Fourth Doctor Collectibles - Figures and Cards

In my introduction to my Doctor Who Reviews I mentioned that I'd try to work in the collecting aspect with each review, and in only my second review I already forgot about that. So here's a quick article to make up for that fact, focusing on the some of the Tom Baker collectibles still available.

Because Tom Baker is the most recognized Doctor in the U.S. there are quite a few collectibles out there with his mug on them. More than a couple of certified autographs have been issued in various trading card series, here are a couple from a set called "Strictly Ink"



Of course it wouldn't be a science fiction show without Action Figures now would it? The earliest Fourth Doctor figures come from Denys Fisher in the 8-9" Mego style of the 70's. These figures are HIGHLY collectible and rare these days. With many of the Mego style figures of the 70's, the plastic has deteriorated and either become discolored or brittle and these weren't really imported to the United States, though they were available in other parts of the world. If you do happen to see them, expect prices to be very, very high.



The Italian version of the Denys Fisher Doctor figure.

In 1989 Dapol issued their second series of 3 & 3/4" figures and included the 4th Doctor.


You'll notice that he's sans scarf and hat, many collectors customize their figures. In fact I'm thinking about bidding on one on eBay that comes with a custom scarf. The quality of the sculpting looks about as good as you were going to get during the 80's, though articulation is on par with figures from the 70's. Since they're just now over 2 decades old you can still find specimens MOC (mint on card), and they're even usually reasonably priced. There's also an extensive line of other figures in the same scale, including Daleks, which is fodder for a later post.

More recently Character Options has been issuing new series and classic Doctor Who figures in the 5" scale with increasingly better articulation and spot on sculpting. They also had the foresight to include both his scarf and a head with and without a hat. Plus there's a sonic screwdriver accessory. SO nifty. You might still be able to find these at retail in good comic-book or specialty toy stores. You can definitely get them online, and you shouldn't have to pay more than $20 for one MOC.



There are also several exclusive repaints of the figure, but they're all just about the same sculpt, just different paint. The best part about this figure is that the Character Options line of figures is quite extensive by now, featuring over 100 different figures with MOST of the incarnations of the doctor produced already (I think the 7th and 8th doctor are still missing).

I can't find any figures of a young Sarah Jane Smith, or poor Harry Sullivan. Sarah Jane is available in plastic form from her current show "The Sarah Jane Adventures", but if you want the 27 year old version, you're out of luck.

Doctor Who Review - Story 76 - 4B "The Ark in Space"

Last time the Doctor had just regenerated from Jon Pertwee into Tom Baker, and he and his companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) defeated a bunch of fascist scientists who wanted to use a special robot to take over the world. After dispatching the bad guys they enticed Doctor/Lieutenant Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) into the TARDIS and off they went on another adventure.

They materialize inside of a space ship after Harry messes with the controls, thus the Doctor doesn't know exactly where or when they are. Turns out they're on Space Station Nerva an Earth satellite constructed in the 30th Century. They discover a number of people in suspended animation and the Doctor susses out that they are the remnants of the Human Race, as the Earth had become uninhabitable due to solar flares some thousands of years previously. They were scheduled to be awoken when the Earth was inhabitable again and would re-populate the planet by flying their space ship the Ark, down to Earth. But something tampered with their "alarm clock" and they failed to wake up.



Space Station Nerva and the Ark

As our travellers investigate they sleepers start to wake, first is Vira a medical-technician who assists the others. Her commander is "Noah" who explains that the sleepers were the "best' of the human race and that there must be no dilution of the species, so the Doctor and his companions must die. But before he can dispatch our heroes the Doctor discovers that they are not alone on the station. Helps that they had found a six foot tall space fly earlier.

The space flies, dubbed the Wirrn, want to use the space station and the Ark (two separate entities by the way) as a hosting and birthing chamber for their young. Of course it's not quite that easy, the Wirrn's larval form actually takes over a human host and Noah is the first to be subsumed. The Doctor outwits his enemies, saves most of the Ark inhabitants, and the sleepers are free to return to Earth via a Trans-Mat beam, except that the beam isn't working correctly, so the Doctor offers to beam down to Earth to fix the receptors, and the story ends on a cliff-hanger.

