Tag Archives: character options

Jun 28 2011

Doctor Who: Character Building TARDIS Mini Set by Character Options

It’s been a little while since I featured any Lego sets here. That hasn’t been an intentional slight on Lego, just a reflection of what’s been available on the shelves. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get a little bit of my Lego fix this month with the first of the Doctor Who themed Lego-compatible building sets by Character Options. While it’s not an official Lego product, it is still basically Doctor Who Lego and that’s about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

The set comes in a little box similar in size to Lego’s own smaller assortment sets in the $10 range. The box is illustrated with the completed version of what you’re getting inside, along with an actual size shot of the Doctor minifig and the Series 5-6 style Doctor Who logo. Open up the box and you spill out two baggies of bricks, two individually bagged minifigs of The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond, an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and an illustrated insert that makes up the interior of the TARDIS. As always, let’s start with the minifigs…

Surprisingly, the minifigs come pre-assembled in their baggies, but they can each break down into seven pieces, which is about the same as most of Lego’s minifigs. Also unlike Lego’s minifigs, these feature character specific sculpts, rather than relying more on illustrated generic pieces. Each figure is aggressively cute and The Doctor even comes with a Sonic Screwdriver accessory. Still, these little time travelers look like they have more in common with the popular Imaginext line of figures than Legos, which is cool as it gives them a certain personality all their own.

The TARDIS itself is comprised of 45 pieces, several of which are pretty specific to this model. The front doors are on hinges so that they can open in or out, while the rest of the TARDIS walls are each one sculpted piece. What’s really awesome is the included illustrated insert that makes the TARDIS look like it actually has its interior, something that CO didn’t bother doing with their Classic 5-inch scale TARDIS. Virtually all the details are conveyed via stickers, and CO was generous enough to include extras in case you screw up or one gets damaged.

As I mentioned above, this set is about on par with Lego’s ten dollar sets in terms of size and complexity. It is, however, an import to us Yanks, so chances are you’re going to spend a lot more than the MSRP. I paid a whopping $23 for this set (shipping included), which is obviously a lot more than was intended. It’s a lot to pay for what you get, but considering what it is, I think it was justified. I’m not willing to pay as much for the other two mini sets, but this is the TARDIS afterall, so I was willing to splurge.

Jun 13 2011

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver by Character Options

Given the mileage they get out of their molds, it was pretty inevitable that once Character Options released the first classic Sonic Screwdriver that more would follow. The first release was based off of The Third Doctor’s trusty device, and now CO has followed suit with the Fourth Doctor’s version. Let’s see what we got…

The packaging is the same design used for the Third Doctor’s screwdriver with a different printed insert to suit the Fourth Doctor and a new lenticular collectible card. The back panel has a blurb about the screwdriver and the Doctor himself. There’s no “Try Me” feature or anything and the batteries actually come mounted in the tray beside the toy. Yes, you will need a small phillips head screwdriver to put the batteries in the scewdriver. I believe that’s called irony. While we’re on the subject, you’ll also need a good pair of scissors or a razor blade to get into the ironclad clamshell of a package.

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As you’ve probably already guessed, this Sonic Screwdriver is just a very minor resculpt of the Third Doctor’s issue. In fact the only difference in the sculpt is the elongted bit on the back of the head and the fact that the head sits a little higher in the shaft. Again, the head of the screwdriver is made of soft bendy rubber to prevent it from snapping off. As a result what really separates this one from the previous release is the color scheme. The yellow spiral stripe is gone as is the simulated duct tape wrapped around the bottom of the shaft. What you get is a mostly silver piece with some black accents and the red on the instrument’s head. While the Third Doctor’s version is certainly pretty screen accurate, I’m guessing this one will be the more desireable for lacking the yellow striping. The sounds are activated by pulling down on the shaft and the sound chip is identical to the Third Doctor version. Pull it down a little bit to hear the first sound and pull it down all the way to hear the one with more of a warble to it.

