B is for Bumper Gift Set

Back to Dr Who Adventures Magazine and another freebie from HMA, mostly it's the 'same old same old', but there is a new shape Dalek and two new sculpts. sadly only one of each, and I'm not going to predict that they'll turn up later/soon in one of the 2x8 16 figure issues, as the previous new sculpts only turned up once again, in small numbers in the Christmas Advent Calender.

These are either on sale for another two days or another nine days, so if you want to purloin, it's out into the rain for you! Bit of a scale problem with this growing range, some are not bad for 1:72'ish gaming/modelling, the others are 28mm role-play size!

N is for New Finds, Pt.7 - Gold Daleks and Pencil Tops

Or...B is for Bluesky, Blueprint and Bluw Ltd...

So, this little lot of interrelated things were all coming in to the collection over Christmas just gone, as I went about seeking things out for other smaller people, the linking trends being names with blue in the title, gold Daleks and/or pencil tops!

So the first purchase (back in the late summer/early autumn?) was the Bluesky pull-back motored, hard-styrene space-shuttle pencil-top and astronaut rubber (that's 'eraser' to those so childish they can't say rubber without giggling), there were other designs, I can't remember them but I know I then found more on the Internet but this was the one with a figure, so this was the one I got. Can't remember where either, but it was a cheepie shop - I think?

Then at Christmas I was passing through Basingrad and found a little old model shop clinging on to the pile of new precincts joined together with poured concrete. In a mug on the counter he had white, yellow, blue and orange Fatleks along with a TARDIS as pencil-toppers, this time by a company called Blueprint out of Harlow, Essex (importers I imagine), I bought a yellow one.

At around the same time Dr. Who Adventures were re-running (?!) their pencil-toppers, so an issue was acquired.

This meant I needed to go back to Basingrad to get a TARDIS (for comparison!) and another - blue - Dalek...because it was there and er...the orange and white ones had gone! The TARDIS is a pen top, not a pencil top.

A week before Christmas doing last-minute shopping for jelly window-stickers (a tradition) I found this die-cast key-ring of the new-old-shape gold Dalek in Robert Dyas (UK hardware chain) and had to have one...for comparison! I also couldn't resist taking it part to see how it was put together. it's a very robust little model but the eye stalk is the softest PVC ever. This is the Bluw contribution.

Then just after Christmas I got this big one in Waterstone's bookshop, it's part of the range of little boxed games and 'executive toys' they do on a rack near the tills. I've previously bought the little set of foam aeroplanes. I suspect it's a re-boxed toy from the action figure lines but is unmarked?

Comparison shots include the Character Options minis in black and gold, a styrene Fatlek from Dr. Who Adventures/HMA and another of the Basingrad Fatleks - in orange, because...

...in January I returned to see if he'd been restocked and he had, so red, orange and white were added t the growing pile of approximately 35mm Fatleks!

The shots to the right are the final comparison for now and include two colour variations of the DW Adventures pencil top, the Blueprint pen top and a resin Police telephone-box from Harburn Hamlets.

Now when I wrote '(?!)' above, that's because when I was putting all these away I realised that the Christmas Adventures TARDIS pencil top (which came with a note book) was different from the one issued with a Fatlek and other things a year or two ago (see blog passim), so HMA have issued two different TARDIS's (what IS the plural - Tardis, Tardii Tardises or Tardis's?), but that will have to wait for another day when we can also look at the Dinky and Wardie/Mastermodels Police boxes!

Relevant Links;

Church Street Models - Basingrad
Bluw - Daleks
Blueprint Collections
Bluesky Designs Pullbax

N is for New Finds, Pt.6 - Dr. Who Adventures Magazine

A return to this publication, which we have looked at several times already, and despite its having gone to fortnightly - meaning you have to wait 6 months for things to come round again, rather than the three or four you used to be able to count on! - is still issuing useful stuff from time to time. I don't have all the dates of these and because I've published some of the items in-between; means that these might be up to 18 months/2 years old, the latest (bottom of this thread) is still on sale today!

