Tag Archives: Peacemaker

#3665: Peacemaker, Vigilante, & Judomaster

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

PEACEMAKER, VIGILANTE, & JUDOMASTER

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

It’s been a year since I’ve discussed McFarlane’s revival of Super Powers here on the site.  My previous venture into the line was…mixed.  I’m a huge fan of the vintage line, and the idea of revival *should* excite me, but McFarlane’s output was…well, it was McFarlane output.  There might have been some good ideas, but they were saddled with the strangeness that Todd seems intent on injecting into everything he does.  But, Todd just keeps dragging me back in, because even if it’s mixed results, there’s limited options for DC, and it’s not like anyone else is doing a Super Powers continuation.  So, here I am, going back to the well on McFarlane, specifically looking at the Peacemaker multipack!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Peacemaker, Vigilanter, and Judomaster were released late last year as a three-pack in McFarlane’s Super Powers line.  The set is loosely designed to tie-in with the Peacemaker show, though the characters are obviously in their comics attire.

PEACEMAKER

Peacemaker, whose main contribution to the world of comics was inspiring the Comedian in Watchmen, has gotten a real elevation in his recognition in the last few years, thanks largely to John Cena’s turn as the character in The Suicide Squad and its follow-up Peacemaker.  As a result, he got this figure, his very first comics-based figure.  Pretty nifty.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  So, first and foremost, let’s address the number one issue with this line: scaling.  The previous figures were all scaled a bit too large, typically running about half an inch too tall to properly fit with the vintage line.  Peacemaker, however, is, like, pretty much spot on.  Since he’s under 5 inches, and Smith’s always been depicted as a slightly bigger guy, he fits in pretty much perfectly with the actual proper Kenner figures.  He’s got an all-new sculpt, and it’s a marked improvement on prior offerings itself.  His stance definitely feels more proper Super Powers in its nature. The weird pigeon-toed issue’s gone, and the proportions are a solid match for how Kenner tended to handle things.  His head uses a separate assembly for the helmet, which is really sharply detailed.  In general, the sculpt is pretty clean and slick.  I have two minor complaints, the first being the continued presence of visible knee joints (which, honestly, bug me a lot less here than on earlier figures), and the belt assembly being just a touch sloppy on my figure.  Beyond that, though, he’s really great.  He’s even got a gripping hand, should you want to arm him with some sort of weapon.  His color work is appropriately bright and eye catching.  The application is pretty clean, and it again matches well with the style.  I like that he’s not totally painted up, which also feels more authentic.  The only slight oddity is that he’s got no paint on his eyes, so there’s just flesh-tone visible under the helmet.  It’s a very small area, but it looks strange.

VIGILANTE

Vigilante is a fun choice here.  Obviously, he was included thanks to his increased visibility thanks to Peacemaker, but getting further into the Super Powers lore, Vigilante was one of the proposed characters for Kenner’s 1987 line-up, had there been a fourth year of the line.  So, it’s nice to see him finally get his due.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Scaling wise, Vigilante is just a *touch* too tall for proper fit with the vintage line, but he’s so very close that it works fine in most settings, and it’s certainly better than earlier figures.  His sculpt is decent enough; his toes point inward a little too much, but his proportions are pretty decently handled.  He seems to be at least somewhat inspired by the original Flash figure, which isn’t the worst fit.  Generally, it’s more basic sculpt than Peacemaker’s, but it does pretty well with the source material.  Vigilante’s paint work is decent enough.  Nothing too fancy, but the application’s pretty clean, and the colors are well chosen.

