Podstallions, the plaid Stallions Podcast

I am a big fan of the Plaid Stallion blog, a place where I can reminisce over old Star Wars newspaper ads, watch crusty off-air videos of Mego dolls and leer at the weirdest vintage lingerie ads I have ever seem. This week, a podcast was started up and happily enough it is about a fan favorite topic, Doctor Who.

Doctor Who Signature tune 45 record

Genesis of the Daleks- the record narrated by Tom Baker

An off-air shot of Sarah Jane Smith in Pyramids of Mars

As an American fan, I am most familiar with the PBS airings of Tom Baker which ran from 1978 until Peter Davison was introduced in the 80′s.There were no tie-ins until 1982/3 when the Target books, Marvel Comics reprints, the role playing game, rusty home-made badges, posters and the 45 records of the signature tune along with a few cassettes of sound effects. There was just so little to get and so few places to get them aside from the odd comic book convention.

I’ll have to upload a newspaper cover featuring me in my weird Colin Baker costume.

The podcast is fascinating because it is about the experience of growing up with the program and how it differed in Canada, where it started much earlier with Jon Pertwee episodes as well as being preceded by… get this… an educational introduction. There are so many gems in this podcast about how frustrating it was to be a fan in the 70′s/80′s compared to today.

Vintage Doctor Who talking Dalek toy ad

Give this a listen, visit the blog, and be happy.

Also, please feel free to chime in with your stories about what your childhood relationship is with Doctor Who, where you grew up, and how it impacted your life.

Upcoming Doctor Who toys and collectibles

Coming soon to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who are these amazing collectibles and toys. The talking Daleks are absolutely superb and include unique phrases and gun death ray sounds. I am addicted to these lil guys and am amazed by the inclusion of the Madame Tussaud Dalek design (I think I am right in that). The building figures are a lot of fun and this new run expands the classic and new Doctors by offering up variations of costumes from the Necros mourning blue suit Colin Baker attire to the rarely seen blue-jacketed Paul McGann!

Of course it is lovely to see another version of the Brigadier from Claws of Axos (along with another alien, the Axon, and the adorable Jo Grant). I’m still waiting on figures of the Yeti, the Destroyer, the Haemovores and the Quarks… but I can wait.

New talking Daleks including the Madame Tussaud’s version!

New Building Figures including variants of each Doctor

The Second Doctor and Emperor’s Guard from Evil of the Daleks

Sixth Doctor and Necros Dalek from Remembrance of the Daleks

New series Cyberman from upcoming Neil Gaiman story in 2013

Axon, Jo Grant and the Brigadier from Claws of Axos

Most of these figures are only available overseas from Forbidden Planet so you may have to hunt these down on ebay, or wait for them to appear in specialty shops such as Suncoast video. You can also ask your local comic shop to order them.

However you get them, these items are fantastic ways to celebrate the longest running TV science fiction program.

… and what can we expect for the 50th anniversary special? One can only hope.

New Doctor Who minifigs for 2013

The latest Character Building toys for Doctor Who will explore the many variations of the classic Doctors in addition to adapting monsters from the BBC Wales series such as the Silurians and Judoon. Personally I picked up a few of the classic Doctors and a Dalek which my 4 year old son enjoys (when he is not gingerly playing with my Konami Eagle Transport replica).

It’s neat to see the William Hartnell First Doctor with his cloak and scarf and a variant of the Paul McGann Eighth Doctor… but which ones are you looking to get?
Via Merchandise.DoctorWho Doctor Who Character Building 2013

• A Refreshed 11 Doctors boxset, TBC
• Blind bags featuring all 11 Doctors (Different to the box sets) with super rares
• Monster Figure packs with Sontaran and Judoon variants
• Doctor / Companion Figure packs
• Dalek Figure packs
• Dalek Skimmer Mini Set
• Cyberman Speeder Mini Set
• New Console room set
• Cyberman Mask

BBC America will be screening classic Doctor Who stories starting with The Aztecs which should raise awareness of the good stuff. I wonder what other stories will be included, but am most interested in seeing how modern viewers respond to the 1996 TV Movie.