Left - bog-standard Dalek and Cyberman 'army' card, this is issued regularly in this format. Bottom Right - another build-your-own Fatlek, this one in blue...previous issues have been white and red? (I think). Top right - about a year ago the Fatleks appeared in a metallic blue and vermilion, I think I said something at the time (but it might have been in an eMail to an interested party), the upshot being that I'd missed them in the shops, but managed to get a late set, which I will split with the other party!

Close-up of the metallic Fatleks, really nice colour, ties in with no known TV/Movie Daleks and they were issued after the new-old Dalek shape - All these magazines appear to have gibbons for marketing personnel; whether it's the original (1990's) Lego comic, the current one, the Horrible Histories or this, they are missed opportunities time after time?

On the right the inner tray from the pre-Christmas issue Advent Calender. There is no Auton, no Minotaur and no Weeping Angel with arms out (packaging restriction), some of these figures are becoming far less common than others?

Outer wrapping, box and playing board for the game to play with the pieces as they come from the box, one at a time over 24 days!

Three weeks ago we got a polypropylene build-your-own Weeping Angel with clockwork motor, this was a bugger to put together, but the judicious application of a No. 3 Swan Morton blade soon took care of that. Comparison shot with the kit figures issued back in the Autumn (which have been blogged) and the little PVC rubber ones from the figure sets. They are approximately 70, 59 and 38mm receptively.

Last week's (and still on sale) was a blind bag...I took a punt (after feeling through the plastic what I thought might be the pencil tops - Dalek blister is Dalek blister!) and found moulds for a non-branded 'play-dough', it's fun, but I'm not recommending it to figure collectors...although...at some point I'll try the Cyberman and Sontaran with an oven setting modelling compound!

K is for Kosmic Kit!

I've been hideously busy for the last week so you've only got two days to track these down if you haven't found them yet - although they will probably be reissued a couple of times over the next year or so going on previous performance of these freebies...although that should be measured against the fact that the magazine has gone from weekly to bi-weekly in the last year?

Four, free, approximately 54mm, polystyrene plastic, clip-together, figure kit sprues...in one issue! What's not to like? They come with a pack of the usual collector cards and various other 'old stock' (mostly previously issued stationary sets), if you're lucky you get the T.A.R.D.I.S. pencil top (with notebook), compatible with OO gauge.

There is a least one left in the Sainsbury's by Basingrad's station - as I saw it there tonight and left it (I was tired and not thinking straight!). I will be looking at more Who stuff as soon as I've sorted out the photographs. HMA for Dr. Who Adventures magazine....get 'em if you can.

They aren't the best kits, fit will require filling before painting, but I've seen worse...and they are Free!

T is for Transdimentional Hoojamaflip Thingamybob Doobryfirkin

So to our third article on recent developments in the world of 'free' (insert the cost of the magazine and subtract the unit cost here!) premiums given away with the Dr. Who Adventures Magazine. This is the Tardis kit I mentioned in the first post a week or so ago.

This was a brilliant idea, and would have worked well if it wasn't for the poor execution, yet there was only one thing wrong with the execution...not enough paint.

The paint-your-own Dalek issued a while ago and covered elsewhere (click Dalek in the tag-list/index) had two pots of paint that were more than adequate for the job, while the two small pots in this issue (white and black) had more than enough for the job, but the blue was a piss-take.

And the thing is - if you are trying to attract, entertain and retain readers of a youngish age for a magazine that - compared to the comics and magazines of my childhood - is (lets be honest) full of ephemeral shite, you need to make sure the 'freebie' is doable, if craft based, this didn't.

The kit itself is fine, two relatively well-detailed parts, bit of super-glue gel (to fill any gaps), a quick scrape with a scalpel blade and it was ready to go, a kid not needing to bother with the gel, or even glue as the locating-prongs made for a tight fit. But, once a single coat of paint was applied, firstly there was very little paint left, and secondly the paint dried to a high-gloss, semi transparent pale sky-blue! At this point our imaginary 'Junior' losses all interest in the project and faith in the publication....along with his or her non-toy collecting parent!

 Because I am a toy collector I persevered; clockwise from top left...