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The Fourth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver retails for around $25. As with the first release, I think $20 would have been a more reasonable price, but I’m not going to complain. I’ve wanted one of these for a long, long time, and it sure beats paying the $200+ dollars for the metal prop versions that some companies have put out. I tend to be a bigger Jon Pertwee fan than Tom Baker (although I love them both) and yet I still prefer this Sonic Screwdriver over the one used by Pertwee’s Doctor. Sure, if you have the first release, this one is really redundant, but hey, if you’re a Who fan, you really should own both anyway.

May 30 2011

Doctor Who: “The Time Monster” Master and TARDIS by Character Options

In case you haven’t noticed, Character Options is striving to get a lot of mileage out of their classic figure sculpts. They’re doing this by making us buy the same figures or toys over and over again to get a new piece in our collections. Just look at the four Davros sets or the fact that they’re putting out another Sontaran set with the ship, and you’ll see what I mean. This Time Monster set is yet another example, where I’m buying a figure that I already own, in this case The Master, just to get his TARDIS and a few little accessories. Does this piss me off? Nope. Not in the slightest. If this is what CO needs to do to get a return on their investment and keep making figures, that’s fine by me. I’ve waited so long for these figures and toys and I’m so happy that CO is making them, I’ll gladly keep forking over the dough as long as CO keeps making them.

The package is a window box with the same deco that’s been used for sets like the Vengeance on Varos or The Sontaran Experiment. You get a blue deco with the 2005 series logo. The front of the package features a photo of Roger Delgado as The Master along with a shot of his TARDIS as it appeared in the episode. The back panel has a nice synopsis of the episode, The Time Monster, and more photos from the show. One of my favorite things about this set is the cardboard insert that is illustrated with roundels from inside the TARDIS and can be taken out and used as a backdrop to display the figures with. No doubt this backdrop will go a long way for folks looking to do custom TARDIS interiors.

I don’t have much to say about The Master, as he’s the exact same figure that was released with the Claws of Axos set. He’s a fantastic figure with a wonderful likeness of Roger Delgado, but I’ve got nothing new to say here. Feel free to take a look at my review of The Claws of Axosset for more on the figure itself.

The TARDIS is designed to look like a 1970’s era computer bank. Much to The Doctor’s chagrin, The Master’s TARDIS had a fully functional Chameleon Circuit. It’s sculpted in hollow plastic and feels kind of like a dog’s chewtoy. The sculpt and the paint apps are simple enough, but don’t expect anything else out of it other than a prop. It doesn’t open, nothing moves on it, it’s just a display piece for decoration. Some may find that disappointing, but then there’s this counter-argument. “Holy shit, they actually have a toy based on The Masters TARDIS from The Time Monster.” Who the hell thought we’d ever see something like this? Yeah, I’m willing to be pretty forgiving here.

There are also three accessories included in the set. First, you get The Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator, which is the same one issued with The Claws of Axos Master. Next up, you get the Crystal of Kronos, which is actually a really nice little scaled replica of the artifact from the episode. Lastly, you get the Time Sensor that The Doctor built, which is also a pretty nice piece.

If you missed out on picking up The Claws of Axos set, and you’re in the market for this Master figure, this set is a nice pick-up. It’s especially a nice set if you passed on the Axos set out of bitterness that the Axon figure was actually just a repainted Krynoid. On the other hand, if you already have The Master in your collection, this set is by no means a must have. The TARDIS is cool enough and the accessories are nice, but it hardly justifies buying the set. On the other hand, with a retail of about $25-30, picking this one up isn’t going to break your bank like collecting all the Davros sets will. Personally, I’m trying to support this line as much as possible, so buying this set was a no brainer for me.

