Tag Archives: classic who

Nov 5 2012

Doctor Who: “Pyramids of Mars” Collectors Set by Character Options

There’s something comforting about having a new classic Doctor Who action figure set after the news that the modern figures are changing to 3 ¾” scale. Even though this set was planned long before the demise of the 5-inch modern figures was announced, I still find it something of a reassurance that this line will go on. While I’ve still got a couple of past Classic Who sets to pick up, I had to buy this one right away simply because “Pyramids of Mars” is one of my all-time favorites. Not only is it Tom Baker and Liz Sladen at their best, but it has a great story, superb acting, and it even looks fantastic. Even in the dark days when most of my Who collection consisted of scratchy recordings off of PBS, I always had an official release of this one on VHS or DVD.

This set comes in a nice window box with a printed backdrop inside. It uses the new classic-style box deco, although the “Doctor Who” logo looks different from the ones on the last classic sets I picked up. The window shows off the figures very well and the back panel of the box has a blurb about the story. Oddly enough, the set is called “’Pyramid of Mars,’ Mars Collectors Set.” At first, I thought it could be to distinguish it from some “Pyramid of Mars” figures that were released a while ago in the UK, but those were released in a “Fourth Doctor Adventure Set.” More likely, it’s part of the double-dipping shenanigans that I’ll touch on later. The set includes an unmasked Sutekh the Osiran and his two Guardian Mummies. Let’s bust them out and see what we’ve got!

Let’s start with Sutekh. If you aren’t familiar with the story, Sutekh is a very powerful and very evil alien being kept prisoner in a kind of stasis cell on Mars. He spends the bulk of the episode trapped in a throne with a mask on. It’s not until the end when he’s free that he reveals his “Jackal” face. [I should note here that he’s freed because a possessed Egyptologist and his force of robot mummies build an interplanetary missile and use it to destroy the power source of the prison on Mars. God, I love Doctor Who! –FF] Here’s where those shenanigans come in. It’s probably a safe bet that most collectors were hoping to get the more iconic version of this figure with the mask on. When the set was first revealed, the optimistic speculation was that he would have interchangeable heads. Alas, this is a case where CO is going to force us to double dip by undoubtedly releasing a masked Sutekh later on. And naturally they release the less desirable one first so collectors will buy it just in case it’s the only one released. If this were any other line of figures, this sort of thing would enrage me, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Classic Who line afloat. If that means I’m going to buy another masked version of Sutekh later on down the road, then so I shall!

As for Sutekh himself, he’s a relatively simple sculpt but he suits the character’s on screen appearance quite well. His sculpted robes are nearly all black with a little red piping and red gloves. His head looks a lot better than the prop that was used for the actual character in the show and the glowy paint used on his eyes is pretty effective. Seriously, when I first saw them I thought there was some light piping going on.

Sutekh looks like he has pretty good articulation in his legs, but it doesn’t really matter because his sculpted robes renders all articulation below the waist useless. The arms, on the other hand actually have ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels at the biceps and wrists. Sutekh can also swivel at the neck and waist. All in all, not bad. Sutekh doesn’t need to be able to do acrobatics.

And then you have the Guardian Mummy Robots! Hurray for Classic Who army builders, especially when you can get two in one box. The regular flavor Mummy Servo Robot was originally released as a single carded figure. The ones in this box are the special variety and identified as such by their snazzy gold wrappings. I was expecting these guys to be straight repaints of the original Mummy figures, but there’s actually some re-sculpting going on here. All of the gold bandages are newly sculpted onto the old body making them stand out pretty nicely, and they still have the control pyramids on their backs.

The Guardian Mummies feature the same articulation as the old one. The arms rotate at the shoulders; have hinged elbows, and swivels at the wrists. The legs rotate and have lateral movement at the hips, hinges at the knees, and swivels at the ankles and thighs. He can also swivel at the waist. For a lumbering mummy robot, the articulation is pretty good.

The “Pyramids of Mars” set retailed for $29.99 at WHONA, my favorite Doctor Who e-tailer. It’s not a bad price for three figures, but then this set may really divide collectors who are waiting for the masked Sutekh. More than anything else, I’m anxious to see what or who he will be released with, since CO rarely releases single carded Classic Who figures anymore. Personally, I’d be fine if they released him with two regular Servo Mummies, because having the Guardians outnumber the Servos in my collection, well that just seems wrong.

Apr 24 2012

Doctor Who: K-1 Robot Build-A-Figure by Character Options

A couple of years back, Character Options actually released their Classic Doctor Who figures in waves of single carded releases, rather than episode themed boxed sets. One of the cool things about these waves is that one of them came with Build-A-Figure parts to build the K-1 Robot seen in Tom Baker’s debut story as the 4th Doctor, which was aptly but unimaginatively named “Robot.” I like “Robot” a lot. Besides the fact that it introduced us to that most iconic of all Doctors, its a pretty good story that takes the core element of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story and runs with it. Its one of those few old Who episodes where the villain is complex enough to earn our sympathy. Let’s set aside the whole part where it has the K-1, grown huge by absorbing radiation, running around with an unconvincing Barbie doll of Sarah Jane. Of course, the other thing I love about this episode is the amazing design for the K-1 itself.

