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.

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.

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.

The packaging is what has become standard for the Series 5 figures. It’s very similar to the packages that the previous Strategist and Drone Daleks came in. The big differences are the back of the card, which just shows the five Paradigm Daleks and has a blurb about them from the episode. The front of the card has a bubble that says, “The New Dalek Paradigm is Here!” and another that says, “5 To Collect!”

I’ve already reviewed this mold no less than three times, [actually, it’s four times if you count the Stone Dalek. -FF] so forgive me if I’m a little brief here. I do want to point out that while I’m still kind of iffy on this design on the small screen, I absolutely adore the way they translate into figure form. Maybe it didn’t help that they were only seen in a Dalek ship that looked like the boiler room of my old high school and that they were practically scraping the top of their domes on the ceiling. Toss some of these New Paradigm Daleks on a planet extreminating the crap out of inferior fools, and I might like them a lot more on the small screen. Either way, they make for brilliant looking toys.

I’ll also point out that the quality of the paint on these figures truly is outstanding, especially when compared to the dodgy paintwork on most of the classic Dalek releases. My Paradigms have virtually no slop, smudging or bleeding. Just beautiful glossy paint that really makes the newness of the designs stand out like brand new cars that just rolled off the floor of a dealership. Even the goofy organic eye in the stalk has grown on me quite a bit.

I’m really happy to finally own a full set of these Daleks. The total cost of the pre-order with shipping put these guys at about $17 a piece, which is defintely more than I like to pay for Who figures. Then again, if I can pay $28 with shipping for a Masters of the Universe Classics figure from Mattel, then $17 for an import figure from my all-time favorite show doesn’t seem so bad in comparison. It doesn’t bother me at all that I now own three of the Drones, since they’re just army builders anyway. I could probably have done without two Strategists, but I’m not going to pick nits. I do still think that CO should run off another batch of these, though. It isn’t every day the Daleks get completely new designs, and whether you love them or hate them, they’re some of the most important releases in the line of New Who figures and I really think they should be made accordingly available.

So, slowly but surely CO is shelling out the New Paradigm Daleks in figure form. The red Drone Dalek has been available on a single carded release or as part of the Underhenge figure set, and now the blue Strategist has found its way to the pegs in a single carded version. Right now the yellow (Eternal) and the orange (Scientist) Daleks have also been available as limited exclusives, although word is that CO will be making all of the new Daleks available as single carded releases in the near future.

The Dalek Strategist comes in the Series 5 packaging. Again, I like the card and while mint-on-card collectors may bemoan CO’s dropping of the clamshell format, frankly I love the fact that I can now get at my figure without needing a blowtorch. The back panel shows this wave of figures, which is I guess what we would call a revision rather than a full wave. We’ve seen all of these figures before, with the exception of the Looping Angel, which is just the same mold recast in translucent plastic and Professor Bracewell with his hand painted to be wearing a glove like he was seen for a few seconds in The Pandorica Opens. Seriously, CO? No Rory, no Liz Ten and no River Song, but you had to rerelease a new version of Bracewell by painting one of his hands? Alrighty then…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love this mold. I’m still not convinced that I want this design to be the Daleks used from now on in the show, but it sure makes for a great action figure. Once again, the paint used for this figure is amazing. It’s high gloss with very little slop or bleed and it looks absolutely fantastic when flanked by my two Drone Daleks. I still don’t like the organic eyeball at the end of the stalk, though, it just seems silly.

The articulation remains the same. You have three ball joints: One for the weapon, one for the sucker, and one for the eyestalk. He also rolls around on three wheels.

And, yeah, that’s all I really have to say about this guy. If you own the mold in one of the other colors, you know exactly what to expect here. He looks great and he’s tons of fun. E-tailers seem to be selling him for an average of $14.99, give or take a buck, which is not too bad seeing as it’s an import and considering how much some of the first wave of Series 5 figures retailed for. So, go get him!

