Well, I expected the debut of Hasbro Pulse to be mildly interesting, maybe a more refined shopping experience than the “cross your fingers and click” of the Hasbro Toy Store site. In no way did I expect I’d be popping in and grabbing not just a host of Transformers War for Cybertron preorders but also Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series figures that I missed in stores!

Oh yeah, and a little something that Hasbro and Sony threw together for the 35th anniversary of Ghostbusters and Transformers.

Ectotron!

*theme song intensifies* (Image: Hasbro)

Ectotron is the first figure in the Transformers Collaborative series (which hopefully means we’ll be seeing more pop culture vehicles as the series expands). His alt-mode is an impressively detailed Ecto-1 from the original 1984 Ghostbusters movie. I’m really digging that the bot-mode proton pack becomes the ghostbusting vehicle kibble.

The bot-mode colors emulate the tan jumpsuits of the Ghostbusters crew, even the “Ectotron” name tag. I’ve seen fan art of this mashup over the years, and this figure is clearly inspired by that.

My only wish is that they hadn’t gutted the combiner torso bits from him (the base figure appears to be a heavily modified Combiner Wars Onslaught). I can only dream of what a full pop-culture vehicle combiner would have looked like!

A 7-inch figure, he’ll be in line with voyager-sized bots in your collection. As you’d expect from a figure this specialized, he’s pretty pricey, clocking in about $10 more than the cost of a standard voyager at $29.99. I can’t really fault them, given that Ectotron’s target audience is clearly smaller than the one for, say, your standard Optimus Prime figure.

The figure will come in commemorative collector’s packaging and include a translucent Slimer (for all your busting needs).

Hasbro Pulse

While you’ll be able to find the figure at GameStop when it’s released later this year (current ship date is July 8), you can also preorder it right now on the newly relaunched Hasbro Pulse site.

The site itself is impressively stocked with scores of figures and preorders from Hasbro’s big three properties: Marvel, Star Wars, and Transformers. While the prices are standard retail, it’s better than most preorder sites where you often pay over MSRP.

When you place an order between now and February 23 (excluding HasLab orders), you’ll automatically be given a Hasbro Pulse Premium membership (which will cost $50 on its own after the introductory period). With that, you get free shipping, access to exclusive sales, and “convention perks.” I don’t know what that last one is, but if it means I have a better chance of getting con exclusives, then I’m very excited.

Head over, check the site out, and grab yourself a little transforming, ghostbusting memento while you’re there.

And I dare you not to sing the theme song as you check out.