Doctor Who Action Figure Review: Castrovalva Set

Batmanmarch has been reviewing Doctor Who action figures for about five years now, along with filming some of the most highly regarded original dramas using home made figures and those made by Character Options.

His latest video reviews the Castrovalva set featuring the Fifth Doctor in the shirt sleeves of his former incarnation along with the Master’s Roman column-style TARDIS and of course a shrunken Logopolitan. I found it interesting that Batmanmarch noted that the set was initially intended to include a repackaged Anthony Ainley Master figure (technically Kamelion as the Master) or a Tissue Compression Eliminator prop. Why we don’t have a proper 80′s Master or a TCE toy by now I cannot understand, but I need to reserve my ire for reviewing new episodes, so I won’t waste it here.

If you are a fan of Doctor Who collectibles, you really should bookmark Batmanmarch’s channel. Only, be warned that it could lead to purchasing more stuff as I have.

In the UK, available from Forbidden Planet.
In the US, from Mike’s Comics.

New Doctor Who toys: Retro Dalek and Post-Regeneration 5th Doctor

Just announced for exclusive release from Forbidden Planet are these two amazing Doctor Who action figures.

(announcement via TardisNewsroom)

When I first learned of a line of 5 inch tall toys based on the long-running series, I was somewhat baffled. Incredibly detailed and articulated, they were impressive, but as the characters on screen did little else but talk and run down corridors, wasn’t an ‘action figure’ a bit of an odd thing to make of William Hartnell and the other actors who played the part of the time traveling man of mystery?

Of course now I own them all… so… yeah.

As testament to the enduring legacy of the TV program, these action figures by Character Options and Bif Bang Pow! are as much an important part of the Doctor Who mythos as the Target novelizations and the radio dramas. Not only are they replications of the characters as they appeared on screen, they capture iconic moments such as the regeneration of Tom Baker into Peter Davison in Logopolis and Castrovalva. A figure of Davison in the full coat has already been released, but this version is the new Doctor sans coat in shirt sleeves (a kit-bash of the recently released Keeper of Traken 4th Doctor with a retooled Davison head).

I do like that in addition to the Master’s TARDIS, they have included a shrunken Logopolitan.

This marks the seventh version of the 5th Doctor in toy form by Character Options… and yet we still do not have a decent figure of the Anthony Ainley Master (the released figure features a breathtakingly accurate sculpt of Ainley’s plugged onto a John Simm body).

Ah well… he’s surely on the way.

Doctor Who Action Figure Collectors Set: 5th Doctor Castrovalva

The newly regenerated Fifth Doctor escapes with his companions back to the TARDIS. Suffering from post-regeneration trauma, he only narrowly manages to save the ship from destruction as it plunges back to Event One, the hydrogen in-rush that preceded the creation of the universe.

He then seeks sanctuary in the peaceful domain of Castrovalva, only to discover that it is an illusory, dimensionally paradoxical trap set for him by the Master with the unwilling aid of a kidnapped Adric. The Doctor eventually wins the day by enlisting the help of the Castrovalvan people who, although also part of the Master’s creation, are nevertheless able to exercise free will.

The Master’s TARDIS
Whilst on the planet Traken the Fourth Doctor discovers that the Master, his long time nemesis, is trying to take control of a complex Traken bio-electronic power known as ‘The Source’. The Source would allow the Master unparalleled power, and the ability to regenerate his dying body. When the Master’s TARDIS is destroyed by the power feedback of The Source it is revealed he has another and thus he escapes to encounter the Doctor again. Their next encounter finds the Master’s TARDIS, with its fully functional Chameleon Circuit, disguised first as a Police Box and latterly on the planet Logopolis, as a sandstone Doric column. The Master’s TARDIS stayed in this favoured form during several encounters with the Fifth Doctor, before changing once again.

Contents:
1 x Post-regeneration Fifth Doctor action figure.
1 x Shrunken figure accessory.
1 x Master’s TARDIS as a Stone Column.

(click to pre-order in the UK)

I’m not a big fan of the Bif Bang Pow Master, Doctor and Sontaran figures, but this Dalek looks really great. The attention to detail is impressive and the larger scale is very attractive to me as well.