And there he is, in all his Build-A-Figure glory. No package shot, because he came scattered over eight carded figures, which included: A Sea Devil, a Zygon, two robots from “Robots of Death,” Magnus Greel, as well as the 4th, 5th, and 6th Doctors. I recall picking up this wave all in one shot, so I was able to put him together all at once. Its a good thing too, because a couple of these figures became notoriously hard to find, and I probably would have blown rent money if I had to in order to complete this beauty.
I can’t gush enough over this guy’s design. He has that classic retro kind of look and the figure is a beautiful recreation of the costume used in the episode. He’s big and has a real bulky upper body with fanned segmented shoulders and an amazing head sculpt with clear red translucent dome in his head. There are little sculpted instruments and dials on his chest and back, as well as some clear hosing. The cylindrical, mechanical arms end in soft rubber claws so that they can hold his gun. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure I’d shit myself if this thing was coming after me.
K-1’s articulation is a tad limited, but it matches the mobility of the actual suit perfectly. The head is ball jointed and can turn and look up and down a bit. The arms have some limited movement at the shoulders. Its just enough so that he can raise his gun a bit. He has a ball joint in his waist that lets him swivel at the waist and bend a bit. His legs will swivel at the hips and he can move his legs back and front a bit. Lastly, the front of his feet are hinged.                          

There’s not a ton of paint apps on this guy, but he didn’t really need them. There’s a little black paintwork on some of his dials and his mouth and eyes. You also get a little red striping on his shoulders. The rest of the figure is cast in a really satisfying metallic silver finish.

The K-1 ranks up there as one of my all time favorite Doctor Who Classic figures. He was a perfect choice for a BAF, since he is so bulky and required a lot of special tooling and joints. He would certainly fit in one of the boxed sets CO releases now, but back then he was just too big for a standard card. He holds together perfectly and looks amazing standing at the back of one of my Doctor Who displays and towering over the rest of the figures. Looking back, I was pretty shocked that I hadn’t featured this guy here on FigureFan before, nor have I explored the wave of figures that contained the parts. Maybe I’ll try to dig those out for next week.
Mar 9 2012

Doctor Who: “Destiny of the Daleks” Collector Set by Character Options

It’s more Who today. Yay for more Who! Today we’re looking at another one of the four Daleks-and-Davros-themed sets that came out not all that long ago. These consisted of 4-packs based on the episodes, “Genesis of the Daleks,” “Revelation of the Daleks,” Destiny of the Daleks,” and “Resurrection of the Daleks.” The one I previously looked at was the 6th Doctor “Revelation” set, this time we’re checking out the 4th Doctor’s “Destiny” set.

The style of packaging is the same for all four sets. You get a long window box with the older style blue background and 2005-era logo. There are lots of photo stills from the episode and the back of the package has a nice blurb about the  story. The interior of the box features a tray with a printed backdrop from the episode, which you can save and use for display. “Destiny” was one of my favorite episodes growing up. It had Daleks and Davros, Tom Baker was really on his game, and the lovely Lalla Ward was wearing that adorable pink version of The Doctor’s scarf and coat. CO, when you finally get around to doing a figure based on Romana II, this is the version I want! Anyway, these sets all follow the same formula: You get a Doctor figure, a Davros figure, and two Daleks. These were a good idea for CO as they allowed for an economy of repaints, resculpts and repacks across four sets. And yet while these may seem like a quick cash grab, CO did right by fans and paid a remarkable amount of detail to the subtle differences between the sets.
Let’s start with The Doctor. Oh, look! I’ve got another 4th Doctor figure for my collection. Ten years ago I would have killed for a Tom Baker figure, now I’ve got a half dozen. You’d think I’d be griping about this, but nope. This version is a nice variant with new sculpting and his grey jacket. I’ve got plenty of him in his brown jacket, one in his burgundy jacket and even one in shirtsleeves. He uses the same serious expression 4th Doctor hatless head that we’ve had before and I think it still holds up well. His scarf is the same sculpt with new paintwork. It doesn’t quite seem episode accurate, but I’ll take it anyhow. This time he isn’t wearing his tie and his shirt collar is open. As with previous figures, his head is easy to pop off if you want to mix and match heads from your other Tom Bakers. I was hoping against hope this one would have the new ball jointed shoulders, but no dice, as you get the same level of articulation on the past 4th Doctors. Still, not bad. The Doctor also comes with his Sonic Screwdriver.
Davros is a great figure. I originally thought the four different Davros figures were just repaints of each other, but there is a remarkable amount of new tooling on this figure. The head sculpt is original to represent David Gooderson, as opposed to the Terry Molloy Davros from the“Revelation of the Daleks” set, including new wires and whatnot. Davros’ dashboard is also completely different from the previous set we looked at. The skirt is grey instead of black, but otherwise its pretty much the same, right down to the pop open service hatch added for the benefit of the “Resurrection” set. Davros comes with his computer sphere, which is appropriately the same piece used on the Source Manipulator from the “Keeper of Traken” set as the sphere was used in both props.                                     
And then there’s the Daleks. You get two standard Daleks from the episode, although one seems to be a higher rank than the other as he has a black stripe painted along his midsection and extra black paint around his bumper. Apart from that they’re identical. From my experience, CO traditionally has QC issues with the paintwork on their Daleks, but these two are just about perfect. Its ironic since the Daleks used in the episode were in terrible condition and practically falling apart. These guys look too new! The shade of grey does look a bit too light on them, but it might just be the lighting used on the episode. The ball joints on the gun and sucker arms were painted over, so I had to pop out the arms and carefully “crack” the joint by using a pen in the socket. Once done, the articulation is fine. These are definitely a couple of great additions to my Dalek armies.
I picked up this set for about $45 with shipping. It’s certainly not a bad deal for four figures. Chances are you long time collectors are getting tired of adding Tom Bakers to your collections, but even still I think the Davros and Daleks are still worth the price of admission. If you’re new to collecting Doctor Who figures, this one is a great starter set. The attention to detail in making Davros episode specific is impressive and if you’re in the market for some nice generic Daleks, these two certainly do the job nicely.
Jan 11 2012

