Last month, Loot Crate, the subscription box service that provides monthly boxes of geek and gaming related merchandise, had lots of exclusive Ghostbusters items. The kind folks at Loot Crate sent me a few of the items, which I will document in this "unboxing" article.

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For the past few years, Insight Editions has been publishing deluxe collector's quality hardcover Ghostbusters books. It started with Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History (reviewed here) in 2015, continued with Tobin's Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition last year, and continues once more with the recently-released Ghostbusters: Ectomobile Owner's Workshop Manual. This 144-page tome was written by Troy Benjamin and Marc Sumerak, with illustrations by Ian Moores. Longtime members of the Ghostbusters Online Community (trademark pending) will remember Troy as the webmaster of Ghostbusters Headquarters (old school mode). Coming in at a nice size of 8.5" x 11" closed, with full color print on high-quality semi-glossy thick paper, the first two-thirds of the book deals with the original Ghostbusters, while the remaining one-third is about the 2016 film, and the last page is credits.

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This year's Halloween Treat will be a musical feature, showcasing ten unusual or unique (or just plain weird) Ghostbusters songs. Some songs will be good, some will be bad, some will in the middle, and some will be "so bad they're good". There is no criteria for quality here. Just what I find "interesting". No songs will be taken from any official Ghostbusters albums. I'll call this "Volume 1" because there will likely be more in a future Halloween Treat post.

Bob Baldwin - On Our Own (1990)

A smooth jazz near-instrumental cover of the Bobby Brown hit. From the album Rejoice. Check out the CD Single Artwork.

Peter Breiner - Ghostbusters (1991)

An orchestral version of Ghostbusters performed with Peter on the piano. From the album Peter Breiner & His Symphonic Pop Orchestra - Unchained Melody.

The Broadway Kids - Ghostbusters (1997)

It's as if the Junior Ghostbusters sang the song, only WAY better and with sound effects. Definitely a great rendition and kinda adorable. From the album The Broadway Kids - At The Movies (alt url). Performed by Ariel Harris Osumenya, Christopher Mark Petrizzo, Erin Rakow, Pierce Cravens, Amy Braverman, Travis Jordan Greisler, Ashley Pettet, Nicholas Gould, Christy Carlson Romano (later to star in Even Stevens & Kim Possible), Michael Zeidman, Jack Ingram, and Eden Reigel (later to star in The Young and the Restless); with "Broadway Guests" Ashley Tisdale (later to star in High School Musical & Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Kelly Mady, Jackie Angelescu, Brandon Ngai, Kristen Pettet, Jacy DeFillipo, Laurissa Auble, Renee Braithwaite, Kai Braithwaite, Olivia Oguma, Chris Truesdale, Alexis Kalehoff, Craig Lawlor, Alex Strange, and Kenji Miyata. CD liner notes (exactly as is written in the CD booklet, spelling and grammatical errors intact): "In addition to the opening and closing credits, Ray Parker, Jr.'s Oscar nominated song GHOSTBUSTERS covers a long and amusing montage. We see the exploits of Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Ackroyd), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) as they battle a sudden outbreak of ghouls and goblins. The tune is just one of the reasons that this Ivan Reitman's 1984 film was such a smash."

Unknown - Ghostbusters (1998)

Without a doubt, this is the second worst rendition of Ghostbusters ever commercially released. From the album My Favorite Lullabies: To Sir With Love. Yes, you read that right. Ghostbusters is on a CD entitled "My Favorite Lullabies" even though it is clearly NOT a lullaby. Heck, eleven of the twelve songs on the CD are not lullabies: 01. To Sir With Love, 02. Wouldn't It Be Lovely, 03. Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?, 04. The Ballad Of Davy Crockett, 05. Shake Your Paw, 06. Do The Bartman, 07. Ninja Rap, 08. Batdance, 09. Here Comes Garfield, 10. Ghostbusters, 11. A Spoonful Of Sugar, 12. Rock A Bye Baby.

The Hit Crew - Ghostbusters (2003)

Absolutely horrible. It should come as no surprise that it's from the album Drew's Famous: Kids Halloween Movie Themes, which is one of those lame party CDs that come out every year around Halloween time.

Bowling For Soup - Ghostbusters (2005)

A rockin' cover from the Just Like Heaven soundtrack album. Mp3 provided by Demon Lord Etna.

Mistah F.A.B. - Ghost Ride It (2007)

This controversial rap from the album Yellow Bus Rydah (later Crack Baby Anthem) samples "Ghostbusters" The Director's Cut music video (alt url) features an Ecto-1 replica and Slimer drawn on the back of a jacket. It's also in the TV Version. Check out some Behind The Scenes information. For more information, check out Proton Charging. Columbia Pictures threatened legal action against Mistah F.A.B. for the use of the Ghostbusters car and logo in the music video, and the song samples. I don't know what the outcome of the matter was. More info on it can be found here and here.

Dave Thomas - EctoMix (Ghostbusters Remix) (2008)

A super-cool fan remix of Ghostbusters dialog samples backed with a syncopated beat. Be sure to watch the music video (alt url).

Jon Herchert - Ghostbusters (2008)

A decent cover, though nothing remarkable. From the album Monster Mash: Party Songs For Kids.

J-Mi - Scared On His Own (Who's He Gonna Call) (2014)

An awesome mash-up of "Ghostbusters", "On Our Own", and movie samples over Bruce Arntson and Kirby Shelstad's theme to Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). Be sure to watch the movie's cool opening title sequence, then buy it on Blu-ray and DVD (and triple and quadruple feature DVDs).

For more Ghostbusters covers, check out Proton Charging.