Apr 23 2011

Doctor Who: The Supreme Dalek by Character Options

Rumor has it that the Daleks may be a no-show in Series Six, and I’m perfectly fine with that. It’s not that I don’t love me some Daleks, but the writers always run the risk of using them just for the sake of using them, and not because they have a good story to tell. I think it’s cool that they have other stories to tell and aren’t willing to drag in the Daleks if they don’t fit the plans. Or maybe they’re just trying to figure out a good way to nix the rather unpopular New Paradigm Dalek designs. Either way, I thought I’d toss in some Dalek loving this weekend with a look at one of the more unique Exterminators from CO’s Doctor Who line. He’s The Supreme Dalek as seen in the Series Four finale,Journey’s End. As has been the case throughout Who history, the Supreme Dalek has been a special variation on the regular flavor and this particular grand pooba of the Daleks is no different.

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I was pretty fond of the way this guy looked in the actual episode. Granted, he didn’t do a hell of a lot apart from gloat, temporarily exterminate Captain Jack Harkness, and try to melt down the TARDIS and Donna in a giant neutrino fondue pot. When I got the actual figure in hand, however, I wasn’t quite so impressed as in toy form I thought the design looked more like an overzealos fan’s kitbash. Time has mellowed me a bit on the figure, though, and I’ve warmed up to it quite a bit.

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The Supreme stands slightly taller than your average Dalek, and that added height mostly comes from the added ring between his shoulder slats and his neck. The apron and bumper portion are the same as any old Dalek, although the arm sockets are more blocky and pronounced. His shoulder slats are largetly concealed by the four pylons that are added at each of the cardinal direction points. What’s their purpose? Who knows? They’re accompanied by more pronounced gold discs surrounding his neck area. The head is fairly similar to the regular Daleks, only with his ear lights on platforms and a third ear light in the back. This third ear light bugs me about as much as the future Enterprise in Star Trek The Next Generation just having an extra warp nacelle glued onto it. It’s gratuitous and added just for the purpose of making him look different and more advanced. Hey, at least he didn’t have a flashlight duct-taped to his eyestalk like the Supreme from Planet of the Daleks, eh?

The Supreme has the same articulation features as the other Daleks. He has ball joints for his sucker and blaster arms, he rolls along on three wheels, the front of which rotates 360 degrees, his head dome can rotate and his eye stalk can look up.

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Getting past the extra bits glued on, there is undoubtedly a lot of nice detail in this guy. The red and gold color scheme looks really good too and there isn’t a lot of paint slop or bleeding on my figure, which has traditionally been a problem with some of the Daleks figures. For all my whining about kitbashing, the truth is this figure features a fair amount of geuinely new tooling to make the differences work and it certainly wasn’t hammered out on the cheap.

Unlike most Doctor Who figures, The Supreme Dalek was ridiculously tough for me to get at first. It was initially offered at many retailers for $20, which is pretty high for a non-exclusive, non-limited figure. Nonetheless, hesitation got the better of me and I missed out. I was lucky enough to eventually track him down and at the same price and you can bet I was quick to pull the trigger this time.

Apr 22 2011

Doctor Who: The Empress of the Racnoss by Character Options

In the last year or so, Character Options has become a lot more selective about how many Doctor Who characters get made into figures. I can think of at least ten figures that should have been made from Series Five alone and yet never were. But it wasn’t always like that. CO used to happily make figures of almost anyone and anything appearing in an episode. Remember yesterday’s feature with the Space Pig? But, if you ever needed a good example of how bat-shit crazy CO was about making Doctor Who figures a few years back, well here it is. The Empress of the Racnoss!!!

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Featured in only one episode, and only appearing for a small portion of that episode, The Empress of the Racnoss was certainly an awesome looking alien menace. Part spider, part alien hell-bitch, she probably scared the poop out of any little kids that watched The Runaway Bride.Unfortunately, she’s also the only memorable thing about that episode, [Ok, so the TARDIS car chase sequence was pretty cool too. -FF] and as far as a nemesis for The Doctor is concerned, she was pretty lame. She stood there, made a bunch of really stupid puns that seemed completely out of place for such an alien creature and then ultimately either burned to death or got drowned, or maybe both, I can’t really remember. But it’s not the fact that The Empress got her own figure that’s so amazing, it’s how utterly gigantic this figure is, that really impresses. The packaging is long gone, but suffice it to say, she came in one pretty damn big window box.

