Doctor Who Fashion! Is this Matt Smith’s long coat?

Bit of a departure from me on this blog, but I wanted to share this, as I was idly trotting around the Internet for a winter coat.

It’s not exactly a wear-once Halloween costume idea, but could this be the coat that Matt Smith has worn in the most recent series of Doctor Who? It very much looks like it to me. This stylish Crombie coat is based on the classic World War II military style, and has all the detailing of the coat at the time.

There’s no doubting that it’s quite outside my income, but when you’re kicking around for a couple of hundred years you’ll want something that’s built to last. I’ve always thought that the long coat was always a good look for the Doctor, certainly for Tom Baker and Peter Davison (sorry Colin!), and probably influenced my outerwear choices far more than I’d realised. For fans of the alternative Eleventh Doctor look, you can also buy a replica of Matt Smith’s tweed jacket. Again, not for tight budgets…

Now, where’s my multi-coloured scarf?

Eleventh Doctor Maxi Bust now available

It seems that the 11th Doctor Maxi Bust from Titan Media is starting to ship, being the first of a new range of collectibles from Doctor Who.  Titan Media has the license for the new and classic Doctor Who series, and many of the upcoming releases have already been disclosed, with a great mix of Doctors, monsters and also – so far – Amy and Leela.

There is also a Doctor Who Experience Exclusive 11th Doctor bust.  This is an alternative version with red bowtie and shirt, unlike the standard blue edition.  From what I understand, you can buy the bust for £60 with your Doctor Who Experience ticket.  Whether or not it’s available to buy from the shop without a ticket is uncertain.

Here’s Matt’s reaction to seeing the prototype way back in January:

Plush Dalek and Pull-Back-and-Go TARDIS Video Reviews

Last night, after heavily medicating myself from what turned out to be a viral infection, I recorded this latest video review.  In my foggy, fugue state, I managed to actually edit it too!

Bit of a departure this time. I saw these little oddities from among the plethora of Doctor Who collectibles that are floating around at the moment.

Here I review the Talking Plush Dalek and Pull-back-and-go spinning TARDIS.  Hope you enjoy!

Caves of Androzani Peri and Sharaz Jek figure set and 5th Doctor bust

Some interesting Doctor Who pieces are starting to emerge, primarily thanks to reveals at NYCC.

Thanks to @SirRoundSound for sending me the link to the Caves of Androzani set, which has now been listed over at Australian retailer Ikon Collectibles. Peri is wearing her pink and white attire from her first and second adventures.

Sharaz Jek, perhaps one of the series most charasmatic and compelling villains, seems to come with two alternative heads; one being his scarred face and another to create a figure of one of his android servants. This is quite an exciting release, and it’s great to see the Doctor’s lexicon of memorable enemies getting a look in on the figure line.

Also showing up are images of Titan’s new Doctor Who maxi bust, again from the same era as The Caves of Androzani, of the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, posted at actionfigs.com. This bust shows Davison doing his best “pocket acting”, and seems to a very accurate depiction of the character in pose and sculpt.

No information on UK releases have been announced as yet, but watch this space!

19.10.11 Update: on closer inspection on the heads supplied with Sharaz Jek, the android head seems to be an accessory, not something you can attach to the body.

Enemies of the 3rd Doctor: Classic Doctor Who action figures news

Forbidden Planet, what are you doing to me?  My bank account is looking at me, with a twisted smile of both mockery and disgust.  No sooner have you thrown a Parisian-ensconced alien art thief, a sontaran with an eye for the invasion of Gallifrey, a dalek slave and mechanical, flame-throwing balls in my direction, you hit me with the Enemies of the 3rd Doctor set.

Now this is an incredible set.  Unlike this season’s previously announced range of Forbidden Planet Classic Doctor Who exclusives, no figure in this set has been released before.  So for the first time, we have an auton from their, and Jon Pertwee’s, first appearance, “Spearhead from Space”, Omega from “The Three Doctors” and a Drashig from “Carnival of Monsters”.

This set also includes various cool features and accessories; Omega has a removable head (oops, spoilers), and the auton has a swappable gun hand and nestene sphere accessory.  In a departure for the 5″ range, Omega’s robes are made of fabric.   The Drashig is a particulary interesting release, simply because these are larger creatures than normal.  Character seems to have taken advantage of this, and turned the figure into a glove puppet for young children to operate.  Yeah, like I’d let a little kid touch my classic Who figures!

This set is now available for pre-order at Forbidden Planet, priced at £44.99 and due for release in mid December.

Personalise Your Sonic Screwdriver Set

The Personalise Your Sonic Screwdriver Set has been floating around for a while, and I’ve been sorely tempted to muck about with it for ages. I finally weakened, and found a good reason (excuse) to buy one by doing a review for this blog.