Doctor Who Retro Action Figures: Dalek

Daddy, where do Daleks come from?

Grounded in the “Genesis of the Daleks” serial of Doctor Who that marked the first appearance of Davros, the creator of these evil mutant cyborgs, this extraordinary Dalek Action Figure stands approximately 7″ tall. It features wheels and “neck” articulation, along with Bif Bang Pow!’s famed retro styling that takes one back to the bestselling figures from the 1970s and 1980s. Order yours now… or face extermination!

Produced by the BBC, Doctor Who is the longest-running sci-fi TV series in the world. The award-winning show presents the adventures of a time traveler known simply as “the Doctor.” Along with his companions, this mysterious Time Lord journeys through time and space using his TARDIS, which appears from the outside to be an ordinary police phone booth.

(click to pre-order in the UK)

Dalek anti-time device

This toy gun will be released by Character Options later this year. Kids today are way too lucky. All we had in my day was Dapol toys of Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford.

It uses ‘scavenged Dalek and Cyber-tech’ in order to ‘wipe your enemies form time.’ It’s unclear if this is based on a forthcoming episode from the new series or if it was just dreamed up by the CO team (if so, well done!) but it’s pretty nifty looking.

The latest Toy Fair showcased talking Daleks from the new series as well as a transparent model from Planet of the Daleks!

More images here.

Step inside Doctor Who’s TARDIS (it’s only a model)

Since 1963, the dimensionally transcendental time and space machine known as the TARDIS has transported the Doctor and his companions to the distant past, the far future, alternate realities and pocket universes.

Built in scale for the larger 8 inch Bif Bang Pow! action dolls, the console room expands from the Police Box case.

I hope that soon the folks at Character Options, who have released action figures of ever version of the Doctor along with many monsters and companions in 6.5 inch scale, will produce a similar playset of the console room from the classic series.

The image below is only a prototype so it is difficult to tell exactly what it will look like in the end, but it appears to be the pre-1983 interior as used by Tom Baker and Peter Davison.

Via TardisNewsroom:

Prototype image of TARDIS playset

This extraordinary TARDIS Playset is based on the ever-popular sci-fi TV series Doctor Who.It measures approximately 11″ tall x 5 1/2″ wide x 5 1/2-” long when closed, and includes an opening door and a bonus figurine of the Doctor’s trusty cyberdog, K-9. The TARDIS’ interior is truly amazing with its transparent time rotor that can be raised and lowered, and the detailed Master Control Console that features various authentic controls and readout displays. In a retro 1970s style, the TARDIS Playset is made of thick dollhouse-like cardboard, and scaled for a Bif Bang Pow! 8″ Doctor Who figure (not included). Magnetic strips ensure that the playset walls snap closed when you’re traveling through time and space.

In Doctor Who, the BBC’s long-running, award-winning sci-fi television series, TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It looks just like a wooden Police phone box from the 1950s on the outside, but is of infinite proportions on the inside. This incredible time machine is piloted by the Doctor, a mysterious Time Lord, and is able to transport him anywhere through time and space, disappearing in one place and reappearing somewhere new.

The Doctor’s (and humanity’s) best friend, K-9, is a robotic canine that was first introduced in the Doctor Who story arc “The Invisible Enemy.” Since then, he’s been an enduring (and endearing) companion over many years to several Doctors and has also appeared in two spinoff series.

This item is expected at our warehouse on 12 November 2012.

Available in the UK from Forbidden Planet. No word on a US distributor yet, but stay tuned.

A traditional console room familiar to fans old and young, I’m glad that they are reproducing this version rather than the one introduced in 1983′s The Five Doctors, but wouldn’t it be cool if they attempted this proposed Series 27 console room design?

Which console room design do you prefer?

