Walter Peck

Y'know, I feel really bad for William Atherton, the actor who portrayed EPA Agent Walter Peck in the 1984 hit Ghostbusters. A consumate actor, he has a long list of credits in film, television and videogames, spanning 40 years in the profession. Yet the one thing everyone will remember him as is the man who has no dick. Mr. Peck, though initially professional in his demeanor can be quickly reduced to visible agitation when he is not co-operated with. He was particularly offended by Peter Venkman's unwillingness to allow him to inspect the Ghostbusters' facilities. As a result, he has shown that he is perfectly willing to lay spurious charges against those under his suspicion when he obtained a court order against the Ghostbusters under claims that they were in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act. He has also shown his ability to ignore his own responsibility for mishaps such as the city-wide disruption caused when he ordered a city worker to shut down the Containment Unit's power grid despite the warning of the Ghostbusters currently on site, then later pinning the blame on them for the explosion. Walter Peck is also a skeptic by nature and therefore does not believe in the supernatural. Surprisingly, despite being done in the same "hard six-inches" scale as the rest of the Movie Masters toys, the old Pecker here doesn't reuse any of their pieces - at least, not any of the important ones. Compare him to the Gotham City Thug, to Harvey Dent, to Scarecrow or even to my beloved Jail Cell Joker, and you'll see that his suit jacket is different from all of them, and so is the vest he wears beneath it. The pants and sleeves are different sculpts, too, so the only things that might possibly bereused are the hand or shoes. His facial sculpt is excellent - Atherton is definitely recognizable, perhaps moreso than the actual Ghostbusters in this line. Even without a shared body he's also very poseable, with a balljointed neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows and wrists, H-hips, hinges at the knees and ankles, and swivels at the waist, lower thighs, and the top of the boot. He can do more than you'd ever want him to do. Most importantly, Peck comes with the very nifty Containment Unit, sculpted as a part of the wall on a base, so you can relive the vital moment from the film in which he ruins everything for everyone. The Containment Unit stands tall above the Ghostbusters, in perfect scale, with excellent detail on all of the intricate wires and lights. A lever opens the unit revealing an excellent feature - a ghost trap can be put into the Containment Unit, which can then be closed to hold and restrain all the vapors and entities contained within. Included is a closed ghost trap, again perfectly detailed and in scale with the Ghostbuster figures. The real reason anyone bought this, I feel, is for the Containment Unit, and although I think it's incredible nifty there's something about it that makes me sad. As someone who grew up with big, playable playsets, like the BraveStarr set and the Ghostbusters Firehouse, it's a bummer to think of this much smaller, much sadder base as being the closest we'll see to those from here on out. Because of the way the Containment Unit is constructed you can't really make walls to put alongside it even, and having it stand lonely by itself in a display looks a tad depressing. Still, for what it is, it's very well done, and Walter Peck is a great choice of figure to go alongside it. The high level of detail on the Containment Unit puts other Ghostbusters accessories to shame. (Pile of books? Really?) Ultimately, this gets a recommendation from me - I really like having it to display my other Ghostbusters around, and Peck is a nice bonus - ignoring the high Matty price point, and subsequent unavailability. -- 10/11/11