McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Atom Smasher vs The Spectre review (2025)

Atom Smasher vs The Spectre is a convenient rehash offering from McFarlane Toys. The first Spectre was part of an overly expensive exclusive Crisis on Infinite Earths wave while Atom Smasher was previously a mega fig as part of the Black Adam wave.

Both have changes from the original releases, but only one was for the better. Let’s see if this Atom Smasher vs the Spectre set is an unearthly vision or a colossal failure.

Packaging: While repackaging a mega figure, the setup is similar to a standard release with the dominant black with blue and white accents.

The package lists this set as an homage to JSA: Black Vengeance, collected in JSA 68-75 (available in trade paperback at Amazon).

Over on the back is artwork of the two characters that I can’t place from another issue. It’s nice to have focused art on characters in a two-pack.

Likeness: Atom Smasher largely uses the 2022 Mega fig body (now on Amazon) with a new head sculpt, collar piece, upper torso and arms.

From the lower torso on down — as well as the bracelets — it’s the same as the original figure. I really like the work on the head sculpt, which does a great job of conveying some intensity and the pressed fabric look of a tight mask.

His belt should have more of a rounded top at the center point and his boots have a less curved in design, but it’s otherwise a perfect fit for the late 90s JSA team that still needs more of the core roster members.

The Spectre is largely a rerelease of the 2024 previous figure with one major change — he’s got a soft goods poseable cape. That comes at the expense of the more accurate cape collar setup. It feels like that portion of the old cape could have been used and the soft goods section could have been attached under it somehow. The hood also doesn’t come down over his head as much as it should.

Spectre’s cape is typically shown flowing over his shoulders while he’s in a resting pose. The soft goods cape can approximate that look to some degree, but not perfectly.

Everything else is intact including the head sculpt, which looks very different thanks to a new paint job. Spectre does still have his shorter gloves and pixie style boots.

Scale: Atom Smasher is at a semi-giant scale, which is fine as most times his resting height was comfortably taller than the others. The ironic thing is The Spectre could also grow to supersized heights so this could have been a two-pack of giants.

Spectre fits fine alongside the classic Justice Society members released from McFarlane so far.

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Paint: Atom Smasher has a red and blue color scheme, and the figure matches the comic book setup though the red seems too bright and the blue too dark. Paint hues aside there’s no issues with any paint flaws and came out very clean.

Spectre is the one with some curious paint changes. Most art of the character show his forehead and eyes shrouded in shadows. For some reason, the McF team opted to just put a shading around his eyes. This makes his forehead look too pronounced and since the hood weakly fits centered like it appears in the comics it looks very weird.

Again, the paint matches are a bit weird as the green gloves, trunks and boots should be a darker kelly green.

Articulation: Spectre has the traditional articulation setup with 22 points of articulation. His range of motion is good and he’s definitely able to strike some dynamic poses.

This is where the poseable cape comes into play and is a benefit. He mainly hovered over and intimidated JSA opponents by growing to a massive, scale.

Atom Smasher is far more of a brawler who leads with his fists in battle. Both figures have the same articulation scheme with Atom Smasher getting improved butterfly shoulder range as well.

Atom Smasher and The Spectre have:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• butterfly shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee
• ankle
• toe

Accessories: This is one of the weaker sets in terms of accessories since both characters just get the absolute lowest level of offerings with the trading card and plain circular black stand. Spectre certainly is a character that should have gotten a rare flight stand accessory.

Atom Smasher could have used some alternate gripping hands to raise an opponent up before pummeling him.

Worth It? The set has a mega fig, which typically started at $30 and Spectre let’s generously say is a $25 figure. That should place this set at $55 to $60 at max. Somehow it started out at $80, which was an immediate “no buys.” As has been the case with most McFarlane offerings, a little patience went a long way as I grabbed the set for $41. That is a far better price for Atom Smasher alone. Spectre needs some paint touch ups, but he’s not a lost cause.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Spectre gets the necessary soft goods parts but is missing the collar and has issues with the hood. Atom Smasher is an excellent addition making this a very good set if you can get at a sale price.

Where to Get It? If you’re unable to still find the set at Target, you can get the Atom Smasher vs The Spectre set now at Amazon.

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