Produced by Character, who make the lion’s share of Doctor Who toys, this set is the latest in a long line of roleplay toys. The Personalise Your Sonic Screwdriver Set currently retails around the £20 mark, for ages 5 years and up.   If buying overseas, please contact your preferred collectible retailer.

Doctor Who Series 6 figure review – Peg Doll, Corroded Cyberman with Chest Damage, Cybermats

The newest wave of Doctor Who figures from Character includes five new releases: The Eleventh Doctor with Beard from about five minutes in Day of the Moon, the Peg Doll Soldier from Night Terrors, a Corroded Cyberman with face damage, a Corroded Cyberman with chest damage and a pack of 20 cybermats from Closing Time.

From this range, I picked up the Peg Doll, the Corroded Cyberman with chest damage and the 20 Cybermats. The packaging styles are the same as we’ve been used to for the last year or two of releases, again with papery ties instead of wire ties, The are a few “easy options” for sculpts here, by using the Cyberman sculpt as a base, but these guys are a little more interesting.

I like to think that the sculptors enjoyed having at the cyberman, sculpting exposed cabling and damaged panels. It gives the bog standard cyberman a bit more of an intriguing finish. The Corroded Cyberman with chest damage is fun for its overall look, particularly the weathering. Visually, its a more interesting figure, but it still a cyberman. Still, it’d be disappointing if we didn’t see some of the more physically damaged figures from Closing Time.

This time, the cyberman has a ball joint neck for more flexibility. Supplied with this cyberman is an empty, flappy cyberman head. It’s an interesting accessory, and liken the Pandorica cyberhead with a skull, it doesn’t close. It also doesn’t attach to the body either, which I was quite surprised about.

We also have the 20 cybermat set. Like the Adipose set from a few years ago, we get a selection of these little cyberpets. Unfortunatley they don’t quite ping as satisfyingly as the adipose did when you push them out of their plastic bubbles. There is a mixture of cybermats made up four different sculpts, one of them includes a “Bitey” version too. These are given a simple wash of weathering along with paint to pick out the eyes. I do wonder why these were released in a pack on their own instead of five or so with a cyberman though.

Finally, there’s a sinister Peg Doll from the spooky episode Night Terrors. This is a completely new sculpt and is a perfect replica of these twisted occupants of the otherworldly doll’s house that features in the story. The detail is great, and replicates the look of the character very well, but there is a little paint slop around the white bandoliers of the uniform. The stringy, bare arm has a shoulder ball joint that is its only articulation.

This is a fun wave for kids, as it basically features a Doctor and monsters. For collectors, the cybermen are interesting, but would’ve been preferable if they were supplied with cybermats instead of having them sold in a big pack separately. The Peg Doll is a great addition to the collection too, and very visually interesting for the shelf.

This wave is starting to appear in stores that carry the Doctor Who range now, and Forbidden Planet stores.

Classic Doctor Who Action Figure Set – The Chase

I was half joking to myself as I thought, plonking myself onto the course fibres of the train seat, “I wonder if Forbidden Planet will release another classic Doctor Who exclusive.” I actually do have these thoughts, especially as two other figure sets were announced last week; Leela and Stor from The Invasion of Time and Enemies of the First Doctor.

Well it seems that we do, in the shape of another set of figures inspired by the William Hatnell era of the show. From 1965′s The Chase, we have two daleks and a mechanoid. The mechanoid is rather exiting, well for me, as it’s a particularly mad looking robot, very much of its time. Mooted to be successors of the daleks, the mechanoids were far too unwieldy to slide around the studio, and just didn’t have the dalek’s appeal, but I find them rather fun!

This figure set is a Forbidden Planet exclusive, due for release in mid-December, retailing at £39.99.

The New Three Doctors

The Sarah Jane Adventures Returns!

Today sees the welcome return to our screens of CBBC’s The Sarah Jane Adventures.  It’s something of a mixed feeling to see the programme return, mainly because it’s a reminder of the loss of Elisabeth Sladen who died earlier in the year.

This is still something that I find incredibly sad, but while I never even met her, I do get the impression that she would probably say, “enough of that – enjoy the show!”  And for that reason, it’ll be great to see Sarah Jane, with Clyde, Rani and possibly Luke, Mr Smith and even K-9(?) in tow.

I probably won’t be reviewing The Sarah Jane Adventures like I would other shows.  This is mainly for the fact that I’m not its designated audience.  It is, at its heart, a children’s show, but that’s one thing it does have: heart.  To provide a critique might be a little unfair, and I have enjoyed the majority of the show for its fun escapism.  It’s unfettered by a lot of the nonsense that we tack on to more “grown up” shows, although it’s never soft-soaped the jeopardy or talked down to kids.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing these last three stories in its fifth series.  It’s great to be able to step back into Sarah Jane’s world one last time.