Monday 4 April 2011

'Crash Set' by Ryan Wigley

In today's review, I shall be reviewing the Crash set released in 2010, to mark the arrival of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Incarnation of the Doctor. As we get closer and closer to the 23rd of April, it seems like the perfect time to go back a year and have a look at this set.

The set contains the Eleventh Doctor in his tweed jacket, red shirt and bow tie as seen in the majority of Series 5 and the 'Raggedy' Doctor in his battered regeneration clothes from David Tennants Tenth Doctor.

I'll start of with what is considered the least popular of the set, the Raggedy Doctor. Basically, this figure is the Doctor as seen in the majority of The Eleventh Hour, in his past incarnations worn out brown pinstripe suit. The level of detail on this figure is great, not the best, but certainly not the worst of Character Options highly regarded figure line. Detail has been covered down to the last rip and crease on the shirt. The articulation is slightly below Characters usual standard, 360 degrees head, bicep and arms, elbow goes up and down as normal, but there is a lack of articulation in the thighs, this is due to the fact that the legs are used from the Tenth Doctor figures, which sadly has basic articulation that CO released back in the figures launch in 2005. To be honest, there isn't much to say about this figure, it's a nice addition and beyond this set, we would never have seen it in a normal wave, which is unfortunate as I would have rather had Amy Pond in her Police Uniform (which has since been released in the Pandorica figure was and in the Christmas Adventure set). That's not to say the figure is rubbish as that is far from the truth, it is definately a nice addition to the set, but sadly a not much sought after figure, which is disappointing because had it been the Amy figure mentioned above, it probably would have made collectors buy both the normal set and the Toys R Us set that will be mentioned later. Overall, I'd give the figure a 6/10. An average figure that is quite nice, just not amazing or has a special space cleared for in any collection.

Now, moving onto the other figure in this set, the Eleventh Doctor in his red shirt, bow tie and tweed jacket from the end of The Eleventh Hour and the majority of Series 5. The detail on this figure is superb, like the Raggedy Doctor figure and the Regenerated Eleventh Doctor before it, the head is still the same. Nothing wrong with that as the likeness is brilliant. Believe it or not, the prototype figure had the floppy hair at the front to the side, similar to the Eleventh Doctor with Fez from the Pandorica wave. It was an interesting sculpt, and a head I'd like to see on future figures to add a bit of variation. The tweed effect on the jacket is remarkable, unlike the figure released late last year which had the Doctor based on Series 6, with awful red stripes on the jacket. Although, Character did use the same jacket, they ruined it with the red stripes on it, but that's for another review. The tweed is on scale with the Fourth Doctor figure from The Seeds of Doom in terms of detail. The shirt is great, the stripes are applied well, it looks almost as if they've been printed on it's that great! The bow tie is to scale, unlike other figure lines which have huge ties and dickie bows that just ruin the figure. The articulation is the norm from Charactet, the same as the Raggedy Doctor figure, but with thigh articulation. This figure, unlike the other has an accessory and that is the Sonic Screwdriver, it's odd that the prongs on it are sculpted to be open, which makes me think we could well see a closed variant along the line. The Sonic also has it's own special hole on the TARDIS playset for it to go on, which is nice. The hands on the figure are different to those of other Doctors, usually, the hands are sculpted downwards so that the Sonic faces down when in the figures hand, it's not like that on this figure, the Sonic is straight.
Toys R Us released an exclusive variant of this figure, with blue shirt and tie rather than the normal red. This was never mentioned by Character and only noticed when people started to pick these up on the afternoon The Eleventh Hour was first broadcast. I do love a good exclusive, and I prefer the blue variant, but unfortunately my local Toys R Us was being refurbished, meaning that they only got a few of the red variants. Now, my TRU is now plagued with them. This doesn't mean the figures didn't sell well, the set went down a storm and at least two re-stocks happened, it was unfortunate that when the third re-stock happened, Wave 1 had been announced and the difference between a shirt is not noticeable to the casual buyer that is in a rush. I give this figure a 9/10.

Overall, the set is excellent, the Raggedy Doctors playability is lost due to it being only in The Ekeventh Hour, similar to the Fez Doctor. The normal Eleventh Doctor is as expected, the star of the set, having both figures side by side show that there is a considerable height difference between the two, due to the Tenth Doctor legs being re-used. I would have been grateful had the Tenth Doctors Sonic been included in this set as I find it's the one that I lose the most. An overall score is a 8/10.

Feel free to comment about this review and what you thought of the set.

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