• A second coat was extracted from the remains of the pot, with the addition of a few drops of water, it dried to a flat matt that scraped-off with a finger-rub!
• Black was added to the remains along with a single drop of washing-up liquid and a third coat applied, this is shot without flash and seems darker/more even that it actually is.
• The rest of the black (I was determined to only use the given constituents for the sake of experimentation), with a few more drips of water gave a forth coat and the half-full pot of white was employed for the massive task of painting the light on the roof!
• Finally, two shots of the finished article with the stickers applied, I had scraped the pot to touch-up the bits that still showed particularly thin, but you can see from the two shots that it's still very see-through under flash, and not much better under normal lighting.

It is such a shame that the supplying company didn't provide the correct amount of paint, as it would have been a disappointment to younger builders, I'm sure. I will re-paint this one day, and to that aim, removed the stickers back to their sheet as soon as these photographs were taken. Then the CAD-Monkey's turned-up to inspect....they weren't impressed.

The sticker-sheet was most impressive as you can see from the shot I took through a jeweller's loupe, the whole thing is a perfect 54mm accessory as can been seen from the Britains gorilla, and apart from the lack of paint was a very good premium, they just needed to go that extra inch!

F is for Figures From Freebie post

Thought I'd better put up a bit of a line-up of this growing range, but managed to miss one figure in each line-up! And - as I'd posted pictures of the new Daleks last time; left them off this collage, but you get the general idea, and the others are in the post below if you come to this from Google at some point in the future!

So accompanying a Sontaran child - far left of both line-ups - are a Cyberman, the two Weeping Angels (the only figure set so far issued in more than one pose), one punching and one crying, an Ood, a Silence (lanky-git), the lizard-like Silurian (green - missing from lower shot), a character I don't know (Automaton? White - missing from the upper shot) a Judoon (grey thing in a kilt) and something that looks like Disney's Beast...the Minator?

Above them are a few of the Fatlek Daleks with a couple of colour variations, the blues are elsewhere. Inset to the left; when batches collide, two-tone red, and to the right a comparison between the new 'classic' Dalek and a Fatlek.

F is for Freebie

We've looked at this magazine before and - I'm sure - will do again, but I thought it was time to do a round-up of recent issues and the free gifts of interest to us collectors, as it's a while since I updated the Dalek post that has been getting the odd update on these.

A smorgasbord of issues over the last six months or so which contained figures. Mostly they are figures already issued at least once, sometimes they have already had two outings, while the Fatleks have been issued about half-a-dozen times now.

Still even the Fatleks get colour variations from issue to issue, and you can see here that the 'yellow' member of the team is a bright yellow in one set and a goldy-orange in the other, likewise I think I've got three blue shades in the collection now and at least two reds.

In the last month Silurians have been issued in two shades of green as well. But - look at the hexagonal pack bottom-centre in the collage; new Daleks! More on them below.

Other items which might be of interest to collectors have included the grwo-your-own Cyberman on the left, an approximately 54mm Tardis I'll be looking at in a separate post soon and the 'spinners' on the right above. These consist of standard figures from the existing range with mounting-holes in their bases, but they come with a roughly 1:76/72 scale Tardis and Dalek pencil toppers, both of which can be used as stand-alone additions to the figure range, the Dalek requiring the removal of the pencil spigot and being yet another shade of yellow!

It is a sad fact that the people who issue this stuff probably give no more value or have no more concern for these 'useful' bits as they do for the week-in week-out generic plastic or paper-based crap they put on the covers of all comics and magazines aimed at youngsters these days; rubber or paper masks, sticker sheets, logo-printed note-books, stationary sets, wallets, and so on, with the result that they've never corrected the small size of the Sontarans (the second figure set issued), and are now 'clearing' Sontarans and Cybermen (the very first set issued) covered in a mildew which suggests long storage in the wrong conditions.

Yet...while it appears they are 'clearing' the remnants of this series of figures, they have issued a brand new set...

...so, along with shots of the Fatleks and the Pencil-topper are the new Daleks, coming in six metallic colours, well two are sort of black and charcoal, but I think at least one is supposed to be metallic (graphite?), I thought they were a re-issue of the very first set of these figures, the small goldish-fawn ones from about three years ago, one of which the Philosophical Toad kindly sent me after I'd missed the original issue.