Doctor Who: “Enemies of The Third Doctor” Collectors Set by Character Options

Ever since CO abandoned the release of Classic Who figures in single carded waves, we’ve been getting story-specific sets. That’s fine with me, but now CO has opted to go right for the jugular and bundle different enemies of a specific Doctor together. Personally, I’d rather get classic companions bundled with my baddies, but this formula works ok for me too. This one is based on three no-good-niks that have plagued The Doctor in his third incarnation. You get the original vintage style Auton that appeared in The Third Doctor’s inaugural episode, “Spearhead From Space.” You get Omega, who was admittedly a bastard, but as we learned in “The Three Doctors” he got a pretty raw deal. This was the first story where we learn that the Time Lords are kinda dicks. Then we get the showpiece of the set, the giant Drashig that appeared in that surrealest of episodes, “Carnival of Monsters.” You might say one of these turned up again later in another episode, but that was actually just a projection playing on Jo Grant’s fears and not a real Drashig so i doesn’t count. Ahem, sorry, nerdgasm.

Holy smokes, the box is huge. It obviously had to be big to hold that Drashig, but at the same time, there’s a lot of room in there for the other figures. As with “The Chase” set, there’s no backdrop insert, but that’s to be expected here since the figures all come from different episodes. Instead the tray is designed to mirror the diamond deco of the box and the overall effect is gorgeous. The figures are held in place with the string, which is easily clipped away to get at the goods.
Starting off with the Auton. You didn’t think you were going to get away with buying a CO figure set and not get some reuse, did you? HA! The Auton is a heavy reuse of the original Captain Jack Harkness figure, and I don’t care one bit because the end result looks fabulous. Basically the entire body is the same, save for some minor resculpting of buttons and a beltbuckle. Some have complained that the new scarf makes the neck look unnaturally elongated, but I think it adds to the figure’s creepiness. It is afterall an animated maniquin so it doesn’t have to be proportionally correct. I’m particularly happy with the paintwork on this figure. The deep blue of his outfit looks great and the silver detailwork on the buttons and belt buckle are immaculate. Whoever painted this figure should start doing the Dalek figures. Snap!
Thanks to the reuse of parts, the Auton’s articulation is a throwback to the older figures. The head rotates, the arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the wrists and have hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement at the hips and hinged knees. It’s not a hell of a lot, but in fairness, he is a friggin animated plastic mannquin so we don’t need a lot of poseability for him to lumber along and shoot people.
The modern Auton figures were a little disappointing as you merely pulled off their fingers to reveal a hole that was supposed to be their gun. It wasn’t really screen accurate. Here, you get an actual replacement hand with the fingers flipped down and the gun clearly sculpted. This is how it should have been done in the first place, CO! I don’t want to take away from the modern Autons, but to me this guy is much scarier, much cooler looking, and overall a better figure even with all the reuse of parts. I love him and I really wish CO would do a two-pack of these guys. I would definitely buy a couple more.
Next up, let’s check out Omega. I’ll admit I was a little leary about CO going with softgoods on this figure. Sure, we saw softgoods on the Sea Devils, but I thought the use of it here might look out of place in the line. I mean, why do softgoods on Omega’s robes and not the decayed Master figures? Well, I’m prepared to eat those words now, because this figure turned out to be visually stunning, mostly thanks to the shimmering whispy cloth robes. Even more surprising is that the glitter doesn’t come off in my hands when I play around with him. The sculpted parts of the figure look equally amazing. I’ve always loved the design of Omega’s mask and it looks outstanding here and the chunky sculpt and bronze finish make it look weighty and antiqued and oh, so cool.
Omega features all the new articulation seen in CO’s recent releases, including those wonderful new ball jointed shoulders. The only main difference here is that the swivel in the forearm is located higher up, rather than at the wrist. One cool little extra is that Omega’s head is removable. It’s a nice nod to the scene where Omega removed his helmet and there was nothing underneath. The head is attached with a heavy socket joint that lets the head rotate without pulling off too easly. CO, I adore this figure!
And then there’s the Drashig. It’s not exactly a figure, and yet it’s not the static piece that the Fendahleen was. It’s a hand puppet! Hell, I guess you could say its a prop replica since the original one in the series was some kind of puppet. This one looks as good as the one used in the series, too, although that’s not saying much since the Drashig were not the most convincing of Doctor Who monsters. In any event, this thing is sculpted in soft rubbery plastic with some very nice paintwork. It’s completely hollow, so you can just slip your hand right into it to work its toothy mouth. It’s big enough that it can scoop up other Doctor Who figures in its mouth. I was pretty sure that this thing was going to be designed for a kids hand and that I wasn’t going to be able to use it, but even my meaty paw can get in there to operate it without a problem.
As with “The Chase” set, this one retails at just under fifty bucks. Yes, its a premium, but these are action figures based off of a science fiction series in the 70’s from another country, so I’m willing to pay that premium. The Auton and Omega turned out great, and while I was a little leary about the Dreshig, I think it turned out to be a pretty cool item. I applaud CO for taking risks like this and producing unconventional things like the Drashig. Especially since the Drashig isn’t exactly a high profile Doctor Who monster. I just hope it pays off for them. Keep cranking them out, CO, and I’ll keep buying them. I do like this format, but I do hope you get back to doing some new companion bundles too. I just know you guys have that Jamie & Yeti set hiding back there somewhere.
Jan 11 2012

