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Invented by Egon Spengler and built by Ray Stantz, the Proton Pack functioned much like in the movie continuity. If you want to learn more on the movie version of the Proton Pack, please go here. Likewise, a hose connects the pack to the Particle Thrower.

History[]

Primary Canon[]

Pre-dated both shows[]

The Proton Packs were first used was at the Sedgewick Hotel during their first case. The Ghostbusters captured the Class 5 that would later become known as Slimer.

The Real Ghostbusters[]

During several cases, the Proton Pack was a source of power for objects, including a helicopter's ignition,[1] Egon's other inventions, such as the Ghost Bomb[2], and other inventions like Eiffel's Control Box.[3][4][5] In other cases, the Proton Pack needed more power to deal with the threat at hand such as when Egon and Ray connected a pack to the generator of a power plant and used it to trap the Giant Imp Monster.[6]

The Proton Packs needed to be recharged.[7][8][9][10] The Ghostbusters also perform annual maintenance on the Proton Packs.[11] The Proton Streams emitted are harmful to humans if not properly attuned.[12] As a method of last resort, a Max Boost option can be activated that vastly strengthens the Proton Stream. However, this can only be used for 20 seconds at a time. After the halfway mark, the overload alert on the pack activates.[13]

Janine Melnitz was not a "Ghosbuster" at first, but she eventually learned how to use one and did so in a few cases. Louis Tully also used (or at least tried to use) a Proton Pack occasionally, but is not very good at aiming it and tends to accidentally misfire due to his general clumsiness or propel backwards from the force of the thrower. At one point the Proton Pack and Particle Thrower were modified to be effective against peoples' bioelectric fields as part of the new Crimebusters business.

The Proton Pack can be set to overload in several ways. A button on the upper right corner of the pack[14][15] or via the Particle Thrower. By the Particle Thrower, it is first set to maximum force, then the safety is removed and the destruct sequence is activated.[16] As a method of last resort, the overload was almost used to kill Jeremy and his magic flute before Ragnarok commenced. Winston later used the automatic self destruct function to destroy Al Capone's baseball bat.[17] Jonathan Tightly overloaded Peter's Proton Pack when the Ghostbusters confronted him in the cemetery he was laid to rest in.[18] In the finale of the Tokyo case, the Proton Packs were patched into the Tokyo Television Tower in order to reach the required gigawatt of auxiliary energy needed to dissipate Lizardo.[19] However, they only had 10 seconds to use their packs before they were fried.[20]

Extreme Ghostbusters[]

In 1997, after Egon Spengler encountered Achira then Roland Jackson, Garrett Miller, and Eduardo Rivera also failed to trap her, Egon concluded she was too powerful and highly evolved to be confined by the original equipment. The Proton Pack had to be redesigned to be more powerful and control more powerful spirits. Egon increased the nuclear capacity of the Proton Packs.[21] Also, the gun itself had to be loaded with proton charges that would eject when they were empty. A spare Proton Cannister would hang from the back of the pack for such a situation. In order to correlate with the augmented proton charge, the Trap also had to be adjusted.[22]

Nuclear power remains a vital aspect of the Proton equipment. The Proton Packs and Pistol are essentially portable reactors.[23] Eduardo made a few flippant comment of "packing nukes" on their backs, including when the team visited an old nuclear bomb shelter.[24][25] The original packs were briefly utilized by Janine against Lillith and by the original team in their first encounter with the Ecto-Clone.

The compact version of the Proton Pack is called the Proton Pistol, which Kylie Griffin used.

As a safety precaution, the Proton Packs are designed to short out when certain parameters are ignored. Such an instance occurred when the team overrode the mechanism that arrested flux, switched to maximum pulse, and reversed polarity. When the packs shorted out, it was powerful enough to throw each of the Ghostbusters a short distance.

Secondary Canon[]

IDW Comics[]

The same group of Ghostbusters they recently met approached them for help in a case regarding a powerful spellbook called the Rauoskinna after their Egon was atomized. In the likelihood of an encounter with corporeal entities, Egon and the parallel Ray Stantz modified his pack with the Destabilizer.

Toys[]

Trivia[]

  • In the first draft of the "Knock, Knock" script, before instructing everyone to go to Full Dispersion Mode, Egon has everyone activate a feature on their Proton Packs, that is deleted from this episode and the series: Auxiliary Power Receptors. They are small, dish-like antenna that swivels out of the packs and collect energy from the waves swirling around.[26]
  • Proton Packs are useless in the Containment Unit Universe.[27] This is likely because, instead of wrangling an entity, a Proton Stream merely punches a hole through an entity with no detriment to it and can continue functioning.
  • In low doses, the Proton Pack's stream is mostly harmless to a human behind.[28]
  • The standard setting of the Proton Pack appears to be 2,000 gigahertz (GHz).[29]
  • On page one of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #1, a Proton Pack makes a non-canon cameo behind Janine.
  • On the subscription cover of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #16, a Proton Pack makes a non-canon cameo on Ray.
  • On the Subscription Cover of Ghostbusters 101 #5, the Extreme Ghostbusters version of Egon is wearing the Proton Pack.
  • On page 8 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #7, Garrett uses full stream on the Hungry Manitou like at the end of "Darkness at Noon, Part 2".
  • On the front cover of the Ghostbusters Crossing Over TPB, Peter is wearing his Proton Pack.
  • The packs appear on all 3 covers of 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters.
  • On page 2 of Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters, Egon mentions the LaMarche Boards part, named after Egon's voice actor, Maurice LaMarche. When the boards are ineffectual, the pack can no longer discharge.[30]
  • The Extreme Ghostbusters' Proton Pack appears in all three covers of Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Extreme Ghostbusters.
  • On January 31, 2023, a new gear shell was added in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed for the Proton Pack based on the version seen on The Real Ghostbusters.
  • On April 20, 2023, a new gear shell was added in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed for the Proton Pack based on the version seen on Extreme Ghostbusters.