JUDOMASTER

Judomaster is the most obscure of the three figures included here, though we did at least see a version of him in Peacemaker alongside the other two.  Like Peacemaker, he started out as a Charlton character, before getting folded into DC.  He’s mostly filled in the background of big crossovers since then, which honestly is effectively his role in Peacemaker, too.  Judomaster is new to the world of action figures, and this one is based on his original incarnation.  The figure is a little under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Scaling wise, Judomaster is probably the most off of the set, since he should really be the shortest of the three, but isn’t.  Of course, he’s still better than the early run figures, so it’s still a win.  Judomaster’s sculpt is totally unique, and it’s honestly pretty impressive how much work they put into this guy.  Like, I mean, it’s Judomaster, and here we are getting a sculpt that details all of his individual costume elements.  It’s a character I wouldn’t be shocked to see phoned in, and yet, it’s absolutely not.  He even gets his own pretty unique pose, which is fun.  The paint work is nice and bright, and pretty cleanly handled too.  The red and yellow feels particularly on-brand for Super Powers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set was announced after I’d gotten the two prior figures I had from this line, so I was already aware of the ups and downs.  I was interested, but still kind of put off by the scaling thing, so I didn’t jump on it right away.  That said, I’d been hearing really good things about the course of the line since I’d dropped it.  A few weeks back, Matthew really wanted to stop into the Gamestop next to where we were grabbing lunch, so we obliged, and there was one of these sets there.  It looked really good in person, so I went for it.  I’m glad I did, because they’re all quite good.  Peacemaker is the best of the set, for sure.  He hits all of the marks he needs to.  Vigilante was the one I was looking forward to, and I think he’s probably the weakest in terms of execution, but still pretty solid.  Judomaster wasn’t a figure I really needed, but he’s better than I’d expected.  In general, a very fun set.

#2886: Peacemaker

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

PEACEMAKER

DC MULTIVERSE (MCFARLANE)

“A huge, hulking specimen with muscles on his muscles, Peacemaker is a world-class marksman—just like his fellow Squad member, Bloodsport, but if you ask him, better. He’s more than willing to fight, kill, and even start a war, but of course it’s all in the name of keeping the peace.”

First appearing in 1966, Peacemaker was a Charlton character, who, like the rest of the company’s characters, was passed along to DC when they purchased Charlton.  Peacemaker’s most notable contribution to the cultural lexicon is serving as the basis for the character that would become The Comedian in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen.  Peacemaker himself has been rather a minor character in the grand scheme of things, making him a natural fit for joining the Squad.  John Cena’s take on the super patriotic madman, and dude-bro Captain America type, proved so popular during the making of the film that James Gunn and John Cena have already been tapped to create a HBO Max-exclusive show all about him.  After seeing him in the film, I can certainly see the appeal.  And I’ve also got the figure.  Score!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Peacemaker is figure 3 in the Suicide Squad-themed assortment of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse.  As with Bloodsport, there are two versions of Peacemaker available: masked and unmasked.  The masked is the standard release, while the unmasked is a Target exclusive.  Todd’s gotta Todd, right?  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  Peacemaker’s articulation is pretty typical for a modern McFarlane offering, but it also means he falls victim to some of the bigger issues that the articulation entails, mainly that his sculpt is pretty badly broken up by putting him into poses other than just basic standing.  The worst offenders are definitely the elbow joints, which are really broken up and jarring when they’re bent.  It’s not a great look.  I mean, it’s certainly posable, but you tend to hope for something of a middle ground.  Hasbro’s got double joints down that don’t do those sorts of things.  Surely McFarlane can do a little bit better.  Odd implementation of the articulation aside, the sculpt itself is generally pretty nice.  The head has a respectable likeness of John Cena, and the mask is a decent recreation of the really goofy helmet from the movie.  The body also has a fairly nice set of proportions, matching well with Cena’s usual build.  The costume details are also quite well rendered, with some really nice texture work, especially on the shirt.  Peacemaker’s paintwork is certainly the most colorful of the bunch.  It’s still generally pretty basic, but it looks good, and the application is solid.  I do wish the helmet was a brighter, and perhaps shinier helmet, maybe even chromed, but I get how that wouldn’t necessarily be practical at this scale and price point.  When it comes to accessories, Peacemaker is affected similarly to Bloodsport, in that he’s not allowed to get any fire arms.  Instead, he’s got a broad sword, which he’s seen using during the film, and in a more prominent role than Bloodsport’s weird katana.  It’s not a bad choice, even if it’s maybe not the main choice I’d go with.  Fortunately, there are other options available for him, and I was able to get myself a third party version of his modified Desert Eagle (courtesy of Mark2Design), so I’m pretty happy.  In addition, he’s got a display stand, a collector’s card, and the arms to the King Shark Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Of the individual figures in this line-up, Peacemaker was definitely a strong second, after Polka Dot Man.  He’s just got a really good look, and there’s never been a Peacemaker figure before.  It helps that I really liked John Cena’s portrayal of the role, and I look forward to seeing how the show turns out.  The figure’s generally a pretty strong one.  The articulation could be a little better, but otherwise, this one’s a pretty strong figure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.