Getting The War Doctor as a 5-inch scale figure was a nice treat, but now it’s back to reality as CO continues to push the smaller scaled NuWho figures on us. If you haven’t been keeping track, I’ve found the aliens in this line to be fairly good to excellent, but the 11^th Doctor and Clara were rather weak efforts. This new assortment is being called Wave 2, even though we Yanks got a complete wave of variants in between, which I suppose we’ll call wave 1-B. I guess numbering these waves properly will be as confusing as the new numbering scheme for The Doctor’s incarnations. Anyway, in addition to the figure we’re looking at today, this wave features a pair of new variant Daleks, a Zygon, a Weeping Angel, The 11^th Doctor in his tweed jacket and what appears to be a straight repack of Wave 1-B’s red dress Clara.

The packaging hasn’t changed much. You get a generic cardback with the TARDIS on it and a bubble insert specifying who the figure is. The back of the card shows off the other figures in the wave as well as a pair of those cardboard Time Zone playsets that we’ve seen before. All in all the packaging is serviceable and suits the smaller line of figures pretty well.

As is often the case with the regeneration figures, this 12^th Doctor borrows heavily from the previous Doctor figure. I will, however, give CO credit for not just doing a quick-and-dirty head swap. The torso has actually been re-sculpted to account for the fact that he removed his bowtie before regenerating. The collar on this figure’s shirt is open at the top button and properly sans bowtie. Apart from that what we get here is the same purple coated body complete with right hand sculpted to hold the sonic screwdriver accessory that is inexplicably absent from this package. There is one minor variation in paint worth mentioning, the vest is slightly lighter. Alas, I can’t tell what color his kidneys are painted.

Of course, the biggest issue I had with the 11^th Doctor figure was the poor head sculpt. You’d have as good a chance pulling a random mini-marshmallow from a bag and having it resemble Matt Smith more than that figure did. I’m happy to say that CO has upped the ante and this new Peter Capaldi sculpt is actually not bad at all. It’s a fairly detailed portrait for such a small figure and the likeness is undoubtedly there. We don’t have a lot to go on as to what kind of Doctor Number 12 will be, but CO went with a raised eyebrow and an offset smirk that seems to agree with what little we’ve seen so far. Even the paintwork here is quite good.

Same body, same articulation, but let’s run through it anyway. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels in the wrists. The legs feature a simple T-crotch for the hips, hinges in the knees, and swivels at the boots. There is no waist or torso articulation and his head can rotate.

While CO decided they couldn’t afford the few millimeters of plastic needed for the recycled sonic screwdriver accessory, we do still get a figure stand. It’s the same “DWARTIS” style logo as the previous stands only cast in grey plastic. Um, what? Why?? Laying aside the fact that my borderline OCD now has to deal with two different colored stands, why the change from the traditional TARDIS blue?

I tossed this figure into my shopping cart just because I was buying a bunch of others and I just said, “why not?” As it turns out I’m mighty glad I did because I really dig this figure! The portrait is leaps and bounds above the last Doctor in this scale and it actually gives me renewed hope for this line. In fact, even if they just recycle this head again, I’m still really looking forward to the release of the proper 12^th Doctor in his new costume. If CO can pull off this kind of Capaldi license, I’m thinking that their forthcoming David Tennant and Karen Gillian likenesses in this scale might not be so bad after all. It’s certainly possible that the first wave was just a matter of awkward first steps and we could start to see better. Here’s hoping!