Although story wise this serial is not at all very original nor all that interesting, there are several components which must be addressed. On the positive side, Space Station Nerva and the Ark look pretty darn good on the inside, and the models used for the exterior shots aren't badly made. The design of the sleeper chambers is especially pleasing, as it's obviously done on a budge (the 'cut outs' for the sleepers are clearly styrofoam, but the canopies that cover them are really cool looking vacu-formed plastic). Unfortunately space vessels do look a bit dated, and in fact have been updated in the early 2000's DVD release with CGI exteriors. The costumes that the sleepers and later Sarah Jane wear are also quite nicely designed and look especially good on the actors who are, after all, playing the best that humanity has to offer.

The interior of the Ark

As with most Doctor Who serials there is a bit of social commentary on the negative aspects of social eugenics, and also a bit on the rights of all beings to survive. Unfortunately there is also a couple of six foot tall Space Flies which are obviously men in badly designed fly suits.

A Wirrn, aka "Guy in Fly-Suit"

Both Harry and the Doctor treat Sarah like a foolish school girl yet again, and don't even seem to be concerned all that much when she goes missing in an early sequence. The Wirrn, while not necessarily 'villains' in the strictest sense of the word (they're only trying to kill the humans because humans had killed off most of their race) aren't really all that dangerous, except at the end when they 'swarm.' I also got the strange feeling that Ridley Scott had seen this episode while he was working on Alien because several of the sequences and plot devices seemed awfully familiar, especially the sequence where Sarah Jane crawls through a maintenance duct.

On the whole, not a bad episode, and it generally improves on the previous story, but not by a whole lot. Seems to me like the Fourth Doctor stories were a bit weak in the beginning and would take a few go-rounds before they would gel into classics.

Next Time: The Attack of Mister Potato Head

Doctor Who Review - Story 75 - 4A "Robot"

I suppose if you've never seen Doctor Who at all a small amount of introduction is necessary. First thing you need to know is that the main character is never actually referred to as "Doctor Who", he's simply "The Doctor." He does have a name, but we've never actually heard it and he only tells it to people he really, really cares about. Second thing you need to know is that the Doctor is an alien, from the planet Gallifrey, and he's a member of a race called "The Time Lords." Time Lords are extremely long-lived as every time they "die" they simply regenerate into a new body, thus avoiding those silly negotiations when it's time for the actor's contract to be renewed. "Oh don't like the small raise you're getting, well, I guess it's time for your next incarnation."



The first three Doctors from the serial entitled "The Three Doctors"

The Doctor spends most of his time flitting about the universe in his time travelling space ship called the TARDIS, which is stuck in the shape of a 1950's era London Police Box. It's also bigger on the inside. The TARDIS is so iconic that the BBC, which wholly owns Doctor Who, took out a trademark on the design of the box, and when the Police actually objected and took them to court, the court sided on the side of the BBC since the Bobbies don't use that box style anymore.

On his adventures the Doctor typically allows one or two humans (or aliens) to tag along, obstensibly because he likes to teach (the original concept of the show was an education programme for children), but mostly I think because he's lonely. Most of the time his companions follow him around for a few episodes and disappear, to be seen again in spin-off media. SOMETIMES the companions are so freaking popular that they get their own shows thirty years after their initial appearances.

That leads us to Tom Baker, the fourth incarnation of the Doctor. The first Doctor was a kindly elderly gentleman portrayed by William Hartnell, who had to retire due to health issues (in fact, he passed away shortly after his final appearance as the Doctor). He regenerated into Patrick Troughton who then gave way to Jon Pertwee. Twelve series into the show Pertwee gave way to the longest lived Doctor and the most popular to date, Tom Baker.

At age 40 Baker was much younger than his three previous predecessors and his casting seemed to be an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. His early biography reads like that of a super-hero; his absentee father was a sailor, he served two years in the Royal Army Medical Corp, spent six years living as a monk, and worked construction in between acting gigs, His Doctor was much less a stodgy stick in the mud and much more of an enigma as we'll come to see.

"Robot" was first aired in December of 1974 and opens immediately following the end of the previous story entitled "Planet of Spiders." At this point, Doctor Who was a weekly half-hour serial, each "Story" comprising multiple episodes, usually four to six, though some would be shorter and a few longer. The previous incarnation of the Doctor had contracted radiation poisoning on planet Metebelis Three, and succumbed to the disease upon his return to Earth at UNIT headquarters. I suppose UNIT needs some explaining also: basically it's a "secret" organization that combats all sorts of weirdness in the world under the auspices of the United Nations. The Doctor had been associating with them for quite some time as he needed a terrestial base of operations after being exiled to Earth and unable to travel through time for a bit.

