DALEK HUNTER
HANDS OFF! THESE DOCTOR WHO TOYS ARE NOT FOR PLAYING WITH…
WORDS: ROBBIE DUNLOP
IN HIS DAY JOB, CHRIS HILL IS A DIRECTOR AT a scientific research organisation that supports the US government. By night, he hunts Daleks. Toy Daleks.
It’s not unusual for fans of Doctor Who to collect the tie-in merchandise. But there are few who go to such extremes as Hill, a devotee of the show since the mid-’60s. “I’m told that I was one of those kids who was watching from behind the sofa, peeking my head out,” he tells SFX. “I had a plastic Dalek by a company called Herts Plastic Moulders, and a Dalek shooting game.
“But I wasn’t a collector then. I became one in February 1971 when my dad brought home the first issue of a comic called Countdown. There was a Doctor Who strip in it with Jon Pertwee. I remember looking at that and thinking, I’m going to start collecting these.”
Today, Hill – aleading Doctor Who memorabilia expert – boasts a record-breaking 12,500 individual items, from “cast cards” signed by the series’ stars dating back to 1963, to the latest anniversary T-shirt, coaster and badge collections. This vast number is of little surprise when you consider there have been steady releases of official Doctor Who tie-in products from early on. “There’s been a constant stream of Doctor Who merchandise since almost the very beginning,” Hill says. “The first boom was 1965’s ‘Dalekmania’. The Daleks were everywhere. On the telly, in the newspapers and comics, on the cinema screen, and so, of course, the toy shops and sweet shops were packed with licensed items.
The very rare Scorpion Automatives Dalek playsuit.
ALL PICTURES © CHRISTOPHER HILL