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Post by Prime Good on Nov 24, 2007 17:26:06 GMT -5
Just wondering.
(haven't re-watched the live action series yet).
Can you describe me HOW the original Ghost Busters's Dematerializer worked? And what are its differences with the "updated" version of the 1986's Ghostbusters?
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Post by Zack on Nov 24, 2007 22:42:46 GMT -5
It I don't think was ever explained technically how any of it worked but the old one from the live action show looked more like a camera with handle bars and the cartoon one looked similar but more like a gun almost. It also had a crosshair. I think Kong would turn the handlebar and say ZAP! I wanna say it looked like it had some colored buttons on it but I don't think they ever pressed them. I think it was just a turn of the handlebar. The cartoon one had various settings. I can't remember the live action one might have too but the cartoon one never really showed "how" he used it. Maybe something he squeezed on the handles.
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Kong Sr.
Scared Human
100% High Quality Kong Being
Posts: 38
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Post by Kong Sr. on Nov 29, 2007 21:16:22 GMT -5
Excellent description of the original dematerializer Zack!
There were also knobs for setting the original dematerializer at a new level. Kong Sr. asked Tracy which one he should turn in A Worthless Gauze.
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Post by nix on Jan 4, 2008 16:15:47 GMT -5
If you look carefully in closeups, turning the right handlebar would cause an oversized "camera shutter" on the front to open up.
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Post by nix on Apr 7, 2008 19:52:50 GMT -5
Excellent description of the original dematerializer Zack! There were also knobs for setting the original dematerializer at a new level. Kong Sr. asked Tracy which one he should turn in A Worthless Gauze. There weren't any such knobs on the actual prop itself, Kong Sr., but you're free to imagine that there are. Anyway... The biggest difference between the live-action and animation Dematerializers is the shape. The original one, as Zack said, is a clunky device that looks like a camera with handlebars attached. However, by the time you get to the animated series, it's taken on a more streamlined, gunlike design with a definite "shape" to it, rather than being relatively "flat" as the Mark I was. The Mark II also loses the "bicycle mirror whirlygig" that the Mark I had, instead sporting a crosshair attachment and an antenna (?!) at the end. The Mark II also proved to be nigh-invulnerable despite near-constant damage. Still, despite all these advantages, the Mark II looks VERY unpleasant to hold, what with the two handles in a seemingly awkward position (welcome to Carpal Tunnel City, population: you).
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Post by spookbuster on Sept 23, 2008 10:40:26 GMT -5
The 'bicycle mirror whirlygig'(so aptly put by Royal Ghostbuster) attached to the top section of the Ghost Dematerializer resembling a modern video game controller paddle at the end of the thin bent extension was called 'the finder' and acted as a radar range finder which locked onto the ghost du jour to aid in ecto-disposal as seen in "The vampire's Apprentice".The shutter was opened with a twist of the silver wire connected left handlebar, to reveal a blood-shot eye (perhaps in a nod to the CBS eye)which emitted the dematerializer ray.The ray exiled the offending spirit out of this mortal coil of extience, not into limbo per se, but rather to a distant point in time via a time shift where they can pose no threat in our era. According to the episode entitled "Dr.Whatshisname" Dr.Frankenstein and his monster were going to be dispatched 500 years in time, but that setting was too high, so Kong adjusted the unseen controls behind the apparatus. So, The Ghost Dematerializer is, in essence, a portable time machine for unruly entities.
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Post by Prime Good on Sept 23, 2008 11:17:54 GMT -5
The ray exiled the offending spirit out of this mortal coil of extience, not into limbo per se, but rather to a distant point in time via a time shift where they can pose no threat in our era. So, The Ghost Dematerializer is, in essence, a portable time machine for unruly entities. Shocking revelation! This truly makes sense, since Zero comes from the future (or so), and his technology is enterely based on time-travelling (see 'Ghostbusters' 1986). ... I now wonder if that fits with the Dematerializers seen in the 1986 animated series. Excellent, Spook! WELCOME ABOARD!