So anyway, the story starts with Jon Pertwee giving way to Tom Baker, which leads to some hilarious moments as the new incarnation of the Doctor appraises his new body. This type of scene would be revisited several times over (and should be once again sometime in 2010 as current Doctor David Tennant will be giving way to the new VERY YOUNG Matt Smith). The new Doctor makes a comment about his ears that would be reflected once again in the first Story of the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccelston), and it's a funny moment. Soon the Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) appears to assist the Doctor in his transition, but suddenly some thing breaks into the UNIT compound where the action is taking place.

As typical of Doctor Who the details of the story are intricate and plodding in order to pad out four half hour episodes. If you watch all of the episodes in order you'll notice several artificially created cliff-hangers utilized to tantalize the audience for a week, but they really aren't all that scary, especially when you know that Sarah Jane lasts well into the 21st Century (she got her own show a couple of years ago). Turns out that the thief is a very large, very goofy looking robot who is under the control of some fascist scientists who want to eradicate most of humanity leaving them in charge. The leader of the group is atypically a crazy woman scientist, which I suppose in the early 70's was the BBCs attempt at placating the Women's Liberation movement. Of course that forward thinking is brought back down by having the Doctor's other companion, military doctor Harry Sullivan call Sarah Jane "old girl" and treating her like a second-class citizen for the entire story, even though it's clear he's smitten with her. The Doctor himself is fairly dismissive of Sarah too, and she's not given a whole lot to do in the story other than get into trouble and have to be rescued. Today there are groups that would call that the "woman in the refrigerator" syndrome, but I digress.

The titular "Robot" - named "K1"

In the end UNIT and the Doctor conquer the Rogue Robot who for a time has self-identity and self-control issues. At the end he's accidentally enlarged to several stories tall, which leads to some unintentionally hilarious special effects sequences. In all, it's not a bad story line, but it certainly doesn't excite the audience and leave them waiting for the next story.

As with most of the pre 21st Century episodes of Doctor Who this story features low-budget production values. It also has the hallmark of 20th Century BBC television productions, indoor sequences shot on video-tape and exteriors shot on film. The interior sets are obviously sound-stages, while exteriors are obviously locations close to the production offices. The Robot himself looks like it was made from recycled aluminum (pronounced al-u-min-ee-um) and cardboard with some flashing lights. Pay special attention to the claws, which are just inconceivably goofy. At one point UNIT brings in a tank to try to destroy (not kill of course, they never mention the word "kill") the robot, and it's quite clear that the tank is an off-the-shelf model kit super-imposed on a background plate. The sequences with the giant-version of the robot are just too funny to take seriously as well. It's odd that a show that was produced several years AFTER NBC aired Star Trek would have special effects that are no better than 1930's Hollywood Serials, but the production money on early Doctor Who was all spent on the actors and the script, and rightfully so, because as bad as the effects are, the dialogue and acting is superb.

The story even brings up some salient issues that are still being wrestled over today. The K1 Robot is conflicted over his programming at one point, bringing to mind the conflicts that the HAL-9000 described years later in 2010. The evil society of fascist scientists call forth the question of who should be leading people; briliant but ammoral laboratory types, or leaders that come from the people. IN any case, there's never any easy answers.

In my introduction I mentioned that I'd throw some collecting aspects into each review. Several versions of Doctor Who action figures exist to date, including a current series of 5" scale figures from the UK company "Character Options". The K1 Robot was their first classic "collect a figure" in which a single piece of the figure would be included with each figure in a specific wave, so in order to put the figure together completely you had to purchase every figure. This tactic has been used by toy companies for a few years to both spur sales of "peg warmer" figures and also to produce larger figures on a more limited budget. This type of collection has been done in many toy lines thus far, best executed by Toy Biz and Mattel in their BAF collections for Marvel and DC comic figures respectively.

Some trivia to consider:
This story features one of the last appearances of the "Whomobile", a yellow souped-up roadster, used previously by the Third Doctor during his exile. It wouldn't be seen again until the 7th Doctor's stories. It also features the last major appearance of UNIT for quite a while. The organization would appear again, but the Doctor ceases working for them in this series.

