ToyBox reviews

What if… Doctor Who had caught on as a viable toy franchise in the era of Star Wars?

That’s not The Three Doctors, but rather the third Doctors. After displaying prototypes at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, Character Options followed up that year’s Comic Con exclusive first and second Doctors with the Doctor’s third incarnation, as played by Jon Pertwee from 1970 through 1974. Setting a pattern that continues through the most recent limited-edition classic Doctor Who figures, U.K. distribution was exclusively handled by Forbidden Planet, with FP’s U.S. arm, Underground Toys, taking care of North American distribution.

Another one of 2011’s surprise classic Doctor Who figure sets, this set hails from the early ’80s era of the fifth Doctor, and brings the classic version of a seemingly un-killable foe into plastic form. From Peter Davison’s only run-in with the Daleks, Resurrection Of The Daleks also reunited the Doctor with Davros – a reunion that both probably would’ve been happy to pass on.

Having produced about as many different variations of Jon Pertwee in plastic as possible, Character Options spent much of 2011 producing numerous classic Doctor Who sets with variations on Tom Baker instead, with an unusual focus on the actor’s first season as the fourth Doctor.

Having already produced a collect-and-build figure of the enormous K-1 robot from Robot, Character skipped over Ark In Space and picked up the season 12 story with The Sontaran Experiment, issuing an unusual two figure set with a fairly large vehicle – the first non-TARDIS vehicle in the Character Doctor Who range since the Satan Pit lift (which wasn’t exactly a best-seller).

The latest in a series of two-figure sets from classic Doctor Who episodes, the Vengeance On Varos set really kicks the door open for future additions to the classic Doctor Who action figure range.

Even more surprisingly, this set immortalizes the two most enduring elements of the sixth Doctor’s all-too-brief era on TV: TARDIS traveling companion Peri and the slug-like Sil, a profit-mongering creature who has no qualms about sacrificing entire civilizations to pour more money into his coffers.

Character Options supplemented its selection of new series Cybermen in early 2009 with a wave of Cybermen spanning the history of their appearances in Doctor Who, from The Tenth Planet through their then-recent return in The Next Doctor, the 2009 Christmas episode. But there were two distinct Cyberman designs missing.

In 2010’s Victory Of The Daleks the Daleks appeared in their most radically updated form yet, reflecting Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat’s desire to make them bigger, more dangerous and more colorful (hearkening back to his memories of the Daleks in the two 1960s Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies). What no one seemed to anticipate was the public backlash against the new design: the Daleks, with a maniacal drive for homogeny written into their very genes, seemed somewhat unlikely to outfit themselves with bright, candy-colored casings. (It’s a little unfathomable why, outside of the necessities of TV, any Dalek would look different from any other Dalek: why put a bullseye on your seasoned leader’s back by making him the only Dalek in a shiny white casing?) A frequent comment after the debut of the new Daleks was the the change happened solely to make a new range of action figures possible. Whether or not that’s true, Character Options wasted little time in unleasing the new Dalek army on the toy-buying public.

Though introduced seven years into the lengthy run of the original Doctor Who, few characters had as much of an impact on the show as The Master. The Doctor had proven to have a different morality than that held dear by the human race by urging UNIT to ask questions first and shoot later, but here was an enemy with whom there was no reckoning. The Master constantly used Earth as a playing piece in a larger game. By maneuvering it and its occupants into danger, he could throw his lifelong mortal enemy, the Doctor, off his stride. At least initially, the Master had no hatred of Earth whatsoever; inviting a steady stream of alien menaces to invade the planet was a ploy to distract the Doctor – preferably enough that the Master could finally have his revenge on his rival Time Lord.

Officially billed as an “Electronic TARDIS” with a figure of the first Doctor, this two-figure set breaks down another barrier between the new series and classic series toy lines by offering the first vehicle from the original Doctor Who. Some might consider this a bit of a yawner, since we’ve already had two different Flight Control TARDIS vehicles from new Who (and isn’t a Police Box just a Police Box?), but it’s a bit of a big deal to anyone who’s been around long enough to be a longtime fan of the classic series.

Released in 2008, shortly after 2007’s epic-length Christmas special set on a spaceship called the Titanic, Character Options’ Voyage Of The Damned gift set introduced a new look and a new direction for the company’s multi-figure Doctor Who box sets. At a time when many toy companies (and their retail store customers) were looking to downsize their packaging in order to have more product on the shelves, the Voyage set scaled things up: all four figures are in a massive window box, affording front, top and bottom views of the products within, and an impressive double-sided paper insert. As usual, the exterior of the paper backing offers bios of the characters included; but the flipside of the insert offers an impressive still shot of the aforementioned spacefaring Titanic as a backdrop for the figures inside. In short, this set was one that could be enjoyed even if it was never opened.