The first design as seen in An Unearthly Child

The Troughton/Pertwee design as seen in The Three Doctors

The secondary console room as seen in The Deadly Assassin

The Baker/Davison design

The 1983-89 design as seen in The Five Doctors

The 1996 design as seen in the TV Movie starring Paul McGann

The 2005-2010 design from the Eccleston/Tennant era

The current design introduced in 2010

Doctor Who – Seeds of Doom set rumored

An extraordinary discovery is made near an isolated base in Antarctica. A seed pod dating back some 20,000 years. UNIT catches word and sends their scientific adviser to investigate. The power mad eccentric collector Gabriel Chase also learns of the find and sends two of his best operatives to retrieve the pod and kill all witnesses.

After arriving, the Doctor recognizes the pod as extraterrestrial, a Krynoid in a state of gestation. He is too late to stop the infection of one of the members of the crew who rapidly begins to transform from animal to vegetable matter. With the destruction of the base, crew and creature, Gabriel Chase believed that he had succeeded in snatching a one of a kind artifact. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith narrowly escape the devastation only to face further danger at the hands of Chase’s thugs and of course a massive plant monster, a Krynoid creature so massive that it defies the attacks of UNIT forces.

The Krynoid monster - a face only a mother could love

Directed by Douglas Camfield and written by Robert Banks Stewart, Seeds of Doom is a classic of the Hinchcliff era, combining tropes from popular horror films and featuring memorably evil characters such as the devious Gabriel Chase. In addition to an excellent cast, superb script and dynamic direction, Seeds of Doom also has an astounding score courtesy of Geoffrey Burgon (who also contributed the spine-tingling music in Terror of the Zygons).

Character Options is apparently releasing an action figure set based on this story with a re-release of the 11 Doctors set version of the Fourth Doctor and a re-painted Axon. That particular figure will have come full circle as it was initially intended to be a Krynoid figure and was instead painted in red hues and released as an Axon in true form.

The previously released Axon action figure

Accessories will include a cutlass and a pair of Krynoid seed pods.

Images have circulated from Australia, but there has been no official word as of yet.

Now confirmed for March 2012 release.

More as it comes.

Bring back the Mechonoids!

Doctor Who is a strange television program.

The result of deep research and development in order to craft a polished children’s program that educated as well as entertained without pandering to the audience (imagine!) or relying on stock concepts (the nerve!), it has nevertheless gone through several changes. Despite series creator Sydney Newman’s insistence that there be no BEM’s (Bug Eyed Monsters), the program was only a true success after the screening of Terry Nation’s The Daleks. The program often varied from historical drama to science fantasy and even comedy, but the monsters kept viewers coming back, specifically the Daleks. This prompted the quest to recapture this success again (and the BBC would own the rights this time).

(art by Steve Redfearn)

The first attempt at recreating the Daleks was the Mechonoids (often mis-spelled as Mechanoids), a line of robotic servants who lived in a futuristic city on the planet Mechanus. Space pilot Steven Taylor crash-landed on the planet and luckily found his way to the ‘White City’ where the man-eating fungus and plants could not thrive. There he became the prisoner of the Mechonoids. He was looked after, but not allowed to leave. Soon, he started to go a bit nutty (witness his excitement over his pet ‘mascot’ panda bear doll). With no inhabitants to look after, the Mechonoids became somewhat mad too and became aggressive. This was actually quite lucky as the Daleks invaded the White City looking for the Doctor and his companions and a battle for robotic supremacy erupted.

The Dalek/Mechonoid sequence is the high point of an otherwise light and silly adventure and was obviously very expensive. Armed with pincers and flame-throwers, the Mechonoids made short work of the Daleks, but the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula also had no trouble in that regard earlier on, so maybe these were reject Daleks…

(see my review of The Chase here)

The three Mechonoids were costly to build and only really functioned on the much more spacious Pinewood Studios. Toys were created, but with only a brief moment on screen, they became curiosities rather than rivals for the Daleks.

(vintage image from Skaro.org)

After only appearing in a single TV adventure, 1964′s The Chase, the Mechonoids (or Mechanoids) disappeared into obscurity, only resurfacing in audio format in the Big Finish drama ‘The Juggernauts’ and in the comic strips.

Just released in a stunning box set by Character Options along with two Daleks, the Mechonoid has finally been recreated in all of its awkward glory (complete with a flame-thrower arm!).

