These little guys are positively addictive. Two weeks ago we took a look at just about half of this first assortment, and afterward I couldn’t resist trying trying to hunt down the ones I was missing. Matt Jones (www.lunartik.com) did a fantastic job designing these and I can’t wait for more. They’re so much fun.
Hunting down these little guys definitely proved to be a challenge, but after opening box after box, I’m finally at the point where I feel like my collection is complete. I’ve found all the standard figures and two of the four possible variants, and I think that’s where I’m going to call it good. I’ve had a lot of fun building my set and I’m almost sad to be finished. I could, of course, try to hunt down the remaining variants I’m missing, but considering they’re packed in a 1/40 ratio, it sort of feels like a potential exercise in futility. I was lucky to find the variants that I did, but chasing down the last two could be an expensive endeavor.
The TARDIS is the one I was the most excited to find. Like the others, it’s a highly stylized interpretation of the Doctor’s vehicle/home, and while it isn’t exactly in scale with the other figures and doesn’t really do anything but sit there, it’s still an important piece and is the perfect compliment to the Doctor. And it’s really the only figure besides the Doctor that could be considered a “good guy.”
This particular TARDIS is definitely smaller on the outside. I don’t think The Doctor could fit even his head through those doors. Maybe it’s where he keeps his trusty sonic screwdriver when he’s not using it.
The Judoon is one of the standouts of the assortment, I think. The characters on the show are from a race of big, hulking humanoid creatures with heads that resemble rhinos, so they’re a bit intimidating. They look ugly and mean, but here they look as adorable as can be. The two here are identical; I ended up with doubles, so I just went with it. They look good as a pair, I think. In fact, like most of the figures besides the Doctor and the TARDIS, I really wouldn’t mind army-building them.
The Judoon comes with a red blaster, which is cool, but I have to say I would have preferred the scanner they use to determine the race of their subjects. It’s a little more iconic, I think. Also, it’s interesting to me that the Judoon is included in the 11th Doctor’s assortment since they’re characters I more closely associate with the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones. I think I’ll be adding them to the 10th Doctor’s display once that assortment hits. It makes more sense to me.
Next to the TARDIS, the Ood was the figure I was looking forward to the most and I was thrilled to score both the standard and the 1/40 variant (the green one). The Ood are among the most iconic characters from the new Doctor Who series, and Titans did a fantastic job with them here.
The standard Ood has red/pink eyes and a white telepathy ball. The red eyes signify telepathic activity, and, generally, speaking, the Ood is a servant race and aren’t much of a threat to, well, anyone, but there have been instances when…
… the Ood can definitely be something of a threat. The green eyes and green telepathy ball lead me to believe this is “Nephew” from the episode “The Doctor’s Wife.” This particular Ood was under the control of House, a malevolent entity that kept a few beings “enslaved” for its amusement. Nephew had the ability to drain people’s minds and souls, and he gave Amy and Rory quite a lively chase through the TARDIS. So while the standard Ood isn’t necessarily an adversary, Nephew definitely is.
This is something I discovered purely by accident when I turned off my photo lights — Nephew’s eyes and telepathy ball glow! It’s little novelties like this that make scoring the variant all the sweeter. The glow is quite strong and looks super cool.
In addition to Nephew’s glowing eyes and telepathy ball, I discovered the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver glows in the dark as well. It’s such a small piece that glows — only the very tip of the sonic screwdriver — but it’s an awesome touch that really adds a lot to an already awesome little figure.
It sort of reminds me of kryptonite.
And, as icing on the cake, I was able to complete my set of the new, “upgraded” Dalek paradigm. All five are here: the Drone (red), the Strategist (blue), the Supreme (white), the Eternal (yellow), and the Scientist (orange). They look awesome all together.
And here they all are joined by the few I looked at in the previous article. It’s quite an awesome assemblage of characters in this super-deformed, mini-figure format. Hunting them all down definitely took some work, but seeing them all together makes all the effort feel worth it. I am missing two variants still, so I may head over to my local Suncoast and try my luck one more time, even though I swore I was done.
Incidentally, these little guys are up for a Designer Toy of the Year award. If you’re as fond of them as I am, it’s definitely worth your while to cast a vote. Awesome work, Matt Jones!
These are still available at Amazon.com for those interested. I’ve had luck finding them at my local Suncoast store as well, but it seems as time goes on they’re getting harder and harder to find. The 10th Doctor’s assortment is due out later this year, and those can be preordered with Big Bad Toy Store. I can’t wait!