A curious thing happened after the diehard-fan-pleasing first wave of “classic” Doctor Who figures was released in the summer of 2008: absolutely nothing. Fans who expected the range – focusing exclusively on Doctor and adversaries from the original series – to make enough of a splash to merit a second wave at Christmastime were a bit disappointed with the outcome. Now, to put this in perspective for future collectors who might be reading this years from now, the Doctor Who toy range at this time had a worse enemy than the Daleks: namely, a recession that hit economies around the world. The average consumer was suddenly pulling back and making fewer frivolous purchases; in light of that development, Character Options also held off on further additions to the Doctor Who toy range. The only new arrivals in the early part of 2009 were the figures comprising the Ages Of Steel mini-range of Cybermen.

Released in January 2009 to coincide with the buzz that followed 2008’s The Next Doctor Christmas special, the Ages of Steel line (which seems to be an internal designation since it doesn’t seem to appear anywhere on the actual packaging) is an interesting experiment in blurring the lines between the classic and modern Doctor Who series. With completely unique packaging to match, Ages of Steel is a mini-series of action figures of Cybermen down through the ages. It’s also a thing of beauty.

It’s only slightly less likely that an actual time-space rift forming in Cardiff that the first wave of Torchwood figures not only exists, but is compatible – more or less – with the Doctor Who action figures. Two different companies handle the two different ranges of products, and the audience is wildly different: Character Options’ Doctor Who figures aim for playability first and collectability second, while Scificollector.co.uk was clearly aiming at the collector’s market with Torchwood: neither the show nor its gun-toting toys are really meant for the kids, but rather for adult collectors who want the characters from their other favorite show to grace the same shelf space as their Doctor Who toys.

Released not too long after the two-parter that reintroduced the classic series villains to the new series’ mythos, the Sontaran Stratagem set is, hands-down, my favorite boxed set of Doctor Who figures to date. I was originally a little skeptical of the Sontarans’ redesign, but their appearance in the two episodes won me over – and if that wasn’t enough, they make great action figures.

Released shortly after the climactic two-part finale of the new series’ fourth season, the Doctor Who Stolen Earth set is the action figure debut – at least in the new scale used by Character Options – of a major villain with a classic series pedigree. Originally intended to be an exclusive to this set (a decision quickly reversed in the face of what was expected to be a grim 2008 Christmas toy-buying season), Davros is the evil genius behind the Daleks’ creation. Horrifyingly disfigured in an incident never chronicled on screen (but dramatized in the I, Davros audio series), the lower half of Davros’ body is paralyzed, forcing him to rely on a mobile life support unit – the inspiration for the means of the Daleks’ movement.

In 2008, the news became official that Doctor Who collectors had scarcely hoped for: Character Options, makers of the roughly-5″ scale action figures from the new series of Doctor Who, would at last be stepping in the past and creating figures of characters from the classic series. While fans may have thought it was a long time coming, Character’s long-delayed entry into classic series merchandise was fraught with difficulties to which most of the fans weren’t even privy: another company, Product Enterprises, had the classic series merchandise license locked down, forcing Character to sublicense through them with the BBC’s permission. And even with the license secured, it wouldn’t be an easy road, with many a participant in the original series no longer living – getting likenesses approved or denied would prove to be a headache, as some actors’ estates simply didn’t consider this merchandise a priority. But one of the earliest assurances, thanks to the BBC’s part-ownership of the designs, was that there would be a boxed set of various styles of classic series Daleks.

We’re doing something a little bit different in this ToyBox review of Doctor Who goodies; rather than focus on a specific season or product wave, we’re focusing on figures from the stories written by Doctor Who’s future show-runner (and record-breaking three-time consecutive Hugo winner) Steven Moffat. With his uncanny knack for bringing real watch-from-behind-the-sofa psychological horror into the Doctor’s family-hour comfort zone, with an economy of post-production trickery, Moffat has more than earned his new gig. Since his first episodes as executive producer don’t begin until 2010, now seemed like a good time to pause and look at the collectible characters that have emerged from his scripts.

Character Options doesn’t seem to have consciously built collections around these specific episodes of Doctor Who, but by coincidence, as their much-loved action figure range grows, the earlier seasons and episodes have been revisited enough that one can put together episode-specific subsets. In the coming weeks we’ll more or less randomly sample some mini-collections from the first two seasons of the new Doctor Who that have emerged.