Doctor Who: “The Chase” Collectors Set by Character Options

Yessir, we’re back with more Classic Who figures, and this time Character Options is taking us all the way back to 1965, when Doctor Who audiences embarked on the extra long serial known as “The Chase.” It was a meandering, exciting and sometimes silly epic in which The Daleks built their own time machine and set about to hunt The TARDIS’ crew through time in an effort to, well what else? EXTERMINATE THEM!!!! This what you might call a cracker of an serial as it not only featured the return of The Doctor’s most popular enemies, but it also introduced The Mechanoids, a race of mechanical killing machines that were created by the writers with the express purpose of giving The Daleks a run for their money. In the end it was more of a stalemate through mutual destruction, but I’m sure it was a ratings draw nonetheless. The serial was also noteworthy for seeing the departure of The Doctor’s first two companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. And hey, The Beatles even made a guest appearance… or sorts. It was also actually the first time that we saw Daleks in Manhatten. Suck on that nuWho! But enough with the history lessons. The fact that this set exists is giving me goosebumps so let’s get on it with it.

The set comes in the gorgeous new retro-styled deco with the appropriately classic series logo. As usual it’s a window box, but this time there isn’t a printed backdrop insert, but rather just a colored backdrop that matches the box deco. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have preferred a backdrop, but that’s fine. The set is a lot bigger than most of the other sets we’ve seen, mainly because The Mechanoid is pretty big by itself and when you toss a couple of Daleks into the mix, you need some serious real estate inside that package. As you can see, the set includes one Mechanoid and two Daleks. Let’s start with the Daleks.
The two Daleks are identical and are extremely close to the Daleks in the introductory episode and released by CO as a figure in the first of the two Dalek 3-packs way back when. In fact, these are practically identical to that figure except for the addition of the mesh wrap around and “shoulder slats” that have become common in pretty much all Daleks since. They even feature the same silver paint job with baby blue spheres that was used in the very first story. Next to the gun metal blue of the late 70’s Daleks, I think this is my favorite color scheme of them all. If you’ve collected your share of CO’s Dalek figures then you know the paintwork can be hit or miss and this pair of figures is a great example of that. One of them is absolutely perfect. The other one has a huge blue smudge right in the front middle of his apron.
Articulation on these guys is what you should expect by now. They roll around on three spinning wheels concealed beneath their aprons. Their sucker arm and gun arm are both secured with ball joints and you can pop them off if you want to create double sucker Daleks or double gun Daleks. Their heads turn 360-degrees and their eye stalks can look upward.
And then there’s The Mechanoid. Designed by humans to tame planets for colonization, these giant balls were more likely outfitted with their gizmos to be able to deforest areas or take care of hostile wildlife. But those gizmos work just as well in dealing out death to Dalek fools. If you were expecting a hollow rotocast blob, think again, as this is a nice hefty toy that outdoes the Daleks by rolling around on not three, but five wheels. Take that Daleks! It has a single stalk arm that houses a flame thrower, two pincer arms that fold out from its hemisphere and a sensor module that can rise and retract from the top of its globe. The flame thrower arm can be swapped out with an arm that doesn’t have the molded flame on it, if you prefer to display your Mechanoid in a more docile posture.
The cost of this battle in a box? Well, it’s right around the same fifty bucks that most of CO’s recent multi-figure packs are running. If you figure The Daleks at about fifteen bucks a piece and The Mechanoid at twenty, well… it still seems like a good chunk of change. On the other hand, this is easily the best army building pack that CO has put out. Even the old Dalek 3-packs each came with a Supreme that would have been redundant. This set gives you two awesome Daleks and the new Mechanoid and I gotta say, I’m really tempted to pick up a second one while I can. Unfortunately, with so many other Doctor Who sets coming up, I think I’d best save my monies. But even so, I can’t help but look at this set as pure loving fanservice. I probably first saw this serial about 25 years ago when I was 15 and I could never have dreamed to own these figures back then. And now I do! Life is awesome!
Jan 10 2012

Doctor Who: Sontaran Field Major Styre Retro-Style Figure by Biff Bang Pow

As promised, I’m back today with the second half of the Biff Bang Pow Doctor Who figure feature, with a look at the Sontaran, Sytre. Hopefully, I won’t be as long winded this time.

