Likes
The appeal of the pack is time and money. People would absolutely be happier with a hand made pack, but you can’t find anything cheaper shipped to your door. Even if got a pack kit for free it’s pretty time consuming especially if it’s your first build… Spirits is light weight and you don’t have to worry about bumping into people at a party. Great costume piece or kids toy. Not really a prop. Has it’s place
I’m pretty sure every person here would have loved this as kid, over the Kenner packs we had
Yeah I think they are a great think for kids. I just think it’s silly for a grown man to wear a small toy. I made my daughter’s pack in a week. It didn’t cost me a thing except the alice pack and the gbfans lights and sounds.
5 Likes
The irony, of course, is that plenty of people think it’s silly for all of us to dress up and essentially wear big expensive toys. At the end of the day, that’s what all of our props are anyway. Toys.
Honestly, having these in hand, they’re damn good. I think they make a fantastic first pack for anyone of any age.
Also, update on the broken ones from my order. Spirit gave me no issues this morning and just issued a partial refund, which I’m totally fine with. The broken pieces will be easily fixed with no issues (the piece slides right back in and just needs some glue).
My thoughts exactly!
Looking forward to your review and/or mods
those are really freaking awesome. if you can build me one for under $70 (shipping included in that) I would buy one! but I’m content with the Spirit pack for now. until I have $2000 for a 100% accurate one anyway lol
They look good for what they are, but I don’t see myself getting one. At least not at this point. I’m certainly not going to frown on anyone who wants or buys one. Had these come out when I was a teen I’d have broken my arm falling over myself to get one. While they are not perfect replicas these are the best mass produced movie packs I’ve seen to date, flaws and all.
Here’s one thing I’ve learned over the years from dealing with costumes and props out in the wild, it’s not necessarily the quality of the props or costume you have on, a lot of it is how well you sell them or capture the essence of what you are portraying. I have many props and costume bits of various quality ranging from beautifully hand made to licensed replicas to toys and all of them can work or fail depending on the situation. I’ve been in situations in authentic gear and not gotten any attention at all. I’ve also been in situations where I’ve literally thrown something together at the last minute from stuff around my apartment and gotten tremendous positive reactions from people.
I guess I’m just different. I was always told if you gonna do something…do it 100% or nothing at all. If feels awesome knowing you built something that everyone freaks out about when I take my kids out. I was just saying you could buy an Sc shell for 80 bucks. If people are going to mod the toy pack with accurate lights and you can make a gun out of styrene. Instead of buying this pack.
Slimer01, my friend, that’s the lesson to learn, everyone is different.
You’re a builder, I totally get that. I’m a builder, too. It’s one of my reasons for passing up on one of these. I have the skills and passion to roll up my sleeves and dig in and make something myself. I’m very detail oriented and can be a stickler for accuracy depending on the project and purpose. But that’s because I like to challenge myself creatively and push my limits. For me I get as much, if not more, satisfaction from the process of the build as I do from the finished prop. However, not everyone has that same form of insanity. And you can’t go faulting them for that. People get enjoyment from different aspects of the hobby. To some people the building process can be more frustration than joy and getting one of these will bring them satisfaction. Nothing wrong with that. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
So as fellow builder I salute you, keep building and being passionate about it. Lead by example. But don’t sweat about people taking a different path to finding their own passion. You never know, getting one of these packs and modding it a bit might be what gives someone the confidence and courage to try a shell or scratch build down the road.