As a slightly anticlimactic close to this mini Tron nostalgia week, I decided to close out with the wrapper to the 1982 Donruss Tron card set (as a bookend to the stickers I posted on Wednesday.)  It's not the most engaging wax wrapper design.  In fact I believe other than the neatness of the logo, this is probably one of the more boring card pack wrappers out there.

I think this is a bit indicative of the marketing issues I've noticed with the original film.  Most of the merchandise I've seen used the same hands-on-hips static pose of the Tron character blankly starring, or it uses that image as the center piece surrounded by a barrage of small screencaps that don't really capture the excitement of the lightcycle race, or the emotional resonance of watching a program get de-rezzed.

I know Disney wanted a big push with the merchandising of the flick, but I'm wondering if people just didn't know how to market a movie like Tron?

Well, the new flick opens tonight and the wife and I are going to try and catch the 1st screening in the morning.  Here's to hoping it does the original some justice…

Though I feel completely like a child of the 80s, I have to say that being born in 1977 there were a handful of 80s pop culture events in which I completely missed the boat.  Tron and the boom of arcade gaming are a couple  phenomena that I didn't get to really immerse myself in as a kid.  Sure, I had an Atari 2600 (bought at a garage sale) after the big home console crash, and I was a full-blown Nintendo kid, but I didn’t catch a screening of Tron until only a few years ago.  In fact, aside from a vague idea of the iconography of the arcade console (in particular the awesomely large joystick) and what the characters in the flick more or less looked like, I was largely unaware of the film.

My childhood video game movie experience surrounded flicks like the Wizard, Wargames, and the Last Starfighter.  I've met so many people at work over the last 10 years that attribute Tron as the incipience of their awakening to the potential of computer technology and quite possibly the reason that they entered the IT field as a career.   Having never experienced a film like Tron and being exposed to the idea of anthropomorphizing the inner workings of a computer, I never saw the excitement inherent in programming and computing.  Like most people, it took the wide acceptance of the internet to open my eyes.  Because of that I'll always probably feel a little left behind.

On the bright side, getting a chance to catch up with the film as an adult I can both appreciate some of the more technical aspects to the conceptual nature of the flick, and it gives me the unique opportunity to discover something new and nostalgic.  It's rare that I get a chance to stumble upon something from the 80s that I'm either not familiar with or have been inundated with during the last 10 years of the 80s nostalgic resurgence.  For that I'm thankful.  Because of this and because of the news of the new sequel over the last couple of years I've been keeping and eye out for any bits of scan-able Tron ephemera, in particular vintage advertisements.  Here are a few I've found while flipping through old issues of Woman's Day and Muppet magazines…

First up is this 1982 ad for Dial and Tone bar soap with a mail-away coupon for a discounted Tron beach towel.  Featuring the static hero pose of the titular character, this towel is one of the few times when I think that image is successfully striking.  I'm always curious how many of these mail-away items make it into the public (and it's not like old beach towels get proffered up on ebay all that often), so it's cool when you can find some photographic evidence of these items.  Thanks to Hillary over at I'm Remembering for coaxing her readers into submitting old photos for her site…

Next up is this 1982 Smuckers ad for strawberry jam and the in-store special offer for a free Tron Futuristic Adventure Book with the purchase of a bottle of preserves.   Maybe not as cool as a collectable jelly glass with Tron characters and scenes, but the book did come with a fold-out 17"x22" poster, and featured games, puzzles and stickers!  I've seen a couple of Tron sticker sheets over the years, but I don't think I've ever laid eyes on the stickers from this free book.

Last, but not least, is this 1984 holiday ad from Disney Home Video featuring a VHS copy of Tron.  Back in '84 this cassette copy of Tron was a steal at $39.95 (msrp at the time was a whopping $84.95.)  This was back before most people had started purchasing movies for their home libraries, and videos were largely still priced for the rental market.   Also, at first I was pretty excited when I flipped to this ad in the back of an issue of Muppet magazine because I though the video came with a free Tron ornament.  How cool would that have been?  Well, even though there is that die-cut gold Tron disc on the packaging, the ornament is actually the image on the top left featuring Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice.  Still a cool ornament, but not nearly as cool as one featuring Tron.

