Ghostbusters 41st Anniversary Edition: A Holiday Collector's Set (2025 Advent Calendar) Review

My friend Nora just sent me the unofficial/bootleg "41st Ghostbusters Anniversary Edition: A Holiday Collector's Set" 2025 advent calendar as a holiday gift. Given that today is Christmas, this seemed like the perfect time to do an unboxing review of it. Join me...

Ok, before I begin, let me state again that this is an UNOFFICIAL/BOOTLEG product. It is not officially-licensed by Sony or Ghost Corps. I personally confirmed that with Eric Reich of Ghost Corps just to be 100% clear. The fact that there is no copyright information on the product is also a sign that it's UN-authentic. The poor print quality on the box, when examined closely, is another sign. The most obvious clue is that it's labeled as the 41st anniversary. The studios tend to commemorate anniversaries that are divisible by five, such as 40th, 45th, etc. I wonder why the bootlegger even bothered to mention the 41st anniversary, as that's totally irrelevant to the product itself, and makes it difficult for them to re-release it next year without having to change the number.

That this is an unofficial product is going to explain a lot of its quirks, which I will try to detail. All photos (before the piece-by-piece countdown) can be enlarged. Let's start by opening up the brown cardboard box, where I find the product, which is not shrink-wrapped.


Underneath the product box I find 24 gold strings. When I first saw this, I had no clue what to make of it. Later, after I saw the "24 collectible figures" found inside, I realized that these are meant to be used to hang them on your Christmas tree.


The product box is an ugly dark red or maroon and gold-ish eyesore which utilizes the same design on the front and back (see header image above). The only difference is that the front overlays the numbers 1 through 24 over the design, making it look even uglier. On the left and right sides of the box is a design featuring some sort of elongated Proton Pack shooting from the head of the Wicker Man, I think. The top and bottom sides of the box are blank.


While there are perforations on the front of the box that are meant to be punched through on each of the 24 days, I'm just going to pull out the whole tray from the top.


Here is the whole tray of "24 collectible figures". The plastic tray with 24 compartments has a second tray sitting glued on top.


Online photos show the "figures" as being three-dimensional.


That is grossly misleading. They're two dimensional, and could be described as "thick Shrinky Dinks". I'm not sure why they're called "figures" on the box when they are not figures. "Decorations" or "ornaments" are the only apt words I would use. While the exact dimensions differ because most of the objects are of different shapes, they're about 1.75" tall, 0.75" wide, and 3/16" thick.


The printing on these little bits of plastic is really good. They are printed on one side and meant to be viewed through the clear unprinted side, to give the illusion of depth. Each side has a thin film on it that you should remove (scrape off) with your fingernails. If you leave the film on, they don't look very good.

The designs on some of these are really bizarre. It seems like they downloaded photos of Funko Pops, and other things, and printed them out on bits of plastic. Let's take a look at all of them going from 1 through 25.

DAY #01 - On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Winston Zeddemore.


DAY #02 - A puzzle piece with the No Ghost logo on it. Ok, that's random. Is this from John Kramer?


DAY #03 - A Proton Pack, I think. The printing is so damn dark that it looks more like a shadow. As a Proton Pack, it's a wee bit off-model :-)


DAY #04 - A Terror Dog.


DAY #05 - The love child of Egon Spengler and Kevin Beckman. Those look similar to Kevin's glasses, but his Funko Pop has blonde hair.


DAY #06 - Slimer!


DAY #07 - A British phone booth and mailbox on Main Street. This is an odd choice. Frozen Empire filmed in the United Kingdom, but none of the movies ever took place there.


DAY #08 - The Ghostbusters headquarters firehouse.


DAY #09 - A ghost trap. I'm note sure what that upright part on the top is. Maybe this trap has been redesigned to open from the front.


DAY #10 - Another terror dog... if it mated with a gargoyle.


DAY #11 - The Ecto-1 with some strange logo on its door.


DAY #12 - Ray Stantz holding a walkie-talkie.


DAY #13 - A walkie-talkie. Not a weird inclusion since the guys did use a walkie-talkie, and Spirit Halloween sells a Ghostbusters-branded one.


DAY #14 - A blue and orange proton stream. Reminds me of the ones from The Real Ghostbusters Funko Pop line.


DAY #15 - I think this is supposed to be a P.K.E. Meter, but it looks nothing like any that have ever appeared in anything with the Ghostbusters name on it.


DAY #16 - A "Call The Team!" word balloon. I guess this is supposed to be displayed next to the one of the guys, but these ornaments don't have stands; they just appear to since it's part of each design. So, you can't stand this up next to one of the guys to make it appear like he's saying this.


DAY #17 - The shape is reminiscent of the ghost trap from the 2016 film, but otherwise, it looks nothing like it.


DAY #18 - If you squint, you can pretend that this is Slimer going into a ghost trap.


DAY #19 - Egon Spengler with goggles on his chest.


DAY #20 - Some canisters. I have zero clue where these came from.


DAY #21 - The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.


DAY #22 - Again, this could almost be a 2016 ghost trap, if it looked completely different.


DAY #23 - Peter Venkman holding a walkie-talkie, just like that time he patrolled the halls of the Sedgewick Hotel.


DAY #24 - Not... a... fucking... clue!!! I thought it was some kind of architectural arch, but Google image search believes it to be a tombstone. If that were the case, where is the inscription? Either way, why the bootleg manufacturer thought to include this in a GHOSTBUSTERS set completely perplexes me. The only connection I could make, and this is a COMPLETE STRETCH, is that the 2009 video game includes a cemetery level. You would think that the final item would be the best of the bunch, but clearly the bootleg manufacturer doesn't think like you and I.


Well, that was a weird collection of things. I have to admit, when I first opened the cardboard box and saw that it included "24 collectible figures", I got really excited. When I looked it up online, before opening it, and saw the three-dimension figures in the product stock image, I got even more excited. When I actually opened it up and saw "thick Shrinky Dinks" instead of three-dimensional "figures", my heart sank. At least, with the film removed, they do look nice. That said, I got it as a gift, so I'm not complaining... and it gave me something to write about.

It's a interesting bootleg item, but it instantly dates itself with that 41st anniversary nonsense. If I made this sound like something you'd want to buy for yourself, the cheapest place I could find it online is at Etsy knock-off site Printerval, where it is listed as "Ghostbusters 41St Anniversary 2025 Advent Calendar 2D Acrylic For Christmas Tree" and is sold by "Michell Image" for $25.95. More expensive, and probably less-reputable, options include Curvy Glams ($49.95), Sen Print Mart ($54.95), and Shicloth ($68.90). The fact that it's unofficial is why it can't be found at Amazon or any other reputable retailer.