The packaging is the same as we saw on the Wave 1 assortment from Series 5. The cards are a lot shorter and the bubbles are wider. The blue pattern more closely matches the vortex from the new opening credits, and of course it has the new series logo too. The back panel shows photos of the above mentioned figures. These cards are still something of a novelty to me, since I’ve only bought a handful of Series 5single carded figures this year. I still like it, especially since it’s a lot easier to get into than the clamshells that CO is still using for the Classics figures.

Let’s get the Dalek Drone out of the way first, since I’ve already reviewed this figure as part of the Underhenge Set and I don’t have a lot more to say other than he’s exactly the same and I still love him. Seriously, this figure has made me reconsider my whole distain for the New Paradigm Daleks. They may look kind of goofy on the screen, but they make awesome action figures. He’s just so pretty and his glossy paintjob looks amazing and there’s zero slop or bleeding. Seriously, CO, you should paint all your Dalek figures this well. Supposedly, CO has wised up and is bringing all the Power Ranger Daleks out in single carded versions, and I couldn’t be happy. I’ll take a case, please.

Next up is The Smiler from Episode 2, The Beast Below. Again, CO has a new version of this figure coming out in the next assortment that should have one face on each side, which is the one I really thought I was getting when I ordered it. My God, CO, you’ve released four figures from this episode (Hawthorne, Peter the Winder, Smiler #1 and Smiler #2) and still no Liz Ten. Wow. Just, wow. Plus, if this were the old days, you just know CO would have produced a deluxe version of this figure with a booth. But, I digress. The Smiler is a very nice figure for what it is. The head sculpt is excellent and he even has that little electrical component thing on the side. As expected, there isn’t a lot of detail to work with on the rest of the figure. He’s wearing soft plastic sculpted robes, so there isn’t a lot else to see on him.

The Smiler’s articulation is severely hampered by his robes. He has hinged knees and swivels in the thighs, but there’s not much you can do with his legs. His arms rotate at the shoulders and are hinged at the elbow and swivel at the wrist. His head rotates too. It’s not up to par with most of the DW figures released these days, but that’s more because of the figure’s design elements than fault on CO’s part.

Last up is Francesco the Vampire, as his name appears on the card. Kind of odd, since technically he wasn’t a vampire but actually an alien fishman from Saturn. But, seeing as how the episode was entitiled Vampires in Venice, I guess we get where CO was going with this one. At first, I was waffling on whether to get this one or not, but having him in hand, I’m really glad I did, because he looks absolutely great. CO spared no expense in their attention to the details of his Renaissance garb. I really like the attention to detail on his tunic and his sword belt. Original production shots of this figure showed him having a scabbard, but I guess this got taken out for the final figure. You can still slide his rapier into the belt, though, and it looks good. The head sculpt is excellent, and the paint apps are clean. I think the teeth could have been accentuated a bit more in the sculpt and paint just because they should have been more dominant looking.

Francesco has standard articulation for the current figures. His head rotates, his arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs have universal joints in the hips, but his tunic inhibits most of the movement here. He does have swivels in the thighs and hinged knees.

With the exception of the Dalek Drone, I can’t say any of these figures are must-have additions to every collection. The Smiler is a solid figure, but he’s certainly not destined to be an iconic Doctor Who baddie. Francesco is an excellent figure, but being the one-off villain that he is, some collectors may want to pass on him. The good news is that these figures seem to be retailing for a lot less than the first Series 5 wave, which certainly may influence a lot of purchases.

The “New Paradigm” Daleks are color coded according to their function, and the red Dalek included in this set is apparently your standard soldier or drone. I’m kind of surprised that CO didn’t decide to include the white Dalek in this set, since that’s the one that speaks. Anywho… whatever you think about the new design, I think you have to agree that Character Options did a wonderful job reproducing it for their action figure line. It’s much bigger than the previous modern series Daleks, mostly because of the thicker bumper on the skirt. The other distinctive part of the design is the hunchback and the indented black strip on the back. I’ve been told that this is a hatch designed to allow the Dalek to swap out and store spare weapons or appendages, but we haven’t seen this feature in action yet. The new Daleks also apparently have an organic eye in the stalk, which wasn’t quite so apparent in the series, but it is pretty obvious on the figure. I think this is really the only aspect of this figure that I don’t like.  