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For the complete list of Spook Central's Halloween Treat posts from years past, click here. Thanks to Miss Kate for the "Halloween Treat" title banner that appears at the top of this post.

Most Ghostbusters references are short bits that can best be encapsulated with a small video clip, as evidenced by Spook Central's collection of Ghostbusters reference videos on Critical Commons. However, sometimes there's a reference for which a small clip won't do it justice. It is for these types of references that I'm starting this new reoccurring feature here at Spook Central, which I dub the "Ghostbusters Reference Review" (because creative names aren't usually my strong suit).

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(This is an updated and revised version of an article originally published on September 28, 2012)

Ghostly Greetings to all of my fellow 'Crappers coming to Spook Central via the link in my Someone Bought This - Bootleg WWE Coloring Books article on Wrestlecrap. I thought I'd take the occasion to write a lengthy article about all of the Ghostbusters connections there are in the wacky world of wrestling and vice-versa.

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Year 2 of Lego Dimensions introduced Story Packs to the mix. These $50 sets provide six levels of gameplay, in addition to a franchise-specific world and a battle arena, plus a physical figure and vehicle, and some new (and optional) physical "portal" pieces you can affix to the Lego Dimensions toypad (in place of the "portal" pieces from the Starter Pack). The first to be released was the Lego Dimensions Ghostbusters 2016 Story Pack, which gives you an Abby Yates minifigure (not wearing a Proton Pack), the 2016 Ecto-1, and some Chinese Restaurant portal pieces.

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Ever since the gimmick of an all-female Ghostbusters was announced, I knew what would come from it. Surprisingly, it was not the "all girl" feature I expected. Brazzers, a well-known company that specializes in these types of videos, released a Ghostbusters adult parody last year that is kinda, sort of, not really based on Paul Feig's film. I know what you're thinking? Wasn't there already a Ghostbusters adult parody? Yes, Hustler made one in 2011, which I reviewed (and was later quoted in the official press release). That wasn't even the first one based on the original Ghostbusters.

I'll try to keep this review as clean as possible (there will be some mild words and cartoon genitals), but it IS a porn film, so if that offends, don't continue any further. Also, the bulk of this review is about the movie itself, which was originally released on the website in four parts. Information about the DVD release will be included afterward.

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Long before there was Erin, Abby, Jillian, and Patty; there was Eduardo, Kylie, Garrett, and Roland - the Extreme Ghostbusters! It was 20 years ago today, on September 2, 1997, that I first saw this next-generation, mentored by original ghostbuster Egon Spengler (voiced by a returning Maurice LaMarche). (While the show premiered on September 1st in most parts of the U.S., here in New York it was pre-empted by the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. So, I saw Darkness At Noon, Part 2 first, and had to wait almost a week for the re-airing of Part 1.) Ten years ago, I did a little write-up for the 10th anniversary, so I'll try to do something a bit different for this article.

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Although I've been running this website for 20 years, my love of Ghostbusters goes back much further than that. In honor of my birthday today, let's take a look back at a few of my past birthdays and the Ghostbusters presents I received for them.

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For the past 10 years all video and audio files on Spook Central were played using a Flash plugin-based multimedia player. That was the ideal way to do it at the time, but since then, Flash has fallen out of favor (to put it nicely). If you've been viewing Spook Central on a mobile device, you wouldn't have even seen the embedded media player because all Apple and Android devices don't allow Flash to be used. That meant that I needed to eventually find a new way to play and display the media on the site.

Raffaele Ruffaldi, the Italian Stallion from the land of the Smurfs and damn fine waffles, has worked his butt off these past few months to help me find a solution to the problem. After lots and lots of testing and trial and error, and me being a general pain in the ass, we have found something that seemingly works in nearly every situation. Only one older browser (Internet Explorer v8 on Windows XP) and mobile device (an iPod Touch using iOS v6) failed our tests, but it's not likely that anyone reading this is using either of those two. If for some reason you can't see the video, there's a "Can't See The Video?" panic link at the top of the floated box that links directly to the .mp4 file which should allow you to view the video file.

When I committed to using videos on Spook Central, I grabbed the tiny "Play Video" image from the DVD-ROM content of the 1999 DVD and blew it up to 320x240. It got the job done, but it wasn't very pretty, and I wanted something that looked a little better, wasn't tied to a specific background color, and was of a larger size (as a way to plan for future use). I asked my friend, the Ghostbusting' Guru Matthew Jordan, for some help to make a new image that was a homage to the old one. What you see at the top of this post is the masterpiece he created. Those of you on desktop or laptop computers will, likely, not see the image very much. However, those of you on mobile devices will become quite familiar with it. When you click on any video thumbnail on the site (and I hope it's obvious which thumbnails link to videos on the various pages), a desktop/laptop computer will auto-play the video floated over the page. On a mobile device, you will need to click/touch the "Play Video" image to have the video start playing.

It should be noted that all I did right now is take the small (mostly 320x240 or 424x240) compressed .flv videos I already had on Spook Central and re-compress them to .mp4 files. They are being displayed on the site, floated over the pages, at DVD resolution sizes of 640x480 or 852x480. There will be a certain ugliness when seeing those small files enlarged to those sizes, but they are still perfectly viewable. Maybe in a few years, if I can ever find the time, I want to go back to my original video sources and re-encode all of the videos at those larger DVD image dimensions and with less compression. That will probably happen when I get around to transferring my VHS collection to DVD-Rs. For now, what's on the site will have to do. Oh, and ignore the black box in the lower right corner of some videos. It covers up an outdated watermark I had on the original files.

Okay, so that about covers it all. Raffaele and I would appreciate it if you would use the comments section below to provide feedback, so we'll know if there are any issues we need to address, or if everything is running as well as expected.