Review: Doctor Who TRU Exclusive 3rd Doctor & Anti-reflecting Light Wave Dalek

Welcome one and all! Its time for another Doctor Who review! Continuing on from my last reviews we have another set from the third wave of Doctor/Dalek 2 packs: The 3rd Doctor and Anti-reflecting Light Wave Dalek (try saying that five times faster) from 'Planet of the Daleks!'

In keeping with tradition we'll start with the Doctor, seen here in his 3rd incarnation as played by Jon Pertwee.

The 3rd Doctor happens to be my favourite Doctor, so when I heard about this set I knew I'd be getting it no matter what the variants were! Needless to say I'm very happy with what we've got here! The 3rd Doctor had a wide variety of different coloured jackets, and while I personally would have loved to have seen a figure wearing his red jacket (c. 'Terror of the Autons'), I think CO made an excellent and very unexpected choice in the purple jacket! The previous 3rd Doctor figures have featured either his black, blue or green jackets, which makes the purple really stand out amongst those other colours.

As with many other Doctor Who figures, the details on the 3rd Doctor are absolutely fantastic! The face sculpt is an almost perfect likeness of Jon Pertwee, really capturing the character of his Doctor in his facial expression. Furthermore, CO have gone as far as to recreate the pattern details on the cravat. While this may not be entirely accurate (What Pertwee wore in PotD was more of a floppy bow tie than a cravat), I can't help but feel that the bow tie sculpt wouldn't have looked quite right with the rest of this costume. CO definitely made all the right choices here in my opinion!

Of course, like almost all the other Doctor/Dalek 2 packs, the 3rd Doctor is sadly lacking in any accessories. This to me is very unfortunate, as the 3rd Doctor was very rarely seen without his trusty Sonic Screwdriver! After all, he was the pioneer of the Sonic! Nevertheless though you can easily stick the Sonic from another 3rd Doctor figure into his hand (as seen above), which to me really seems to complete the figure.

And now we move on to what may well be one of the most unexpected Doctor Who figures ever; the Anti-reflecting Light Wave Dalek (more commonly known as the Invisible or Sprayed Dalek)!

Despite only appearing on screen for a matter of seconds, fans have been demanding a transparent/invisible dalek for as long as there have been Classic dalek figures available! While this isn't entirely what they were hoping for, its probably the best we're going to get for a long time!

This figure is certainly unique, but I have to say I'm in two minds about it. On one hand, I love the fact that we have a transparent dalek, and that they didn't simply go along the re-release path for this 2 pack. However, on the other hand I really wish this was simply a transparent dalek. My problem is that the black paint seems to take up too much of the figure. I know that in the story the Doctor did spray a good portion of the dalek to make it visible, but on the figure I just think it detracts too much from the "invisible" parts. I'm not saying I dislike this figure! I think its a great idea for this 2 pack, and I love that it is unique among the other Classic dalek figures. What I am saying however, is that I think this figure should have simply been an "invisible" dalek. No black paint, just an entirely transparent dalek, like the one seen at Toy Fair a few years ago. Hopefully we'll get to see that figure in the future, but with the way the 5 inch line is going, I unfortunately have my doubts.

So there we have it for this 2 pack. While I do like this set for its uniqueness, and for the fact that its a 3rd Doctor set, I do not think its 100% perfect. Don't get me wrong, I think the 3rd Doctor figure is a fantastic addition to my collection, and I'm never going to turn down a new Classic dalek variant! I just think that the choice of dalek variant wasn't executed in the best way. If CO hadn't put on that black paint, it would be so much better in my opinion! Regardless of that, this set is definitely worth the money, and a must have for any 3rd Doctor fans like myself!

I hope you've enjoyed this review, and remember to stay tuned for more Doctor Who reviews in the near future!