Next Time on Doctor Who Review: The Ark in Space

Classic Doctor Who Reviews - Introduction

Welcome to my first ongoing series of entries based on a single topic, reviews of Classic Doctor Who episodes from my unique snarky perspective. What makes these reviews different from the myriad of other Doctor Who episodes out on the intraweb tunnels? Well, not much other than I'm the one writing them, oh and also while I've always been AWARE of the classic Who series, I never really watched a whole lot of it, so 99% of these episodes will be entirely new to me. I've been watching the revamped series for quite some time, and when they bring up classic characters (Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, etc) I usually do a bit of research on their back stories. This lead me to come to the conclusion that I really, really needed to beef up my first-hand knowledge of the classic episodes. So that said, I've been acquiring all of the Fourth Doctor stories and my wife and I have just begun to watch them in order.

Now why did we decide to start with the Tom Baker Fourth Doctor episodes? Well, really it was a capricious decision on my part as there are still several "lost" episodes during the tenures of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, the first two Doctors. I dislike intensely not being able to experience a work in it's entirety, so while at some point I'd like to go back and review the first three doctors stories, I don't think that they're essential in understanding the character as he is today. Plus, the Fourth Doctor episodes were aired when I was a wee-lad beginning when I was four in 1975. He's the Doctor that most audiences prior to the 2005 revival were familiar with, having the longest run of any of the Doctors. He's also consistently the most popular Doctor in viewers polls, though the current (and outgoing Doctor David Tennant is also incredibly popular).

We'll be watching the as-broadcast versions of these episodes, NOT the DVD releases, so please keep that in mind. Also as always I'll try to include some sort of collecting aspect for each story, and I'll try to include not only my opinions of the story, but also my wife's thoughts, as she hasn't seen any of this stuff, ever.

New Directions, Obsessions & Updates

When I started this blog it was a blatant attempt to gain popularity in the sports card world. As I realized that I honestly don't collect enough sports cards I started writing about other subjects and removed the "sports card" from the blog title, now we're just "The Budget Collector". We're no longer focusing entirely on sports, but all of collecting, and how to do so on a budget, since let's face it, we're all broker than we'd like to be. Going forward I'm going to feature more collectibles that aren't necessarily sports related, PLUS I'm announcing an entirely new series of entries at the end of the entry, so stay tuned, and no scrolling down eh?

Collections

- or things my wife would prefer I pay less attention to than her.

Some of the things that I've collected over the almost 4 decades I've been on this planet include (listed in order of importance at the moment)

Active Collection Categories

• Disney 3" Vinylmations (www.vinylnation.net)
  
• Angels Baseball Cards
  
• UCLA Bruins Basketball Cards
  
• Books by John Irving, Robert Crais & Jim Butcher
  
• 25th Anniversary/Rise of Cobra GI Joes
  
• Cool Doctor Who items
  
• Anything I can afford related to Joss Whedon's "Firefly/Serenity"
  
• LEGO
  
• Nightmare Before Christmas
  
• Movies & Movie Books
  
• Gundam Books & Toys (Universal Century & 00 stuff)
  
• 3 3/4" Action Figures that I like
  

Inactive Collections

• Non-Sports Sets (Mostly movie/tv oriented)
  
• 6000+ Comic Books & related companion books
  
• Original Comic Book Sketches
  
• Defunct Trading Card Games (FPG's Guardians, WotC's Harry Potter, WotC's WCW Nitro)
  
• Vintage Star Wars Figures
  
• Wrestling Stuff (Magazines, books, toys)
  
• Hockey Cards
  
• Microman & Micronauts Figures
  
• San Diego Chargers Football Cards (Autographed from Practices)
  
• Various mini-collections of things like Starting Lineups, action figures, etc.
  
  

Retired/Sold Collections

• Star Wars Power of the Force 2
  
• Vintage RAH GI Joes
  
• 20,000 Football Cards
  
  

I've honestly NEVER been able to focus my collecting attention for more than a few months at a time. My personality is such that my attention span always wavers and something shiny and new always takes precedence. At the moment I'm obsessed with Disney Vinylmations, Doctor Who and 25th Anniversary GI Joes.

