The Real Ghostbusters toys: the Kenner line that owned Halloween in the 80s

If you were a kid in the late 80s, Halloween didn't start in October. It started the day you got the Kenner Ecto-1. The Real Ghostbusters cartoon debuted on ABC on September 13, 1986, and Kenner's toy line rode along with it from 1986 until spring 1991.

What was in the line

The first figures were the four heroes: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore, each with a ghost buddy. Early pre-orders shipped for Christmas 1986, and stores stocked the line starting in January 1987. Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man were in the first wave of ghosts.

From there, Kenner kept going for roughly ten waves. Highlights for collectors:

• Vehicles: Ecto-1, then Ecto-1A, Ecto-2, Ecto-3, Ecto-500 and the Highway Haunter.
• The Firehouse playset, the centerpiece of every kid's collection who was lucky enough to get it.
• Fright Features: heroes whose faces went wild when you moved them, with Janine added later.
• Haunted Humans: regular guys who turned into ghouls, like Granny Gross and Hard Hat Horror.
• Monsters: Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, Zombie and Quasimodo.
• Accessories: the kid-sized Proton Pack, the Ghost Zapper and Ecto-Plazm goo in purple, red and blue.

The line ended in spring 1991 during the Kenner and Hasbro merger. Hasbro later planned reissues of the first-wave figures as a Walmart exclusive.

What yours might be worth

We won't throw out numbers, because values swing hard on condition and completeness. The things that matter: does the figure still have its ghost and gear, does the Firehouse have its parts and stickers, and is anything still in the package? Check sold listings, not asking prices, on eBay, and compare the same item in the same condition.

The Radazoid take

This line was smarter than it had any right to be. Kenner took a PG movie full of jokes our parents talked over, and turned it into the most wholesome toy aisle in America. Every ghost was goofy, every vehicle was loud, and the Ecto-Plazm stained at least one carpet in every house on your street.

If your mom didn't throw yours out, go look. And if she did, you're allowed to bring it up at Thanksgiving. Still.