My Shiny Toy Robots

Taking a short break from my summer quest to see a large portion of the Doctor Who stories I've never seen, I decided to come back a visit an old favourite of mine and I'm sure many other peoples'....the Doctor's first encounter with a race that would become arguably as popular as the Doctor himself. Of course, it's none other than the Daleks. Following on instantly from the events of An Unearthly Child , the Doctor and his companions find themselves on a faraway planet covered by a petrified jungle. After discovering a futuristic metal city on this dead planet, the Doctor purposely sabotages the TARDIS so they they have no choice but to investigate the city. But the Doctor gets more than he bargains for as they are thrust into the world of the Daleks and their enemies, the Thals. Now the Doctor and his companions must escape from the Daleks and help to end a war that has been waged for centuries, and brought the planet Skaro to its knees... Fans of the new seri...

After a good few weeks of Daleks and 11 Doctor boxsets, its time to round up my current splurge on Doctor Who figures with 2 more additions to my Cyber army....the Cyberleader and Cyberman as seen in the 7th Doctor 1988 story Silver Nemesis. This set is particularly exciting as it is the first official release of a Classic Who Cyberleader. As the Cyberleader himself would put it, "EXCELLENT!" First thing to mention would be that these figures lack the chrome finish on the helmet and chest pieces their TV counterparts do, and while this is a shame here they blend in a lot better with current Classic figures (I find chrome to be a bit of a hit or miss affair) and do have some other nice touches to offer in place of this. The sculpt is far more divergent from the earlier released Classic Earthshock Cyberman figure earlier released, so much that it does begin to feel a lot more like an entirely different sculpt altogether (some comparison pictures with the Earthshock version ...

Since there are a few Daleks from seasons 1 to 4 of Dr Who I've given up hope of Character Options ever releasing, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. Using a cheap new series Dalek bought from B&M Bargains (if you're in the UK I recommend checking out your nearest one....cost me £3.99!) I went about creating a type of Dalek that made a very brief appearance in 2005's Parting of the Ways . The dome was painted using Citadel's Chaos Black paint, and the scanner arm appendage was made using the plunger arm (with the plunger cut off), a silver ball accessory from a Robot Wars figure, and paper clips and a key ring for the wire structure. Scratch-building isn't my greatest talent, but I like to think this came out okay. Once my other NS Dalek arrives I'll be turning my attention to a far more ambitious project...

After 4/5 years of great Dalek figures, this very likely is the last use of the RTD Dalek mould. We've seen a mutant reveal Dalek, a genetic hand print Dalek, the Cult of Skaro, Damaged Dalek Thay, an Assault Dalek, a Crucible Dalek, the Supreme One (and probably some I've forgotten to list!) but it all ends with this one....the Ironside. And what a swan-song it is. From its army green colouring and British flag insignia to its canvas ammunition pouches - the Ironside is one hell of a good figure. The ammunition pouch isn't revmovable unfortunately, but the detailing more than makes up for it. Its at such a level it makes the 2010 New Paradigm Drone Dalek look cheap in comparison. After so many bronze (and now brightly coloured) Daleks its also nice to see the Ironside in a more dull and subdued colour - it reminds me a lot of the 70s grey Daleks from Genesis of the Daleks and such and it makes me wonder how the new series Daleks would have looked had they first appeared ...

My opinion of the new Dalek design wavers everyday - one day I'll think its a fantastic homage to the 1960s Peter Cushing Dalek movies and a great update to the classic design, others I'll criticise it for its lack of detail in comparison to its predecessors (the RTD era Daleks) and that it suffers from a significant hunchback. One thing I'm certain is that yellow and orange are awful colour choices, and red is also a bad choice for a standard Dalek drone. But whatever my opinions are, these are the Daleks we'll be seeing for the forseeable future so I'd better get used to it. That aside, let's have a look at what is the first of undoubtedly many uses of this mould to come. There's not really a lot you can say about a Dalek figure - it has four points of articulation (head, eyestalk, gun, plunger) and has wheels. All of these are as good as they can be, although I'm disappointed that the eyestalk can still only move up and down (as it's now on a b...

The original Fullmetal Alchemist series is a classic. Check any well written "top 10/20/50/100" anime lists and you'd be hard pressed not to find one that doesn't include it somewhere near the top spot. And it's place is rightly deserved - the tale of two brothers travelling to regain their bodies after learning the fatal mistakes of trying to resurrect the dead was a fantastic 51 episode series full of action, suspense, adventure and fantastic characters. Pretty much everything an anime needs to be a masterpiece. So when it was announced that a new series was planned, one that would be following the manga storyline, while I was excited I was hesistant to believe that it would live up to the legacy the original had left. Enter Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood... The bare bones of the plot is exactly the same as its predecessor - brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric lose their bodies (or parts of) in an attempt to resurrect their dead mother through the science of...