Tag Archives: doctor who

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.

slith2

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.

slith5

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.

slith3

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.

slith1

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.

slith4

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.

aut3

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.

aut2

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.

sjskud2

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.

sjskud3

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!

sjskud4

sjskud5

[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.

tarbank2

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.

tarbank4

tarbank3

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]

dwrevdal1

dwrevdal2

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.

dwrevdal3

dwrevdal4

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.

dwrevdal7

dwrevdal8

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.

dwrevdal5

dwrevdal6

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!

dwrevdal12

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.

dwrevdal10

dwrevdal11

dwrevdal9

Mar 12 2011

Doctor Who: The Face of Boe by Character Options

I’ve still got a buttload of new Tron and Lego stuff to look at, but in the interest of mixing things up for those of you who don’t care about either, I’m going to take the weekend off from Tron and Legos and feature something different for a change. Today, I thought I’d dive into my Doctor Who shelves and come up with an older figure that I haven’t looked at here yet. There are actually a lot of great figures on my Who shelves that I need to revisit for Figurefan, but let’s start today with one of my favorite of the deluxe style figures: The Face of Boe.

fob3

The package is long gone, and honestly I don’t even remember what it looked like, apart from featuring the orange swirly background and the 2005 series logo. The cool thing about Boe is he started out with what seemed like just a cameo of a big odd looking alien, and slowly he grew into this recurring mysterious character until ultimately it was intimated that Boe is none other than the impossibly old incarnation of the immortal Jack Harkness himself. It always seemed to me like Russell T. Davies left just enough wiggle room there to backpeddle on it if he had to, but honestly, if evolving into a big head in a tank is the cost of immortality, I think I’ll pass thank you.

fob1

Obviously, Boe isn’t so much a figure as he is… well, I don’t know what you’d call it other than just a toy. He’s a giant head in a tank and I think Character Options did a pretty impressive job recreating this extremely unconventional alien in toy form. The head inside the tank is a very remarkable sculpt and certainly captures the look on the screen, right down to all his tendrils. He even has a little action feature that opens and closes his mouth when you work the switch on the back of the tank. Obviously, the smokey atmosphere in Boe’s tank isn’t replicated here, although CO added some green ooze paint apps inside, which I’m not all that crazy about. They just look cheesy and not really accurate to what was seen in the show.

fob2

One thing I really like about this toy is the detailed sculpt of the life support and locomotive elements of Boe’s tank. I don’t recall ever seeing the sides of the tank in the show, but here we get to see what it looked like up close and personal. There are all sorts of tubes and tanks and controls and the entire thing rolls along on two simulated molded treads. In reality, the toy rolls along on two wheels and a ball bearing, all concealed under the toy.

fob4

If you collect CO’s Doctor Who figures and you don’t already have The Face of Boe in your collection, I really recommend hunting him down. He’s not as easy to find these days as he once was, but he’s worth the effort. Not only is he a great looking toy, but he certainly turned out to be a pretty influencial character for both the 9th and 10th Doctor. And who knows? We may even see him again one day.

Feb 13 2011

Doctor Who: “The Sontaran Experiment” Collector Set by Character Options

So, in the past six months or so we Doctor Who fans got a lot of figures we didn’t think we were ever going to get. We got the Delgado and Ainley Masters, we got a Special Weapons Dalek [well, some bastards did, anyway -FF], classic Davros, our first classic Companion, and even our first figure from the 1996 Fox TV movie. And yet even with all of that, CO can still manage to surprise me. Today, I am holding in my hands the toy version of the Sontaran Spaceship from the 1975 episode, “The Sontaran Experiment.” It’s basically a big rubbery silver golf ball and it alone proves to me that there is nothing… nothing… in the world of Doctor Who that is completely out of the question when it comes to CO and their toys. If we can get this, anything is possible.

The package is huge and glorious and its existence seems to defy all reason. If you’ve picked up any of the Classic themed boxed sets over the last year, you’ll be familiar with the overall design and artwork. The box uses the blue swirly timefield introduced for the Series 5 toys and the Doctor Who logo introduced at the start of the 2005 series. The cardboard insert has a backdrop still from the episode, which includes a classic Doctor Who quarry representing future Earth and the robot used by Sontaran Field-Major Styre to capture and experiment on the human colonists in the episode. As with all of these sets, a little careful snipping and you can save the insert to use as a diorama to display your figures. The window shows off the contents: The Sontaran Spaceship, the 4th Doctor and Field-Major Styre himself. The back and side panels show off stills from the episode and include a short synopsis of the story. I may never display it again, but the package is so cool, I opted to save it.

