O is for Options

Last post on modern production Dr. Who products for a while - I promise, but this time we're not looking at Dr. Who Adventures Magazine, it's Character Options and their licence to produce 'mini-figs' after Lego, after Hestair-Kiddicraft!

Following the Lego 'collectable' figure sets with figure sets of their (CH's)  own which we have looked at before, an innovation Lego themselves took from the 'mono-block' and 'designer figure' fields, Character Options (hereafter; CH, as I can't be arsed to keep typing a word I've never been able to spell!) have just issued their third series, and look what's in it...a proper 1970's gold Dalek, old school, old stylie, old enemy of the doctor, and if you fill in the stud receiving-holes in the base and give it a wash or dry-brushing it will be the best small scale Dalek ever made by the toy industry.

What it also means - I suspect - is that the Fatlek is all but dead. Explanation;Coming so soon after the Dr. Who Adventures mag issued a set of six on what might be the tail-end of their figure range (I hope not - I've undertaken to collect them for Sam!), we have a company - CH - who probably talk even more closely to the makers of the TV series about how to use and exploit the licence - to the benefits of both increased toy sales and more seats on the sofa at transmission time - than the magazine, taking Fatleks out of their range? It can only be good news for fans of 'proper' Daleks! (apologies for that rather crucified paragraph!)

Musical Daleks! The beauty of CH having utilised Hilary Page's construction system is that you can become your own Skarovian living-suit development engineer, and with four colours of Fatlek issued so far (red and blue in tranche 1, this white one in tranche 2 and yellow ones in a larger set) there is a lot of scope for general silliness! This seasons larger sets include the same gold Daleks, lets hope other colours will be issued by CH - in the mean-time there's always paint, and remember; it's easy to find them by squeezing the envelopes!

[they contain the largest single piece, and it's bobbly...but the new 'old' shape are not as easy to spot as the Fatleks]