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

2013 - An Adventure In Space And Time

2013 marked an incredible year for Doctor Who fans. With an incredible 50th Anniversary story, a special dramatisation of the early years of the show, plenty of spin off shorts, a hilarious parody, the recovery of very strong missing episodes, a fitting send off for the Eleventh Doctor, a gigantic music proms ceremony, exclusive memrobillia released, and more to go on for, Character Options splashed out with the 50th Anniversary as much as they could have done. Their first release in January was another Underground Toys/Forbidden Planet exclusive which was centered on The Three Doctors. The diorama of this set featured a background of Omega's domain of anti-matter. This set featured a Gel Guard, Jo Grant in blue dress, and the Brigadier in jacket and cap.

The next release was specifically an Underground Toys exclusive, which was a release of a new Rory Williams figure in May 2013. This variant featured Rory in grey shirt and brown bodywarmer (only). The same month, Toys R Us released exclusive Doctor and Dalek packs featuring all 11 Doctors. The First Doctor (2nd) and Dalek Supreme (1st) was based on The Daleks' Master Plan with a diorama of the Daleks' conference on Kembel. The Evil Of The Daleks represented the Troughton era with a Second Doctor (2nd) and Emperor Guard Dalek (2nd) and the diorama showing a subsection of the Dalek Emperor. A set from Planet Of The Daleks featured a Third Doctor (only) and an invisible Dalek (1st) with a diorama of the Thal spaceship on Spiridon. The Fourth Doctor's era was represented with the release of a set from Genesis Of The Daleks. This featured the Fourth Doctor with coat, hat, Sonic Screwdriver, and Dalek gun and third release of a Dalek.

The Resurrection Of The Daleks set featured the Fifth Doctor from Season 21 and hat (only) and a standard Dalek (2nd), and featured a diorama of the warehouse. Revelation Of The Daleks featured a Sixth Doctor (4th) with Necros Dalek (2nd) in the setting of Tranquil Repose, whereas the Remembrance Of The Daleks set featured the Seventh Doctor in cream jacket with no hat (1st) and Renegade Dalek (2nd) in a setting of London. The Eighth Doctor, who had no Dalek TV story, had his set represented from the Children Of The Revolution Big Finish audio. It featured the only variant of this 8th Doctor and Dalek Alpha. The Ninth Doctor set was based on The Parting Of The Ways, and featured the only release of 9 in a black jumper with an Emperor Guard Dalek, whilst the diorama showed the Emperor Dalek.

The Tenth Doctor set was based on The Stolen Earth, featuring a diorama of the Crucible, with a Crucible Dalek action figure and 10 in a brown suit, glasses, and new head sculpt (only). The Eleventh Doctor set was based on Asylum Of The Daleks which featured a Dalek Strategist and 11 in a blue bow tie and white shirt (only) with a diorama of the Dalek Parliament. The San Diago Comic Con/Underground Toys/Forbidden Planet exclusive of the year was based on Ace (1st) from Remembrance Of The Daleks which came with accessories such as Nitro 9 canisters, rocket launcher, baseball bat, bag, and swappable arms. The Forbidden Planet/Underground Toys exclusive in October was based again on Pyramids Of Mars which featured an impressive gigantic fold out 3D carded Osiran War rocket. The set featured Marcus Scarman, Sutekh with light up eyes, and Sarcophagus (only).

As the Anniversary passed, in December a second SFX Dalek wave followed of Daleks based on The Daleks, the guard Dalek from The Chase, Genesis Of The Daleks, and the Special Weapons Dalek from Remembrance Of The Daleks. The same month, BBC Shop released a loose figure of a holographic Tenth Doctor. After the exciting 2013, gaps between releases would continue to increase. Many figures were seeming to be released from specific stories, particularly The Three Doctors, Pyramids Of Mars, and Remembrance Of The Daleks. 

Accessories of figures started to be done away with, particularly the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. This had been done to save on the budget of reproducing another Sonic Screwdriver for Doctors which had been released a significant amount of times beforehand. The Sonic Screwdriver had been a mainstay far more with the newer series than the original. Hence, as the Sonic appeared far less in Classic Doctor Who, Sonic Screwdrivers were being done away with.