For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s! I had a blast last year, so again I’m counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.
For a little bit of wackiness on a Saturday, I thought it would be fun to focus on one of the weirder episodes of the Real Ghostbusters. Today’s monster is the designated hitter playing for the side of evil in episode 21, Night Game…
Did you ever notice that when you’d watch a cartoon in syndication it seemed like you saw the same episode over and over again? Night Game was that episode of the Real Ghostbusters for me. As a kid I hated the whole baseball theme of the one, but as an adult I think I can appreciate more of what the writer was trying to. The story revolves around the ongoing battle of good vs. evil, where in intervals, the spirits from both sides rise up and physically fight it out on the same patch of land. That area just happens to be a baseball diamond for a farm league team that Winston is quite fond of and it just so happens that he noticed some weird phenomena on the eve of the coming battle.
He tries to get the rest of the gang to go out and investigate, but they back out, so Winston goes solo to try and discover what’s going on. In doing so he gets drafted onto the side of good in a battle that takes the form of a baseball game because of the current environment with the sides fighting for the right to claim one soul for their side. Little does Winston know that, that soul is his own…
Getting back to this evil spook, I really dug this cel because of the colors, but also because I love a monster with a good amount of drool hanging from his sharp choppers. I also think that’s one heck of a formidable bat he’s swinging too. And don’t get an thoughts about trying to walk this guy with an intentional beaning, because he’ll totally eat that ball and spit it right back out at you!
Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!
Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I’m on the Facebook as well.) If you’d like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year’s Halloween blogging event…
