Hello all. Since none of the major Who boards that I am a member of seem all that interested in Who merchandise, let alone the more high end stuff like this, here I am. Lurked for a long time, as I collect a lot of stuff other than Doctor Who, but with these latest releases thought I'd finally register and throw my opinions in the ring. I also tend to ramble on a bit, so feel free to skip past.
So anyway, my two Doctors just arrived, and I've just unpacked Baker so far.
First impressions:
- I really do love Big Chief's box designs. Very classy. Being able to remove and use the fold over for a backdrop is a particularly nice touch.
- My base doesn't work. At all. Not a sausage. If the Tennant base actually works when I unpack him then I will have to swap the battery to see if that's the problem, or if it's the base itself. *sigh*. I really do want a matching base for Smith now, though I hope the only way to get one isn't by buying a variant release, as that would defeat the purpose a bit.
- Speaking of bases, odd that they changed the colour of the nameplate, from the copper of the Smith release, to now a more traditional Who blue. Just makes the Smith piece, again, look a little anachronistic if this is now the standard, unless they intend to make each release a bit different looking. I notice they changed the name plate design a bit as well, and it doesn't seem as clean or well printed as the Smith piece was. On the up side, the signature is much better. There is no doubt about who signed this. As an added bonus, I got number #1 of 300, which isn't quite as cool as getting #4, but it's still pretty damn cool. When I saw 001 on the outside of the box I assumed they had written 100, and it was just upside down...lol.
- The hat on mine has broken away from the hair in the box. Again it's an easy fix, and thankfully there doesn't seem to be any visual damage anywhere that I have spotted so far, but I shouldn't have to fix anything straight out of the box like this. Still, at least it is fixable with a bit of epoxy, so there's that.
- Not real impressed with the wire in the scarf. I know why they did it, I understand the reasoning, but it doesn't work very well in my view, and I think it's going to have to come out. Though I hesitate to do something like that on a high end item.
- The accessories are well chosen, and mostly look very good for the scale. Though the key to time is full of air bubbles, which kind of spoils it, plus it doesn't hold together at all well, or at least mine doesn't. The rest are all quite good though, with clean paint application all around. And I do love the Eldrad hand.
- What is with Big Chief's obsession with 5 o'çlock shadows? I'm almost surprised they didn't give Amy Pond one at this point. Other than a couple of very story specific episodes, all the Doctors were always clean shaven when we see them, yet with Tom here it's even worse than the Matt Smith paint up in this regard. It looks completely out of place on the character, so it bewilders me why they keep doing it. Tom's is so strong on my figure that he looks like a bit of a wino...which might not be too far from the truth, actually.
- The body on mine is also a bit 'floppy', so I'm not sure yet how well he will go long term standing up. I hate propping figures up with stands though, so just have to wait and see how that goes.
- The tailoring is mostly really well done. The vest on mine is a touch crooked, which is a shame, and the coat arms are a bit too long in my opinion, but other than that I have no real complaints. Just as with the Smith figure, I do worry about the buttons though, so keeping that in mind will have to be very careful handling this.
- The likeness is, unfortunately, my biggest issue with this figure. It just doesn't look enough like Tom as The Doctor for my money. The face is a bit too thin, is I think the main issue here. And the rather un-Tom like expression doesn't help matters much. Honestly, side by side I prefer my old Sixteen 12 1:6 scale Fourth Doctor statue, as far as likeness goes. I was hoping that just like that statue, this was another piece that just didn't photograph very well, but looked better in person. Alas not though. It's not terrible, but it's certainly not as good as I would have liked, and to my eye has certainly suffered during production much more than the Smith piece did, or the Tennant judging by photos. Oh well.
- I was also hoping to prefer the hair rather than the hat look, as I already have a be-hatted Tom on my shelf, but alas I'm not a real big fan of the hair on it's own, whereas I think the hat looks great. The hair alone though just looks a bit too much like a wig to me, rather than looking natural. I don't know if it's the lack of shading detail, or just the way it sits, but the hair under the hat just looks miles better to my eyes.
All in all I'd say that it is better than I thought it would be, based on early photos, but not as good as I had hoped it would be, back when I originally ordered, and all in all I still think the Smith figure turned out better overall. Slightly disappointed to be honest, but hopefully it'll grow on me.
Now, to open the Tenth Doctor up...