I’m guessing that most collectors did not buy this set for The Doctor figure, so I’m going to get him out of the way first. I’m sure I’ve said before that I’m not big on collecting variants of each Doctor, but it’s become inevitable that I wind up with them in my collection, as they are frequently packed into these sets. I already have CO’s first 4th Doctor release as well as “The Warrior’s Gate” release, I could have done just fine without yet another 4th Doctor figure in my collection. [Yes, folks, I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, as I’m complaining about owning too many Tom Baker Doctor Who figures. It’s not lost on me that 20 years ago I would have sacrificed kittens to the devil to have just one Doctor Who figure as awesome as this one. -FF] That having been said, I really like this one. This figure features a combination of reused parts, new paintwork and some new sculpting. The base figure is a repaint of CO’s first 4th Doctor figure, but the jacket is newly sculpted. The scarf is basically the same in both paint and sculpt, but unlike the original 4th Doc figure, which came with a serious hatless head and a grinning hatted head, this one has a serious face with a hat. It does, however, use the same peg, giving you some more mix and match options for your original 4th Doctor figure. He also comes with his Sonic Screwdriver. All in all, if I have to get stuck with a figure I didn’t want, this one is not too shabby.

Field-Major Styre is an amazing figure and CO managed to capture all the retro-awesomeness of the classic Sontarans in this guy. Don’t get me wrong, I like the modern series Sontarans enough to have purchased nearly a dozen of the figures, but I still have a special place in my heart for this original design. Collectors who are only familiar with New Who may be surprised to learn that the classic Sontarans weren’t so short, but their faces haven’t changed much at all. CO did a fine job reproducing the slight differences in the older version. I was actually about to cry foul on the figure’s fully formed fingers, but then I realized that there have been some changes to the Sontaran’s hands over the years and this figure’s digits are accurate to what was seen in the episode. The quilted leather armor is wonderfully recreated here as are all the little details like the silver belt with control box and even the tiny probic vent in the back of the neck armor. In addition to his removable helmet, Styre comes with a faithful reproduction of the infamous Sontaran ping-pong gun! Simply, awesome. If CO ever wants to release this figure on a single card, I would happily buy up a bunch of them.

And then there’s the Sontaran Spaceship. Outside of the various incarnations of the TARDIS, this is the first vehicle CO has delivered with the action figure line, although, in execution it’s more like a prop than an actual vehicle for the figures. The ship is sculpted in a dense rubbery plastic and it has some decent heft to it. The exterior is the spitting image of the design seen in the episode and if you pick it up there’s even sculpted engine thrusters inside the ring that it stands on. It’s mostly an even silver color, although there’s some paint spray along the bottom near the base to simulate mud splatter from its landing. The door opens, but there’s where things start to fall down a bit. Rather than make it a hollow like the TARDIS, there’s a slight indent with a poorly sculpted and completely non functional chair. CO really dropped the ball (har, har)on the interior of this ship. Not even a sticker with some controls or instruments or anything. I would have much rather the whole thing had just been hollow and unfinished, but I don’t want to come down on CO too hard. I’m still happy they made it, and it looks great on my shelf with Styre emerging from behind the door.

At about $60-65, this is indeed a “collectors’ set” as in you really need to be serious about your Who toy collecting to justify the price. It’s two figures and a big ball, and no matter how you break it down, it’s hard to see where the money went. It’s also worth noting that one of the two figures is one that most collectors don’t really need. I feel horrible complaining about the contents of a set that is this obscure and therefore so thoroughly awesome in its obscurity, but rather than give us another variant of the 4th Doctor, I would have much rather CO chose to pack a different figure into this set. Maybe that goes without saying, and I’ll confess to be totally surprised at how much I ended up loving this particular 4th Doctor figure, but there was so much more potential as a second pack-in figure for this set. Sarah-Jane, Harry Sullivan, a second Sontaran, even the robot, any of them would have made the price of this set a lot easier to swallow. But that’s ok, CO, I’m just really glad to have it.