The paint job on the Dalek Drone is excellent, which is quite a relief since CO has had a lot of quality control issues on Dalek paint in the past. The red is high gloss and the blacks are matte. There’s very little slop or bleeding in the paint to speak of. I have to say, having this figure in hand has really improved my feelings toward the new Dalek design. It’s undoubtedly a great looking figure.

The petrified Dalek is identical in sculpt to the Drone. The stone finish is just like the one used on the petrified Roman. The surface is peppered with a realistic gritty texture that makes the faux stone appearance very convincing. Unlike the petrified Roman, this figure actually makes sense as it was featured pursuing The Doctor through most of the episode Big Bang.

The articulation on both figures is identical, and very similar to past Dalek figures. The Dalek still rolls around on three wheels. The energy gun and sucker arm are both positioned on ball joints, and both can be removed. The eye stalk is no longer just on an up and down hinge, but now it situated on a ball joint just like the Dalek’s arms.

And that wraps up my look at the Underhenge set. Most e-tailers have been selling it for around $60, which isn’t too bad at about ten bucks a figure. On the other hand, chances are you’re getting some figures in this box that you wouldn’t have bought on their own, so only you can decide whether it’s worth it in the end. I would certainly not hesitate to say that there isn’t a bad figure in the box, but then I still question CO’s logic of giving us Romans when we still haven’t gotten figures like Rory, Liz Ten or any of the Silurians.

This is the first of the new series of figures I’m looking at, so we finally have all new packaging. The artwork is similar to the style used on the 11th Doctor Crash Set with the blue background and the new logo introduced in Series 5. The big difference here is that CO finally gave up the use of a full plastic clamshell and went back to mounting the figure in a bubble on a simple card. The package is wider and appears more squat than the previous designs, but overall I like it. It looks pleasing and its much easier to get into than the clamshells. Although, I imagine if you’re a mint on card collector this might be a setback, since these cards are more easily damaged. On the other hand, the logo insert in the bubble does obscure the bottom third of the figure.

A large portion of this figure is a reuse and repaint of the 2005-2010 Daleks we’ve been seeing all along. In fact, the only new sculpting here is the equipment belt that’s covering up the Dalek’s shoulder slats. The belt is very nicely sculpted and textured and includes several pouches, a canteen and an unkown silver container. The new paint job is a solid olive green with some silver accents to the belt and a tiny British flag painted right under the eyestalk.

The Ironside has the same articulation as previous Dalek figures. The sucker arm and gun are both on ball joints, and both arms can be removed from their sockets. The head rotates 360 degrees and the eye stalk can raise and also be removed from its socket.

On initial offering, these Series 5 figures have been far more expensive than previous releases. The Ironside set me back $20 and while its possible some e-tailers will price drop somewhere down the line, I didn’t want to risk missing out on him. He’s a striking looking figure and a very cool design concept, even if his role in the story turned out to be fairly short lived and forgettable. The only thing that would have really improved this figure would be if it had a voice chip that screamed, “WOULD YOU LIKE SOME TEA????” Who knows, maybe CO will grace us with a 12″ talking RC version. Yeah, pretty doubtful, but I’d be on board if they did.

 

 

Now, I will freely admit, the 12″ RC Dalek is not the ultimate in Dalek toys. No, there’s actually an 18″ motion sensor Dalek out there that probably trumps this toy in its awesomeness, but that’s ok. There’s time enough to track that one down too. Right now I’m here to bask in the glory of this guy.

I love CO’s packaging on these bigger toys, because its so in-your-face huge. Even if I wanted to display this toy in the box, there’s no way I could, it wouldn’t fit on any of my display shelves, but then even out of the box, the Dalek itself barely does. Besides being huge, the box is blindingly bright with its yellow-orange firey motif that I suppose is meant to simulate some kind of temporal vortex energy that could burn your face off. There’s lots of photos of both the toy and clips from the series, and some good blurbs. Its almost a shame to tear this box apart to get to my Dalek… almost.

