Monday 30 December 2013

Attack Of The Variants – Episode 02 – The Power of 12 (with the head of 8)

Ken and I have another discussion about Doctor Who and the wider world of action figure collecting! This week we take a look at what we’re finding in stores, and online, including: Star Wars The Black Series 6″ line, Doctor/Dalek 2 Packs, Matty Collector’s Castle Greyskull Exclusive, and SFX Special Weapons Daleks.

In news we discuss the new ‘War Doctor’ figure with optional 8th Doctor head in the 5″ line. Finally, we get to your questions in this special end of year episode.

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Festive Thanks!

A quick thank you for all of your support throughout the last year! I also clear up a few details regarding the 3rd and final season of 8th Doctor adventures! Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful new year!

Monday 16 December 2013

Big Chief Studios' 4th and 10th Doctor figures arriving!

For those who pre-ordered a 4th Doctor and 10th Doctor from Big Chief Studios, your orders should be arriving with you very soon! Some people have already received theirs, and from the pictures coming in so far the 10th Doctor looks amazing. Very cool indeed, especially stood with Doctors 4 and 11!

Don't forget that you can still pre-order a standard Limited Edition 4th Doctor from Big Chief's website.


              



Doctor Who BBC Books: Monster Collection - Classic novels to get a new lease of life

The BBC are reprinting a series of 'monster' based novels featuring various Doctors. Some of these haven't seen life since the days of the Virgin New Adventures/Missing Adventures line, so its nice to see them back in book shops. Pity about the favouring of new monster designs on the cover (although the Cyberman is outdated!), but I guess they want to entice the new viewers.

You can pre-order them from Amazon (and soon from the BBC Shop) by following the ad links on the right of the page.









Sunday 8 December 2013

The Moonbase cover revealed!

The DVD cover for The Moonbase has been revealed! I think it looks rather good! I've always been a fan of this particular story, and it does seem quite mad that we're going to be adding this to our DVD collections. I remember the days where the earliest story we had for Troughton on VHS was Tomb of the Cybermen. How things change, eh?

The DVD is released on the 20th January, and you can pre-order it from the BBC Shop and Amazon  ad links on the right.


Thursday 5 December 2013

Figures of the Month - November

A bit late again (real life getting in the way!), but here are my top purchases for November. Doctor Who has been a bit quiet on the toy front for November, which is ironic considering the show was celebrating its big birthday! But that’s not to say there are no Doctor Who products on the list, in fact the Doctor is in at number one…

Big Chief 1:6 Scale 4th Doctor Figure



When Big Chief first announced they wanted to do Classic Doctors, my ears pricked up! Now I’d love to own their 11th and 10th Doctors, simply because they’re just so bloody good and having all 13 Doctors on the shelf in 1:6 scale would be amazing! Unfortunately I can never hope to own the whole lot, but I can at least own my favourite Doctor! Now if you’ve watched my video review (see below if not) then you’ll know how much I love this figure and I apologise for repeating myself, but it is fantastic! My favourite costume for the 4th Doctor which has been beautifully recreated. The plethora of accessories are beautifully realised and work with the figure a treat. The interchangeable hands have excellent paint apps and they can be swapped with ease, so much better than Hot Toys.


The portrait is excellent, incredibly life like with various wrinkles and realistic skin tones. The swappable hair also works a treat and the removable hat shows of the impressive details within. Now there are a few nit-picks, namely the pinched/elongated look to the Doctor’s head and the 5 o’clock shadow being just a bit too much, but otherwise it’s a wonderful figure. It’s hard not to keep repositioning him in new poses all of the time because he’s so much fun!



If you have 11 and 10 to put with this chappy, then I’m insanely jealous. Having seen the prototype 1st Doctor sculpt on display at Excel, I cannot wait to see the finished figure. I’m sorely tempted to get one, but at roughly £170 I’m afraid I’ll have to hold off until a 3rd Doctor... maybe an 8th too. A must for any fan of the 4th Doctor - the Doctor.

