When the Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary project by Brent Waller was announced that it will be the next official LEGO Ideas (formerly CUUSOO) set, my mouth literally dropped. Although the firehouse headquarters wouldn’t be included, it was still cool knowing that we would still get the Ecto-1 (21108). The set is now available at LEGO Brand Stores as well as on Shop@Home and it retails for $49.99 with 508 pieces. The set is the first product released under the “LEGO Ideas” name. The box contains six unnumbered bags and one thick instruction booklet.
Box
The front of the box shows the four Ghostbusters minifigures and the Ecto-1 in front of a very cool blue and green smoke effect that is similar to what Brent had in his proposed project. On the bottom right corner, it shows the LEGO Ideas logo and shows that the Ecto-1 is #006 in the product line, continuing from the CUUSOO products. The box lining has some black and yellow stripes much like the top of the ghost trap.
The back of the box shows a very cool action image of Ray, Peter, and Winston crossing the streams from their proton guns while Egon looks on from the side. On the right side, there are a couple of more images inside a film strip of the Ecto-1 showing the removable top of the car and one frame showing the 30th Anniversary of the first Ghostbusters movie. In another frame, it shows Egon saying the famous catchphrase, “Who you gonna call?” and you’ll notice that he is also highlighted around the box including the minifigure for the 1:1 scale comparison. As you may or may not know, Harold Ramis portrayed Egon in the movies and he passed away this year so it’s nice to see sort of a tribute to his character on the box.
Instructions
The instruction booklet contains 118 pages and is made from the thicker quality paper much like from the Architecture series. The first couple of pages the backstory of the first Ghostbusters movie as well as some information about the Ecto-1. The back of the book tells the story of Brent Waller’s quest to get his project to 10,000 supporters and why he chose to submit the project. The opposite page shows Marcos Bessa and Adam Corbally with notes on how they took Brent’s design and changed it into the final product we see today. The front and back pages are also translated into French and Spanish. With these binded books, there are reports that the pages may fall out with heavy use. Also throughout the book, there a number of memorable quotes from all four Ghostbusters but unfortunately, Winston only had one quote while the others had multiples.
Minifigure
As mentioned before, there are four minifigures in the set: Ray Stantz, Egon Spangler, Peter Venkman, and Winston Zeddemore. One thing to note is that all of the minifigures are unique to their own characters. Each minifigure has everything different about them from the torso printing to their head printing and hairstyles. The heads for the characters are all double-sided and each has a standard expression on one side and a scared expression on the other.
The torsos have unique printing on the front as well as on the back. The front shows their initials and the back has their first names. This is a little different from the movie because the uniforms had the last names in the front of the suit. Another difference is that the right arms do not have the No-Ghost logo although it is printed on the back of the torso. This issue can be recified by ordering some custom arms from NACM – Not Another Custom Minifig. They have the exact same arms but with the No-Ghost logo pad printed on. Brent approves of the arms so they’re great for perfectionists who want the minifigures to look as close as possible to the uniforms from the first Ghostbusters movie.
What would a Ghostbuster be without their tools of the trade? Each of the minifigures get their own brick-built proton pack. The proton pack uses a few new pieces including a printed 2×2 boat stud, a black whip, and a dark red 1×1 round place with open stud. They are attached to the minifigures with a neck bracket with back stud. Ray and Egon also get a couple of walkie talkies and Winston gets the ghost trap. Peter, unfortunately, gets no other accessories besides his proton pack.
Also provided is a brick-built display stand for all four minifigures with a printed Ghostbusters logo right in the middle. If you are displaying the Ecto-1 with the minifigures, this is absolutely a great addition because the minifigures tend to tip backwards with their proton packs on.
Build
If you are already gushing over the box and the minifigures, we’re not even done yet! We finally get to talk about the star of the show, the Ecto-1. The Ecto-1 is modeled after the 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood Professional Chassis and LEGO has done a great job in recreating the look of the iconic car. The base of the chassis consists of a couple of Technic bricks with holes for the wheel axles and a 6×8 plate in between. After that, the car is given a number of SNOT bricks in the front and sides to give the Ecto-1 it’s curvy shape.
The front engine grille and the bumpers on both ends of the vehicle are made from silver metallic pieces. The hubcaps are also the same silver color and makes the wheels look like it has whitewall tires. Continuing with details around the vehicle, the Ghostbusters logo on the sides and the back of the Ecto-1 are printed elements and not stickers which is awesome. The yellow New York licence plates that say ECTO-1 are also on printed pieces. For the wheels, the car rolls very smoothly if you do not push in the wheels all the way in. I noticed that if you do, it catches and they won’t spin as well.
Moving up the car, the windows on the sides are cleverly done by stacking transparent windows and alternating them with 1×2 modified plates with arm up. The arms are attached by clipping them with the mechanical claws and are held down pretty nicely. It also gives the windows a slight angle which adds on to the overall look of the Ecto-1.
The roof is filled with lights and other gadgets that were never mentioned in the first movie. However thanks to the internet, there’s a behind-the-scenes image of what those gadgets are. From what I can see, a lot of details were included in the set such as a TU antenna, a directional antenna, a marine radome, and storage tubes. On the left side, there is a blue hose attached and can be tucked under the rack. The right side has a ladder.
Another feature of the roof is that it can be removed to see the interior via the four studs on the corners of the windshield and back window. The interior is fairly small with two seats in the front and one in the back where there is a control panel on one side. This means that only three minifigures can fit in the vehicle and one is left out to take the bus. While three minifigs can fit in, one in the front seat has to take off the neck bracket. Also as you can see from the two images below, only two of the three proton packs of the minifigures can fit in the back and even then only one can actually fit while the other is on top of the control panel.
Results
Although the Ecto-1 is a little smaller than Brent’s version, it is still a great representation of the vehicle. This is probably my favorite LEGO CUUSOO/Ideas build so far and no doubt that it will be popular with AFOLs as well as general Ghostbusters fans. It is a very fun build with a lot of details like the roof rack and especially the four minifigures.
One downside I see is that the Ecto-1 is small and cannot fit all the minifigures but other than that, I don’t see any other faults. If everyone had fit in the car, then the design would have gotten 5 stars below. Another nice feature is everything is on printed bricks and not stickers. I know that many of us dislike stickers and don’t want to put on the logos off-centered.
Again, the Ecto-1 is already available in LEGO Brand Stores as well as on Shop@Home for $49.99. If you like this set, make sure you follow Brent’s other Ghostbusters project on LEGO Ideas, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
[easyreview title=”The Brick Fan Scoring Summary” cat1title=”Design” cat1detail=” ” cat1rating=”4.5″ cat2title=”Playability” cat2detail=” ” cat2rating=”4.5″ cat3title=”Value” cat3detail=” ” cat3rating=”5″ summary=” “]
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