The set is available from Forbidden Planet in the UK and from Mike’s Comics in the United States.

But with the excitement over the revival of a classic monster, I challenge the BBC Wales team to recreate the Mechonoids for the 21st Century. I dare them, even!

As a side-note, I strongly advise readers to buy Dalek toys as I find them quite calming and comforting. They even sooth the most cantankerous of us!

I leave you with this amazing trailer for a third Doctor who feature film with Peter Cushing as the Doctor (and Christopher Lee as Dracula!).

Doctor Who -Attack of the Cybermen and Remembrance of the Daleks sets

Just announced are these two action figure sets from a pair of Doctor Who classics dating back to the 1980′s. This marks the second action figure set based on Attack of the Cybermen and the third based on Remembrance of the Daleks, so apparently they are immensely popular.

Attack of the Cybermen successfully opened Colin Baker’s first year on the program and boasted some intensely horrific violence, inspired direction from Matthew Robinson (of Resurrection of the Daleks fame). It also further established the unbalanced nature of the 6th Doctor as he blasted his foes with a stolen weapon.

The Doctor (Colin Baker) gives the Cybermen a taste of their own weaponry

Via TARDISNewsroom:

Attack Of The Cybermen 1985: Peri & Rogue Cyberman

When something disturbs the TARDIS in flight, the Sixth Doctor is determined to find out the reason why. Landing in London, 1985, he and Peri are shocked to find the Cybermen are hiding in London’s sewers! Becoming their prisoner, the Doctor is forced to take the Cybermen to their home planet, Telos. There he discovers the inhuman monsters have captured another time vessel and plan to change history. They want to redirect Halley’s Comet so it crashes into Earth in 1985 – the year before their original home planet, Mondas, was destroyed. Peri Perpugilliam Brown, known as Peri, was an eighteen year-old American Botany student holidaying in Lanzarote with her step-father, when the Fifth Doctor and Turlough landed nearby. Turlough rescued Peri when she tried to swim to shore from her uncle’s boat, and took her inside the TARDIS to recover. The TARDIS took off with Peri still on board. Headstrong and argumentative, Peri stayed with the Doctor and helped him through his most difficult regeneration to date. Peri’s fate is unclear.

Contents:1 x Peri action figure.1 x Rogue Cyberman action figure (with detachable faceplate).1 x Cybergun accessory.

In the UK available from Forbidden Planet.

In the US, from Mike’s Comics.

Remembrance of the Daleks was the 25th anniversary adventure that returned the program to its roots in 1963 London and cemented Sylvester McCoy as the enigmatic 7th Doctor. Featuring the first image of a hovering Dalek, it also depicted new companion Ace assaulting a Dalek with a baseball bat and rocket launcher.

Davros was included at the last minute, revealed as the Emperor Dalek aboard a spacecraft hovering over the planet Earth. While the character had little to do, actor Terry Molloy was absolutely magnificent as the evil scientist.

Dalek creator Davros, reduced to a mere shell of his former self

Remembrance of the Daleks: Dalek Emperor Davros & Destroyed Imperial Dalek

The TARDIS arrives in London in November 1963, where the Seventh Doctor and Ace discover that two rival factions of Daleks – one loyal to the Dalek Emperor and one to the Dalek Supreme – are seeking the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord device that the first Doctor hid there during an earlier sojourn on Earth. The Daleks are focusing their search around Coal Hill School – the school that the Doctor’s grand-daughter Susan attended – while a human military unit led by Group Captain Gilmore is attempting to resist their incursions. The Imperial Daleks eventually capture the device. The Dalek Emperor is revealed to be Davros, now with only the last vestiges of his humanoid form remaining. The Doctor begs him not to use the Hand but is ignored. However, this is just the final ruse in a complex trap laid by the Doctor. The Hand of Omega utterly destroys the Dalek home planet, Skaro, and then returns to destroy their forces orbiting Earth.

Contents:1 x Dalek Emperor Davros action figure.1 x Destroyed Imperial Dalek action figure.

In the UK, available from Forbidden Planet.
In the US, from Mike’s Comics.