However, when I checked them against the picture in the previous post, it was quite clear these are a larger, better detailed return to the 'classic' Dalek shape, their weapon and eye stalks being particularly fine compared to the original one, so I hope we'll see them again in other colours.

Rather than keep-on adding to the product list on the old post here's an up-to-date version of the 'Master List':

Doctor Who Adventures Magazine
Tying-in with the BBC’s Dr. Who television series, it has some sort of premium/freebie on each cover.
Relevant Issues;
No. 98 - Cybermen (x5, approximately 25mm)
No. 99 - Daleks (x5, approximately 20mm, original type)
No. 170 - Dalek Soldiers (x5, approximately 30mm, ‘Fatlek’ type, orange, from; Premium World)
No. 183 - Dalek Slime (comes in a green Dalek container, approximately 45mm, ‘Fatlek’ type)
No. 186 - Build-your-own Dalek kit (approximately 54mm, ‘Fatlek’ type, silver/black)
No. 203 - Dalek Army (as No.170, but 17 ‘Fatlek’ Daleks in 5 colours, from; HMA)
No. 204 - 16 Mini Monsters/Monster Battle Pack (8 Cybermen - as No.98; 8 Sontarans, both from; HMA)
No. 205 - Dalek Pencil Set (4 ‘Fatlek’ pencil-toppers with pencils)
No. 211 - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183)
No. 223? - Build-your-own Dalek kit (reissue of 186, red/black, Xcel Concepts)
No. 224? - Dalek Slime (reissue of 183/211)
No.229 - Dalek (or other?) Micro-figure (from Character Options) + mini ‘Dr Who’ note pads)
No.237 - Weeping Angel Army (8x 2 poses = 16 figures in PVC/vinyl; HMA + collector card pack)
No.238 - Monster Battle Pack (6x each; HMA Cybermen and Sontarans; 5 Daleks, each of a different colour) 
No.241 - 16 Glow-in-the-dark Who Shapes (Some items of use as approximately 60mm flats)
No.254 - Mini Monster Army (8x each HMA Judoon and Ood, batch: 15885)
No.255 - Mini Monster Army (8x each HMA Silence and Silurian, batch: 15886)
No.259 - Grow Your Own Cyberman (Henbrant 25mm figure grows to approximately 54mm with Cartamundi trading cards, package by Xcel Concepts, batch: 18130)
No.261? - Dalek Attack Set (Xcel Concepts, paint-your-own 50mm Fatlek, 2 paints, brush, bouncy-ball and Dalek key-ring, batch: YBC 086)
No.262 - Ultimate Monster Army (HMA, 5 Fatleks, 2 weeping Angels - 1 of each pose - 8 other figures, batch: 15921)
No.267 - Mini Monster Army (HMA figures - blind assortment with Berkshire Labels Dr. Who stickers and Topps Moshi Monsters stickers)
No.284 - Mega Monster Army (HMA Creative, 5 Fatleks, 15 figures, batch: PR1001140)
No.294 - Monster Spinners (HMA, Silence, Sontaran and Cyberman with Dalek and Tardis pencil toppers, batch: PR1001144)
No.297 - Paint Your Own Tardis (two part kit with sticker sheet, brush and 3 paints, HMA, batch: 1001266)
No.300 - Ultimate Dalek Collection (5 Fatleks, 6 original type, HMA + Cartamundi collector card pack, batch: PR1001596)
No.303 - Mini Monster Army (HMA, assorted, different retailers had different batches, I saw 8x each Cybermen/Sontarans [batch: PR1001598] in a large Tesco's store with a thick layer of mildew and 8x Silence/Silurians [batch: 15886] in a local shop, some magazines had non-figural gifts - all old or clearance stock) 
No.304 - Mini Monster Army (HMA, 8x each Weeping Angels [only one pose; punching] and Silurians)
No.352 - Bumper Gift Set (9 different figures [2 new sculpts], 1 NS Dalek, 2 trading cards, HMA, batch 1004413)

Even if the originating PR/marketing companies don't rate them they make for very good war-gaming or role-play figures, can replace counters in board games and might make for an interesting cake-decoration! What do you do with yours?