Ghostbusters Plasma Series Neutrona wand
Box is pretty long, measuring 25 x 7 x 6.75 inches in dimension.
The actual box is made to resemble a sturdy tool box.
I can’t say I like how the wrap around was taped to the box.
Display base requires some assembly.
The base is actually made of really soft and flexible plastic. I can’t say I like how they went about this. It seems cheap and kinda ruins the presentation of this prop. I wish they used some sort of hard plastic instead, or at least painted some parts of this base to make it more interesting to look at.
The Neutrona Wand looks very different from the wands we see in the original Ghostbusters movies as this replica is meant to be from the upcoming Ghostbusters Afterlife movie. Featuring additional customizations like the faux wooden handle on the side and faux cloth wrap around on the main handle. The electronics also feature new gimmicks as well.
This piece is actually designed to be loose and wiggle, this is so that the red cable won’t warp when you place the wand on a flat surface without the using the display base.
The wand has a metal clip for possible hooking up to a future Proton Pack? it also has a metal hook for hooking onto belts, just like in the movies.
The Neutrona wand has some intentional weathering on it.
The end cap/ battery cap of the wand can be swapped out with an optional piece with a connector, I guess this is for hooking up to a Proton pack down the road? Time will tell.
The battery compartment slides out of the handle.
The wand requires 3x AA batteries to run, batteries are NOT included.
When returning the battery compartment, take note of which side is going in, there’s only one end that has the metal plate for connecting to the electronics. The other end (shown here) doesn’t have a metal plate.
To extend the nozzle of the wand, flip this green lever (the wand is expanded by default in the box though).
The nozzle has to be manually pushed back in to retract, though. The Mattycollector one could retract via moving the lever but it eventually gave rise to malfunctions with the prop and some breakage issues.
When you turn on all the switches on the unit, the prop will hum and mildly vibrate, even when not firing.
The Hasbro Neutrona wand has a lot of electronic features that have been adapted from the “Ghostbusters the Video Game”, which many fans consider as the third movie. The particle throwers have been upgraded by Egon and Ray to fire additional weaponry aside from the primary proton capture stream, these include the “Slime Blower”, the “Dark Matter/ Stasis Stream” and the “Meson Collider/ Overload Pulse” attacks.
Tapping the button next to the nozzle will toggle between the four weapon types.
It’s also worth noting that firing the Proton capture stream/ Intensify button for too long (15 seconds) it will cause the unit to artificially “overheat” and shut down (just like in the game), you can simply toggle the switches on and off to reboot the prop though, no worries. The “overheat” gimmick seems to only work when on the “capture stream setting” though, while the other weapon modes don’t have an overheat function?
The unit also automatically shuts off when left idle for a minute to conserve battery life.
Comparison with the Mattycollector Neutrino wand, which was originally released from way back in Dec, 2013.
The Hasbro box is a bit longer by half an inch or so.
Interestingly, the original Mattycollector one is called the “NEUTRINO”, while the Hasbro one is called the “NEUTRONA” wand.
The new Hasbro wand is heavier compared to the Mattycollector version (880 Grams vs 642 Grams, without batteries).
Some differences with the sculpt details as well.
Mattycollector
Hasbro (intentionally faded)
The switches on the Hasbro are better though. Better metal switch parts are used on the Hasbro, while the switches on the Mattycollector feel cheap by comparison.
Hasbro
Mattycollector
Video demo
Overall, both props have their respective pros and cons. Both also retailed at the roughly same SRP when they both came out (120-130 USD) The Matty one is super crazy expensive now on the secondary markets though.
The Hasbro Neutrona wand feels more solid, vibrates and hums even when not firing, crisper sound effects and has more electronic functions and stronger vibrational rotors. The downsides are it’s not accurate to the original “classic” look of the wand, the lights aren’t as bright and it auto-shuts down too soon (after 1 minute) and requires manually pushing the nozzle down when not in use. Better switches too.
The Mattycollector Neutrino wand has brighter LEDs, has an adjustable nozzle length via the lever control (but is prone to issues) and is movie-accurate to the original versions. Plus you can interact with another wand to produce the “crossing the streams” effect and the Matty wand also supposedly interacts with the Matty Ecto Goggles as well (you can see random proton streams through the goggles when firing) The downsides are it doesn’t have the extra electronic features present on the Hasbro wand (from the video game) and feels lighter compared to the Hasbro version.
Both wands have adjustable vibration outputs based on the dial setting.
Gold
