Post by David J Howe on Apr 7, 2007 10:07:04 GMT 1
When I was a kid, I would have died and gone to heaven if there had been a TARDIS playset of the quality and complexity of this toy. On televison, the TARDIS is blessed with an impressive organic control room which looks somehow grown and ancient while maintaining a futuristic flair. It’s a true work of art, and this toy manages to capture the same feeling of awe and amazement.
The box it comes in is large and heavy, and immediately you start to wonder at the convoluted brains of the engineers who work out how to pack everything inside. It contains an incredible array of pieces, all held in different parts of the box with a million bits of sticky tape and little twisted wires. It took me at least half an hour of untwisting, bleeding fingers, and figuring out where the next bit of wire was just to unpack all the pieces, and then another thirty minutes to assemble it following the enclosed instruction sheet. But it’s worth every second.
The attention to detail is spectacular, from the amazing console itself to the curving ceiling struts, the removable floor panels, the TARDIS door entranceway – there’s even a hat stand and a little set of hammers! When the console is switched on, you hear all the TARDIS sounds, from ‘take off’ to ‘in flight’ to various bleeps and whooshes as different and well disguised buttons on the console are discovered and pressed. There’s a little hidden hatch on the console which opens for repairs to be carried out (or for Rose to get another dose of vortex power if she fancies another snog with the Doctor). The column also glows a superb eerie green (using it in the dark gives the best effect), and when the clear perspex tubes start moving and meshing together as that strange wheezing groaning sound announces that the ship is taking off my heart flutters and warms with pleasure.
The cardboard back walls unfortunately only cover a small part of the playset, though there is a template for more that can be downloaded unofficially from the Internet and printed off in colour to clad more of the room and to give a better overall effect. And for the stray piping and wiring which hang from the ceiling of the actual set, although again these aren’t included here, some strands of black ‘Scoobidoo’ plastic string (a couple of quid from Woolworths) completes the effect and gives an amazing simulation of the actual set.
But what use is a playset without some players, and Character Options have produced a great range of characters to journey in the TARDIS. Of course there is the Doctor, and there’s a few to choose from: you can have an Eccleston model or the Tennant version in Eccleston’s outfit (these were both in a ‘Regeneration’ pack still available in some specialist shops), or there’s Tennant in his long brown coat, or Tennant in his pinstripe suit. Some of these come with a mini-sonic screwdriver as well, so the Doctor can be armed against the forces of evil. By his side there is Rose Tyler. Unfortunately, the first version of Rose was poorly modelled, but now there’s a new version in her outfit from New Earth which is much better but still not perfect – for some reason she doesn’t have movement at her elbows and wrists which makes her seem a little zombified.
Along with the Rose figure, you get a little K9 as well. This is a lovely toy, well made and incredibly accurate. If you’d prefer a small radio controlled version to zip about the TARDIS with, then that’s also available along with a Doctor figure. In fact the Doctor and Rose figures are turning up in all manner of packaging from six-packs from Woolworths, to three-packs from Sainsburys as well as individually and with small remote control Daleks and K9s. Finally, there’s a nice Captain Jack figure in his outfit from The Empty Child, complete with blaster.
So much for the good guys, but what about the baddies? Lining up there’s the bone-masked Sycorax Leader, who comes with staff and whip, ready to beat some sense into everyone, and also Lady Cassandra (the flat skin woman) who comes on her own or with tattooed Chip her servant (who like the new Rose lacks articulation in his elbows and wrists). There’s also a little blue fellah on a travel disk thing. He’s the Moxx of Balhoon and like Cassandra he comes with some robot spiders. There’s also a Slitheen figure with a lovely snarling mouth and big arms and claws, the impressive Werewolf from Tooth and Claw which towers over everyone else, and of course the dreaded Cybermen!
The Cybermen are far and away the best so far. They are a total dream. The figure is articulated in all the right places, can be posed in many ways (though he can’t quite sit down without popping his pelvic joints out) and I want loads and loads of them to create my very own Cyber-Army. Every army needs commanders, and from Toys R Us, you can get a brilliant CyberController (with brain revealed) in the same scale. Available from Argos is a Dalek Battle Pack in which you’ll find a CyberLeader which is the same as the Cyberman but with black handles on the head, and in a really nice touch, his chest-mounted Cybus logo pops off to reveal the emotion chip therein. He also comes with one of Mrs Moore’s patented electro-bombs so there is a handy way to defeat them! There is even a special Cyber-set available containing two Cybermen and the CyberController along with his mobile throne.