Current Obsession: Vinylmations

Vinylmations are a relatively new addition to the obsession list, as they were first released only a year ago, and are just now gaining momentum in the Disneyana collecting world. I currently own 23 of them at about $10 a pop. They are a cash-grab from Disney based in the relatively recent "urban vinyl" movement, but they are executed so well and definitely have the Disney flavor, plus I was able to get in on the "ground floor" so to speak, as I have a couple vinyls from the very first series, which have now skyrocketed in value.

What is a Vinylmation? Simple, it's a three inch tall Mickey Mouse figurine that is decorated by urban artists and sold in blind boxes (there's also a 9" line, but they're far too expensive for me to collect). They are released in series of 11 standard figures and 1 chaser in a case of 24 figures (2 complete sets, 1 chaser, 1 'triple'). So far they have released 7 different themed series of 12 figures, plus a number of special non-blind boxed one-off pieces in tins. They are very, very cool and look awesome when displayed (I'll post pictures of my collecting when I find my camera).

Each series is produced in limited production runs, and originally they were ONLY available at Disneyland in California and Disneyworld in Florida. They are now seeing released at Disneyland Paris, and have recently been sold online. Of course there is a healthy secondary market and even trading, as these are blind-boxed you have no idea which one you're going to get! The first couple of series, Park Series One and Urban Series One have shot up in value as they have been sold out from Disney for MONTHS. Park Series One sold out particularly quickly, released in late December, 2008, ALL of them were gone by February.

These two are from "Park Series One" and are the only ones from this series that I currently own. Fireworks is a particular favorite of mine.

Last time I checked Monorail Red was going for between $30 and $35, but I expect that to rise as the "Monorail" series is very popular with Disney collectors, AND the second piece "Monorail Blue" was just released in the Park Series 3 collection.



Fireworks sells for between $20 and $30 right now.



And this is Kermit, the one that continues to elude me and gain in price. For a figure that originally retailed for $10 it now sells for between $55 and $70! It was photos of this figure that intrigued me to no end, and forced my hand to start hunting these bad-boys down.




This one figure proved so popular that the Muppets are getting their own series supposedly in February of 2010.

If you'd like to see more Vinylmations featured, please leave me feedback, as I have tons of interest in this line and would love to discuss it with you. I'm also fairly active on Vinylnation.net, the biggest fan-community for the line. Disney's own Vinylmation site has just been nicely updated too, so make sure you check that out too.

TEAM TRADING UPDATE

Here's a shock, I've yet to mail out any of my ends of trades. Excuses excuses. They'll go out before Christmas, that's all I'm promising at this point. I suck I know, but if it makes it any better, I'll probably throw in some nice goodies to make the wait worth while. I did buy a new printer ink cartridge (and got a great deal too, $12.60 including tax for a Lexmark 28 Black ink that is normally around 20 bucks!).

Feature Announcement

My wife and I have just started watching, in order, all of the Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) episodes of the long-running BBC Science-Fiction show "Doctor Who". Seeing is that I've not seen MOST of these episodes for decades, and my wife has NEVER seen them, I thought it might make a cool series if I reviewed each storyline in order with my unique, snarky perspective. The first installment should be posted within a day or so, or as soon as I write the darn thing.

Doctor Who Alien Armies "Trading Card Game"

There I was at the Barnes & Noble, trying to get my daughter to calm down after seeing so many books that she absolutely had to have. After choosing "Max's ABC's" by Rosemary Wells I wandered over to the magazine stands to look at the newest issues of various things. I always tend to look at the toy mags just to see high res pictures of toys I'll never be able to afford, but this time I migrated right back to the film & TV section where Doctor Who Magazine was lurking, waiting for me to spot it, which wasn't easy as it wasn't faced and all I could see of it was the wrapper and the banner heading "Four Free Packs..." peaking above the other mags in the rack. I greedily snatched the magazine and discovered yes, FOUR free packs of the new Doctor Who Alien Armies TCG were included, along with a special foil 10th Doctor Limited Edition. I didn't even hesitate for a moment, knowing our bank account is tiny and that I have about a dozen card packages to send out, because I've been a good boy lately, eschewing all forms of instant gratification that wasn't a lottery scratcher over the last several weeks.

IN fact the ONLY splurge that I've managed to get my wife to agree to lately was the Target deluxe Star Trek DVD that came with a model of the new Enterprise that holds the DVDs in the saucer section. I can't even remember the last pack of Baseball cards that I purchased (oh wait, yes I can, a 99 cent 2009 Topps cello with Torii Hunter on the front, mostly for the gum). We're so strapped for cash at the moment that yes, the budget collector has absolutely no budget. Though my collector genes have been satisfied by receiving so many cool packs of Angels cards in the mail, and even though I've been selling comics on evilBay, those funds have been diverted right back into the household to appease my aforementioned wife.