There is another thing that stuck out to me in this ad.  I thought it was weird that the graphic designers of this advertisement chose to feature a rare red variation of the Tron character artwork.  Though my memory might be a little shady, I thought that red was reserved for the "evil" programs in the Tron world like Sark and his minions?  I guess this is sort of the equivalent of catching a glimpse of Luke Skywalker with a red lightsaber…

Well, 2010 is shaping up to be one hell of a year.  I've had some of my highest highs with personal projects and experienced some personal family tragedies that I had hoped never to live through.  Though I still haven't recovered from the latter, I don’t want to lose track of Branded, so I thought with the upcoming Tron Legacy sequel hitting theaters this weekend it'd be a good time to share some ephemera from the original film.  So for the rest of this week I'll be sharing my meager collection of Tron goodies.

Before I jump into that, I did want to make note of a milestone that Branded recently crossed as the site has had over one million distinct page views.  When I set out to work on this project, the million page views mark was one of my personal goals, and I've made a promise to myself that once I reached it, I'd stop looking at stats and stuff.  So next week, I'm going to shed the hit counter, dropping off an outdated bit of old school web design in the process.  A very heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who has ever stopped by to read some of my ramblings or to take a gander at some of the magazine, stickers, and advertising scans I've put up.  I'm just glad this stuff has gotten out there.

Anyway, back to Tron.  Today I'd like to share the complete Tron sticker card collection from the 1982 Donruss card set…

The sticker set only consisted of 8 cards, five featuring screenshots of the Tron video game, two images from the movie, and a pretty sweet logo sticker.  Each of the five video game stickers also featured "tips" for the game on the back (as you can see below), though they aren't so much as Nintendo-Power-esque game tips as they are straight up descriptions of the various levels in the game.  I'm sure there was a legion of kids disappointed in these less than helpful descriptions.

I'm glad the Donruss design team included the game screen shots as stickers because I've never had the opportunity to play the Tron game and I at least get a sense of what the game looked like.  I am kind of surprised that they didn't make the sticker set a little bigger though including other scenes and characters from the flick.  I'm glad we get a sticker featuring Tron and the lightcycles, but I would have loved to have some stickers featuring Sark and Flynn, and maybe even the ugly mug of the Master Control Program…

Though I'm sure there are a ton of sites providing commentary on the Tron legacy this week, I'd like to take a second and point to one of my favorite spots on the web, Neato Coolville.  Run by Mayor Todd, Neato Coolville is featuring a whole week of posts with all sorts of great stuff including vintage magazine articles, artwork from the film, some of the regular trading cards from the 1982 Donruss set, and much more.  If you get a second stop on by and tell him Branded sent ya…

Just wanted to break radio silence one more time to remind everyone that coming this Friday and Saturday I'll be at the 1st Up! Fair!  What's the Up! Fair you ask?  Well, I'm joining Jerzy & Anne Drozd (of Tiny Astronaut, Make Like a Tree Comics, and the Art & Story Podcast), Sara & Brian Turner (of Cricket Press and Make Like a Tree Comics), Mark Rudolph (of Control Voice Comics, the Requiem Metal Podcast, and the Art & Story Podcast), Kevin Cross (of the Art & Story Podcast, as well as being a swell freelance artist), and my wife Carrie Robare (demonals.com) in putting on one heck of an independently minded comic book and zine fair in Lexington, Kentucky.  You can get an idea of what we're shooting for in the below comic by Sara Turner and Jerzy Drozd…

We've all put a good year's worth of work into this project and we're bursting at the seams to see it finally realized.  If you're in the Lexington, KY area and would like to stop by and meet me and the other organizers, we'd love to see you.  Admission to the event is free to the public and we’ve got a great roster of artists and writers on hand selling their stuff as well as leading all sorts of awesome workshops (you can download a pdf of the program by right-clicking and saving here.)  I'll see you at the Up! Fair!