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Out of the package, The Empress is impressive on every level, but let’s start with the size. The torso portion is the same size as any regularDoctor Who figure, so when you tack a proportionally sized spider body onto it, well, you get the idea of how big this figure is. When standing fully upright, you can easily stand a regular Doctor Who figure under her. No, she’s not quite to scale from the show, but I’ve got no complaints.

The sculpt and paintwork on this figure are both gorgeous. The headsculpt is one of CO’s best, right down to the multiple eyes and the finely detailed teeth. She has a pair of locust-like arms hanging off of her shoulders, in addition to the eight spider legs protruding from her giant body. The body is mostly hollow so the figure isn’t terribly heavy, and she’s got a huge web spinner on her butt.

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The Empress’ legs are each fully articulated at the body and again at one of the mid joints. Her torso and head can swivel and her arms rotate at the shoulder. The leg joints are all tight, so the figure can easily stand up on her legs with no worries.

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When The Empress figure was first released she came at a pretty hefty sum. Most e-tailers were selling her for $39.99. Now, I’m not saying that it wasn’t worth it, as this is a really nice figure, but it’s admittedly a lot to pay for a fairly inconsequential villain from a fairly poor episode. It wasn’t Fear Her kind of bad, but it’s The Runaway Bride is definitely not one of my go-to episodes when I’m looking for my Who fix. It didn’t take long for prices to get slashed, though, and nowadays you can still find this figure at some online retailers for about twenty bucks, and she’s definitely worth that. In fact, I really can’t recommend her enough. It’s just too bad she didn’t come with a dozen or so little baby Racnoss. I do, however, thank CO for not giving her a voice chip.

[It may be Friday, but Doctor Who week is going to cruise on through the weekend to properly celebrate tomorrow’s premier of The Impossible Astronaut and the kick off of Series Six. -FF]

Apr 21 2011

Doctor Who: Slitheen and Space Pig by Character Options

So, last time I took a look at the Autons, the first enemies to be featured in the return of Doctor Who. It seems only fitting to move on to the first original new baddies to be introduced in the New Who: The Slitheen. Not a race, but actually a criminal family, the Slitheen came from the often mispronounced and damn hard to spell planet of Raxacoricofallapatoria. With the ability to wear human skins, and a goal to nuke The Earth and get rich off the resulting energy, the Slitheen have popped up again in both Doctor Who and the spin-off series Sarah-Jane Adventures. The figure itself was available in two carded varieties. One came with the remains of a human skin suit, but the one we’re looking at today came with a way cooler bonus: The Space Pig seen in Aliens of London.

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The Slitheen certainly are creepy enough. They’ve got this killer baby vibe going on, with their big soulless eyes, puffy cheeks, and sneering mouths full of sharp teeth. They’re also hulkingly huge. I can’t say I was in love with them as an alien threat, it was hard to take them seriously with all the fart jokes, but I sure dig their overall design. The figure does the design justice in every way. It’s big, excellenty sculpted and loads of fun to play around with. The arms are ridiculously large and their open clawed hands make it easy for him to pick up other figures. The mouth is sculpted open to show off those crazy teeth and the collar that allows them to mass shift for their human disguises is really well represented.

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The Slitheen’s articulation includes a rotating neck, ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, universal movement in the hips and hinged knees. This figure is proof positive that CO knows how to produce figures with ball joints, so why they haven’t incorporated it into all their figure articulation is beyond me, but it sure works well here.

