In late Summer 2021, the next batch of Doctor Who sets from Character Options landed in B&M stores as part of their ongoing exclusivity arrangements for new Who products. The Summer 2021 figures included two new History of the Dalek Sets, including the first from the Jon Pertwee 3rd Doctor Era - Day of the Daleks.
The packaging follows suit with the 1st and 2nd doctor History of the Dalek sets with the same blue and grey backdrop and TARDIS outline design. The gold foil sticker quoting 'Limited Edition' sits on the bottom left of the window - a window that remains cut a little short and sees the Drone Dalek hidden from view.
The back of the box carries the usual extensive text covering both the 1972 story but also the Dalek props used for Day of the Daleks. As always, my thoughts on the extent of the text are that it is too much and gives the full prop of the story whereas a shorter teaser would have encouraged collectors to find out more themselves if they had not seen the story themselves.
'DAY OF THE DALEKS' (1972)
Sir Reginald Styles, organiser of a World Peace Conference, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by a combat guerilla who vanishes like a ghost. Later we see the same guerilla attacked by huge creatures called Ogrons and later found unconscious by UNIT troops. The Doctor arrives and deduces that he came from about two hundred years in the future and that a device found with him is a crude time machine Styles is sent away and the Doctor and Jo keep watch on the house but are attacked by more guerillas. The Doctor convinces them that he is not Styles but then Jo is accidentally transported o the 22nd Century. Anxious to find Jo, the guerillas follow her to the future with the Doctor where he learns that the Earth is ruled by the Daleks. It doesn't take long until Jo and the Doctor are taken prisoner, however the guerillas rescue them and explain why they are trying to kill Styes. They believe he caused an explosion at the World Peace Conference, starting a war that led to the Dalek conquest - a history that they wish to change. However, the Doctor surmises tha the explosion was probably caused by one of the guerillas themselves, in a misguides ploy to fulfill the assassination attempt. Returning to the 20th Century with Jo, he has the peace conference evacuated just before the Daleks and Ogrons arrive to ensure the peace attempts fail but are destroyed when the bomb detonates.
Behind the Scenes
For their first appearance in colour, the Dalek props for this story were given a makeover. Along with new voices, all three popos were updated and repaired in a variety of ways. The neck cages were replaced and a courser mesh was added. The eyestalks were repaired with new eyeballs and disks which now had a simplified 'pupil' design, while the dome lights now used a light found on Land Rover and Mini cars. The shoulders were updated with a coarser mesh than before, and all three props had larger skirt fenders with metal edging and a rubber skirt added to increase the height. Finally, and somewhat bizarrely, given it was their first outing, two of the pops were painted metallic dark grey and the third was painted gold. These Daleks feature some interesting but odd decoration, with the paint applied liberally, even down to the visible gold and grey mesh on the neck. Each also had the gun and pivot ball painted gold and grey respectively, whilst the sucker arms on all three were silver with silver pivots... the gold and grey even extended down onto the tops of the fenders, an effect not obvious as much on the grey drones, as the Gold Supreme.
As we've seen with the other History of the Dalek sets, the inner tray is illustrated as a Story-Specific backdrop, designed by the Character Options team. For Day of the Daleks, we have a time portal opening just under the tunnel near Auderly House.
The set brings us a new Dalek Drone with a dark grey metallic finish over the existing Classic Dalek body. The colouring is fantastic and this is one of the crispest classic Daleks to date,
The Gold Dalek Supreme uses the same body with a bright gold all-over paint job and black roundels and base. Even the slats around the neck are painted in gold, and this varies from the original release of this figure where the inner neck mesh was painted in black. The accuracy of this is a question of lighting as the neck mesh was in fact gold on most set images, but the lighting did make it look much darker.
Articulation remains the same as all the Character Classic Daleks, and the same articulation you would find on the full-size Dalek props. The eyestalk works on a pivot and can raise up and down. Both the sucker arm and gun are ball joints so these can rotate within the body of the Dalek. The dome can be rotated a full 360 degrees, and the whole Dalek is set on three wheels at the base, the front of which can rotate, to allow the Dalek to be pushed around.
With Characters intent on completing a History set from each Dalek story, these are the only two choices open to the team for Day. The set brings us the first Drone from the story, and the paintwork is sufficiently different from the grey Drones of Genesis and beyond to be something collectors may want to consider army building. It is also a good option for anyone who missed out on the original Day of the Dalek Supreme from 2009.
At £19.99 it reflects a good level of value for money considering the current action figure climate and price rises, and the only issues it faces is its distribution, which has been a little spotty, and the limited run of these sets.
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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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