I'm breaking out of my post Halloween downtime to remind everyone that back in 1982 Molly Ringwald and who I believe is a very young Emily Schulman (the nosey pugnacious next-door-neighbor on Small Wonder) wanted you to eat your raisins.   If raisins are like the red-headed step children of grapes, then I think the California Raisins Ad Council chose pretty well spokes model-wise.  I mean, Ringwald was one of the girls written out of the second season of The Facts of Life, and Schulman, well, for anyone who's seen an episode of Small Wonder, is the poster child for red-headed nuisances…

This ad is kind of interesting for Ringwald fanatics as it's an example of the type of work she was taking in-between leaving The Facts of Life and landing her breakout role as Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles.  Aside from pimping raisins as Linda, founder of Linda's Babysitting Service, Ringwald was also spending a lot of time recording vocals for Disney albums around this time.  Alright, back to working on the Up! Fair and junk…

Well, we finally made it to monster number 31 and Halloween day!  Today's big-headed bad guy is probably one of the most feared villains in the Ghostbusters rogue's gallery (coming in just a hair below Gozer), the Boogieman!

That’s right, the one and only feeder-of-fright, the bane to children and Egon's everywhere, the big B.  This is the ugly dude hiding under your bed at night.  He's the one casting creepy shadows on your wall when you think it's just a tree.  The Boogieman is also apparently the one using up all your mom's lipstick and hairspray and then hiding the empty containers in your room so that you'll get blamed!

Seriously though, along with the Sandman and Sam Hain, the Boogieman is probably one of the most evil foes the Ghostbusters have faced in their animated form.  I can say that his huge head and little goat-like legs freaked me out as a kid…

I also think it's kind of neat that the two cels I managed to score also come from both of his appearances int eh series.  The wicked closeup up top comes from episode 81, The Boogieman is Back, and the cel of big-headed B coming out of the door is from episode 6, The Boogieman Cometh...

I was so overjoyed to get a hold of these two cels this past year as this guy is one of my all time favorite monsters from the series.  The only hole in my collection right now is Sam Hain, but then as I came to discover when I finally scored a set of series one Garbage Pail Kids, completing a collection can be quite the downer.  I think I’ll be okay looking out for that last Real Ghostbusters cel for awhile…

So that does it for another Halloween season here at Branded in the 80s.  It was my fifth year celebrating, and the second great year for the Countdown to Halloween hub site.  Once again, like in most years past I'm about ready to go into hibernation, but then again I have the first Up! Fair coming up in 19 short days.  I think I need a nap…

If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

We're almost there folks.  All Hallows Eve eve, or some such junk.  It's been a fun counting down these monsters for a second year and I wish I had more cels to stretch this out for a third year, but I guess I'll just have to come up with something else to write about.  Anyway, today's penultimate monster is probably one of the better villains from the waning days of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  By this time it was already re-branded Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters, and it was in store for a truly disappointing end.  But before we got there we got a chance to sneak a peek at this Toyland demon from episode 126, Busters in Toyland…

Pretty gnarly looking, right?  This demon was actually much more Gremlin-like in appearance (see the screen shot below).  The crux of the episode revolves around Louis Tulley's spoiled nephew who seems to have all toys in existence.  Louis, trying to wow him on his birthday ends up buying some spectrally possessed action figures (one of which I shared earlier in the month), which kidnap his nephew and steal him away to Toyland.  There a demon ruler tricks the boy into accepting the mantle of ruler so that he can be free and leave the realm. A fter the switch of power he reveals his true form, the crazy spiked demon wyrm you see above…

I was really happy to get my hands on this cel because it features Louis, one of the last "main" characters I wanted to have from the show.

