character options

[Andronicus]

Well - I hope CO continue the figures for a long time - because they're brilliant. What's more I suspect most people here do too. If they weren't as good as they are we wouldn't be going online to moan - as I have sometimes - we'd be doing/collecting something else.

CO/FP/UT aren't faultless - and can be frustrating. There are some issues that really irritate me - but again it only irritates because overall they offer a great product. I find it hard to get irritated over things I'm generally apathetic about.

Two factors few people have much control over; the economy and general demand. If both of those were in favour of DW figure production, doubtless we would have seen a continuation of the waves of single classic figures - £8 a pop and as many as you like from your nearest supermarket. That doesn't seem possible at the present, but despite that some blinding sets have come out - the Chase set for instance.

The Castrovalva set does seem odd and looks a lot like a 'Plan B' - a retooled Ainley Master is an often requested figure and seems the obvious choice for this set. Who knows what happened there. But I don't have to (and can't afford to!) get everything that is released - and indeed I have missed the boat on some sets I would really like to have got. Overall I just get the ones that really appeal to me - and there are some figures I really hope get released in the future - so I'd be very disappointed if CO 'took a jump' any time soon!

[KarenGillanFan]

What exactly do you describe as a "plan B" set, though? If I'm honest, I think CO have blown a lot of sets out of the water with the upcoming Castrovalva set. It's very good, unique, and I'll enjoy displaying it.

[Andronicus]

Well - it does seem like an odd decision to put the Doctor with the Master's TARDIS and various Master-related accessories, not least in the light of the Delgado TARDIS set. And an Ainley Master in his velvet tailcoat costume would be very popular - it being perhaps his definitive look.

[KarenGillanFan]

There's no other accessories?

[nimon]

so do UT not make the decisions? I thought they basically went

UT "OI CHARACTER! We fancy a new doctor who exclusive"
CO "What sort of thing were you thinking?"
UT "how about a set with the fifth doctor as played by peter Davison and the master's tardis looking like that column thing"
CO "that sounds do-able, we can make that for you"
UT "that'll be grand"

and then UT distributed the toys sort of as if they held the licence but got character to make the toys for them

[The Eternal Dalek]

Look at the FP sets last year:

The Chase, Enemies of the First Doctor, Enemies of the Third Doctor

Compare that to UT:

The Master and TARDIS, the four Davros sets, the two Leela sets, the two Sontaran pod sets, City of Death, The Keeper of Traken, River Song and Pandorica chair

All very hit and miss in UT's case. CO make the figures and keep making a mess of it, yet on the other hand, they make the figures but UT or FP are deciding which figures are to be made and FP's figures seem to be the most consistently interesting releases.

FP have clearly been listening to the fans and making sets based off that, the only problem is they only commision a few sets a year and won't do anything from 2005 onwards.

[KarenGillanFan]

FP are trying to use good sets to overpower UT's bundle of sets we get quite a lot of the time.

[HumanOUTcast12]

If underground toys are responsible for the 5th doctor and masters column set then i apologize to character options for blaming them. it's not the amount of classic figures that troubles me it's the choice of what they bring out and the contents when they do. so often they skip making the wanted figures for rehashes and slight variations of old ones. i certainly wouldn't want character options to stop making the classic figures, i think things should go back to character options and designworks windsor (figures were awesome and top quality control back then) and stop using forbidden planet/underground toys which have had a number of quality control issues and make poor figure choices somtimes. as far as cost for (tooling etc) is concerned they should pass it on to us the consumer because if the figures are what we want then as i said before we will pay the cost whether we have to save up or buy outright.

[KarenGillanFan]

If underground toys are responsible for the 5th doctor and masters column set then i apologize to character options for blaming them. it's not the amount of classic figures that troubles me it's the choice of what they bring out and the contents when they do. so often they skip making the wanted figures for rehashes and slight variations of old ones. i certainly wouldn't want character options to stop making the classic figures, i think things should go back to character options and designworks windsor (figures were awesome and top quality control back then) and stop using forbidden planet/underground toys which have had a number of quality control issues and make poor figure choices somtimes. as far as cost for (tooling etc) is concerned they should pass it on to us the consumer because if the figures are what we want then as i said before we will pay the cost whether we have to save up or buy outright.

UT could be "responsible", but at the end of the day, it is CO that design and make the figures. Even still, it's a fantastic set.

[themaddalek]

I like the figures, just wish if they want to retool them (e.g. 4th doctor and Krynoid Retool from 11 Dr's set/ Axon) make them cheaper. I'm interested in how much C/O, U/T and F/P made from the figures (bet at a very healthy profit...)

I've said before most of the figures coming from them are high priced but retools or reissues with the odd new figures like the 3rd doctor's enemies (yes they did use a 1st issue Jack as the body)

In the 5th doctor set i would have liked the master not another regen Doctor, to me it does not say "buy me" at all