Doctor
Who’s
descent into the realm of television that I do not enjoy began with
Matt Smith’s final story – “The Time of the Doctor”.
I
didn’t like it and I haven’t liked much since.
Despite
the launch and ensuing support of the (not very good in my opinion)
3.75” scale Doctor Who action figure line, it looks like
Underground Toys is still going to grace us with the occasional 5”
scale figure to fit in with our existing collections. Heck, you can
still walk into a Toys R Us store and find 5” Daleks on the pegs.
FIRST
GLANCE
The
difference between this figure and its 3.75” counterpart
are staggering. Where that one suffered from a lack of detail,
articulation, and a general sort of blurriness, this one is well
defined and full of detail. There’s no mushy
sort-of-Matt-Smith-like face here. Nor is there a dull, untextured
jacket that looks more like a garbage bag. This is a nice-looking
figure.
PACKAGING
This
box is a very interesting addition to the line, as it apes the look
of the fantastic Eleven Doctors Box Set, right down to the bios on
the opening TARDIS doors:
It’s
clearly meant as a companion piece, though it technically only
contains one Doctor. Still, I do like consistency within a line and
this will look neat next to your box set if you choose to leave the
Doc in the box. So to speak.
The
exterior is a TARDIS with the diamond-shaped text boxes we’ve come
to associate with the line. It looks really good and helps this
figure seem like something special, which it is.
Since
the biographical portions are printed on the door flaps, they chose
to print a synopsis of the story on the back where a bio would
normally be.
A
little editing might have been nice on the Eleventh Doctor’s bio,
as the mention of Amy Pond doesn’t really make sense in this
context. She’s been long gone at this point.
As
an interesting note to those who defended Clara’s ridiculous
overreaction to the Doctor’s regeneration – it states quite
clearly here that she “understands regeneration more than any other
companion”. So no, sorry – she didn’t forget all of that. It
was, indeed, just bad writing.
LOOKS
I
think this is the best Matt Smith head sculpt we’ve seen. It seems
to have a bit more character than the older ones. Maybe that’s due
to Smith’s being a bit older. The hair is sculpted nicely and has
the sort of definition that makes it look like hair without being
overly detailed. There’s a trick to making action figure hair look
good – it can’t be flat and blobby, but you also can’t put too
much detail into it. This figure hits a happy medium. The face is
clearly Matt Smith and has a much nicer paint job than the other
Smiths I have. The lips don’t look lipstick-y, the eyes are
clearer, and the eyebrows… well, the eyebrows aren’t so great.
They’re just painted on with no sculpting, but they don’t look
all crazy, either.
The
Doctor’s coat has a sculpted square pattern all over it. It doesn’t
have the minute color detail of the prop coat, but the texture helps
with the look a lot. The collar is painted a darker purple, which is
correct. The sleeves match the coloration of the main portion
perfectly, which is nice because they are a firm plastic while the
body of the coat is rubber. Sometimes different materials don’t
match up. The sculpted buttonholes on the lapels are a nice touch.
The
Doctor’s hands are about as good as hands get at this scale. The
right is sculpted to hold his sonic screwdriver and the left to hold
his cane.
Under
the coat the figure has a sort of dickie thing going on. It’s a
rubber piece with a fob watch, vest, shirt collar, and bow tie
sculpted on. The sculpt looks fantastic and the painted detail is
perfect. They really nailed this piece. From the buttons to the dots
on the bow tie, the tiny detail is all there. It looks great.
Without
the dickie (or a head), the figure looks super weird. But obviously
you won’t be displaying it like this.
The
trousers are plain black trousers. There’s a lot of sculpted detail
showing wrinkles and seams.
The
shoes are awesome. I would wear these shoes. Sometimes, I have no
idea what a prop or piece of costuming looks like until I get the
action figure. I don’t hunt this stuff down on the internet, and
I’m usually too busy watching and listening to what’s happening
on screen to worry about the Doctor’s shoes or what sort of
cufflinks he’s wearing. These are cool shoes.
ACCESSORIES
This
set comes with two extra heads, an extra dickie, a Cyberman head, a
cane, and the 11th/12th
Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.
The
extra dickie is the same as the stock one except that it is
unencumbered by a bow tie and has a weird black nimbus around the fob
watch and chain. I think the latter is an accident, and it isn’t as
noticeable in person as it is in these pictures. This piece goes with
the alternate heads. It switches out fairly easily. The collar fits
around the neck of the body and there are two slots for pegs that are
sculpted into the coat to hold everything in place.
The
alternate heads look just as good as the Matt Smith head and swap out
easily. The old Eleventh Doctor head actually looks better than it
did in the story because it’s just an action figure and you can’t
tell its lousy makeup. Seriously – that makeup was terrible.
The
Twelfth Doctor head looks fantastic and makes me hopeful that we’ll
see a Capaldi in this scale. I may not like the show now, but I do
love his Doctor. I find his expression a little bit odd, but
whatever. It’s the spitting image of the guy.
The
cane is a cane. It has wood grain sculpted onto it and fits into the
Doctor’s hand.
The
sonic screwdriver looks much better than this terrible picture. Sorry
about that. It’s hard to photograph tiny things and when you do
it’s hard to tell if you got a good picture until it’s on the
computer screen.
As
great as the extra Doctor heads are, I won’t be displaying the
figure with them, which makes Handles the decapitated Cyberman the
best accessory of this set. He looks perfect – everything you might
want out of a Cyberman head. I like Handles because he’s an old
school Cyberman and not one of these new Iron Man ones or (shudder) a
Cybus model.
FUN
When
you pack this many interactive accessories in with an action figure
you’re pretty much guaranteeing a good time. With three different
heads to switch out, a sonic, a cane, a Cyberman head to toss around,
and two
interchangeable (what
more could any toy collector ask for!?!?), there’s plenty to mess
around with on this Doctor.
On
top of all of that, this figure features the best articulation of the
line. There aren’t any advancements, but it maintains the recent
shoulder hinges that were so sorely lacking on the first several
years’ releases. The mid-limb swivels are quite ugly and no attempt
was made to hide them. They’re literally just cut right into the
sculpt. The thighs are mercifully hidden by the Doctor’s long coat,
but the biceps are some of the worst joints I’ve ever seen (a
common issue with this line). If the Doctor’s arms are turned, it
looks terrible.
It’s like the Brits have some powerful aversion to modifying
aesthetics for the sake of… well, aesthetics. Making the arms a
little more round would fix this eyesore, but they just won’t do
it.
Still,
this Doctor is tons of fun and for the most part nice to look at.
OVERALL
Personally
I think this figure is a big win. I’d hate to see the 5” line
die, but if this were the final release I’d be okay with it. It’s
a nice-looking figure that certainly received the deluxe treatment as
far as deco and accessories go.
If
you’re a fan of Matt Smith and/or purple coats, you need to own
this one.
4
out of 5
And
you can buy it RIGHT HERE and help Needless Things pay the bills
(seriously – we have bills)!:
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