Discussion Main / WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys

• In Ghostbusters (1984), it's established early on that Egon is an inventive genius, but it's also established that buying the firehouse in its worn-out condition used up most of their money. So where did they get everything needed to build the proton packs and containment unit?

The movie doesn't say buying the firehouse "used up most of their money".

As presented in the movie, after getting fired from their university jobs, they decided to go into professional ghosthunting, funded by THREE mortgages on the house Ray Stantz had inherited. They're shown using the money to buy not only the firehouse, but advertising (which is how Dana learns of them). In the ads they're shown wearing their gear, including the proton packs; it's likely Egon also built the containment unit at this time.

But three mortgage payments (yes, you can use the money from a house loan to pay the loan, for a while), plus upgrading the firehouse, plus installing their ghost prison, plus the ads, plus paying Janine, plus regular everyday bills and food, all lead to the scene where they're eating takeout and Venkman is being informed that buying it took the last of the petty cash.

• Wealthy men funded the Hawker and the Expeditor.

I've been trying to find out what books these characters come from, so I can add it to the entry since whoever added them didn't. And I'm having trouble. (I did find that Mr Church comes from the Joe Ledger books, which have a trope page, so I was able to add that.)

I found a character called John Eagle: Expeditor who appears in a series of spy novels by Paul Edwards, but he works for a guy in a volacno base called Mr Merlin who apparently employs him on behalf of a US spy agency, but won't tell him what it is. I suppose technically "funded by a wealthy man" covers that, but you'd think with a backstory like that you'd include the details. So it might be the same character (apparently he does have some wonderful toys, including Food Pills) but I'm not sure.

I also found reference to a series of novels called Hawker by Carl Ramm, but the main character is James Hawker, so I doubt he spells his name with a "the". "Funded by a wealthy man" does seem to be all there is to his backstory, but I can't find any reference to him having wonderful toys. So I'm even less sure about this one.