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And a Space Pig? Oh yeah. In case you missed the Series One episode, Aliens of London, the Slitheen faked an extraterrestrial first contact by genetically altering a pig to make it look like an alien, putting him in a space suit, and having it crash a spaceship into Big Ben. Ok, it’s a long story, but suffice it to say the Space Pig figure is yet more proof that Character Options was once willing to turn anything into a figure, so long as it had a moment’s worth of screentime. And that’s pretty much all the poor Space Pig got. He woke up, freaked out, and then was quickly and unceremoniously murdered by a confused and overzealous soldier.

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The figure is a little pink and portly fellow in a black and gold space suit. The sculpting on his face and paws is pretty remarkable right down to his detailed hair and his goofy expression. That would be actually my only complaint is that this piggy astronaut looks a little too happy and not all that much like the terrified porcine on the show. But then this is a delightfully ridiculous figure to begin with, so there’s not much point in picking nits about his expression. Space Pig has a diminished level of articulation, which I guess is to be expected for such a little guy. His head rotates, his shoulders rotate, and his legs rotate at the hips.

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If you’re out to get a Slitheen figure, you can’t go wrong with either of the carded versions, so what you really need to decide is whether or not you need this Space Pig. Truth be told, nobody really needs this Space Pig figure, but then why the hell wouldn’t you want it? Even if you lay aside the short lived character its based on, the very concept of a genetically altered pig in a space suit is so wonderfully characteristic ofDoctor Who you might as well have this figure displayed on your shelf. Or better yet, pick up both versions. The Slitheen is an impressive figure and well worth owning a couple.

Apr 20 2011

Doctor Who: Autons Two-Pack by Character Options

When Doctor Who returned back in 2005, he didn’t come back facing down the Cybermen or the Daleks or even the Sontarans. No sir, it was the Autons. Those loveable murdering hunks of plastic controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. Strange choice? I suppose. While The Doctor faced down the Autons twice in his third incarnation, they aren’t exactly the heaviest hitters in his pantheon of enemies. On the other hand, the legal rights to use the Daleks was still up in the air and you have to admit, as animated shop dummies, putting the Autons on screen doesn’t cost a lot. And making figures out of them ain’t too big a challenge either. As figures, the Autons came in two varieties. You could either buy one single carded, or you could get a two-pack. I’ve yet to pick up the single carded version, so today we’re going to look at the pair. Afterall, one Auton is company, but two’s an invasion. Ahem.

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In case you haven’t already guessed, both Auton figures are the same sculpt, and just utilize slight variations in paint jobs in order to differentiate them. Actually, there are just a few extra paint apps on the shirt of one of the figures. This allows CO to milk the mold for every penny and let’s fools like you and I army build with ease. Both figures are wearing almost all black, with a stylish collared shirt and blazer. Afterall, chances are these guys stepped right out of through the front window at Harrod’s so it’s only right they should be dressed to kill. See what I did there? Yeah!aut1

The head sculpts are left unpainted to make them resemble manniquins and they’re pretty creepy. One has a slightly darker colored head, which I’m assuming is to make them just a little bit more different. Of course, the Auton soldier’s main weapon is the blaster embedded in his right hand, which becomes active when the fingers in the hand flip down. Engineering a hinge on the figures’ hands probably wouldn’t have worked, so CO just had the front of the hand pull off to expose a hole that’s supposed to be the gun. In retrospect, I think it would have been better to leave the peg on the hand so it would look like the gun, but this way works ok, I guess.

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The Autons feature articulation that is a little less than what’s become standard for the Doctor Who line. The heads turn, the arms rotate at the shoulders and have hinged elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. What’s missing? The swivels in the thighs and biceps. I’m thinking that tooling was left out to lower the cost of the figures for the two-pack. I don’t miss it all that much, since the Autons were supposed to be rather stiff and lumbering, rather than terribly flexible or agile.

