Tag Archives: nuwho

Dec 6 2013

Doctor Who: Variant Black Dalek (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Today we’re going to take a gander at another one of CO’s variant Doctor Who figures! I’ve had a killer day at work and I just want to ease myself into a warm alcohol-soft stuper so I’m picking something I can get through pretty quickly. I’m going with the Black Dalek because he’s a repaint of a figure that I’ve already looked at. I’m tempted to call this guy Dalek Sec, but I think he’s just supposed to be a Black Dalek because, much like bowties, Black Daleks are cool. I haven’t decided where he’ll fit into my ranks, but right now I’m waffling between “Stealth Dalek,” “Dalek Commander” or “Black Hole Dalek.”

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The package is the same we’ve seen in this line before with a generic card and an insert that simply reads, “Dalek.” Just like the regular Dalek release, he doesn’t come with a figure stand because he clearly doesn’t need one. The back of the card has the newer “Time Zone” playsets pictured.

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The variant Cyberman had some new sculpting, but the Dalek here is just a straight repaint. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because the Daleks are easily the high point of this entire 3 ¾” line. That’s not meant to be a back-handed compliment either. While the bulk of this line has ranged from fairly decent to downright poor, the Daleks are excellent figures with great sculpts. They are, for all intents and purposes, shrunk down versions of CO’s 5-inch scale figures. The regular Daleks came with two different eye stalk lengths, but of the five of those I own, only one has the shorter one and this Black Dalek follows suit with the longer stalk.

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The paintwork here is absolutely fantastic. This guy has a beautiful high-gloss black for his upper half and sensor globes and a matte finish for his skirt and the screening under his dome. Toss in silver paint for the sucker arm, gun, and eye stalk, and clear plastic eye lights, and you have one beautiful looking pepper pot of hate. The articulation remains the same. The dome will swivel, the eye stalk can move up and down, and the arm and gun are each ball jointed. The Dalek rolls along beautifully on three wheels concealed up under his skirt.

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I told you today would be quick, but the truth is there’s not a lot to say about this guy other than he’s a gorgeous repaint of a great sculpt. These Daleks seem way too good to be part of this line and I’ve been picking up the regular ones every time I come across them at a good price. For now I’m content with just owning one of the Black Dalek, but if they’re still around after all this Christmas madness subsides, I may pick up another two and make a “Black Hole Dalek” Squad.

Nov 26 2013

Doctor Who: Variant Cyberman (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

VARIANTS!!! Love them or hate them, they’re a fact of life when collecting action figures. In this case, Character Options unleashed a number of variants in their 3 ¾” Doctor Who line and relegated them to severe limitations in the UK. The figures instantly began demanding high prices on the secondary market and pissing off a lot of collectors. I’ll admit, I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for those collectors, because there was no sign of these figures ever making it over here. At least those people had a chance! Well, in a bizarre turn of events, the figures not only became available in the US through Underground Toys, but were actually delivered to specialty retailers as their own wave making them no more difficult to get than the regular versions. In fact, with many of the regular versions sold out, some of these variants are currently the only ones available at the moment. Crazy! The variants range from both minor and major paint variations and even some new sculpting. Today we’re kicking things off with a look at the new Cyberman.

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The packaging is identical to what we’ve already seen in this line and even the name of the figure on the insert still simply states, “Cyberman.” They’re regarded as variants because the package still states “6 Figures To Collect!” whereas if the variants counted, you’d now have 11 figures to collect. The Ice Warrior is the only one in the batch that doesn’t have a variant. Although word is that a second Dalek variant is turning up, so that would put the total number back to 12. God, this is confusing! The cards are generic across the line, although the back of the variant packages are updated to show two new “Time Zone” Playsets, in this case inspired by the episodes, “Hide” and “Angels Take Manhattan.” The Angels set is a peculiar choice, since it’s from the first half of Series 7 before the figures changed scale and before Clara became a companion. And yet there she is pictured on display in the playset! As you can see in the bubble, you still get the same “DWARTIS” style figure stand, which I still feel is a nice bonus.

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Referring back to my review of the original figure, I was overall pretty happy with these guys; certainly happy enough to army build them. Yes, they strike me as being rather undersized and the sculpt is rather soft in places, but overall I think they capture the details of the new design quite well for a figure in this scale. One thing that was conspicuously missing from the original figure was the arm gun and here we have one of the only two instances of new sculpting in these variants. This Cybie comes with a brand new right arm with the gun deployed and ready. The articulation is identical to the regular version, so while there’s no swivels in the arm, the ball joint in the elbow allows you to rotate the gun to the top of the arm and give him a more credible firing position.