Jan 30 2011

Doctor Who: “Vengeance on Varos” Peri and Sil by Character Options

A little while ago, when I looked at the “Claws of Axos” set, I commented that getting figures of the Ainley and Delgado Masters meant that classic companions couldn’t be far behind… and here we go. While those releases made me confident we’d see a classic companion at some point this year, I won’t sit here and tell you that I had any inkling the first would be Peri. Not that getting Peri is a bad thing, I just thought it odd that CO chose to base the first classic companion set on this particular episode. In a lot of ways “Vengeance on Varos”represented everything that critics said was wrong with Doctor Who in the mid 80s. The episode featured institutionalized torture, horrible medical experiments, and loads of gratuitous violence. But hey it also had Sean Connery’s son, so it wasn’t all bad.

The figures come in a window box very similar in size and design to the aforementioned “Claws of Axos” set. The figures are held in a tray with twist-ties and have a nice diorama backdrop that you can keep to display the figures in. The back panel has a nice blurb recounting the story of the episode. The package is very collector friendly too, should you decide to play around with them and then return them to the box for display purposes. The art and style is a mix between the blue deco introduced with Series 5 packaging and the older logo introduced with Series 1 back in 2005. Overall, it’s a nice compact little presentation that’s very pleasing on the eye and yet unassuming enough that it only just hints at the unending flood of classic companion figures that I hope are headed our way over the course of this year. Ok, so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at the figures.

I’m going to start with Sil because I’m just as excited to get him as I am Peri. At a time when Doctor Who was still plagued by a lot of unconvincing rubber suit monsters, Sil was an amazingly convincing looking alien and a damn memorable character to boot. Hailing from the planet Thoros Beta, he’s sort of part humanoid and part slug. The sculpt that CO devised for Sil is right up there with some of their best work, and that’s saying a lot, as they captured his appearance perfectly right down to his insane stare and his tongue flicking out between his teeth. It’s just marvelous. On the downside, CO opted to make him just one big marvelously sculpted hunk of plastic with zero articulation. At first this disappointed me, but the more I think of it, the more I realize that there was really no way to keep him in scale with the 5″ figures and give him any useful articulation. Besides, at least he’s removable from his tank.

The tank is a nice piece on its own. It’s hollow, but completely enclosed and has various control panels sculpted into the sides. The liquid seen in the front of the tank is just a glossy sticker, which looks ok, although there are a few minor wrinkles in mine, and I’m afraid it might start peeling off over time. There’s also a small discrepency as the top of the fluid level is sculpted much higher than where the surface appears on the sticker. I’m really nit picking here, though, as the overall presentation is fine and Sil looks great sitting on it. Wow. I have a Sil figure. I can still hardly believe it. Then again, it’s still hard to believe I have an army of Cybermen, Daleks, and any number of other classic Who monsters and figures loading down my shelves. Man, it’s a great time to be a Doctor Who fan!

And then there’s the lovely Perpugilliam Brown. Say what you will about the reign of the Sixth Doctor, but I enjoyed it. And besides Colin Baker’s deliciously bombastic performance, a good part of that enjoyment came from his interplay with Nicola Bryant as Peri. I wasn’t a big fan of her fake American accent, but I sure as hell loved everything else about her. Obviously, the figure is modeled after her appearance in“Vengeance on Varos” wearing a low cut and very tight top with shorts, which apart from it being blue is pretty much what she wore in every episode, so CO should have a field day releasing repaints of this figure. Yeah, I would have preferred “Planet of Fire” bikini-clad “…could be platinum!” Peri, but then again I just got my Kiss-o-Gram Amy so I should probably quit while I’m ahead. Anyway, the sculpt is extremely well done and the likeness is definitely there, even if she does have a bit of a vacant stare.

It probably goes without saying that I’m absolutely thrilled to have this set. Besides getting two more outstanding classic Who figures, it’s also what this milestone release represents that gets me excited. The classic companion figures are here and more will no doubt be coming. I’m sure that CO will run into some snags here and there securing rights, and I’m also sure that some classic companions may remain off limits, but the floodgates are opened, and I can’t wait to see what pours through next. Leela? Lethbridge-Stewart? Romana I and II? Oh, it’s going to be a good year.



Jan 27 2011

Doctor Who: Paradigm Daleks by Character Options

Finally, the five New Paradigm Daleks that were introduced in last year’s Victory of the Daleks have been released in figure form… I mean widely released… sort of. All of these figures, except the white Supreme were already available as scattered releases, many of which were exclusives and really hard to get, ie. expensive. The orange Scientist Dalek was part of an SDCC exclusive two-pack, the blue Strategist and yellow Eternal Daleks were both originally released as store exclusives, and the red Drone was originally released as part of the six-figure Underhenge Set. I would have bet anything that these were going to come out together as a boxed set instead of a single carded wave, but then since both the Drone and Strategist Daleks have already been released in single carded versions, CO probably opted to go for a full wave of individual releases so as not to further piss off collectors. Afterall, I’m sure there are people who spent some cash getting the exclusives. But if you did take the time to track many of these down already, then it might come as some small comfort to know that even this wave was issued Stateside in pretty small allocations. I had the entire wave on pre-order even though I already own two of the Drones and the Strategist, and in the end I was mighty glad I did, because all my regular sources sold out pretty quickly.


