An Unearthly Child 2 - 76 Totter's Lane
Playsets are few and far between in the world of Doctor Who action figures. Dapol gave it a try with the TARDIS console room and failed by making the console five-sided instead of 6, and the set didn't even have complete walls just the corners which were created by taking the police box toy apart and sticking them onto the base. Character Options started off strong with two console room sets from the current series but did not release one based on the new configuration from 2012's The Snowmen and onwards. Aside from the TARDIS itself there have been no playsets made for the 5.5 inch figure range aside from a fold-out cardboard pyramid from a story called Pyramids of Mars. The 3.75 inch range got a few playset packs created for it but they are of limited use, really, and ended up on clearance after a few years of gathering dust on shelves.
It was clear that the Doctor Who range was never going to get something epic along the lines of a Death Star playset, and given that the action figure sizes are off there was no chance of being able to just use one from another set of toys; anyone wanting some serious playtime would be resorting to styrofoam packing materials and cardboard boxes for sets, gardens and sandboxes as alien planets.
And then came Action Figure Theatre.
This online resource is a godsend with heaps of series accurate patterns to recreate some of the most iconic stories of the show's history for both scales of action figure produced by Character Options. The patterns are easily downloaded and printed and then can be trimmed and glued to cardboard or foamcore depending on what is required. I have used this site's resources a lot - I can't thank them enough for the brilliant work they have done; I feel that having had the patterns available has inspired me in some of my custom work as well as giving me something to display it in.
The site has a generic pattern for walls and streets of London and a gateway for the junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane where the TARDIS was parked in An Unearthly Child, so it was not hard to put together a model of it for my uses. This was really just a part of a larger more modular set which will be shown later on; with so many locations around London used in the series it was easy to create a kind of wraparound experience and be able to showcase several stories' at the same time. For this part, I printed off the gate and trimmed it off and stuck it to foam core to make the gate set open. My plan was not to actually play with it so I did not make the doors hinge, nor did I create a full interior of the yard as my plans for the photo did not require it. The results I think are pretty good.
It was clear that the Doctor Who range was never going to get something epic along the lines of a Death Star playset, and given that the action figure sizes are off there was no chance of being able to just use one from another set of toys; anyone wanting some serious playtime would be resorting to styrofoam packing materials and cardboard boxes for sets, gardens and sandboxes as alien planets.
And then came Action Figure Theatre.
This online resource is a godsend with heaps of series accurate patterns to recreate some of the most iconic stories of the show's history for both scales of action figure produced by Character Options. The patterns are easily downloaded and printed and then can be trimmed and glued to cardboard or foamcore depending on what is required. I have used this site's resources a lot - I can't thank them enough for the brilliant work they have done; I feel that having had the patterns available has inspired me in some of my custom work as well as giving me something to display it in.
The site has a generic pattern for walls and streets of London and a gateway for the junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane where the TARDIS was parked in An Unearthly Child, so it was not hard to put together a model of it for my uses. This was really just a part of a larger more modular set which will be shown later on; with so many locations around London used in the series it was easy to create a kind of wraparound experience and be able to showcase several stories' at the same time. For this part, I printed off the gate and trimmed it off and stuck it to foam core to make the gate set open. My plan was not to actually play with it so I did not make the doors hinge, nor did I create a full interior of the yard as my plans for the photo did not require it. The results I think are pretty good.
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