So, The Autons aren’t what I would consider must-own figures in the Doctor Who lineup. That’s not to say, however, that I’m not happy to have them in my collection, particularly since this pair can really stand in for either the modern series appearance or even the appearance from the classic episodes. It doesn’t hurt that this pair goes for pretty cheap online these days, so if you’re looking for a new alien menace for your favorite Doctor figure, this is a pair that won’t break the bank.

Apr 19 2011

Doctor Who: Sarah Jane Smith and General Kudlak by Character Options

Today’s entry is a little late, (technically it’s yesterday’s entry) but with good reason. I scrapped what I had originally planned in favor of something different because of the sad news we got earlier this week. Elizbeth Sladen, best known for her portrayal of The 3rd/4th Doctor’s companion Sarah Jane Smith, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 63. It’s really hard to believe since she seemed so young in spirit and full of life when in front of the camera. She always had a special place in this Whovian’s heart, as the very first episode of Doctor Who I’d ever watched was The Hand of Fear and her presence as The Doctor’s companion was as much a part of Who for me than anything else. And at the young age of about 12, I’m not ashamed to say I had quite the crush on her as well. I was thrilled when she came back to reprise her role in the current series and equally happy to see her get a well-deserved and successful spin-off, especially since the orginal attempt, K-9 and Company wasn’t so successful. While I can’t say I was a huge fan of The Sarah-Jane Adventures, the fact that she was in it was enough to get me to watch it.

Despite this being Doctor Who week, the figures we’re looking at today are technically part of the short-lived Sarah-Jane Adventures line, also made by Character Options. These figures came in sets of two, which featured a different version of Sarah and one of the aliens from the show. This set came with the Uvodni General, Kudlak from the two-part episode, Warriors of Kudlak. The figures came packaged together in an oval, tube-like box with a deco reminiscent of the series and photos of Sarah and Kudlak on the front.sjskud1

Sarah comes in a cream colored jacket with a red top, blue jeans and boots. The likeness isn’t one of CO’s best efforts, but I can see some resemblance. I think if they had gone for a more serious expression rather than the broad smile, it would have turned out a lot better. I’m guessing the outfit is from the episode in question, but it’s been a while since I saw it so I can’t vouch for it one way or another.

Sarah has fairly standard articulation for CO Who figures. Her head turns, her arms rotate at the shoulder and have hinged elbows, her legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. She also has swivel cuts in her biceps and thighs. She comes with her purse. And yes, this is probably the only figure among hundreds of action figures in my collection that came with a purse. Good on you, Sarah Jane! Unfortunately, I have no idea where it is now.

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Kudlak represents an alien species called the Uvodni, which have not before been seen in the Doctor Who universe, which is pretty cool. SJAfeatured a fair share of Doctor Who aliens crossing over, so there’s always a chance the Uvodni may show up again in Doctor Who proper. Kudlak’s species basically look like humanoid insects with big heads. The makeup was really well done for Kudlak in the series, and he translates very well to action figure form, as the detail in the head sculpt is impressive.

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Kudlak features a sculpted red trenchcoat. I’m not sure if that’s the latest fashion trend on his home planet, but I tend to think it was just something he wore while on Earth. It’s sculpted in soft plastic, but it pretty much hampers Kudlak’s leg articulation. CO did a nice job detailing all the chains and straps on his boots, though. In terms of useful articulation, Kudlak’s head turns, his arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps. Kudlak came with some kind of alien device, but it seems to have gone the way of Sarah’s purse.

The Sarah Jane Adventures figures go for a lot less than a lot of Doctor Who figures. The sets of two usually run around $15, so in terms of the Doctor Who line, that’s almost like getting two for one in a lot of cases. The entire reason I bought this set was to get Sarah, but Kudlak was a nice bonus and a really great looking figure to boot!