Appearances[]

Secondary Canon[]

IDW Comics

References[]

  1. "You Can't Take it With You"
  2. "The Boogieman Cometh"
  3. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Ghostbusters in Paris" (1987) (DVD ts. 10:48-10:52). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "I have an idea. Let's reverse the polarity of the beams and aim at the tower."
  4. Ray Stantz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Ghostbusters in Paris" (1987) (DVD ts. 13:39-13:46). Time Life Entertainment. Ray says: "Easy. We'll attach one of our reverse polarity Proton Packs to the system and it will temporarily pull the ghosts back to the tower."
  5. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Ghostbusters in Paris" (1987) (DVD ts. 20:12-20:16). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "The packs are hooked up to Eiffel's machine and tuned to 20,000 Mega Hertz."
  6. "Janine's Day Off
  7. Ray Stantz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Citizen Ghost" (1986) (DVD ts. 18:31-18:32). Time Life Entertainment. Ray says: "It only has half a charge!"
  8. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Scaring of the Green" (1987) (DVD ts. 9:26-9:28). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Peter said he charged all these..."
  9. Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Scaring of the Green" (1987) (DVD ts. 15:33-15:34). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "I'll charge up the Proton Packs."
  10. Ray Stantz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Halloween Door" (1989) (DVD ts. 16:34-16:37). Time Life Entertainment. Ray says: "And we've only got another ten minutes of power in our packs."
  11. Janine Melnitz (2009).The Real Ghostbusters- "Til Death Do Us Part" (1989) (DVD ts. 13:15-13:25). Time Life Entertainment.
  12. Egon Spengler (2009).The Real Ghostbusters- "Lights! Camera! Haunting!" (1987) (DVD ts. 13:54-13:57). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Our individual atoms go on separate vacations!"
  13. Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Spacebusters" (1990) (DVD ts. 19:35-19:40). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "Remember, only 20 seconds of boost before the pack blows."
  14. "The Boogieman Cometh"
  15. Scene
  16. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters- "Ragnarok and Roll" (1986) (DVD ts. 16:46-17:00). Time Life Entertainment.
  17. Proton Pack (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Ghostbusters Live! from Al Capone's Tomb!" (1989) (DVD ts. 22:02-22:10). Time Life Entertainment. Proton Pack says: "Automatic self destruct sequence start impact 15 seconds."
  18. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Slimer's Curse" (1989) (DVD ts. 11:29-11:31). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Peter, dump your pack! It's overloading!"
  19. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Attack of the B-Movie Monsters" (1991) (DVD ts. 17:27-17:30). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "We need a whole gigawatt of auxiliary energy to achieve the frequency."
  20. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Attack of the B-Movie Monsters" (1991) (DVD ts. 17:51-17:55). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "True. However, with the required voltage we have only 10 seconds before our packs are fried."
  21. Egon Spengler (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Darkness at Noon, Part 2 (1997) (DVD ts. 13:44-13:47). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Egon says: "It would require increasing the nuclear capacity of the Proton Packs you carry."
  22. Egon Spengler (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- Darkness at Noon, Part 2 (1997) (DVD ts. 13:50-13:55). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Egon says: "And then, of course, the Ghost Trap would have to be modified in order to correlate with the augmented proton charge."
  23. Egon Spengler (2009). Extreme Ghostbusters- The Unseen (1997) (DVD ts. 15:11-15:13). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Egon says: "Each of these guns has the power of a nuclear fission reactor!"
  24. Eduardo Rivera (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters- Moby Ghost (1997) (DVD ts. 18:24-18:26). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Eduardo says: "We got live nukes strapped to our backs?!"
  25. Eduardo Rivera (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters- Heart of Darkness (1997) (DVD ts. 12:35-12:37). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Eduardo says: "Yeah, now we wear the nukes on our backs!"
  26. Straczynski, J. Michael (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume One Disc Five, "Knock, Knock" Script p. 33-34. CPT Holdings, Inc. Line reads: "ON BACKPACKS As the Ghostbusters each push a button. Out of the back of each of the devices a panel swivels around, revealing a small, dish-like antenna. ENERGY WAVES floating through the surrounding ether are caught up on the receptors. And the power indicators on the back of their packs glow brightly, moving further and further up. POWER HUM."
  27. Surt (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters- Slimer's Sacrifice (1997) (DVD ts. 15:17-15:20). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Surt says: "His weapons are useless here. Destroy him."
  28. Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Russian About" (1990) (DVD ts. 06:05-06:09). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Looks pretty and harmless to humans. Uh, in low doses. Well, mostly harmless."
  29. Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Magnificent Five" (1990) (DVD ts. 11:15-11:20). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "You can't stop him with 2,000 gigahertz of proton power, let's throw a washtub at him."
  30. Egon Spengler (2019). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters" (2019) (Comic p.2). Egon Spengler says: "The ectoplasm has gotten into the LaMarche Boards. The Proton Packs can't discharge."


Gallery[]

The Real Ghostbusters Pilot Design[]

The Real Ghostbusters Design[]

The Real Ghostbusters Collages[]

The Real Ghostbusters Secondary Canon Images[]

The Real Ghostbusters Tertiary Canon Images[]

The Real Ghostbusters Behind the Scenes Images[]

Slimer! Design[]

Extreme Ghostbusters Design[]

Extreme Ghostbusters Secondary Canon Images[]

Extreme Ghostbusters Tertiary Canon Images[]

Extreme Ghostbusters Behind The Scenes Images[]

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