Well, one last time I'll make the call to come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I complete the countdown towards my favorite character from the show!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's spooks are so much ghosts as they are physical manifestations based on dreams that are under the control of one of the Ghostbuster's coolest villains, the Sandman!  These guys hail from episode 7, Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream…

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for skull-related iconography.  It has to be one of the basic building blocks of a human's fear, mixing both the finality of death (how else are you going to see a real skull) and the mysterious unknown inside each and every one of us.  So whenever I stumble upon something creepy, imposing and with a cool skull thrown in for good measure, I quite easily fall in love…

I think I also really dug these two because they remind me of two similar villains from my childhood, General Kael (from the much underappreciated Willow) and Warduke (from the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon and toy line)…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today is all about the fan-favorite little green spud, Slimer!  Whereas last year I shared a cel of a ghost that had a very striking resemblance to Slimer, and was in fact sort of the Earth 2 evil version of the little guy, today it's really just the full on evil version of Slimer!

After feeling brushed off and ignored by the guys, Slimer is unfortunately possessed by a gaseous leak from a faulty pipe on the containment unit.  It causes the little guy to go all Jekyll and Hyde during the episode…

I really love the amped-up evil Slimer character design, especially his scary mouth full of shark-like teeth.  The horns don’t hurt either…

It's also funny in the episode, because even though this version of Slimer is evil and bent on destruction, he still takes the time to continuously "slime" Peter!  There's also a fun daydream sequence where Slimer has to come and save the gang from another ghost...

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.   All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's ghost is only half as scary as he appears, and I'm pretty sure no chains, locks, or boxes could hold him.  This creepily floating harpy of a man is actually the ghost of the great Harry Houdini!

I hadn't seen this episode when I picked up the cel originally, but when I laid eyes on it I couldn't help but be seriously creeped out.  There's just something unsettling about a crazy looking dude in an unbound-straight jacket that also appears to be screaming bloody murder.  This is the kind of ghost I fear bumping into one day.  I'd never be so lucky to get a calm, quiet free-roaming repeater.  No I'd get a Library Ghost (from the 1st Ghostbusters flick) or something…

Anyway, in this episode, #63 the Cabinet of Calamari, the Ghostbusters are given free passes to a magic show in the hopes that they'll be able to take care of a pesky ghost that's been haunting the current act.  Suspicions of foul play start to run as the guys are attacked by animated hand saws and swords (Winston sure picked a horrible hiding spot from the swords!)

After some investigation, the gang realizes that the ghost they've been hired to bust is actually Harry Houdini who is just trying to get his secrets and diary back from the evil Calamari…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

I was super excited to score today's monsters.  This is actually not one, but a whole mess of cels and production drawings from a short scene in one of my all time favorite episodes, #6, the Boogieman Cometh!

First of all, I love getting my hands on a series of overlapping cels that make up the majority of the on-screen image as it feels so much more like a scene from a cartoon.  But also, with this one in particular I got a nice shot of the entire group squaring off against some crazy monsters.  I wanted to share two scenes from this segment, so above we have the guys as they've just landed on what they thought was a big bed, and then the one below where they realize this bed is comprised of a crap ton of freaky red snakes!

Also, I thought these cels were kind of interesting because the Asian crew that worked on them slipped in a bit more of their local cartoon flair by utilizing the odd code-like blue facial coloring that's supposed to show extreme fright (or embarrassment.)  You typically don't see these anime aspects filter into the American shows, even though they were usually animated overseas at this time.  I really dig it…

You can also see from the sketches that these were thought out and planned…

We're also getting down to the wire here, with only five more cels left in the countdown.  I wonder if I managed to get a hold of some other monsters from this episode?  Guess everyone will just have to come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)   If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

First of all, yes, the plural of mantis is indeed mantids, I looked it up (though mantises and mantes are also acceptable.)  Anyway, today Giant Bugs Attack!  Actually, giant bugs attack and are repelled by a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that some might remember from a little movie called Ghostbusters (which according to the cartoon is really just an unfortunately cast bio pic…)

This big green menace hails from episode 65, The Revenge of Murray the Mantis, and he might not be what you first suspected.  While preparing the celebrated cartoon character Murray the Mantis as a giant parade balloon (ala the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade), there's an unexpected twist.  The balloon is being inflated in what used to be the cities corner's building which just happens to be dripping with death energy.  This essence du death is sucked up into the pumps and inserted into the giant cartoon blimp.  Lucky for the city, the Ghostbusters have agreed to ride along in the parade though, because halfway through this mantis-shaped blimp gets a mind of its own.  After a blast from Peter's proton pack the balloon pops, but brings to life a 40ft tall angry mantis monster!