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.

Jan 21 2011

Doctor Who: Christmas Adventure Set by Character Options

It’s no secret that CO missed a few opportunities for figures based off of last year’s Series 5. Lord knows I’ve spent my fair share of time bitching about it in a few of my posts. One of those figures that I wanted pretty badly was based on Amy Pond as we first meet her as an adult. Whether you call her “Police Outfit” Amy or “Kiss-o-Gram” Amy, after a few wave revisions it seemed pretty unlikely that we were going to get her. Then, CO did that thing they do that sometimes irks a lot of collectors. They released her as part of a larger set, instead of on a single card. And thus was born the Christmas Adventure Set. The set includes a repaint of the 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and a stripped down version of the 11th Doctor’s Flight Control TARDIS. It’s a set that could have been attributed to last year’s “The Eleventh Hour” but thanks to Amy wearing her Kiss-o-Gram outfit on the starliner in last month’s “A Christmas Carol” it becomes pertenant as a more current release as well.

If you’ve purchased any of the classic TARDIS sets, you’ll be pretty familiar with the packaging here. It’s a window box showing off the TARDIS and the two figures. It’s pretty collector friendly, although you’ll need a philips screwdriver to get the TARDIS off of the cardboard base. The back panel of the package advertises the Paradigm Dalek wave of figures, which hopefully will be landing on my doorstep any day now. The package includes a star-backdrop that can be removed and used to display the figures against.

I have very little to say about The Doctor figure as it’s the same 11th Doctor I already own with a variant paintjob. The vertical stripes have been taken off his shirt and his jacket has been made lighter with horizontal stripes added. I don’t really like the new style of the jacket, and it’s kind of hard to see the stripes on any of the stills I’ve seen from the episode. It’s still an excellent sculpt, but this Doctor won’t be replacing the one I got in the Time Crash set as my favorite. At least CO tossed in a Sonic Screwdriver and if by some odd chance you don’t have an 11th Doctor yet, then here ya go.

For me, it was the Amy figure that was the big draw of this set, and I’m not disappointed. It’s hard to capture the raw awesomeness of the real Karen Gillan in a sexy police outfit, but CO did a pretty good job. The head sculpt is a complete reuse of the previous single carded Amy and the Underhenge set Amy, which is by no means a bad thing, since it’s a pretty good likeness. The police outfit is nicely replicated right down to the checkered front, short skirt and low hanging belt. Her legs were left flesh toned, rather than giving them a tinted look to represent her stockings, although if you turn her around CO did paint the seams of the stockings running up her legs. All in all, I’m very happy with how she turned out.

Both figures feature the same articulation. The heads turn, their arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivel cuts in the biceps and forearms and hinged elbows. The legs rotate at the hips, have swivel cuts in the thighs and hinged knees. The Doctor’s hips have lateral movment for the legs, and while I expect Amy does also, her skirt prevents the joints from really working.


The TARDIS is probably the most controversial piece in the set as it’s pretty redunant if you already purchased the 11th Doctor’s Flight Control TARDIS. This is the exact same toy, which is really just a repaint of the original Flight Control TARDIS, only with all the electronics stripped out of it. That having been said, it certainly is a beautiful toy. The paint is awesome, very bright and clean, and I love the St. John Ambulance crest. The doors open and the inside features an illustrated insert depicting the Series 5 console room.


Considering the $45-50 price of this set, I think CO should have just kept the electronics in the TARDIS, but I guess they need to do anything they can to keep costs down. I can understand why collectors will be miffed to have to buy all this just to get their police outfit Amy. Is it worth it? Well, that’s for you to decide. It wasn’t too much of a bitter pill for me to swallow because I never did get around to picking up the 11th Doctor’s Flight Control TARDIS, and I’m content to just have it without the electronics. The only thing I really got stuck with hear was the extra Doctor figure, and I’ve come to accept that accumulating variant Doctors is inevitable. Honestly, I’m just really happy that CO made the Amy figure and that it didn’t turn up as some impossible to find convention or store exclusive.