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Post by nix on Sept 24, 2008 10:12:01 GMT -5
A little bit like how the Fourth Doctor defeated Sutekh at the end of "Pyramids of Mars"...I like your theory, Spookbuster, but there's still something missing which prevents it from making complete sense.
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Post by Prime Good on Sept 24, 2008 11:35:19 GMT -5
A little bit like how the Fourth Doctor defeated Sutekh at the end of "Pyramids of Mars"...I like your theory, Spookbuster, but there's still something missing which prevents it from making complete sense. In the first place, if you make a ghost "retrocede" in the past, you're potentially hurting the history/timeline or giving the ghost the chance to do some serious damages in the past. What do you think, Nix?
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Post by nix on Sept 24, 2008 13:22:45 GMT -5
In the first place, if you make a ghost "retrocede" in the past, you're potentially hurting the history/timeline or giving the ghost the chance to do some serious damages in the past. What do you think, Nix? What Spookbuster's suggesting is that the Dematerializer sends the ghost into the far future, I think, ensuring that he can't reach the end (and that's what I was getting at too.)
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Post by Prime Good on Sept 24, 2008 15:37:32 GMT -5
Or maybe... sending the Ghost into Zero's future, where he can be treated in the proper way. Is "500 years" the only chronological coordinate given in the show? Wondering if the 1986 Ghostbusters's Dematerializers work this way too.
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trogdor
Kong's Apprentice
Posts: 74
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Post by trogdor on Sept 25, 2008 14:18:51 GMT -5
In the first place, if you make a ghost "retrocede" in the past, you're potentially hurting the history/timeline or giving the ghost the chance to do some serious damages in the past. What do you think, Nix? What Spookbuster's suggesting is that the Dematerializer sends the ghost into the far future, I think, ensuring that he can't reach the end (and that's what I was getting at too.) Ghosts being ageless, time is imaterial. Anyone got a screen shot of the first dematerializer? I think the cartoon one was pressure senstive control based, like Spider-Man's webshooters. Or maybe it was like Megatron/Galvateon arm cannon, it just fired when need be. I myself liked the mini dematerializers.
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Post by nix on Sept 25, 2008 15:28:24 GMT -5
Or maybe... sending the Ghost into Zero's future, where he can be treated in the proper way. Is "500 years" the only chronological coordinate given in the show? Wondering if the 1986 Ghostbusters's Dematerializers work this way too. Now there is an interesting idea. Remember how I was telling you about Dan Aykroyd's original idea for Ghostbusters, and how Shandor was originally their eccentric employer who collected ghosts and other monsters? Perhaps Mr. Zero is the same way...the Dematerializer's beam opens up a pathway into the future, sending the ghostly target to Zero's headquarters, where it's "mounted" and put on display. The animated series models PROBABLY work in this manner too, except you've got Prime Evil to contend with. What Prime Evil does, is he intercepts the Dematerializer's time-corridor and "snatches" the ghost out of it via the Scareway. The ghost then thinks to itself, " Being imprisoned in Mr. Zero's private collection doesn't seem too bad all of a sudden." When Jake talks about its functions in the first episode, this conclusion leads us to believe that he's mistaken in the Dematerializer's purpose, but he's really not far off from the truth.
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Post by Prime Good on Sept 25, 2008 17:42:10 GMT -5
Yeah Nix, I pretty much agree, but that doesn't really explain WHY - in the 1986 animated series - the ghost doesn't disappear (time-travelling) wherever hit by the Dematerializer(s), but instead becomes a sentient, floating globe of energy... (molecular dissolution).
What does Jake say in the first episode?
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Post by Prime Good on Sept 25, 2008 17:46:10 GMT -5
What Spookbuster's suggesting is that the Dematerializer sends the ghost into the far future, I think, ensuring that he can't reach the end (and that's what I was getting at too.) Ghosts being ageless, time is imaterial. Anyone got a screen shot of the first dematerializer? I think the cartoon one was pressure senstive control based, like Spider-Man's webshooters. Or maybe it was like Megatron/Galvateon arm cannon, it just fired when need be. I myself liked the mini dematerializers. Terrific idea!
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