Octobersbest: Let's Look at Them Ghost Toys

Turns out I have a lot of ghost toys (more or less; we'll accept a few oddballs). Probably because ghost toys are often translucent or glow-in-the-dark, and I'm all about that biz.

What better place to start than with sheeted ghosts? A select few, anyway. The obvious choice is the classic Lego ghost, but we've seen that a million times. Did you know there were many Playmobil ghosts?

This classic 80's dude, for instance! This was a gift from a coworker, who had some old Playmobil boxes sitting around, so I got a pristine old ghost! This is from way back when using metal with toys didn't cost an arm and a leg, so the chain and ball are both metal - and the ball is heavy metal! You could whip that sucker around and cause some minor damage. It's fun for kids!

Now this is newer, but uses the same idea. The ball and chain is plastic this go around, and the inner body is now a skeleman! They both glow in the dark (like the old one) but the newer glow plastic is a little better than the old stuff. This ghost also carries around a...ghost candelabra? I suppose ghosts can carry around dead objects too; why not. Also this dude is clean shaven, because ghosts nowadays are into manscaping.

And this guy! This guy. I don't quite get this guy. At least, the sheet part. He put a little more work into the sheet design, and he's using a black tarp, but it's a bit of a silly design. Until you take the sheet off WHHOOA MAN, look at that creepy guy! The other ghosts were just spooky ghost men, but this is just a straight up demon dude! He doesn't bother with balls and chains, either. Just cuts right to the spooky chase and probably whips that black tarp off so he can scare you and steal your soul or something.

This one is a special case! Still Playmobil, but they went for a good mix of toy and display piece.

The ghost is one solid piece, with no figure underneath the sheet. Instead, the bottom has a button that you press to activate a light inside! If you press the button again, it shuffles through different colors.

One more press and it turns off, but the whole thing is glow-in-the-dark plastic as well! There's no end to the uses for this thing. It's an awesome toy, and you can set it anywhere and turn it on for a cool Halloween display. I hope Playmobil keeps selling this figure 'till the end of time.

The end of the sheeted ghosts goes out with a bang - the end-all-be-all of classic-style ghost toys. This is the blind bagged Imaginext ghost. The sheet glows in the dark, and underneath...

...is a translucent green skeleton! It is the best basic ghost toy in the universe. Not only does the sheet look great, but the imaginext skeleton is already a fantastic toy, and casting it in translucent green needs no further explanation.

Now let's go check out some other ghosts that need no sheets, and head back to Playmobil for their most unsettling face. This was a reaper...thing. Guy. Part of the blind bagged series of Playmobil figures. It's a great idea by itself in terms of design, but it all comes together with THAT FACE. And they didn't just use it once.

Yes! The face returned on the....tall man? I swear these two have this supposed-to-be-classic look to them; like you're already supposed to know these old time Halloween characters (like the Clown with the Tear-Away Face talking as if he were a classic Halloween staple). The reaper dude is using a scythe at least, which is kinda Halloweeny. This guy? Tall man? He just carries a sword. He's really tall, glows in the dark, and carries a sword. Also THE FACE. Playmobil did the impossible and created a new horror for our internet-meme day in age that doesn't involve creepy pasta or anything. It just exists, and you gotta hide it away throughout the year or else you'll find it standing around your house randomly.

WHEW. Okay. Anyway, speaking of reapers: I know this isn't a "ghost" technically, but he does reap the souls! So why not? Also this is one of the best items from the Imaginext blind bags. Just a classic Grim Reaper!

With light pipping! Granted, rather than an open clear piece on the back of the head, there's this weird flame sculpt (as if he got his robe from a burninated peasant), but it's still an awesome reaper, and the light pipping looks great! He's still semi-recent, so you might be able to find it. He's part of the Series 9 blind bags; number 41, if you look on the back of the package in one of the top corners.

Alright, one more ghost from Imaginext: This is a Headless Horseman, with a classic pumpkin head (and an awesome sword). As with most Imaginext figures, you can remove the "armor" and reveal something underneath.

Yeah, I guess it would have been cool if he didn't have a head under there, but I'm not gona complain about a glow-in-the-dark head! I mean, that's still ghostly, right? One way or another, it's yet another awesome Imaginext figure you'll have to hunt down.

One of the most important ghosts of my childhood! Like anyone my age, I saw Ghostbusters probably when I was a little too young. The Library Ghost was actually pretty damn scary, and I remember watching that scene between my fingers, when I was little. Mattel make a simple figure of her and packaged her with a labcoat-wearing Egon. It gets the job done! She's even translucent, though painted as well. Great little figure!

This is possibly a hidden gem from the Lord of the Rings toyline for the movie, a good while back. The toys were okay, for the most part. A lot of them had action features, but near the end, they suddenly got full articulation to match Marvel Legends of the day. This guy is  the King of the Dead, who was on screen....I dunno, maybe a few minutes? It's no different from many Star Wars figures, really and, just like with many Star Wars figures, he's a great stand-alone figure!

He glows in the dark, has a sword (there's also a cloak and a helmet I've misplaced...) and the sword even fits in the sheath! He's a great figure for everyone, assuming you can track it down. From what I've seen, he doesn't go for all that much! More than worth it.

Okay, it's not the "Ghost of Tomfoolery", but the Gentleman Ghost! Yeah, I hadn't heard of him either, until the figure came out. This is apparently a DC supervillain. He's a cool figure; partially translucent, but the main draw is the top hat and monocle, which worked really well for my blog and a couple jokes!

The subtitle of "Toys and Tomfoolery" used to be something about top hats and monocles being required, but I changed it with the last April Fools joke, 'cause "It's toys all the way down" cracked me up for some reason, and is still relevant. Poor Ghost of Tomfoolery. He was kind of a jerk, anyway.

The final ghost, technically, is the guy punching the Gentleman Ghost in the stomach: Hagnon, from Mythic Legions! That's right: Mythic Legions produced a translucent glow-in-the-dark ghost figure! It's perfect in every way, but we'll go over that at another time. I promise there will be another time, trust me.

That's about it for ghosts! There could be more (and maybe next October, there will be) but for now we'll leave it at that. I've never had a particular interest in ghost figure, so to speak, but they always end up in my collection because they'll either glow in the dark or use translucent plastic! Or they'll somehow involve skeleton parts. You can't really go wrong with ghosts!

Happy Halloween, folks! I'll see ya when I see ya.