What do you guys think of this?
A wordy/long backstory:
I seem to have a love-hate relationship with the B&M Doctor Who figures.
On the one hand I love that someone … anyone is commissioning and selling new 5-inch figures. But on the other hand I hate that they are exclusive only to the UK and there's no American distributor or oversea sales option.
Also on the one hand I LOVE that they are making original figures, but on the other hand I hate that most of said new original figures are kit-bashes and repaints of older pieces.
That’s four hands!
Don't get me wrong, I understand the possible economics on why they have to kit-bash and repaint to get new figures. It's like they barely have enough money for one original sculpt of a head like a Harry Sullivan, but they don't have the money for anything else … like a body. So they are working with what they got to make ANYTHING new. It's crazy, but the kind of crazy I can appreciate given the (apparent) limitations. All in all it's a nice effort.
That being said some of he re-paints can still come across as "lazy" ... the best example I can think of was the "Time Monster" version of the Third Doctor + TARDIS that was released last year. In the TV episode Pertwee wore a red jacket and a white shirt open at the top with NO tie.
And what does B&M do? Bless their hearts they re-released a 3rd Doctor figure with a cravat PAINTED white ... as if to imply that no, there's no tie or neck decoration ... it's part of the shirt. Really! Just squint your eyes, and it looks like a necktie-free 3rd Doctor as seen in TV's "The Time Monster"!!!
I had so many questions when I first saw that last year ... like, why didn't they just use a Pertwee figure with a black bow tie and red jacket + the TARDIS and call it a "Three Doctors" set? Or, why not make it any color with a tie + a TARDIS and name it after any episode? Did it absolutely HAVE to be based on the "Time Monster"?? It's like they literally painted themselves into a corner saying it was based on that episode!
Gawd love em ... sure it seems lazy and half-arsed, like they couldn't be bothered to make something authentic. But we all know the reality is they couldn't afford to create a “3rd Doctor-sans-tie” from scratch, so they just painted over an existing figure model.
Hey they all say, at least we got SOMETHING :-)
And THAT is where my 12th Doctor figure comes in...
I was always annoyed that years ago Character Options never made a 12th Doctor figure with the "classic" Capaldi look: The blue coat + white shirt + sweater vest combo that he was introduced with in Series 8.
Oh sure they made that iconic Capaldi outfit for the 3-inch line that nobody wanted ... but when it came to the main 5-inch line that people actually collect we were offered four different 12th Doctors with different shirt colors --- bot NONE with a vest.
Which is why I thought the official 5-inch Capaldi Doctor always looked slightly wrong, slightly unfinished -- especially the white-shirt version. It's just felt incomplete. That vest really makes the look ... and if you search online for custom modifications that give the figure a vest it immediately looks 100% correct.
Now I'm not a great customizer, but off and on over the years I've tried my hand at making my own vest for the 5-inch 12th Doctor. I've tried paper, I've tried black masking tape, I've tried cutting black plastic to size and gluing it on ... but nothing really ever looked right. I was going to try and get a vest from a "Bracewell" figure, but I could never find the figure cheap enough (after all, I was buying it just for the vest!).
Ironically I've gathered up a lot of spare 12th doctor figures over the years because they seem to go really cheap on ebay, especially after the hooded 12th Doctor figures came out. So I had a bunch of figures to experiment on. But it never really worked out for me.
But then the B&M figures came out .... and I noticed more and more how they were getting away with making "new" figures by simply painting on details (sometimes with not so great results!).
And you know, that "Time Monster" 3rd Doctor really inspired me .... I thought: "Well helll -- if they can white-paint over an existing tie and say there is now no tie, why can't I simply paint a vest onto a 12th Doctor figure?"
I mean ... the B&M stuff are from an officially licensed company making short cuts with paint --- why can't i do that too?!?!?
And you know ... I think the results are great!
Especially from a distance on a shelf, but even up close in my hand, I honestly think they just “feel” like proper Capaldi .
The figure on the left originally was a black-shirt 12th Doctor, the version that came in the “13 Doctors Gift set” with the more purple-ish coat. Also the hands and head are from a donor Capaldi figure, I didn’t care for the paint application on the 13 Doc version.
The figure on the right was a standard issue white shirt 12th Doctor.
On both of the figures I did the “boil and pop” to remove the arms, head and jacket. The tabs holding the jacket to the torso didn’t want to come out easily so I actually had to take an exacto knife and cut them off.
I then used masking tape to outline the white “V” area on the front of the figures, the area that shows a white shirt under the darker vest. On the black-shirt 12 figure I taped off to cover the black parts of the shirt I wanted to keep as the pretend “vest” so I could paint the top “V” of the shirt and collar with white paint.
And on the white-shirt 12 figure the masking tape was put on opposite of that – essentially a skinny triangle of tape to protect the white shirt below the collar, and then I painted black paint everywhere else under the “V” where the black vest would be.
I used the Model Masters acrylic paint on both, flat white and flat black. And even though I used masking tape to try and get straight lines, I still had to go back over and correct areas where paint leaked because the shirt surface on the figure isn’t completely flat, it has molded in folds to create the look of fabric.
When I got them into decent shape I painted over the front areas with a clear coat matte sealer. Then I boiled the head, arms and jackets, put the figure back together … and there, finally, was the 12th Doctor with a vest 5-inch figure I’d been wanting since Capaldi’s first photos in costume were released all those years ago.
And it’s all thanks to inspiration from a half-arsed “Time Monster” 3rd Doctor figure!
It’s hard to say which shirt color figure works best as a base figure to start from, they both have pluses and minuses. The black-shirt 12 figure was MUCH easier to put the masking tape on and create the lines for the vest -- but then I found the white paint on the shirt can make the buttons less obvious if you put it on too thick … also since you have to paint the shirt collar white as well it can sort of crack a little when you force the head back on. The collar is made to fit snug against the neck, so to get it back on the collar has to expand a bit, which cracked my paint a tad. I had to get a tiny brush and go back over a few spots once I got the head on.
Using a white shirt 12 as the base kept the buttons looking sharp on the white area, but you have to really fit an oddly shaped and skinny piece of masking tape on there just right, and and then hope you have it on there snug enough to stop black paint from leaking too much under the tape messing up your lines.
But still … it’s a lot easier than sculpting a vest from scratch!
I’m sure of course there have been millions of customizers who came to this simple solution years ago. But I’m still kind of in shock at how easy this was and how good it looks.
And to think I’d been using black duct tape ….
