Action Figures

STAND BY FOR ACTION

JIM SANGSTER identifies five key phases in the development of Doctor Who’s action figures and other articulated toys

The First Doctor

Reincarnated in plastic, William Hartnell’s original Doctor remains a gentleman.

Daleks : The 1960s

The Daleks didn’t just conquer space. In toy form, they gained total dominion over playtime, too.

The Sensorites

The timid Sensorites controlled human space explorers of the 28th century with their psychic powers.

The Keys of Marinus

The Voord were knife-wielding assassins who crossed the acid sea of the strange planet Marinus.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The Daleks are the masters of the devastated 22nd-century Earth.

The Chase

The Daleks seek to match the firepower of the robotic Mechonoids.

Cybermen : The 1960s

Part-mechanical monsters from Mondas plot to invade their twin planet – Earth!

The Second Doctor

The Doctor’s recorder-tooting Second self first appeared in the closing moments of The Tenth Planet (1966).

The Ice Warriors

Hissing denizens of the Red Planet excavated from a glacier during Earth’s Second Ice Age.

The Third Doctor

Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor was a dedicated follower of dandified fashions – as his action figures prove.

Spearhead from Space

Mass-produced plastic monsters from the Third Doctor’s 1970 debut become mass-produced plastic monsters!

Doctor Who and the Silurians

Awaking from hibernation, bipedal reptilians of antiquity are appalled to discover they’ve been supplanted by apes.

The Claws of Axos

UNIT stands against a vampiric space entity come to drain the Earth dry… with the help of the Master!

The Dæmons

The Master conjures with dark forces in the ominously named village of Devil’s End.

The Sea Devils

There’s something nasty in the water: intelligent ship-sinking reptiles, come to break the Master out of jail!

The Time Monster

Professor Thascalos – aka the Master – plots to gain control over a time-eating Chronovore.

Daleks: The 1970s

The decade in which we visited the Daleks’ Planet, witnessed their Genesis and saw their ultimate Destiny

The Fourth Doctor

The absurdly long scarf worn by Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor made him immediately recognisable.

Robot

Experimental Robot K1 – built by an elite of experts bent on world domination!

The Sontaran Experiment

On the post-apocalyptic Earth, Field-Major Styre is conducting unspeakably abominable tests on human subjects…

Genesis of the Daleks

To hold in your hand a figure from the Daleks’ origin story, to know that life and death at 5.5” scale was your choice.

Terror of the Zygons

Deep beneath a Scottish loch sits the organic spaceship of the Zygons – masters of the Loch Ness monster!

Cybermen: The 1970s

In their only major 1970s appearance, the Cybermen sought to destroy a planet packed with the gold that proved deadly to them.

Pyramids of Mars

Archaeologist Marcus Scarman becomes a tool of the alien god Sutekh, who’s interred in an Egyptian monument!

The Brain of Morbius

An outer space Frankenstein builds a body for his renegade Time Lord master – now reduced to just his brain.

The Seeds of Doom

A deranged flora fancier seeks an alien vegetable.

The Deadly Assassin

On his home planet, the Doctor is framed for the Time Lord President’s murder… by the now decrepit Master.

The Face of Evil

Savage Sevateem tribeswoman Leela meets the Doctor… whom she knows as a god!

The Robots of Death

Someone’s turning the robots aboard the ore-gathering Storm Mine 4 into killers…

The Talons of Weng- Chiang

A time criminal is conducting sinister experiments in Victorian London. By his side is a murderous, pig-brained cyborg...

Image of the Fendahl

Something terrible is roaming Fetch Priory. Something hungry for your soul…

The Invasion of Time

The six-part finale to the 1977-78 season inspired

Destiny of the Daleks

Romana regenerates… and Davros is resurrected.

City of Death

Paris, 1979 – and Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth has his one eye fixed on stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre…

The Keeper of Traken

The dying Master plots to renew himself by bringing chaos to the peaceful groves of Traken.

The Fifth Doctor

The fresh-faced Fifth Doctor batted away his enemies in Edwardian-style cricketing clobber.

Cybermen: The 1980s

The Cybermen staged an unexpected comeback in 1982 – with a striking new look!

Earthshock

The Cybermen’s android guards on Earth… become their robot nemesis on Gallifrey!

The Five Doctors

Warriors of the Deep

From the 1984 season: a watery triad… plus a fiery double.

Planet of Fire

The Caves of Androzani

The tormented Sharaz Jek hoards rejuvenating spectrox in the caves of Androzani Minor.

Daleks: The 1980s

Representing the decade of the Daleks’ Resurrection, Revelation and Remembrance

The Sixth Doctor

The colourful coat worn by Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor has inspired a plethora of gaudy paint schemes.

Vengeance on Varos

Galatron Mining Corporation representative Sil is up to no good on the dystopian ex-prison planet Varos.

The Two Doctors

Villainy near Seville, as the Sontarans seek the secret of time travel by experimenting on the Second Doctor.

The Seventh Doctor

Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor was a natty dresser – but his with-it companion Ace’s look was wicked.

Time and the Rani

On Lakertya, a newly regenerated Doctor and his aerobicising friend Mel run into the Tetraps – bat-like servants of the evil Rani!

Remembrance of the Daleks

The Doctor duels with Davros and the Daleks in London, 1963.

The Eighth Doctor

Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor started out in ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok fancy dress… but his look has continued to evolve.

Figures of Eight

The market for Doctor Who action figures has matured in ways that no one in the 1960s could have predicted. JONATHAN MORRIS describes the role these toys have played in recapturing our lost youth