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[I realize that a passing look at a couple of action figures if hardly the send off, Elizabeth Sladen deserves, but toys are what we look at here, and so it seemed oddly appropriate. Either way, I loved you in all you did, Elizabeth, and somehow watching those old episodes of Who will be just a little bit sadder an experience, at least for a little while. In fact, I’m off to watch The Hand of Fear now and shed a tear or two. -FF]

Apr 18 2011

Doctor Who: The TARDIS Talking Bank (Second Series) by Character Options

[This coming Saturday starts Series Six of Doctor Who and for the first time, we Yanks won’t have to suffer a delay as BBC America will be broadcasting the series on the same day that it airs across The Pond. If you don’t already know that, then you probably don’t care and this week is going to be lost on you. But for everyone else who has the good taste to share my love and adoration for all things Who, I’m kicking off a Doctor Who Week. Now, I’ve looked at a fair share of Doctor Who figures and toys here on FigureFan over the last year or so, but I’ve got plenty in my collection that haven’t yet been featured. So sit back, grab a bag of Jelly Babies, adust the temporal spacial settings on your whastsitwhosits as we count down the days until The Doctor returns. -FF]

When I grew up watching Doctor Who the lack of decent Who toys meant that I had to make my own TARDIS. Seriously, I made it out of balsa wood, glue and blue paint using measurements taken from my dog-eared paperback edition of The TARDIS Technical Manual. Nowadays, you can’t swing a dead Cybermat without hitting a stack of different TARDIS toys. Here on Figurefan I’ve looked at a number of the ones released for use with the figures, but today we’ll look at one that’s a little different. It’s a bank!tarbank1

The first thing to note about the TARDIS bank is that it’s smaller than the Flight Control TARDIS’ and so it isn’t quite in scale with the Character Options figures. It’s close enough that I was able to use mine as a stand in for the figures until I was finally able to get my first Flight Control TARDIS, but it is noticeably smaller and probably closer to being accurate for a 4″ scale of figures. Aside from that what we have here is an excellent replica of the 9th/10th Doctor’s TARDIS that is capable of keeping your spare coinage. Unfortunately, this TARDIS isn’t bigger on the inside, so the amount of spare coins you’ll be able to keep in here isn’t all that much. The coin slot is located behind the front doors and there’s a plug in the bottom to get your monies out. Also behind the front doors is a graphic of the 10th Doctor standing with Rose against a backdrop of the TARDIS interior.

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The coolest thing about this bank is that it features electric lights and sounds and even some voice clips from the series, or more specifically from the Series Two premier episode “The Christmas Invasion” By pressing on the front doors, they spring open and you get a random voice clip of the 10th Doctor, which includes:

  • Did you miss me?
  • Remote control… but who’s controlling it?
  • No second chances. I’m that sort of a man.
  • Here we are then. London… Earth… The Solar System… I did it!
  • I’m him. I’m literally him. Same man, new face. Well… new everything.

Close the doors and you’re treated to the sound of the TARDIS’ grinding engines and the lamp on top flashes.

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If for some reason you don’t want to take the plunge and invest in the bewildering number of Doctor Who figures that are out there, this bank makes a perfectly fine desktop display piece that can usually be had for a fair amount less than the figure-friendly TARDIS toys. Of course having this in my collection served a much bigger purpose back when there was only one Flight Control TARDIS on the market and it was rather pricey and hard to come by. It’s not a must-own piece by any stretch of the imagination, but then can anyone really ever have too many TARDIS toys?

Mar 19 2011

Doctor Who: “Revelation of the Daleks” Collectors Set by Character Options

Always happy to turn a buck off of the insatiable popularity of the Daleks, CO has devised three episode-specific sets that will not only give collectors a chance to pick up some more Daleks, but also a Classic Series version of the Dalek creator himself, Davros. Each of these sets follow the same basic pattern and include a Doctor figure, Davros, and two Daleks from the episode in question. They already released the 5th Doctor set based off “Resurrection of the Daleks” and are planning a 4th Doctor “Genesis of the Daleks” set, but today we’re going to look at the one based off of the 6th Doctor story, “Revelation of the Daleks” from 1985. It’s the only one of the three sets I plan on buying, and soon you’ll see why. [CO has since revealed a pretty awesome looking “Destiny of the Daleks” set too, which may have me rethinking my only buy one of these decision. -FF]