Styre uses the same awesome card that The Doctor came on. I neglected to point out last time that the cardback shows off two additional figures: A Cyberman and The Master. These figures have already been produced and were apparently exclusives at last year’s San Diego Comic Con. And, yes, I will be getting them at some point. All four figures use the same generic card. As with The Doctor, Styre has a backing tray to hold him steady in his bubble and he’s packaged with his helmet off and at the bottom of the bubble. Styre also has the hologram sticker denoting the number of the figure and the limitation to 3000 pieces. All in all, the presentation here is great, and if it weren’t for the terrible packing job, and the fact that a dog apparently chewed on the edges of mine, I would have kept him carded.
Starting with the head sculpt, there’s something definitely off about Styre. Oh, there’s no doubt that he’s a Sontaran, but the likeness to the mask used in the episode is nowhere near as good as the The Doctor’s sculpt is to Tom Baker. Nonetheless, it works just fine for this sort of stylized figure. The head can turn from side to side, which is probably more than could be said about The Sontarans themselves. The helmet snaps on over the head and stays in place very nicely. And yes, even the little vent is sculpted onto the back of Styre’s cowl.
Styre’s uniform is much simpler than The Doctor’s ensemble, as its basically a metallic looking jumpsuit with a silver belt that closes around his waist with velcro. The jumpsuit is enhanced with plastic bits for the cowl around his neck and his boots. The jumpsuit doesn’t give the quilted look that The Sontarans’ armor had on the small screen, but its a passable approximation. My only real complaint is that the legs of the jumpsuit end just above where the boots start. You can tuck them in, but they tend to pull out again. Unfortunately, the right knee armor on my Sontaran is cracked. Its made of very flimsy plastic and while it isn’t a crippling fault, it’s definitely noticeable and very disappointing. Despite the crappy shipping job, the bubble wasn’t damaged at all, so it looks like this figure went right into the package already damaged. Once again my experience with BBP’s quality control is hit and miss.
Styre comes with two little accessories. You get his control box, which clips onto his belt pretty nicely, and you get his ping pong gun, which is very similar to the one CO sculpted to go with their 5″ Styre figure.
As with The Doctor, Styre sells for twenty bucks. It’s steep, but considering this is a niche collectors item and supposedly limited to 3000, I won’t complain. On the other hand, dropping $20 for a figure that was put into the package with noticeable damage is worth complaining about. For items that are obviously designed to be collectibles, BBP really should be more careful about their quality control standards. That having been said, I’m still pleased enough to venture a purchase of the next two figures: The Cyberman and The Master and see how I make out with those. There are two more planned, Leela and Sutekh, but I’ll see how I make out with the next two before I plan to go any further with the line.
Jan 9 2012

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Retro-Style Figure by Bif Bang Pow

[The sheer insanity of Classic Doctor Who figure releases continues, as Character Options has announced two new sets of 5-inch figures this week. Both are two-packs. One is based off of “Attack of the Cyberman” featuring yet another variant of the lovely Ms Perpugillium Brown and what appears to be a rogue Cyberman. The other, based off of “Remembrance of the Daleks” features Davros as the Dalek Emperor and a destroyed Imperial Dalek. Photos have also surfaced of a “Seeds of Doom” set with another 4th Doctor and a Krynoid, but that one has yet to be officially confirmed. But today, we’re actually looking at some Classic Who figures that were not churned out by Character Options. In fact, these guys were licensed and made by an American company! Ok, enough preamble… on with the figure!]

I can’t tell you how many times I waffled back and forth over buying these figures. On the one hand, they’re retro-style figures based on an episode from the 70’s and that’s pretty nifty because this style of toy matches so well with the vintage characters. On the other hand, I don’t collect a lot of the Mego style figures. I like them well enough when the style fits the license. The Real Ghostbusters figures worked well with the style, and I still have a hankering to pick up the ones BBP did of Flash Gordon and The Dude from The Big Lebowski, but generally speaking these guys aren’t really my thing.

I’ve also been iffy on the prototypes BBP showed off from the beginning and I haven’t exactly been impressed with the few Bif Bang Pow toys that I own. I guess I’m still bitter over my Ming the Merciless’ arm falling off right out of the package. Nonetheless, when I saw the in-package shots of the finished products, I simply had to have these. Thus came my second dilemma. I really intended on buying these and not opening them because they looked so good in the packages. On the other hand, I hardly ever buy toys without the intent of opening them. The obvious solution was to buy two sets, but at $20 a pop, I wasn’t about to do that. So I opted to let fate decide. If the figures arrived with the packaging in excellent condition, I would leave them carded. If they arrived with the packages all miffed, I would open them. And the results are…
Holy Hell!!! Well, the shipping gods were pretty definitive in their answer. These figures are without a doubt in the worst condition I’ve ever had toys shipped to me. Not only are the cards warped, the edges look like they’ve been chewed on by a small dog, and they were taped together with the kind of postage tape that takes all the print off the card when you try to remove it. There was clearly maliciousness at work here. They were shipped for free, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much, plus I guess I’ll be saving some money on clamshells from zoloworld. Let’s take a look at the packages and then rip these bitches open.
In the traditional Mego style, The Doctor come in a coffin-shaped bubble and mounted offset on a simple cardback. The usual practice with the Mego-style is to just let the figures rattle around loose in the bubble, but The Doctor is cradled on a partial inner tray with a twisty tie holding his neck in place and another tray holding his Sonic Screwdriver accessory. His hat is off and at the bottom of the bubble, which was a good choice because, as we’ll see in a bit, the hat would have been better left out. There’s a small hologram sticker on the back of the package that identifies the figure number in a series of 3000 produced. Considering how easy these figures are to get, that limitation seems kind of suspicious.

