“Perhaps what brought us here brought the Daleks too.”
The Summer 2023 Doctor Who Collector Sets at B&M stores were somewhat reduced in quantity compared to previous years, bringing us the obligatory Dalek sets and a Doctor & TARDIS but with an obvious gap on any new figure 3-packs. The sets also saw a packaging update - most likely dictated by the BBC - marking the end of the Blue & Silver design that has been running since 2019. The new packaging is very much themed for the 60th Anniversary and features a plain white box, the 60th Anniversary Classic Blue logo, and what appears to be a new colour accent scheme that varies by Doctor.
The History of the Daleks sets have been running since 2020 and had been released and numbered in story order apart from a small tweak around the 2nd and 3rd Doctors. The 13th set should have been Resurrection of the Daleks, but instead, Character and B&M have chosen to skip this story and instead bring us a History of the Daleks set inclusive of the first Doctor figure taken from the 1983 anniversary story, The Five Doctors. The packaging remains consistent in design to the other History sets but with the new livery and logo and blue accent colour - we are still unclear if blue is a generic finish, or the colour assigned to the Fifth Doctor era. The box uses a blister card within the box making it impossible to repack the figures once opened as there will be some degree of damage to the box or blister in getting them out.
The rear of the box is turned over to Characters usual in-depth overview of the story of the Five Doctors and the props and outfits on which the figures are based. This overview contains a very obvious error in naming the actor playing the First Doctor as William Hurndall - it should of course be Richard Hurndall.
We start with the Hurndall Doctor figure, another one of those that had been previewed/leaked many years ago and then never released. In this case, the Character team had the Hurndall head resculpted for this release and it is a particularly good likeness with a touch more detail in the facial features than we might have got in past releases. The head paint work remains basic and applied by hand, but is neat and tidy in picking out key details like the eyes and mouth. The hair is two-tone with a white base overlaid with some grey for texture.
The body is a re-use of the Hartnell First Doctor that was first released in 2009. This time around the decor is less complex with the Five Doctors outfit using plain grey trousers and a cream waistcoat under a black jacket with none of the checkered or stripe patterning we have seen on prior First Doctor incarnations. The tie is picked out in black paint and the waistcoat buttons and eyeglass are crisply painted also. The hands on this new figure are updated to recreate Hurndall’s fingerless gloves from the Five Doctor story.
Articulation is standard, considering the base figure is from 2009. There are 16 points of basic pegged or single-jointed articulation that allows some basic movement and variation in posing without allowing the figure to do anything overly exciting. The joints all work as they should, and there are no issues with softer plastic joints or biceps popping out as has been seen on a few recent B&M sets. There are sadly no accessories for the Doctor, and considering the way Hurndall portrayed him on screen the walking stick is a miss.
Moving onto the Death Zone Dalek, this is a debut in the Character line and one reason given for choosing The Five Doctors over Resurrection. While this is another of the late 70s / early 80s grey Daleks with black detailing the colouring is specific to the Five Doctors appearance with a darker, more menacing colour scheme. This is all executed over the standard Classic era Dalek body but includes more recent upgrades including using the same newer central mesh as the Revelation Daleks as well as creating wider red headlights for the dome and a red-tipped emitter for the Dalek gun. Like the Revelation Daleks from the same wave of releases the Death Zone Dalek has also been given the new neck ring piece, increasing its height slightly.
The Dalek is articulated at each of the three main appendages as normal, with a pivot allowing the eyestalk movement up or down, and a ball joint for the Sucker Arm and weapon with motion in all directions. The dome can also be rotated 360 degrees, and the whole Dalek sits on three wheels allowing some level of play action - whilst also giving it the appearance of sitting ever so slightly clear of the ground like the original props.
As a set, the Five Doctors brings us two brand new figures in a sense with the release, finally, of a Hurndall First Doctor and the first release of a Death Zone Dalek. However, the fact remains that this set will always be seen in a way as an anomaly in the History of the Daleks line and one that should have featured Resurrection of the Daleks, with this one perhaps sitting adjacent to the line as a special release. The figures themselves are brilliant while remaining consistent with the long-running Who line. The packaging change will frustrate boxed collectors, but that will sit more with the BBC than Character - while the latter has made a bit of a boo-boo by getting the actor’s name wrong on the back of the box. As is now usual with these sets, the mad scramble to find these appears to be another issue for collectors with B&M having no online offering, a less than well-defined release schedule, and allowing scalpers to purchase these in large volume for the resale market. Stick with it though, there seem to be plenty of sets out there at the time of writing.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...