The box it comes in is large and heavy, and immediately you start to wonder at the convoluted brains of the engineers who work out how to pack everything inside. It contains an incredible array of pieces, all held in different parts of the box with a million bits of sticky tape and little twisted wires. It took me at least half an hour of untwisting, bleeding fingers, and figuring out where the next bit of wire was just to unpack all the pieces, and then another thirty minutes to assemble it following the enclosed instruction sheet. But it’s worth every second.
The attention to detail is spectacular, from the amazing console itself to the curving ceiling struts, the removable floor panels, the TARDIS door entranceway – there’s even a hat stand and a little set of hammers! When the console is switched on, you hear all the TARDIS sounds, from ‘take off’ to ‘in flight’ to various bleeps and whooshes as different and well disguised buttons on the console are discovered and pressed. There’s a little hidden hatch on the console which opens for repairs to be carried out (or for Rose to get another dose of vortex power if she fancies another snog with the Doctor). The column also glows a superb eerie green (using it in the dark gives the best effect), and when the clear perspex tubes start moving and meshing together as that strange wheezing groaning sound announces that the ship is taking off my heart flutters and warms with pleasure.
The cardboard back walls unfortunately only cover a small part of the playset, though there is a template for more that can be downloaded unofficially from the Internet and printed off in colour to clad more of the room and to give a better overall effect. And for the stray piping and wiring which hang from the ceiling of the actual set, although again these aren’t included here, some strands of black ‘Scoobidoo’ plastic string (a couple of quid from Woolworths) completes the effect and gives an amazing simulation of the actual set.
But what use is a playset without some players, and Character Options have produced a great range of characters to journey in the TARDIS. Of course there is the Doctor, and there’s a few to choose from: you can have an Eccleston model or the Tennant version in Eccleston’s outfit (these were both in a ‘Regeneration’ pack still available in some specialist shops), or there’s Tennant in his long brown coat, or Tennant in his pinstripe suit. Some of these come with a mini-sonic screwdriver as well, so the Doctor can be armed against the forces of evil. By his side there is Rose Tyler. Unfortunately, the first version of Rose was poorly modelled, but now there’s a new version in her outfit from New Earth which is much better but still not perfect – for some reason she doesn’t have movement at her elbows and wrists which makes her seem a little zombified.
Along with the Rose figure, you get a little K9 as well. This is a lovely toy, well made and incredibly accurate. If you’d prefer a small radio controlled version to zip about the TARDIS with, then that’s also available along with a Doctor figure. In fact the Doctor and Rose figures are turning up in all manner of packaging from six-packs from Woolworths, to three-packs from Sainsburys as well as individually and with small remote control Daleks and K9s. Finally, there’s a nice Captain Jack figure in his outfit from The Empty Child, complete with blaster.
So much for the good guys, but what about the baddies? Lining up there’s the bone-masked Sycorax Leader, who comes with staff and whip, ready to beat some sense into everyone, and also Lady Cassandra (the flat skin woman) who comes on her own or with tattooed Chip her servant (who like the new Rose lacks articulation in his elbows and wrists). There’s also a little blue fellah on a travel disk thing. He’s the Moxx of Balhoon and like Cassandra he comes with some robot spiders. There’s also a Slitheen figure with a lovely snarling mouth and big arms and claws, the impressive Werewolf from Tooth and Claw which towers over everyone else, and of course the dreaded Cybermen!
The Cybermen are far and away the best so far. They are a total dream. The figure is articulated in all the right places, can be posed in many ways (though he can’t quite sit down without popping his pelvic joints out) and I want loads and loads of them to create my very own Cyber-Army. Every army needs commanders, and from Toys R Us, you can get a brilliant CyberController (with brain revealed) in the same scale. Available from Argos is a Dalek Battle Pack in which you’ll find a CyberLeader which is the same as the Cyberman but with black handles on the head, and in a really nice touch, his chest-mounted Cybus logo pops off to reveal the emotion chip therein. He also comes with one of Mrs Moore’s patented electro-bombs so there is a handy way to defeat them! There is even a special Cyber-set available containing two Cybermen and the CyberController along with his mobile throne.