So, I’m particularly fascinated by the packaging BBP used because it’s identical in design to the new retro style packages adopted by Character Options for their 5″ action figure line. I’ve never seen two different companies produce their own toy lines based off the same license and use an identical style of packaging, and yet here it is. It even uses the same little Timeline of Doctors down on the bottom of the card. It’s weird, but I’m very glad they did it, because I adore this new deco and it works really well with the Mego-style cardback.
Once out of the package, I’ve got to admit that The Doctor looks pretty good. BBP frequently showed off a prototype with a horribly oversized head, and while we shouldn’t expect perfect proportions out of this style of figure, the final result is pretty close. The head is soft and squishy, but the sculpt is a fine likeness to actor Tom Baker. Granted, anything would have been better than the prototype shown at the expos, but I can genuinely say that I’m happy with the final result.
BBP also did a fine job with The Doctor’s iconic outfit. He has a brown jacket, complete with elbow patches, a checkered vest, a necktie and a white shirt, plain kakhi trousers and plastic boots. The clothing fits him very well and everything is nicely stitched. The scarf is without a doubt a big win for this figure. Afterall, the mile long scarf is The 4th Doctor’s most iconic accessory and to be able to do it in real cloth is pretty cool, and it looks great on the figure.
As mentioned, The Doctor comes with a plastic fedora. The sculpt is good, it just doesn’t fit right on his head, thanks to the sculpted mop of curly hair. I’m not going to blame BBP for this snafu, since we’ve seen plenty of problems with toy companies trying to get Indiana Jones’ fedora right on larger scale figures. Either way, the hat isn’t a must, so I’m happy to just have him holding it, or setting it aside all together. The other accessory is the Sonic Screwdriver, which is a nice little sculpt and he can hold it well in either hand.
More than anything else, I bought this figure out of a sense of obligation. Sure, I already have shelves and totes bursting with Doctor Who figures and toys, but here was a Fourth Doctor figure actually licensed and sold by an American toy company. There was never any doubt that I had to have it. In the end, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be and I can genuinely say I’m extremely pleased with the way the figure turned out. I should even note that the joints are pretty solid for a Mego style figure and The Good Doctor doesn’t have much difficulty standing up on his own. As for the price, twenty bucks seems like a lot for a Mego style figure, but I’d dare say that the sculpting and clothing on this figure goes above and beyond what we’ve seen on a lot of figures in this style. BBP really hit a homerun on this one.

I was going to look at both The Doctor and Sontaran Field Major Styre together, but I’ve ran kind of long with this one, so I’ll be back tomorrow to check out The Sontaran.
Jan 5 2012

Doctor Who: “The Keeper of Traken” Collectors Set by Character Options

The rain of Classic Who figure sets from CO continues and this time we’re checking out a decent sized set of three figures, plus some cool accessories, all based on the 4th Doctor story, “The Keeper of Traken.” Overall, I’ve always found this one to be a fairly mediocre episode, albeit heightened by the fact that it introduces companion Nyssa to the series and also sees the return of The Master as a major player and in his new incarnation as played by the late, great Anthony Ainley.

The set comes in an oblong window box with the new Classics retro-style deco and logo. Once again, let me say that I’m loving this new deco and the fact that we don’t have to see the 2005 logo on the Classics packaging anymore. The back of the box has a little synopsis of the story and features various stills featuring the characters. The set includes another variant of The 4th Doctor, another variant of the decayed Master, The Melkur, which is actually The Master’s TARDIS, and a grandfather clock, which is also actually The Master’s TARDIS. As usual, we get the figures mounted beside each other against a backdrop photo from the episode, in this case a shot of The Grove where both The Doctor’s and The Master’s TARDIS landed on Traken. Off to the side you can even see The Source chamber where The Keeper manifests, although it’s hidden behind the grandfather clock.
Let’s kick things off with The Doctor. Yes, it’s yet another 4th Doctor variant. I’ve already got three 4th Doctors in my collection and I’ve been pretty nitpicky about buying them so chances are a lot of people have more like five or six. Granted, this one is one of the better variants out there, as it features The Doctor in his vest and shirtsleeves and not his coat and scarf. The figure also features the new ball jointed shoulders so that’s a big bonus. I’m a lot more pleased with this figure than I thought I would be. He looks really good, except the paintwork on his eyes gives him a bit of a zombie-like expression. Since he uses the same head sculpt as the figures designed to wear the scarf, he also suffers from a bit of giraffe neck, but all in all not a bad figure at all. The Doctor comes with a scaled version of The Source manipulator as seen in the episode and a Sonic Screwdriver.
Next up is The Master in his second emaciated incarnation. A long while back I looked at the figure of the decaying Master from the episode“The Deadly Assassin” but his appearance (not to mention the actor) changed a bit to this appearance in “The Keeper of Traken.” The figure reuses just about everything from the last release (minus the Sash of Rassilon), but does feature a new head sculpt that really nails the way The Master looked in this episode. The robes are also darker this time around, being more of a proper black whereas the last release was a charcoal color. I probably could have gotten by without this version of The Master in my collection, but he’s still an excellent figure, so I’m not complaining.
The last figure we have is the Melkur, which is actually The Master’s TARDIS. I really had no idea what to expect from this one and was preparing myself for the likelihood that it would just be another static rotocast piece. As it turns out I was only partly right. The torso is rotocast, but the rest of the figure is regular molded plastic and Melkur has a nice amount of articulation for what was essentially a statue in the episode. The head swivels and the arms swivel at the shoulders. The legs actually have lateral movement at the hips too. This may not be the most exciting figure out there, but once again, CO really turned out a great sculpt of this very distinctive looking design.
Finally, you have the grandfather clock, which is as expected just a rotocast piece with stickers used for the detail in the clockface and front glass. This was the form The Master’s TARDIS took when he used it to trap Tremas and take over his body at the end of the story. I always thought it was kind of silly to have such an ordinary Earth clock be a part of the decor on a totally alien planet, but I try not to read too much into this stuff. In any event, it’s a good little replica of the on screen counterpart and its kind of cool that we now have three different versions of The Master’s TARDIS. Can a rotocast “Planet of Fire” column be far behind? At this point anything is possible.
As with most of the recent Collector Sets, this one retails for right around fifty bucks, and I’ll admit this one really is for the more hardcore collectors with deep pockets. Yes, this Doctor figure is a lot different than previous ones and has the extra articulation, but even the more casual collectors may be getting weary of 4th Doctor variants by now. The Master is also a variant of a previous release, and the grandfather clock and the Melkur, while very cool, probably aren’t considered “must haves” by a lot of people who are budgeting for the influx of so many new Doctor Who figures and toys. If you are on a budget, you may want to save your pennies for the sets that released this week. But if you have no problem pouring money into the deludge of awesome Doctor Who figures, you should like this set just fine.
Dec 30 2011

