Proton Pack - Spirit Halloween Mod

[thundergod124]

Hello, all! I wanted to share my little project with everyone. First, some background.

Last Halloween, my girlfriend and I gave out candy at her parent's house. I dressed up in my Ghostbuster suit and Proton Pack while she dressed up as the 'We're Ready to Believe You' lab jacket variant, as I didn't have another suit or proton pack, but carried around the Plasma Series neutrona wand.

She also needed a custume for a Halloween contest at work. For this, I let her borrow my flightsuit with all the addons (I had to convince her to wear the elbow pads. She ended up winning, and got the feedback the elbow pads sold it...) except a pack. You see, she's quite short and the pack is too bulky for her. So, I decided I wanted to do her own pack based off the Spirit Halloween pack.

After searching for a while, I recently found a listing on eBay for a set that include the pack, ecto goggles, and the PKE for $99. Pretty good, considering the packs go for $250+ on eBay. Anyway, I got it with the intent on leaving it as it was because I knew she didn't care about accuracy but I did want to tweak a few things... which sent me down the following rabbit hole.

It's about... 96% done. I'm waiting on some foam to come in for the ALICE frame's neck section and I need to find a drill bit so I can add the red hose to the banjos up near the wand tip. Eventually, I may replace the wand tip with a kit, too.

Also, I know this is not accurate. It was meant to be a fun build and just something silly my girlfriend and I can do together. However, I did try to include lots of little details, like the badly cut neoprene foam along the top of the motherboard, black and white zip ties literally everywhere, and a piece of masking tap on the ALICE frame with her last name, like what the actors had to denote whose pack was whose.

 

[thundergod124]

A couple updates! I got the tiny foam in today and I did a little work on the neutrona wand last night.

 

[Lightning]

The great thing about Ghostbusters is that the moment you put your own last name on the jumpsuit it's not a cosplay, instead you are part of a local franchise, so customize to your heart's content. I've got a steam radiator pressure relief valve installed on mine, amongst other mods.

I really like your ribbon cable. What's its origin?

 

[thundergod124]

The great thing about Ghostbusters is that the moment you put your own last name on the jumpsuit it's not a cosplay, instead you are part of a local franchise, so customize to your heart's content. I've got a steam radiator pressure relief valve installed on mine, amongst other mods.

I really like your ribbon cable. What's its origin?

That's exactly how I feel about it. I don't feel like I need to be Ray or Egon... I'm my own Ghostbuster and I drive my Toyota Ecto-84.

I don't have a ton of info on the ribbon cable. It's from an Etsy seller who goes by GBHQPartsDepot. I liked it because it was... in the spirt of the '84 cable but in the correct scale. I got a bunch of parts from him, like the Legis fittings, as they're much smaller than the regular fittings people use on their packs.

 

[thundergod124]

Ok, next round of updates! Tonight was a lot of drilling and some epic fails, too.

First, I drilled out and replaced the hoses on the wand on the gun box and the banjos. Having those hoses just add to the look, I think. I had some extra barbs and I was able to push the tiny green hose onto the barb far enough. To me, it didn't look right without the brass barb holding it in place.

Now... my epic fail... while two of the stock "Legris" elbows were super easy to remove, the one mounted beneath the riser tower was REALLY wedged in there. I tried cutting it off using a knife but it ended up just shattering the plastic around it... so I made a new hole a little above the broken area and screwing the elbow in, then I cut a small piece of plastic in approximately the same shape as the broken area (I used the plastic lining from my mini Stay Puft figures, actually) amd glued it in place. After that, I sended it and painted it. Since it's below the riser tower, you'll never really see the repair.

The last detail I added was the Clippard greeblie from GB1 on the top of the ion arm. It doesn't connect to hoses but I like the look of it and I had the part, so I may as well use it.

 

[thundergod124]

So, given how easily I can drill through the plastic with the step drill bits, I decided to add the s-hook detail onto the underside of the gun track. I'm a big fan of details like this, as I really think it sells the pack. I'm probably going to add the bolts on the side and underside, too. I was lamenting not buying some tonight, in fact.

 

[thundergod124]

Ok, I think I'm calling this thing "done". The last part I added was an upgraded filler tube beneath the accentuator. Earlier in the week, I made some modifications... First off, I added the "flap" sitting on the bottom of the crank generator that extends from the loom housing, I also added a cap to the Clippard valve on the pack, a new block on the cyclotron to receive the red and blue cables from the injector tubes, and a new printed Dale PH-25 ressistor that just slid over the original one. I'll probably keep looking for upgraded parts. I've thought about upgrading the cyclotron but I'm still using the existing speaker openings so I don't want to cover them. I also don't love how small the neutrona wand is... I know there are kits for larger ones but they cost more than the pack itself. So yea, for now, this thing is ready to bust some heads. In a spirital sense.