Doctor Who: A Collector's Guide To The 5.5 Character Options Action Figure Range

2006 - Friends And Foes

The first range of Character Options officially commenced on February 2006. Among this wave was the 10th Doctor in a brown suit and coat (usually coming along with his trusty Sonic Screwdriver), a 10th Doctor in brown suit, a new Rose Tyler sculpt with a rusty K-9, a Slitheen, Cassandra with 3 robot spiders, the Moxx of Balhoon with 2 robot spiders, the Sycroax Leader, and a regeneration set featuring the 9th Doctor in black jumper and 10th Doctor in the 9th Doctor's outfit. The background of these cards casing the figures up showed an orangey time vortex and a blue background of the TARDIS. The card back of these figures showed the rest of the range. 

In March, a new radio controlled Bronze Dalek was released, as was a release of a radio controlled K-9 with the 10th Doctor in brown suit, marking the second release of this figure. It is interesting to note that K-9 had already been released in sets even before his return in Series 2, suggesting that Russell T Davies had already been planning to bring K-9 back to help regrow interest in the series feeling confident on the popularity of K-9. The same month, a 10th Doctor TARDIS console playset was released which featured real lights and sounds on the console.

 Another new Dalek battle pack was released in June, this time featuring the 10th Doctor in his brown suit for the third time, and the same Daleks that were in the packs from 2005. A new wave of figures was released in July featuring the fourth release of a 10th Doctor in brown suit, the second release of the 10th Doctor in brown trenchcoat, Rose and rusty K-9, a Slitheen, and the first release of a rusty Cassandra and Chip, as well as the first release of a Cyberman and the Cyber Controller. The back of the cards once again advertised the other figures of the same range. In August, more radio controlled figures were released. Dalek Sec was released with a radio controlled device, a re-release of the K-9 set with 10 in his trench coat for the third release, and another new Dalek battlepack with the same two Daleks again but this time featuring a Cyber Leader. 

A third wave was released in September containing the fourth release of 10 in his trenchcoat, the fifth release of 10 in his brown suit, the first release of Rose from New Earth and a clean K-9, Captain Jack Harkness with Sonic blaster accessory, the Werewolf, the Cyberman with an arm gun for the first time, a Red Krillitane, and Grey Krillitane. A Woolworths gift pack in September 2006 released two separate versions. The first was of the 9th Doctor in burgundy jumper (2nd release), rusty K-9 (3rd release), the 10th Doctor in suit (6th release), bleach blonde Rose from Series 1 (2nd release), the Moxx of Balhoon with a darker paint job (2nd release), and the first release of a non-electronic Dalek Sec. The second version featured four of the same figures as the first; 10th Doctor (7th release), bleach blonde Rose (3rd release), darker Moxx of Balhoon (3rd release), Dalek Sec (2nd release), but featured the clean K-9 version (2nd release), and Cassandra with 2 robot spiders (2nd release).

Rounding off the year was a Cyber Controller and Guards Set. This was the second release of the Cyber Controller, the second release of standard Cybermen (without hand guns) and the only release of the throne of the Cyber Controller. The back of the box described information about the Cybermen and the Cyber Controller. Many of these figures were rereleased with slight alterations to them, or re-released altogether, probably because of the cost of making these figures. In order to get newer figures, Character may have only had a certain number they could produce due to budget restrictions at any one time. The re-release or new variants of figures being released helps collectors buy every single set, which is more profitable for Character than continuing to run with straight re-releases.

Character Options evidently embraced the popularity of the new Doctor Who, and their toy lines soon filled up shops across the UK to levels completely unexpected only years beforehand. This would continue to grow as more figures would continue to be released to add to the collections of fans young and old...