Doctor Who: “Image of the Fendahl” Collector Set

I warned y’all last week that there was a ton of Doctor Who Classics releases coming out from Character Options. I just got done covering the “Invasion of Time” and “Caves of Androzani” 2-Packs. Last week saw the release of the larger “Image of the Fendahl” and“Keeper of Traken” Collector Sets, and there’s three more coming out next week with the “Enemies of the 1st Doctor,” “Enemies of the 3rd Doctor,” and “The Chase” Collector Sets. Sheesh! Today we’re looking at this big boxed set based off the 4th Doctor story, “Image of the Fendahl”. I’ll be honest, this episode has never been one of my “go to” episodes when I’m looking for a Doctor Who to watch, but between the time I ordered this set and the time it got to my door (which was only two days thanks to Who North America’s amazing shipping and service), I made some time to rewatch it. It’s a solid episode, albeit pretty slow to get going.

If you own either of the Sontaran boxed sets, you’ll have an idea of the size of this set. The window style box is similar in design, but it incorporates the new retro deco and logo that we’ve been seeing on the recent Classics releases. I love the new look, as the use of the 2005 logo on the Classics toys never felt right to me. CO has been making it a practice to include printed stills from the episode sets as inserts to create a little display diorama in the box. They’ve slowly been getting more elaborate, and this one is really impressive with some 3D elements that include a table to support the accessories, and an open door to serve as a cardback for the Leela figure. What’s more, everything is secured in a way that you can easily get everything out without mangling the insert. On the downside, if you’re a mint-in-box collector, the adult Fendahleen completely obscures the skull and the embryo Fendahleen accessoreies in the backdrop.
Let’s start with Leela. Oh my. I spent decades wishing for a Leela figure and now I have three of them. It’s such a great time to be a Doctor Who fan! Some may cry foul at having to get yet another variant of the sexy warrior of the Sevateem, but I’m getting pretty full up on 4th Doctor figures, so I’m glad CO went with Leela instead. Granted, this version isn’t as new as the last one, it does feature some new sculpting and, as far as I’m concerned, it does represent the best Leela figure to date. From the neck down, this is the exact same figure we got in the “Invasion of Time” set. The head, however, is a new sculpt with her hair up, which finally gives us a Leela with workable neck articulation. I should also note that from a Quality Control standpoint, this figure is perfect. The paint is crisp and sharp, the joints are tight. It’s a far cry from the sloppy first release that felt more like a custom. As always, Leela comes with her little knife and a working sheath to store it in.
Since this is a reuse of the last Leela’s body, you get the exact same points of articulation. I’ll refrain from ticking them all off again, but suffice it to say it means you get the new awesome ball joints in the shoulders, and the same not-so-awesome ball joints in the hips. The hip joints feel a little tighter this time around, which means Leela’s legs don’t constantly pop off in my hand, but they’ll still come off if you play around with her long enough.
The adult Fendahleen is pretty damn big and dominates the set. If you haven’t seen the episode, it’s basically a giant worm that looks like something out of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos. As with some of the other set pieces CO has put out like the Master’s TARDIS and the Sontaran spaceships, the Fendahleen is rotocast, making it more of a statue than anything else, but given what it is, the figure lends itself well to this type of toy. That having been said, the sculpt and paintwork are both excellent. I tend to expect sculpting to be somewhat softer on rotocast statues, but this one is packed with textured detail and uses some additonal plastic pieces to add the cobra-like hood and the tendrils that spill out of the mouth. There is even a wee bit of articulation in the tail, as it will swivel on a cut joint.
The accessories include the skull and stand and an adorable little embryo Fendahleen. The amount of detail CO worked into the tiny skull is just ridiculous. It’s cast in an orange translucent plastic, but partially washed over with a grey paint spray. The result is a nice light piping effect if you hold it up to the light. They even carved the pentagram into the top of it. Amazing. The embryo Fendahleen is a tiny copy of the bigger version and represents my only real gripe with this set. Considering the price tag, would it have killed CO to throw three or four of these tiny Fendahleen in here? Maybe they’re planning a carded 20 pack like they did with the Cybermats and Adipose. Go ahead, CO, I’d buy it.
The set retails for about fifty bucks. If you willingly shelled out the fifty bucks for either (or both) of the Sontaran sets, than I think you’ll probably be happy with the value here. True, you got two figures in those sets, whereas here you just get Leela. But the rotocast Fendahleen’s sculpt and paintwork is a lot more impressive than the Sontaran ship and while I don’t want to knock CO’s willingness to give us a toy Sontaran spaceship, I think the Fendahleen is a much better display piece. It may not be a bargain, but I’m really thrilled with this set and it’s obvious that CO put a lot of love and care into it, from the packaging right down to the sculpt and paintwork. I suppose I could bitch about having to buy three Leela figures before getting one that I am totally satisfied with, but honestly, I probably would have bought all three variants anyway.
Dec 22 2011