Figuring the only way to beat a huge hulking monster is with another huge hulking monster, the guys set the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man free to battle the giant mantis Godzilla-style.  It just so happens that I shared a cel of good 'ol Stay Puft from this episode on last year's countdown…

When I pickled up this cel, I also saw another cool Mantis cel that I figured was related, but it turns out it isn't.  In fact it's really just a thow-away scene as a cold opening to the last official Real Ghostbusters episode, #134, 20,000 Leagues Under the Street.  I figured this would be a great place to share him…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Like yesterday's creep, today's is from episode 86, Loathe Thy Neighbor.  Though it's only in about one and a half minutes of the episode, it's a pretty freaky looking vampire/gargoyle…

Unfortunately, the only available cel I could get my hands on was one with his eyes closed.  Even so this is still one freaky looking monster!  It reminds me a bit of the gargoyles in the Tales From the Darkside movie, and a little bit like Man-Bat from the Batman comics…

This guy, though vengeful and kind of mean, was not the monster the Ghostbusters were hired to catch in the House they were exorcizing.  Instead he was probably a family pet that Winston ends up vaporizing.  C'est la vie.

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.   All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

So continuing the trend of one super goofy entry on the Monster Countdown (last year it was Mr. Ham), there was one cel that I just couldn't pass on picking up.  Today I present the vacuum cleaner…FROM HELL!

Has anyone ever seen a cleaning apparatus that was so evil?  If my dog runs away from our Hoover like her life depended on it, how would she react to this monstrosity?  Probably a lot like Slimer here…

This dusting agent of doom comes from episode 86, Loathe thy Neighbor, which is sort of a take-off on the Addams Family and the Munsters with maybe a little bit of the ‘Burbs thrown in for good measure.  Basically, a family living in nowheresville New York hires the Ghostbusters to bust a haunt in their house so that they can get ready for a family reunion party.  This family, the Morbids, would do quite well living next to that creepy house on 1313 Mockingbird Lane though.  The father is a loose sketch of Gomez Addams and the mother could understudy Morticia.  The kids are equal parts cousin Marilynn and the weird hunchback uncle from the ‘Burbs.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe there is also a weird reference to Better Off Dead in the episode.  Anyone want to guess what it is?

Tomorrow's monster is also from this episode so stay toon-ed!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's posse of vengeful do-gooding ghosts is none other than Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Virgil Earp!

They hail from episode 60, Ghost Fight at the O.K. Corral. Wyatt and Virgil's brother Morgan is also present, just not in the above cel.   Basically, after a goofy financier turns the ghost town of Tombstone into an amusement park on the 100th anniversary of the O.K. Corral gunfight, the ghosts of Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Mr. "I'll be your huckleberry" Holiday come back to clean out the town of undesirables.  The Ghostbusters are called in and eventually they realize that they've taken the place of the McLaury's, Clanton's, and a Claiborne in a reenactment of the original gunfight.

Though in just looking at the one cel these gunfighters might not seem all that imposing (especially using their fingers at guns), they probably some of the more imposing and scary ghosts in the entire series.  Just knowing that these men put a lot of guys into their graves, and the simple clean way they're rendered onscreen with their glowing lifeless eyes, it totally gives me the willies.  Actually, what's kind of cool is that throughout most of the episode the Earp brothers and Holiday are walking around the town invisible with only their actual boots appearing in the scenes.  Sounds silly, but it's kind of creepy…

There's also a lot of great imagery and animation in this episode, one of the better ones in the series in my opinion.

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.) If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's denizen of the Netherworld is none other than a Thon, one of the rock demons who guard the prison of Tholey's Keep…

Hailing from episode 73, Egon's Ghost, this guy is imposing, though not as quite as its master.  In the episode Egon is zapped by a monster turned into a spirit.  In an attempt to save him, the guys accidentally fully transport Egon to the Netherworld where he's captured and imprisoned by Tholey, a pretty gnarly looking demon.  Peter, Ray and Winston have to travel to the other side in order to rescue Egon and bring him back home.