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The package is similar to what we’ve seen in other recently released Classic sets. CO has become pretty formulaic about the package design with these sets, and that’s not at all a bad thing. It features a blue pattern and the logo introduced in the 2005 series. The back panel features stills from the episode as well as a blurb about the 6th Doctor and a little bit about the episode’s story. The figures are arranged side by side in a long tray and the cardboard insert has a montage of images from the episode, including Davros in his little head-tank, which is actually how he spent most of the episode. The package is perfectly collector friendly so you can remove the figures and return them to the box for display.

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The Doctor figure included is a variant of the same old 6th Doctor figure we’ve already seen numerous times, and that tends to be the sticking point in each of these sets. If you want to get Classic Davros and some Daleks, you have to get a variant of a Doctor figure you probably already have in your collection. The reason I went with the Revelation set is that unlike that 5th Doctor figure, this figure actually has some new tooling, in that he’s wearing the blue cape The Doctor wore when first arriving on the planet Necros in the first half of the story. Ok, so the figure itself is actually identical to the one released on a single card way back when, but it does have the cape, sculpted in soft plastic, which is also completely removable. Funny, I’ve seen this episode dozens of times, but I never noticed until now that the ornamental stitching by the cape’s buttons are actually question marks. Cool! If you don’t already have a 6th Doctor figure, here’s a great chance to get him and he is a great sculpt.

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The Daleks in the set include one Skaro Dalek and one Necros Dalek. The distinction was pretty important to the story as Davros was busy on Necros farming dead people and turning them into a new army of loyal Daleks. The episode ends with a mini Dalek Civil War as Daleks arrive from Skaro to take the fugitive Davros into custody. I’m always up for seeing Daleks blasting away at other Daleks, so it’s nice to get one from each opposing faction. Both of these Daleks should look pretty familiar, as we’ve seen the sculpt before. To be honest, I’ve been a Doctor Who fan for almost 30 years now and even I get bored trying to pinpoint all the subtle differences in the Dalek designs over the years. If you have the Dalek that was packaged a little while ago with the 7th Doctor (based on “Remembrance of the Daleks”), you’ll recognize the gold and white color scheme on the Necros Dalek, but there are significant differences in the sculpt. The Necros Dalek and the Skaro Dalek, however, are repaints of the same sculpt.

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And then there’s Classic Davros, which is probably the figure that collectors want the most out of this set. Davros is an entirely new sculpt from the figure based off his appearance in the modern series and a really awesome looking figure. He’s appropriately smaller and more primitive looking than the Modern Series figure. The wires and framework on his head are a bit chunkier than screen accurate, but it’s forgiveable as they’re certainly more durable. There’s a maintenance hatch on the side of his chair, which springs open by pressing one of the sensor globes. It wasn’t seen open in “Revelation of the Daleks”, but I’m sure it’s here because the mold was designed to work with the “Resurrection of the Daleks” set where a technician opened the hatch to service Davros before getting turned into a mindslave. You also get a swappable hand with this set as Davros’ hand was blown off toward the end of Revelation. The damaged hand is bandaged and oozing green goo. Make sure you get it out of the package before you throw it out!

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I’m really happy with the way this set turned out, although it’s worth stating the obvious that I would have much rather had the option to buy Classic Davros as a single carded figure. Getting new Daleks is never a bad thing, but it would have been more merciful to my wallet if CO had given us a carded Davros and then release all the Daleks from these sets in multipacks like they have in the past. Don’t get me wrong, the Necros 6th Doctor is a cool addition to my collection, and when you get down to it, $15 a piece for these figures (the set cost me about $60 with shipping) isn’t off the charts.

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