I do remember the Christmas morning that I got it from Santa! My mom was dreading putting it together since the Thundercat Lair was such a pain. This took a lot less time and was a lot easier. I remember sticking my cat on the top floor and thinking it was the best thing ever. It was a great toy. I loved busting through the doors Ecto 1 and putting ghosts in the containment unit. My younger brother used it years later for fights with his Terminator toys.
While digging around on my mothers one day I found my Kenner Real Ghostbusters Fire House. It was in rough shape. Missing doors,no sign,dust and webs(with dead bugs!). I even wrote GB logos on it and wrote "Ghostbusters" over the door way in sharpie. A Power Ranger Black Ranger sticker found its way onto the building. The inside wasn't bad at all. Stickers were all in decent shape and the railings were fine.
I decided to paint it to look more like the movie fire house. I got some Black,Flat Grey and Brick Red. I of course hosed it down and tried my best to get all the dust out but it was really hard. Some of it was just like ingrained in the plastic. I wasn't to picky. I just wanted it to look new again and let my son play with it since he is getting into the Real Ghostbusters now.
I went ahead and found two doors on Ebay. Both cost me about $16 shipped per door. I tried getting my hands on the sign but would get bid up to $25 and $30 and I just couldn't take that pill. I'm just to cheap. Maybe down the line I'll get one or make one. I painted the roof black first and I planned on painting the doors black but in the end I just couldn't. I like the red doors to much. Next was the slate grey which wasn't to challenging. It did need a few coats to get all the yellowing to not show on the plastic.
Next was the red. This is where things got tough. My not so steady hands and cheap paint brushes made this a tough chore. Not hitting the grey seemed impossible at times. I had to go back and touch up the grey. The red took many coats to get the darkness I was looking for. It was also hard since my son wanted to stand over me on a chair and "help" while I did it and I am just better when its quiet.
In the end I am really happy with it. It looks 100x better. My son gave it a test run with my old GB figures and we put in my RGB DVDs and a Real Ghostbusters night. He really had a good time. He is in this destructive stage where he is really rough so I have to stay on him but I know this will be really fun for him in a few years. Next I plan on restoring my Ecto 1 which is really rough. I've already started my search for the stickers but have had little luck. There are some other great(better then mine) GB Fire House Restores on the net so check them out.
Tags : Art,cartoons,ghostbusters,movies,toys,tv