Doctor Who: “Invasion of Time” 2-Pack by Character Options

Yuppers, it’s time for more Classic Who with yet another 2-Pack where Character Options has given us a variant of a Companion partnered with the chief baddie from the episode. “Invasion of Time” is a great episode for a bunch of reasons. The whole thing takes place on Gallifrey so we get to see a lot more of the Time Lords then ever before, and we also get to see a lot more of the TARDIS interior then ever before. It also begs the question, of all The Doctor’s enemies including the Cybermen and the Daleks, it turns out to be the Sontarans that first invade Gallifrey? Really? Wow! Well, hey, at least it wasn’t the Rutans.

Just like the “Caves of Androzani” set, this one comes on in a clamshell package with the new retro style logo and deco. The back panel shows some images of Leela and Stor in stills from the episode and does an admirable job of chronicling the rather convaluted story in just a couple of paragraphs. Get yourself a pair of scissors or a blade to cut this baby open.
So, let’s start with Leela. Let me go on record by saying that I’ve always preferred Leela’s original, darker outfit to this one, but I was still excited to get this variant since my other Leela figure had some nagging paint issues. I was hoping for better with this release, and I certainly got a quality paint job this time. Apart from a little dot on one of her legs, this figure is free of all the dirty scarring that is present on my single carded Leela.
Leela shares the same legs and head with the last figure, but also sports a lot of new sculpting to make this figure unique. The outfit sculpt is entirely new, as is her neckless, and the armbands on her biceps. She still features a sculpted sheath on her belt that can hold her tiny little knife, and she can still hold the knife fairly well in her right hand. I mentioned that the head is the same sculpt, but its amazing the differences paint can make, and while I didn’t have any issues with the figure’s head, I’ll concede that this one turned out looking a little better. Considering the quality control issues on the last Leela, I’m really amazed at how well this figure turned out, and I’ll likely be displaying her as my primary version until I can get a better example of the darker outfitted Leela.
Leela features the exact same articulation as the original release. That’s good, because it means she has the ball jointed shoulders. That’s bad, because it means she has those terrible, funky ball jointed hips. This figure’s legs don’t seem to pop out as easily as the original’s, but they’re also harder to pose. Leela’s head is technically equipped with a swivel cut, but her sculpted hair prevents much head movement. The Leela coming with the Fendahl set should fix that as she has her hair tied back. Other articulation includes swivels in the biceps and wrists, swivel in the waist, hinges in the elbows and knees, and swivels just above the boots.
And then you have Commander Stor. One of the downsides of this episode is that Stor’s makeup looked absolutely dreadful. The Sontarans had a strange habit of looking worse as the show went on, so I tend to like the ones seen in “The Time Warrior” and “The Sontaran Experiment” better than the ones seen in this episode or even “The Two Doctors.” Nonetheless, for good or for ill, the figure recreates Stor’s face with remarkable accuracy, right down to the grease paint around the eyes to conceal the eyeholes of the mask. It’s easy to do a comparison with the on screen counterpart, since Stor spends a good amount of the episode mugging right for the camera. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to like this figure’s head sculpt at all, but it actually looks pretty good. I still prefer the one on Styre, though.
Commander Stor’s basic body is the same as the one used for the Field Major Styre figure, but he has a brand new helmet and cowl, a newly sculpted belt, and a little loop sculpted into his right leg to hold his gun. You can see some minor evolutions in the outfit design here, and I definitely like the bulkier helmet with the pronounced ring running around it. Sculpted detail includes the probic vent in the back of the cowl, which of course is every Sontaran’s weak spot. The helmet is also much easier to put on than Styre’s. Overall, the paintwork is good, but my figure actually has some silver rubbing along one of his boots. I don’t think it’s intentional, but it looks like battle wear to his armor, so I’m not too concerned about it. In addition to the armor evolving, the Sontarans themselves underwent some biological changes. Stor has the screen accurate fat-fingered claws as opposed to the regular hands seen on the Styre figure.
Stor’s articulation is identical to previous Sontaran figures. The head turns; The arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows; The legs rotate at the hips and have lateral hinges, the knees are hinged, and there are swivel cuts in the thighs.
Apart from Stor’s tiny little gun, you do get one big accessory in the set, and that’s the very awesome De-Mat gun. Built by the Time Lady Rodan while under hypnosis, the De-Mat gun was a Time Lord weapon powered by The Key of Rassilon that wipes its target completely out of time and space. The sculpt is pretty nice, although it would have been cool if CO had painted the key onto the side where it plugged into the prop.
As with the “Caves of Androzani” 2-Pack, this one will set you back between $35-40. As far as the Companion figure goes, I’d rank this one as the same value as Peri. Yes, it’s a variant of a figure you may already own, but it’s not a quick cash-grab repaint. You get significantly new sculpting for your money, and in the case of my experience, better quality control this time around. I’m guessing Stor from this set will be more desireable than Jek from the last set, especially since Jek was just a one-off baddie and the Sontarans are an ongoing presence in Doctor Who. I guess what I’m saying is if you didn’t balk at paying the forty bucks for the “Androzani” set, than this one would be a no brainer. If you can only fit one of the two sets in your budget, I’d consider going for this one.