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The other change to the figure is the addition of the blue paint app to light up the circle in the chest. I think it looks good on the figure, but it really screams “Arc Reactor” to me way too much. The new design already mingles a bit too closely with Stark Industries’ suit designs and adding the blue light in the chest completes a homage that I’m not eager to acknowledge.

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The paintwork on this figure is in line with the orginal release, which means it has its ups and downs. The silver paint that’s used is quite nice and certainly achieves a metallic finish for the figure. On the other hand, it has a lot of black swirls that make him look tarnished. I don’t mind that so much, but in this case there was a large and unsightly black mark on his face, which I needed to fix with a metallic silver Sharpie. Hey, considering I had to do the same thing to my $80 Takara Masterpiece Prowl, I’m not going to make a big deal about it for a $10 3 3/4″ Doctor Who figure.

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This 3 3/4″ line of figures certainly is lacking, but the Cyberman is one of the higher points and this variant is certainly a welcome release. In a perfect world I would have liked a Cyberman with the gun arm and no blue chest, but that’s something I can easily change myself if I want to. I will, however, argue that rather than be a variant, this is the way the figure should have come out originally. I mean, who wants Cybermen without their guns armed? People in the UK shouldn’t have to pay a premium for what should have been standard on the regular release. At the very least it should have been a common running change. That having been said, I’m happy to have him in my collection, and yes, I already have two more heading to me from the fine folks at Who North America. I’m happy to get them at regular price, but I certainly wouldn’t have paid a premium or lost any sleep over not getting him if he had stayed a rare chase figure.

Jul 30 2013

Doctor Who: Cyber Controller and Guards by Character Options

There aren’t many Doctor Who figures in my collection that haven’t been featured here on FFZ, but somehow this beauty of a set was missed. I’m dusting my shelves today, so I decided to pull it down and have a looksee. It was way back in 2006 that the Cybermen made their first appearance on NuWho with a two-part story called “Rise of the Cybermen” and “Age of Steel.” As much as I love the Daleks, I think I was more excited to see the Cybermen return and I really dig this story, particularly the way they were reintroduced in a parallel Earth. It was precisely the sort of creative story-telling that has been absent from a lot of the Dalek and Cybermen stories of old, which often resorted to, “Oh, hey look, it’s time to bring this enemy back… write me a story for it.” Nope, these were the Cybermen… but they weren’t… it was just the kind of mind-bending shit that I love in my Doctor Who. Lumic was a really great villain too. He was an interesting mix of a sympathetic character and bat-shit crazy megalomaniac. Of course, he got his comeuppance when he was upgraded to the Cyber Controller, who happens to be the centerpiece of this set.

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I’ve had this thing for a long time and the packaging is long gone, but I cribbed a picture off of The Ebays for reference. I can still remember being so excited when I got this thing. Back then I was still in shock that we were getting proper Doctor Who figures, and when CO started releasing larger sets like this, my mind practically exploded. The set came in a window box with deco inspired by the credit sequence that would stay with the show all the way to the end of Tennant’s reign as the 10th Doctor. It’s a great presentation and part of me wishes that I had saved the box because it’s perfectly collector friendly. Inside you get The Cyber Controller and his throne plus two Cybermen Guards. Let’s start out with the Guards.

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The Guards are just typical Cybermen, which is great for troop builders as they are identical to each other and any other standard Cybies released in the series. I liked the redesign of the NuWho Cybermen a lot and I’ll go one step further and say that I think these figures look even better than the onscreen counterparts because they don’t have the fabric bodysuit showing between the joints. Instead it’s sculpted to look more like wires or just flexible metal. These guys also have the wrist gun sculpted onto their right forearms and the Cybus emblem on their chests. The silvery finish gives them a nice metallic look without being too shiny. I probably have four or five of these guys total and I always regret not picking up some more.

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The articulation on this pair is pretty good, especially considering the Cybermen of the period were not terribly agile. You get a rotating head, which appears to have a tiny bit of up and down movement. The arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs are balljointed at the hips, have hinged knees, and ball joints in the ankles. I do wish you could swivel their arms to make their firing position a little more convincing. For some reason I want the gun arm on the top, but hey it still works.

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The Cyber Controller was unique to this set and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been re-released since. I originally presumed he would be sculpted into the throne, but nope, he’s a bona fide figure. He’s basically a slight resculpt of the regular Cybermen we just looked with a brand new head. The only difference about his body is the lack of a gun on his arm and the six connection ports on his upper chest and shoulders. These are used to wire him into the throne. The head features a transparent dome with his brain exposed and the eyes are painted blue instead of black.

