The “Questions for The Lurker” thread

[TV8]

My Coal Hill School set turned up today unexpectedly early and it's great, I'm glad I bought it and my only complaint is that there isn't a History of the Daleks Remembrance of the Daleks set...yet.

Many thanks Al for getting so many classic Doctor Who products out this year, stay safe over the holiday period and here's hoping for a similarly packed schedule for 2021!



...






and a Character Options Blakes 7 line!

[Uncle_Abe]

Hi Al,
My kids this Christmas morning opened some Pokémon toys and I noticed the Character Options logo on them. Am I right in thinking that you're the Creative Director for the whole company, and if so, are you as heavily involved in all the product lines as you are with Doctor Who?
We all think of you as "the Doctor Who toys guy" but are you also the Peppa Pig guy and the Pokemon guy and all the rest of it?

[JamieBate]

I wonder if it’d be possible in the future to see new headsculpts made for the doctors? In places where a new head sculpt is budgeted for I mean like in place of the Benton figure that saw two uses this year for instance. To be used on the existing bodies. I’d love a smiling second doctor, a hatted second doctor or an alternative Pertwee head for example. Just thinking in light of the new head made for the Zygons set (although I know Tom is a special case ). For Tom though there’s that hatted season 18 head, a bowler hat version maybe? With a little bundle of rope round his neck

[Deborah J]

A shorter haired pertwee head on the sea devils body, but with maybe a new bigger tie piece would be a really fun thing to have, with about the same amount of new materials as the zygons tom. Though I think if I was doing new bits for Jon I'd be keen to make a pertwee head compatible no-tie version, which I think would be a whole new piece in where the shirt is, since the regen tom one has a different neck that's somehow part of the shirt, but if they could spring for an open collared shirt pert then we could have a whole bunch of variants: navy jacket with or without cloak from many s8 stories, with boots for colony in space I think would be a fun variant (I'd do a navy jacket no cloak shoes and a navy jacket cloak boots) deep red jacket with or without purple lined cloak, and my personal favourite: rust jacket with tartan cloak. Like I'd buy all of those. If that never comes to be I think the only pertwee variant we have left to get is spiders with bow tie, though I'd absolutely buy that if they made one.

I feel like this isn't a question, but I do have a question, what happened to Pertwee's headsculpt between the initial FP releases and the 11 doctors set? Because it seems to get thinner, was that intentional or did someone sit on the mould?

[skifflebits]

QUESTION FOR MR. LURK: Can you confirm or deny if any new figures of new series monsters will be released in 2021?

Or can you confirm or deny if you can confirm or deny it?

[Lurker at the Edge]

Q - Hi Al,
My kids this Christmas morning opened some Pokémon toys and I noticed the Character Options logo on them. Am I right in thinking that you're the Creative Director for the whole company, and if so, are you as heavily involved in all the product lines as you are with Doctor Who?
We all think of you as "the Doctor Who toys guy" but are you also the Peppa Pig guy and the Pokemon guy and all the rest of it?

A - Yes Creativer Director for everything .. Doctor Who is a very small part of my daily work but one that i care about a lot .. you might have noticed that..
Yes Peppa Pig, Scooby doo Teletubbies etc are all under my perview .. If i dont work on small of them directly then I’m responsible for steering the ship in terns of the design direction and more often than not involved at the more heavy front end creative ...
As it happens we dont make Pokemon but we do distribute it so the company logo and details have to appear on packaging in the UK

[Lurker at the Edge]

In relation too Doctors some of the tooling is now approaching 15 years olds ..some holds up well but some tool have degraded in my opinion .. we’d tend only to replace a doctor head only if there was a serious issue .. case in point they 5th Doctor without hat i find the detailing has gone very soft ... it could be to do with tool cleanup after storage, but its in a much worse state than I’d say most of the others are where the detailing is still actually for the most part very crisp ...

[Spannerintheworks]

I wonder if it’d be possible in the future to see new headsculpts made for the doctors? In places where a new head sculpt is budgeted for I mean like in place of the Benton figure that saw two uses this year for instance. To be used on the existing bodies. I’d love a smiling second doctor, a hatted second doctor or an alternative Pertwee head for example. Just thinking in light of the new head made for the Zygons set (although I know Tom is a special case ). For Tom though there’s that hatted season 18 head, a bowler hat version maybe? With a little bundle of rope round his neck

Ooo, this - For Troughton in particular.

Every single Troughton has been the same head and body combo. Different paint apps, sure. But Troughton never even got the head swap treatment for a different figure.

Be it a different facial expression, THAT hat, or even a cloak, a variant would be welcome, and an essential purchase.

[Lurker at the Edge]

Question frae wee DeborahI - feel like this isn't a question, but I do have a question, what happened to Pertwee's headsculpt between the initial FP releases and the 11 doctors set? Because it seems to get thinner, was that intentional or did someone sit on the mould?

A - so in reality this is what’s called a ‘Cycle time’ issue ... not a ‘timing malfunction’ ... the cycle time is the time it takes for the tool to close, inject the plastic, allow it to cool (by means of internal water channels) and tool release (the opening of the two tool halves. The cycle time is critical to the way the ‘shot’ or part will look because if its too fast the plastic material may still be quite molten inside leading to distortion. In addition when the tool opens oftentimes the ‘shot’ or part drops immediately into a box filled with cold water ..

So like anything if its still hot and not quite fully set its still ... plastic ... and if it drops into cold water it will contract in on itself leading to ‘shrinkage .. On a head the most noticeable issue is the face (especially if its a solid part moulded with the hair on) will pull in .. it might pull in evenly but it will likely pull in across the face giving it a pinched look ... or sallow cheeks ... shrinkage is unpredictable and often the factories dont hugely care as they are not familiar with what its necessarily supposed to look like so unless they have a control sample on hand there can be issues. The 8th Doctor V1 was the only figure i ever had a major issue on the head with and because it was one solid part.

But in reality all moulding is variable and there will be changes between production runs and figure runs which are often times years apart ... i still pul tooling out of storage now thats often a decade or more old. Its just a fact. So the answer to your question is that the FP version was likely run with the cycle time a little slow and overly hot leading to slower cooling and causing a bit of sag on the whole head pulling downwards whereas the later ones are likely run slightly faster and/or cooled faster as well ...

[Lurker at the Edge]

Q - Ooo, this - For Troughton in particular.
Every single Troughton has been the same head and body combo. Different paint apps, sure. But Troughton never even got the head swap treatment for a different figure. Be it a different facial expression, THAT hat, or even a cloak, a variant would be welcome, and an essential purchase.

A - Honest answer is its just never happened .. we’ve had variants on the cards but they for one reason or another never happened .. We can and do do a lot with paint where we can ... but also some doctors just never had the variety of costume and as for smiling faces they are quite difficult. Ideally you’ll back fit the teeth on a smiling figure. If you cant (which we cant due to scale) you’ll end up with undercuts that look ‘gammy’ and then the next best option is a ‘smirk’ which can look decidedly odd .. thus we’ve always erred for the most part on the side of a neutral look ...
As to the HAT ... i agree its iconic though if not hugely well used on screen but the comics made great use of it ..