It's Friday the 6th January 2012 and today I'm going to take a look at the new line of retro figures created and produced by BiffBangPow!
Now, I must admit myself that the first promotional images of the line looked dreadful, absolutely ghastly. Actually, it wasn't until Jon (http://jonwesleyhuff.com/) posted his excellent pictures on Gallifrey Base of the products that the line begun to appeal to myself and others. It is worth noting that Jon has kindly allowed us to use his fabulous images for this review. Thanks Jon! Anyway, now to kick start this review!
Firstly, we shall start off with the figures articulation. Head spins around 360 degrees, along with the hands. The elbows and knees bend, and I'm not quite sure what to make of the arms! They're attached to the body simply by a metal hook and some elastic band, which severely limits articulation. Now, I normally wouldn't mind, but the fact that the right arm wasn't even attached when I received the figure earlier today! However, it was sorted out pretty quickly and I don't have anymore problems.
Next the costume. Consists of the leather coudroy jacket, trousers, shirt, waistcoat, green tie, long stripy scarf and I suppose the floppy hat and shoes! Now I love the coudroy jacket, not quite sure what the material is, but it feels a bit like suede. Unfortunately, the jacket appears to have stained the scarf, shirt and cheek a tiny bit, but it isn't noticeable. It seems the tie wrap around the neck of the figure when packaged has taken most of the dye on it, so that's fine. The trousers and shirt are just pretty plain, nothing exceptional, but still nice, it's worth noting the waistcoat is attached to the shirt, and isn't a separate piece. The tie is however, and is just a piece of elastic with material dangling down, nothing much but doesn't take away from the effect. The Fourth Doctor's shoes are removable and made out of plastic, they don't slip off easily, but if you do decide to take them off, they go back of straight away.
You may have noticed I left the scarf until last, as I've decided to tie it in with accessories, and goodness me, it's wonderful! Just a piece of coloured material folded together and stitched with tassels on the end, sounds boring but it really is great! Because of this, you can either go with the early Fourth Doctor era and have the scarf looped around the neck once, or replicate the Season 14/15 promo poster and have one end of the scarf over the shoulder, or even have it in a Season 17 style. Along with his scarf, the Fourth Doctor comes packed with his famous floppy hat! Mixed reviews about this, as BifBangPow! have elected to have sculpted hair rather than rooted hair, meaning the hat has had to be sculpted around the hair. Sadly, it just doesn't work. The hat just looks oversized and massive, and if I am honest it looks more like Indiana Jones's fedora than the floppy hat the Fourth Doctor often wore. I am expecting a hatted variant of this figure in the future, possibly from stories like The Pyramids of Mars or The Seeds of Doom. Along with the scarf and hat is the good Doctor's trusty gadget - The Sonic Screwdriver! I have been trying to steer away with comparisons to Character Options's 5" figure line, but due to the slightly larger scale, more details are allowed, and the Sonic Screwdriver has these extra details. From the bigger, "bullet" style emitter to the dent on the handle like the prop. Now of course, this cannot be done on Character's products, but at a larger scale it works well with BifBangPow!'s attempt. If I was to add one more accessory, it would be the jelly babies, something that is a neglected in a lot of Fourth Doctor figures!
I have been overly positive of this figure and for good reasons, this line has completely changed my view on "doll" type items, with my major gripe being the articulation, but I think it is down to the fact that the sculpt used is what is typically used across other Mego and BifBangPow! styled products.
Now, these aren't perfect, but who honestly expects them to be? They're snazzy and funky retro products, reminiscent of the Denys Fisher figures of the 70's and 80's, but brought more to the modern day. As you can see above, there is more to the wave than the Fourth Doctor, along with him are other famous baddies from his era - Field Major Styre (The Sontaran Experiment), Cyber Leader (Revenge of the Cybermen) and The Master (The Deadly Assassin), and that is just Wave 1! Wave 2 is on the way in Spring, with the Doctor's feisty companion, Leela, and more baddies - Sutekh (The Pyramids of Mars), Morbius (The Brain of Morbius) and Scaroth (City of Death).
BifBangPow! don't only have the Fourth Doctor license, they have the entire of Classic Doctor Who and NuWho! Who knows what Wave 3 will bring? The Tenth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Omega and Raston Warrior Robot perhaps?
To finish off, a thoroughly recommended figure from a thoroughly recommended line. If this isn't enough to turn you into a doll/action figure type fan, then I don't know what will! Overall, I'd give this figure a well earned 9/10, not perfect as I have said, with the articulation and hat letting it down mainly, but not enough to deduct a mark each. Each figure is only limited to 3,000 pieces each (Mine was 2245), so grab 'em while you can!
Many thanks for reading and all images are courtesy of Jon (http://jonwesleyhuff.com/)! We hope to see you again for another review in the near future!
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