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The throne is one big piece of plastic with a ton of wires and cables sculpted into it and it has a little bit of an HR Giger feel to me. The chair itself has a rough texture and there’s a Cybus emblem near the base. The Controller doesn’t so much sit in it as lean back into it and bend his legs, but he will stay put pretty well and he looks great. Every now and again he’ll slip down so a tiny blob of blue tack on his butt helps him stay planted. The wires flexible wires all plug into his access ports to help integrate him into the chair.

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If you love your Cybermen as much as I do, you really need this set in your Who collection. I think it’s one of the coolest Deluxe sets Character Options pumped out during the time. I seem to recall paying about fifty bucks for it, which even now doesn’t seem too bad considering the Cybermen were often selling for around $20 each when they were available. Right now this set is just chilling on my NuWho shelf, but one of these days, when I get more display space, it’s going to be the centerpiece of my evolution of the Cybermen display.

Jul 18 2013

Doctor Who: Cybermen (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Alrighty, time to wrap up the look at the new 3 ¾” Doctor Who figures with the Cybermen! The Series 7 episode, “Nightmare in Silver” gave these guys their first real upgrade since their return to the show in 2006. It’s a much sleeker and more agile look than the Cybermen have had in a while. In fact, they now look like Tony Stark may have had a hand in their redesign. Let’s see how they turned out in the new 3 ¾” format.

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There’s the packaging and it’s the same as we saw yesterday with the Ice Warriors. There’s a personalized insert in the bubble and the Cybermen come with the generic “DWARTIS” figure stand. Once again, I am unable to resist troop building these guys.

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The sculpting on these guys is definitely well done, albeit it does strike me as a bit soft in some areas, particularly the head. Although, it may be because the new heads are more rounded and I’m still not used to seeing that. I’m not a big fan of the disc in the center of the chest. The discs were only ever on the last design and when it’s carried over to this new body, it really does look way too derivative of some of the Arc Reactor in the Iron Man armors. Of course, that’s a gripe with the creature design and not the figure. The figure is excellent, with all the various plates and panel lines of the new design wonderfully recreated. I love the sculpted spine in the back and the figure even achieves a look of convincing layering between the armor plates and the softer joint segments.

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Obviously, there isn’t a lot of dynamic coloring on this figure. The cybermen are black and silver and that’s it. The figure is cast in grey plastic and painted entirely in a metallic silver, which overall looks pretty nice, although some figures have inconsistencies in the paint. The deco makes them look a bit weathered, which I’m pretty happy with, but if you’re looking for your Cybie to be super shiny and fresh, it may disappoint a bit. Coincidently, this is the kind of paint I would have liked to see on the Ultron figure that I looked at on Monday. So in that instance, Character Options 1, Hasbro nil.

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The Cybermen have the same basic style of articulation as the Ice Warriors. The head is ball jointed. It can turn fine, but the rest of the head movement is a little shallow. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and hinges in the knees. Again, the lateral shoulder movement is a little restrictive because of the shoulder plates. The legs feature ball joints in the hips and hinged knees. You can get some Ok poses out of these guys, but I would have really liked a swivel in the waist or a ball joint in the torso. Still, considering how crappy the articulation has become with other lines in this scale, I’m not going to harp on it too badly. This is actually better articulation than most of Hasbro or Mattel’s current film-related efforts in 3 3/4 inches.

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And there you go, we get the new Cybies exclusively in the 3 ¾” format. I absolutely love these figures, but only getting these in the new scale format… I gotta be honest, folks, it really stings! I’ve got every incarnation of the Cybermen in my five-inch collection (well, except for the “Revenge” versions, which have yet to come Stateside), so not being able to add the latest versions to that display really sucks. This is the first time the scale change has really pissed me off, but I’m sure it will not be the last. But hey, at least the figure is really good.

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And that wraps up this initial wave of Doctor Who figures. Fan response to this new line has not been very favorable, although my dealer has now sold out on all but The Doctor on two or three occasions. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for the line, and whether we’ll be getting a new wave from the 50th Anniversary special and the Christmas special. I suppose it’s possible we could get a 10th Doctor in the scale, since Tennant is reprising his for the 50th. The Zygons are also appearing and I could easily see myself buying three or four of those. I will say that the biggest opportunity for going small scale was more playsets and vehicles, and I’m not real keen on those cardboard environments. If we don’t at the very least get a TARDIS console room, I’m going to be pissed.