Unlike the 12″ RC Davros, the Dalek isn’t actually screwed down to the packing so you won’t actually need tools to get it out. There are a shitload of twisty ties, though, but after a lot of twisting, shredding and mauling, I was left with a Dalek in front of me and about three pounds of wrecked cardboard at my feet. Getting the Dalek out for the first time was an awesome event indeed. I carefully inspected it to find that there were no quality control issues, no paint slop, nothing to gripe about. This guy was perfect. Few people outside of Whovians have ever even heard of Character Options, but Hasbro sure could take a lesson from them in terms of overall product quality.

Keep in mind that when we say 12″ Dalek, this is not a 1:6 scale Dalek, its actually bigger then that. Since a Dalek is a bit shorter than your average person, this Dalek will be out of place with any of the 1:6 scale Who figures you may already own. My 1:6 scale Cyberman looks scrawny in comparison. That may disappoint some, but I’m happier to have the bigger Dalek as a stand alone piece, even if it can’t interact with my other 12″ Doctor Who figures.

This version is the generic every day soldier Dalek. I say that beause its surprising how long it took me to find one. E-tailers seemed to all be offering the Supreme Dalek or the Imperial Guard Dalek or Dalek Thay, but all I wanted was a regular one. Its obviously based off the current series modern Dalek design, which I love because its so close to the original designs, only with lots more detail and the modern coppery gold color scheme looks great.

Without its electronics, the Dalek doesn’t do a whole lot. You aren’t supposed to turn his head or eye stalk because its hooked into the RC mechanics and you might fuck it up. Seriously, it says so right in the booklet. His sucker and blaster arms are on ball joints, though, and can be moved about. I was a little disappointed the sucker arm doesn’t extend, on a toy of this size, it really should have had a telescoping arm. You can, however, rotate his midsection independently of his head and skirt so that he can shoot at things behind him. This gimmick was first showcased in the episode “Dalek” but was never seen again.

In “Try Me” mode, you can press one of the Dalek’s sensor globes and his eye will light up and he will speak one of his phrases while his “ear” lights light up with each syllable. Its fantastically done and very realistic. This is the mode I leave him in most often because i can get a quick threat out of him while walking by the display case, and it doesn’t drain his batteries too badly. My only gripe is that when he says Exterminate and it makes the sound of his blaster firing, his “ears” shouldn’t light up in synch with the blaster noise, only when he’s speaking. Minor gripe? You betcha, but that’s how awesome this toy is. Here’s a complete list of his quotes:

• Multiple spectrum scanning now engaged!
• Hault or you will be exterminated!
• We are the supreme beings!
• Seek, Locate, Annihilate!
• Obey The Daleks! No other warning will be given!
• You are an enemy of the Daleks.
• Exterminate!!! [Blaster Fire Sound]

The remote control feature is actually pretty great. The control unit is almost identical to the Davros one, only its copper colored and has a different sticker in the middle with the Dalek’s phrases. It has a standard two-lever control system, and it works just like driving a tank. Throw both forward or back to move the Dalek in those directions. Mix it up to turn him around. Even though I hardly ever use the remote control features for my 12″ Davros, the Dalek is just more fun and I’m not sure why. When he’s on full On mode, his eye stays lit all the time and when you roll him forward or backward, his head rotates from side to side and his eye raises and lowers as if he’s searching for fools to exterminate. Oh yeah, don’t stare directly at his eye light, its bright as all fuck and it might burn your retinas. Seriously, it hurts!

I think the average MSRP for this guy on initial offering was $69.99. When he was first released he went for closer to $100 in the US by scalpers and importers, but now his price has cooled off a bit. I was able to get one for $39.99 and I was certainly plenty happy with that. Of course, he required me to reshuffle all my Doctor Who figure shelves to make room, but it was well worth it.