So now I'm totally hooked on these new Dr. Who cards, and I think you'll see why. While I'm not a "new" Whovian, as I used to watch the old shows during the 70's and 80's, I didn't become a full-on Who junkie until BBC Wales revived the series with Christoper Eccleston as the 9th Doctor, and even then I didn't watch the first season of the revival until it was already in it's third season. As a full-on Sci-Fi junkie I've always been aware of Who and had nominal feelings about the show, but was more hooked by shows like Blake's Seven, the Michael Praed Robin Hood and the comedies Black Adder and Red Dwarf. British television programming has always been better quality than our yankee counterparts, and as many know some of our best Sit-coms had their origins as BBC shows (I'm thinking of Sanford and Son and Three's Company here).

Just this weekend I printed out the Tardis Paper-Craft from Iron Cow Productions (hint, click the link you'll be taken right there), and I actually put the damn thing together this weekend with my meager paper craft skills. (Note to self: Next time print it on matte photo paper or card stock.) While I would LOVE to amass a huge collection of Character Options five inch figures, they aren't the right size for me anymore (I'm exclusively collecting 3 3/4" figures now, so while I COULD techically get a CHristopher Eccleston Doctor figure, I can't afford it as it's a San Diego Comic Con Exclusive GI Joe Destro 2-pack).

All of this is to say that I love Dr. Who and can't afford or find Who universe collectibles out here on the West Coast much anymore. There's so much cool stuff availble in the UK, including several series of Top Trumps cards (a more complicated version of War), Battles in Time cards (an even MORE complicated version of War), and even a collectible miniatures game, NONE of which typically gets imported to the US at a reasonable price. Toys R Us is now selling SOME of the Character Options figures, and even has a US Exclusive of the 6th Doctor in the 5th Doctor's clothing right after regeneration.

Boy this post is rambling. I've been waiting for the computer to install the scanner software as I wiped the hard drive on this baby the other day and had forgotten to reinstall certain key pieces of software.

SO now that is done, and here's what I have to show off:




The set is actually reasonably priced if you're in the UK. Packs of 6 cards are only 50 pence, which is about 85 cents! A starter deck with play mat is 4 pounds 99 pence, or about $8.50. There's also a binder and tins, all of which include limited-edition foil cards available only in certain stores in the UK. Chase cards are inserted at VERY reasonable levels, from 1:2 to 1:8 and boxes have 100 packs in them. Wow.

Here's the breakdown:

180 Standard Cards
20 Foil Embossed (1:8 even though the pack says 1:4)
20 Foil (1:4)
40 Glitter (1:2)
20 "Limited Edition" not in packs.

So I suppose that if i want to really collect this set I'll have to purchase off of eBay, which isn't going to happen, or hope that some mad collector in the UK wants to help out.

The fronts are very clean in design, though the game aspect (which again looks to me like a complicated version of "War") forces designers to clutter up the photo with strange icons and numbers. The backs are generic in scope, with only the card type being different (there's Equipment, Ally, Villain, Doctor and "Children in Time" cards). The old logos are being used for this set, which is fine by me, as I'm not sold on the new DW logo yet.

This first set focuses ALMOST exclusively on the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) and his run from the last three or so years. The most recent specials aren't featured at all, but virtually every other episode and character are. The foil-embossed set features cards of ALL of the incarnations of the Doctor himself, and companions/villains.

I have no idea how to play the stinking game though, as no rules were inserted in my magazine (as they usually are for an introduction product like this), and there's NOTHING online that says how to play. Sadly. And believe me, I've looked today. So far I've probably spent a good two hours researching this product from Panini UK.

I seriously doubt this set will ever see release on this side of the pond, but you never know. I'll be calling Panini America in Texas tomorrow to find out for sure.

In the mean time if you want some for yourself, go to a good book store that has a good magazine section, and look for Doctor Who Magazine #414. It's $8.99 for a copy, but it's well worth it, as the foil 10th Doctor card is ONLY found in that mag.

And if you have extras of this and want to trade for something else (as I have NO dupes yet) I'd love to hear from you.