The History of the Daleks Set #5 from Character Options was released in the Summer of 2021 as part of the B&M Exclusive range of Doctor Who sets. It is the first of two sets from the 2nd Doctor Era, taken from the 1966 story Power of the Daleks.
The History of the Daleks packaging remains consistent with the other release to date and features a silver TARDIS outline design, deep blue accent colours, and a silver version of the current Doctor Who logo. Like all the other sets, the cutting of the left side panel on the box front at an angle does obscure most of the left-hand Dalek in the box.
The rear of the box is turned over, as usual, to a full write-up of the story and some behind-the-scenes information for the 1966 serial and the Dalek props used. As has been my opinion for a while, I still feel the level of detail - while impressive - is too much and gives away the full story and plot and doesn't tease collectors to go and explore the story for themselves.
'THE POWER OF THE DALEKS' (1966)
The TARDIS brings the new Second Doctor and his companions to the planet Vulcan where the Doctor immediately witnesses the murder of an Earth Examiner who was sent to discover the reasons behind a rebellion. The Doctor assumes the identity of the examiner and is taken to meet Governor Hensell, and his Deputy Quinn. The Doctor learns of an ancient ship discovered by the colony's chief scientist, called Lesterson. They sneak into his laboratory and discover two dormant Daleks, with a third missing. When the Doctor asks where the missing Dalek is, he is told its been taken to be reactivated. Lesterson manages to revive the Dalek and removes its gun but a colonist is killed. Quinn is soon revealed as the one who summoned the Examiner and is arrested leaving Bragan the Security Head and second in Command. Lestersons' reactivated Dalek, immediately feigns loyalty to the colonists and reassured by the good intentions of the Daleks, he reactivates the other two. But it seems the three Daleks are planning to take over the colony, and despite The Doctor warning them that Daleks are not to be trusted, they soon build a Dalek replication plant. Bragen is revealed to be the killer and behind the rebellion and orders a Dalek to kill the Governor. The Doctor, Ben ad Polly escape the chaos and help fight a losing battle against the rebels and the Daleks. Lesterson dies and although the Doctor destroys the Daleks by turning their power source against them, as the Doctor and crew return to the TARDIS we see a Dalek eyestalk move.
Behind the Scenes
Again the Daleks were given a makeover for Patrick Troughton's first story. The four main props were redressed in all silver livery but there were some subtle changes between the older and newer props. The props were fitted with new guns that looked closer to the movie style Daleks weapons with straight sided metal bars. However, the gauge of metal rod used on these new guns was not too robust and as they were often pulled around the studio by them the guns tended to be bow inwards after time leading to the curved look of later stories. The Dalek eyes were also updated but this led to a very odd mix of the original 'working iris' prop on one Dalek and newer non-functioning eyes with a small white pupil on the others. The Dalek cup shaped dome lights remained unchanged but are 'surface' mounted here, rather than from below giving the lights a 'hat' like look. Its also worth noting for this story there was also the need for a sieve like device for transferring 'baby' mutant Daleks from the incubator room to the Dalek casings this replaced the standard sucker arm.
The only previous Power of the Dalek drone release was in the 2012 Sounds FX Daleks line. The 2021 version uses the non-electronic Dalek body, and is very similar to The Chase Dalek released last year at B&M but does have an upgraded gun arm to match the props of 1966.
Colours are accurate to the props at the time, even though they were aired in black and white. The silver with blue hemispheres is consistent with the other 1960's Daleks in the line, although there is some minor variances in colour considering the various factory runs. The Power of the Daleks Drone also has a smaller painted iris on the eyestalk vs the original release to try and differentiate it further.
The second Dalek in the set is the Mutant Scoop Dalek and it is identical to the drone with the exception of the sucker arm which is replaced with the Mutant Scoop attachment. This is a silver cast piece with a textured circular tray at the end for transporting Dalek mutants.
The miss with the Mutant Scoop Dalek itself is not including the Dalek Mutant itself to sit on the scoop - even if this had been a less accurate repaint of the Dalek Mutant from the recent Reconnaissance Dalek.
Both Daleks articulate in the usual way with a rotating dome and wheels under the chassis to allow the Dalek to be pushed around. The eyestalk sits in a slot allowing up and down motion, while the gun arm and sucker/mutant scoop arms are ball joints and therefore have a wider range of motion.
There is an issue with one of my Daleks with a dodgy eyestalk that doesn't stay up, but having bought a 2nd set for my son this seems to be an isolated issue.
Going back to the packaging and Character has included a diorama backdrop in the inner packaging, designed to represent the interior of the Earth colony on Vulcan. It looks great and with some work to disguise the plain cardboard sides it could make an interesting display setting for the Power of the Dalek sets.
The Power of the Daleks set is another solid release from Character and B&M and good value as the price is still holding at £19.99 considering price rises elsewhere in the action figure world. While the Dalek sculpt has been heavily used previously, there is an attention to detail over the small changes each Dalek story presented and the addition of the Mutant Scoop gives us a brand new Dalek model for the collection.
The set may suffer from 60's Dalek fatigue in stores as it is the 5th set to feature silver & blue Daleks to the casual observer. I am glad to see they are mixing this up having held back the Evil of the Daleks set for the next releases and sticking this on the shelf with the Gold & Grey Day of the Daleks. As always, grab these while they are on shelves - there won't be a re-run and the more popular sets do jump in price on the market.
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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...
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