            

Mantenna



Masters of the Universe Classics take up the last spots, an invasion by the Evil Horde no less! Starting us off is Mantenna, one of my favourite members of the Horde and now one of my favourite MotUC figures. Just look at the face! The sculpting is wonderful! It captures the essence of the vintage toy with the frightening look of the 200X update. How best to describe Mantenna… well I guess he looks like a bold Mogwai with bulging eyes and a mouth that looks like an anus with teeth. Delightful.


The original toy had a telescopic pop out eye feature, which has been recreated here with interchangeable eyes. You have to remove the mouth section to remove the eyes, which is incredibly fiddly, but the final effect is a fun one! However, I must say I prefer the sucked in eyes. The figure also boasts four legs, a first for the line. They work very well and feature all of the same articulation as a standard figure. Very impressive!



The paint apps are very good, with lots of metallic blues and reds that really stand out from the rest of the figure. The shading on his flesh and on the eyes, along with the fine veins, is very nice indeed. Finally the figure comes with his trademark Horde Crossbow, the trademark weapon for a member of the Evil Horde.




Horde Troopers 2-Pack




Finally the Horde Troopers! Foot soldiers to the Evil Horde and long awaited releases! This 2-pack features the same basic figure but one has a clean suit of armour and the other one is battle damaged. Well, I say battle damaged, he has a couple of black smudges on his suit. Honestly, I know they’re only robots but you’d think they could use a bit of Mr Sheen to tidy themselves up a bit!


The sculpts are totally new, no reused parts here which is nice to see (not that reused parts bother me). The sculpts update the vintage figures extremely well, and although the grey armour does look a bit plastic-y they still look very cool on the shelf! The circuitry beneath the armour is also very well done, and I look forward to seeing how it will be reused later in the line.


The heads have come under some criticism because you can’t quite get the vintage look without making the figures look constantly down. It wouldn’t be a problem if not for the backs of their helmets popping up at the back. As ever the heads are removable and as such you can place Hordak’s or He-Man’s head on the body to recreate your favourite scenes from The Secret of the Sword. A fun feature!


Finally these guys come with a ton of accessories! The each come with: a shield, a crossbow, a large staff and an electro-prod thing straight out of the 80s cartoon. The fact that they each have the same accessories allows for multiple display options together, you can put them together as a proper pair. Overall an excellent set! They look perfect flanking Hordak or Horde Prime and as a set of two, it makes them great for army building. It’s no wonder they sold out so quickly! Fingers crossed we’ll get some form of foot soldier for Skeletor in the new year…


That’s it for this month! Join me next time as I take a look at the top acquired figures for December! Hopefully something a bit different will arrive in time for Christmas… Thanks for reading! Until next time!

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Doctor Who: The Other Doctor action figure

STOP THE PRESS! Forbidden Planet have just revealed a new 5" figure! Yes! 5"! The figure is of John Hurt's secret incarnation as seen in The Name of the Doctor and The Day of the Doctor! The figure comes with his Sonic Screwdriver, the Moment, and... an alternate 8th Doctor head! Yes! A new McGann head! Why it's coming with him we can only wonder, but perhaps this is as close as we'll get to a figure of the 8th Doctor in his new clothes!


You can pre-order now for £14.99 by following the ad link on the right!

A review will be coming! Don't you worry!

Sunday 1 December 2013

Attack Of The Variants – Episode 01 – An Unearthly 2-Pack! by Ken Eakins

Part of a new series in connection with screendwellers.com!

Ken and I delve into the weird and wonderful world of Doctor Who, and the even weirder world of collecting. This week we look back at the 50th anniversary special, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, The Minisodes, and much more.

I give my report back from the Doctor Who 50th event at the Excel Centre in London, and we delve into some of the rumours surrounding the fate of Doctor Who action figure collecting.

We also review some of the latest releases, including the Doctor/Dalek Toys R Us exclusives, The Big Chief 4th Doctor.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor/The Night of the Doctor - Review

My opinions on both The Day of the Doctor and The Night of the Doctor!