So I’ve been wondering for awhile, why didn’t Kenner make ghost busters figures based off tge ghosts from the cartoon? I know that the Real Ghostbusters was not as merchandise driven as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In that cartoon characters were created simply to sell toys. Why couldn’t Kenner have done the opposite, create figures from the villian of the weeks? Even some of the back ground ghosts would have made neat figures. Would they of needed to pay the writers and artists of the cartoon?
South Suburbs GBFan presented an interesting possibility in this topic, that the non-core character designs may’ve been tied up by legal red tape from being the intellectual property of DiC’s animation studios and/or artists:
It’s about half that and half “Kenner just didn’t feel like licensing out the creatures from the show.” The designer from Kenner, who did the panel at Fan Fest, cited the creative freedom with designing the monsters as the best part of the job.
EDIT: Rather surprisingly, GBFans’ spell-check doesn’t accept W-A-T even though it’s a proper name. (Is there some kind of Hastur the Unnamable thing going on with him?)
I always wondered this. Even though I liked the ghosts that Kenner made, it would have been nice to have the stand out villains as well.
The boogie man, sandman, and ghost family from the first episode would have made a perfect figures, nice and chunky.
I’m grateful the ghosts were original because that let me tell original stories with my toys as a kid. That being said sometimes I’d make use of the toys I had to work as ghosts from the show. Did this mock up just for the thread. Can’t say I used these exact figures back in the day but they are appropriate to the era. 
via Imgflip Meme Generator
Again, I find myself at odds with the theories i’ve read so far, as I think this is less of a legal issue and more of a communication issue/influence issue. I currently am working on a ThunderCats Wiki (which has a section for sister series SilverHawks) and watching the dvd extra “Partly Real, Partly Metal, Remembering the Silverhawks”. They do quite a bit of talking about the Kenner toys (interviewing Tom McGrath the Kenner’s Marketing Director) and it seems that the writers for the show actually took some ideas from Kenner, mostly those weapon birds/fighting hawks which came with the characters in the toy line. Honestly, considering that they were suggesting stuff to put in episodes is something I couldn’t see flying with JMS there. That might be the real reason. If that be the case, maybe we are better off with the questionable toys we got and the decent episodes that were made without the toy company interference.
It’s more than likely a “both, and” situation. JMS wanted to be free of Kenner’s influence; Kenner didn’t want to pay any more licensing than they had to. Kenner was paying Columbia for the name, Ray Parker Jr. for the song lyrics, (possibly) Cadillac/Miller-Meteor/GM for ECTO-1; and Volkswagen for Highway Haunter.
I will say I wish some of the toys made it into the cartoon. Like the football player Monster, the snake Buggy, and the monster toilet.
Actually, the Bug Eye ghost appeared twice on The Real Ghostbusters. Information about his appearances can be found here:https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Bug-Eye_Ghost/Animated
Also, I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but in the season six episode “The Slob” when the Ghostbusters go to the Bay Bridge Garbage dump The Glob animates some pieces of garbage including a toilet. When I watched this episode the first time, I had wondered if the animated toilet was a reference to Fearsome Flush from the Kenner toy line.
In that same episode, the Ecto-Bomber appears, to boot. My recollection has the toy coming out first, the episode later.
But yeah, cross-polination between the toy line and the show was very sparse, especially for the time.
Some of the Kenner toys would not be done in the show. Like the Ghost Toilet and the possessed football player. I would have loved the Ghost Toilet in an episode just for the jokes.
Because Ninja Turtles.
Didn’t want to start a new topic just to ask…
Was I the only one who thought Granny Gross Ghost was supposed to be the librarian from GB1?
As a kid that’s what I had assumed.
It’s crazy that Swamp Thing had 5 episodes and a more comprehensive character line of toys than GB.
Many of the Swamp Thing toys double as Ghostbusters toys for me. Skinman was a ghost, Anton Arcane was The Phantom of the Opera and the mutated Mantis was Murray the Mantis.
As a kid, I was always a little bummed we didn’t get a toy version of the Japanese Ecto-Ichi from Attack of the B-Movie Monsters. That thing was toyetic as heck.
I also wanted some Peoplebusters action figures.
Cool as heck, plus it might’ve caught the eye of a few Back to the Future fans and gotten a few crossover sales from fans of that trilogy. You can’t tell me the team wasn’t thinking about the flying DeLorean when they drew the Ichi up.
@Golishfright: Yeah, Ecto Ichi would have an amazing toy likewise I would have gladly paid for People Busters action figures. Also, it still surprises me to this day that the toy line never had a boat or any type of watercraft for The Ghostbusters to use. Ironically, when Playmobil was making the Real Ghostbusters sets Winston was released with a Wave Runner.