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.) If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

The ghosts just keep getting creepier and creepier, but this guy is just icky in a weird scary baby kind of way.  Makes sense, as this is the natural form of Victor, from episode 75, Victor the Happy Ghost, who spends most of his time as a Casper-like baby ghost…

It's all in those big baby blues…

Of course the guys feel bad after busting Victor in the Natural History Museum, so on the urging of Janine they let him roam free in the firehouse.   All hell breaks loose and naturally Slimer is the only one to realize what's going on.

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.) If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.   All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's junk-pile of a villain comes from one of my favorite 1st season episodes (#10, "Take Two".)  The gang flies out to California to take on the role of consultants for the official Ghostbusters movie (which just happens to be the actual live action film that the cartoon is based on for all you meta fans out there.)  While the studio is getting the stages ready for filming they let loose a ghost that’s been trapped for decades, which finds a corporal body in a huge prop robot on the lot…

This guy has a major case of the insanes in those big yellow eyes!

One bit of trivia in this episode, when the guys are looking over the casting sheet, cartoon Winston reads out the major players (Akroyd, Murry, and Ramis), neglecting to mention Ernie Hudson, the actor for whom he is the counterpart.  It's just another in a long line of examples where Hudson gets shunned in marketing and promotion for that first film.  Oh, and as far as the meta reference above, according to the cartoon universe, they came befre the movie, which is sort of a weird chicken and egg paradox...

You can get an idea of what the original ghost and robot prop look like above, as well as what the two of them merged typically looks lie in the episode.  The cel (top) and the screencap below have him in a much more menacing, yet foreshorten-d portrait…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

So initially when I was first scanning in the monster cels for this year's countdown, I was pretty darn excited when I took a closer look at today's gang of spooks.  First of all, we have what can only be described as the ghost of Abe Lincoln (who ad the time of broadcast had been a specter for 6 score and 1 year.)  If a spectral Lincoln wasn't cool enough, I noticed that there were actually two cels stapled together!  Ectoplasmic Abe was actually a correction on top of the original cel which featured a similar, yet wholly different ghost!

Before tracking down and watching the episode (#62, Deadcon 1), my hope was that I'd discovered a secret ghost that never made it to broadcast air.  I was a little suspicious of this desire though, as the pencil under drawing for the cel actually featured Ecto-Abe.   Since the correction only featured Abe alone on the cel, it didn't make sense that he was a correction, but instead the originally intended ghost…

My question now is where are the original drawings with the secret ghost shown below (who is on the same layer as the rest of this gang in the cel and there would need to be a drawing to procel the cel.)  I suppose that the drawing I do have is a copy/tracing of the original drawing with the non-Abe ghost, as it's possible that repainting a series of cels is more time consuming than just painting one new character to supersede the original image.  Either way, the dapper man in blue below is the main ghost at Deadcon 1 int he actual story, and the first to appear in the episode, so he's not super secret at all.

This episode is a really fun one though, involving a spoof on Donald Trump, with the unveiling of the new Plump Towers convention center in New York.  Hosting both a dentist's convention as well as another more mysterious event, things start getting creepy and silly pretty fast.  See Deadcon 1 is a gathering of monsters and ghosts bent on taking over the world.  The guys are called in to take care of this posthumous party, but have to find a way to do so without relying on their proton packs (so they don't zap any dentists or cause any damage to the new building.)  The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man also makes an appearance as he's invited to be the keynote speaker of the event…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s!  I had a blast last year, so again I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's dragon-like monster is yet another mystery to me.  Again, though I swear I've inched my way through every episode of the Real Ghostbusters over the least year, I missed one featuring this big purple menace.  All I can say for sort-of-certain is that I believe he destroys a bridge in New York.  How very Godzilla of him…

Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!

Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I'm on the Facebook as well.)  If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…