FROM CDS AND BOOKS, TO ACTION figures and spatulas, there’s been a constant flow of Doctor Who products into the nation’s shops since the show’s earliest days. Some have enjoyed more of an afterlife than others. Over the following pages, SFX joins collector and merchandise expert Chris Hill (previously featured in issue 366) in a look back at some of the series’ most bizarre, unusual and plain Dalektable tie-ins. From a gadget capable of causing serious bodily injury to a figure-less action figure, there’s something for everyone in our toybox.
DALEK PLAYSUIT (1964)
If you found a Dalek Playsuit in your Christmas stocking, your parents can’t have been short of a few shillings. “At £8 15s 6d, it was incredibly expensive for the time,” says Hill.
Unfortunately, months after going on sale, manufacturer Scorpion Automotives’ production machinery was destroyed in a factory fire and, unable to recover from the loss, they went out of business.
Only a dozen Playsuits are known to exist today – and four of them have passed through Hill’s hands. Detaching the best parts from each, he’s crafted his own Frankenstein’s monster of a, well, monster. And it’s in frighteningly good condition. “I have it on display,” he says. “It’s on a frame in room so it looks like someone’s wearing it!”
