Vintage Toy of the Month! Granny Gross!
I’m on time this month! Can you believe it? It is time for an all new Vintage Toy of the Month, and this month we are going to check out one gross toy. This was a toy that fulfilled every child’s need of wanting an elderly woman as part of their action figure collection as well as a gross-out haunted human. Let’s check out Granny Gross!
The question was simple enough, “Who you gonna call?” There were many toy lines that dominated store shelves in the 80’s but The Real Ghostbusters gave everything else a run for its money. What wasn’t to love from the highly popular Kenner line? After the first series of figures came out the line just exploded in many different directions. One such aspect to this line was the Haunted Humans series made up of seemingly ordinary people with some scary secrets: They were ghosts!
Granny Gross was a very basic looking figure. She came bubbled on a card. The duality of this packaging is perfect. The image on the card shows this gruesome looking creature, while inside the bubble is sweet old granny. How on Earth does this sweet old lady turn into something with a bad jaw line? It was the perfect ingredient for a cool toy!
Looking closer, Granny Gross has some simple articulation at the arms as well as her transforming parts. I just have to say, this was the coolest thing. It was some little old lady that turned into a monster. How could anyone not want this?
The back of this card has a lot going on, and I mean a lot. I loved all the items available from The Real Ghostbusters line. Many great items were able to be had.
A nice set of instructions are given for Granny Gross. The look of this was perfect.
Here are images of the Haunted Heroes as well as some of the regular Ghostbusters from the Fright Features line. I loved that Janine figure with all that pink. There are so many fond memories just looking at this card.
Further down, we see the rest of the Haunted Heroes as well as the Fire House Headquarters. My friend had this play set and I always thought it was so cool. And there is Speed Ahead Ghost in sneakers!
There were some cool vehicles to collect as well as some ghosts that interacted with the Ecto-Plazm play gel. I always thought that stuff was gross. Do you remember the commercials?
Another vehicle, Slimer, Proton Pack, and GhostPopper make up the rest of the card. The Highway Haunter was a fun toy. I know that it could have been marketed for any Ghostbusters character but I always liked that it was essentially Janine’s car. So much fun.
There was also a section for a special mail-in offer. I really like the idea of special offers, but I never utilized them. I wish I had because toy companies released some pretty cool stuff for points and special offers.
Here is my actual Granny Gross that I owned as a kid. She has lost her arms, but I remember being elated to own her, much to my mom’s chagrin. She couldn’t understand why her sweet daughter wanted something so… gross. She had no idea she was living with a Grade A dorkette.
With her hat popped up and her head pulled high, Granny Gross is ready to attack! Even her eyes bulge out. There was so much detail given to this toy.
Other areas like her hat or head helped move her top teeth as well as her tongue. By lifting the head up and down Granny Gross can make a chomping motion too for when she is hungry for a Ghostbuster. Just a fantastic toy!
Granny Gross came out during a time when many toy companies were doing their best to make inventive toys. I love what Kenner did with this line, in particular Granny Gross, because for some reason the idea of owning an old granny figure should not work, and yet it just does. Enjoy this month’s Vintage Toy of the Month, and be sure to stick around! Vintage Toy of the Month will return next month! In the mean time sit back and enjoy some other cool articles on Nerd Society.
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