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The best and worst Doctor Who toys Dapol ever made?

posted 7 years ago by GladysOver
7 replies | jump to latest

Inspired by my wistful reminiscing (or perhaps more accurately harrowing recollections) of model train manufacturer Dapol and the toy monstrosities the company unleashed on unsuspecting fans in those (not so) halcyon days when they had secured the Doctor Who license from an evidently disinterested BBC, what are your choices for the best and worst the company had to offer?

I'll start with one good, one bad.

(Preemptive Disclaimer: by "good" I mean relatively speaking of course )

Good:

(1) - Tardis/Police Box exterior: One suspects that Dapol would've had to employ Stevie Wonder as designer/sculptor in order to screw this, the venerable Police box up. Thankfully they didn't and having owned this set myself I can confirm that it looked rather good, albeit a bit on the flimsy side. It niftily opened up to form one side of the Tardis console room too.

Pic for reference: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dapol+tardis&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW08TPyerRAhXhDMAKHRkTD_YQ_AUICCgC&biw=1024&bih=649#imgrc=oZatKGUPTFgk6M%3A

Bad:

(2) - Sontaran: Clearly inspired by the ropey looking Sontarans from The Two Doctors (bad idea) these things were an abomination. Not so much boasting a light tanned potato-esque head more a dark brown dog turd like arrangement, Dapol also got the figure's proportions all wrong by having squat legs paired with a long body! I really wanted a Sontaran figure too but was so dejected when this little horror was released.

Pic for reference: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dapol+sontaron&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=xuT7ZnU4f_42RM%3A

[–] peter_t_2k3 7 years ago

I had the cyberman silvester McCoy and possibly a Pertwee. Remember going to visit drool as the doctor who experience was next to it

[–] pferreira86 7 years ago

I remember Louise Jameson saying once how disappointed she was with her Leela doll.

[–] Dr Wily 7 years ago

For me, the most disappointing Dapol release was the original version of the Dalek. Before the figure was redesigned, the gun and sucker arms didn't move! They just stuck straight out. They eventually finally added ball and socket joints to these arms so that they could move, as they should have been able to do from the start!

[–] GladysOver 7 years ago

For me, the most disappointing Dapol release was the original version of the Dalek. Before the figure was redesigned, the gun and sucker arms didn't move! They just stuck straight out. They eventually finally added ball and socket joints to these arms so that they could move, as they should have been able to do from the start!

To be fair there was slight articulation in the Dalek's original appendages (eyestalks aside) but as you say - and to Dapol's credit, they did later issue a revised figure which boasted far superior ball-joints and noticeably better paint application (the paint on the Dalek hemispheres on the first toys were piss awful - I should know as I bought them!).

[–] Dr Wily 7 years ago

I don't recall the paint on the hemispheres being an issue with my white and gold original Dalek. It wouldn't surprise me, though, that the paint might have been poorly applied.

I remember I received one white and gold Dalek where the socket holding the sucker arm was cracked and eventually fell apart! The arm then, of course, fell out. So, I made the best of the situation. I cut off the eye stalk, removed the gun arm, and attached a cannon I secured from Toy Biz Spider-Man Octobot Doctor Octopus toy to make what I called the Special Weapons Dalek Mk II. I eventually modified it because the section holding the two arms was removable. So, I created other weapon attachments from other toys to swap around, dubbed the Mk III.

[–] Dr Wily 7 years ago

Runner up for worst: Davros.

First, it had TWO hands! Then, they just "fixed" the issue by chopping off one of the hands! So, Davros had two poseable arms, but one was just a stump. Ridiculous!

[–] GladysOver 7 years ago

Update: Having scratched the ol' bonce (and not before time considering this board's going to be nuked in a few days!), here's another one good, one bad Dapol creation/abomination:

Good:

(3) - K9: Available at launch and the first Dapol figure I ever bought of which was purchased at the then Doctor Who exhibition at Longleat - home of the bonkers, terminally inbred Maquis of Bath and his numerous slappers er, 'female liaisons'!

Incidentally my then best friend was with me on that fateful day and he purchased the Seventh Doctor....of whose arm fell off within 10 minutes of deadly exposure to oxygen after being released from his packaging. Unparalelled quality.

K9 though was actually pretty good I recall and boasted a pullback clockwork motor. Initially released in 'prop-accurate' grey and later in green, for some reason.

Bad:

(4) - The 2nd Doctor: Question: Imagine you're Dapol back in the nineties. You've released decently articulated figures of the seventh (sans arm), fourth and third Doctors - true the third Doctor is suffering from inexplicable giantism when compared to the others (for some reason Dapol's third Doctor was of much larger scale compared to all the other figures in the range) and you now want to immortalise the iconic 2nd Doctor in plastic. How do you proceed?

Why, by not being arsed to release an articulated figure but instead an unarticulated lump of plastic! Admittedly I'm cheating here as I never owned said figure but from what I've seen it looks total sh^t and the zero articulation renders it a figurine not a figure. Bizzare and evidently 'phoned-in' by a disinterested Dapol.