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The UK toy market is a growing industry.
In the last year, it generated sales worth a total of nearly £3 billion pounds.
Primarily designed for children, the number of adults who collect action figures has grown significantly.
While most collect for fun, some hope to sell on their finds, keeping their possessions in top condition.
"The TARDIS is under attack from the Doctor's enemies; Slitheen, Cassandra and Sycorax!"
"But don't worry, the Doctor can fight them off with his sonic screwdriver!"
When Doctor Who returned to our television screens in 2005
a range of action figures was released to coincide with the new series.
Since the relaunch, over 300 characters have been immortalised in 5.5" plastic form
From the Doctor and his companions, to enemies like the Daleks.
The range has proved just as popular with adults as well as children
with some collectors spending a small fortune on completing the set.
Rare or limited edition sets can go for hundreds of pounds online,
especially if they're in their original packaging, or as it's known by collectors, 'mint on card'.
In this short film, we'll hear from those involved intimately with the world of Doctor Who collectibles.
Those who collect for fun, those who collect for profit,
those who sell to collectors, and even those involved in the TV series itself.
Directing an episode of Doctor Who was brilliant, but it was, for me, immensely scary.
Now Doctor Who has an incredibly passionate fan base of
not just millions of people in the UK, but these days millions of people across the globe.
And they love the show, they really love it,
and they are naturally disappointed should they, heaven forbid, see a bad episode.
Or an episode that had a lot of potential and doesn't quite live up to it's potential.
I am not a collector in the "collector" sense
I don't have all of everything and I don't have a compulsion to complete sets of things.
But I do sort of collect things to do with my Doctor Who episode.
When I was a kid I absolutely loved Lego, I didn't do anything but play with Lego
and when I find out that the merchandisers are going to bring out a Lego-like set
from 'Let's Kill Hitler' with all the little motorbikes we had on set
I feel like 'oh my god I have to have that!' because I feel partly responsible for it
And i'm immensely proud to have a little Lego set of my Doctor Who episode. That's actually one of the coolest things that I own!
What encouraged me to start collecting was that I'd been a fan of the show from the early 1980s,
and growing up as the programme was reaching it's natural end.
The big change for me came in 1995. I had just finished doing my A-Levels
and a Sci-Fi shop had just opened up in Liverpool.
I went down to volunteer because I was interested in the merchandise side of things.
And at that point I suddenly came to realise that part of it was the collecting it, but the other part is that there's money to be made here.
And then sort of fast-forwarding because around that time, this was around '96 / '97,
the Internet was starting to become a bit more mainstream, then with the rise of eBay,
I thought 'you know what, I could do well using eBay as a means of making money'.
So that's what I started doing; buying figures up, putting them on eBay with a mark-up and started making the money that way.
And from that to where we are now it's actually a really successful online business,
and I'm really happy with the way it's been going.
Part of that success is knowing what's coming up, what's happening and what releases are due out.
A big part of that knowledge if you like comes from online communities, so there's a couple of well-known Doctor Who forum sites,
and that can range from anything from discussing the latest spoilers, to Peter Capaldi's outfit, to what exclusive figures are coming up, maybe at one of the conventions.
I sort of lurk, it's a horrible expression, but I lurk in the background and it's nice to see what people are discussing.
People just buy the figures and people put them in cupboards and others like them in packaging, in mint condition,
but they're quite passionate about their merchandise and what they're looking for.
I suppose if you have to pin-point it to one particular thing
there was a book that came out called 'The Making of Doctor Who' by Terrance Hicks and Malcolm Hulke back in 1972 from Piccolo.
And that was the first time there had ever been a book that contained details on all of the early episodes of Doctor Who.
And as a fan back then, I absolutely snapped it up, I loved it
It was great, I loved reading about all of the early things. And from there I started collecting the cuttings out from the Radio Times,
I collected newspaper cuttings about all the old Doctor's, the actors, the show
and I started to collect toys and bits and pieces that I saw around, Daleks and all sorts of things so
it was sort of that mid-70s period that really kicked it off for me.
One of the problems I've always had is that I seem to collect everything.
If it's got 'Doctor Who' on it I would like to have one of it so it's in the collection.
I collect all sorts of things, I'm very eclectic if you like. So I've not been particularly focussed in what I've collected.
It tends to be, as I say, a little bit of everything.
It tends to be, as I say, a little bit of everything.
Doctor Who fandom is extraordinary, and its very all-inclusive. And I think that's a magnificent achievement.
And I don't know any other fandom which manages to achieve that.
Well I've worked in the store for fourteen years now.
I was originally the Saturday girl, so when I started, Doctor Who was not on the TV.
There was still a massive fan-base for it, people were demanding it came back on the telly almost constantly while it was off the air.
But you could get audio adventures which was CD versions of
some stories that had been on the telly but some that were new stories as well. So there was still new Doctor Who stuff coming out.
But the nature of the audio CDs meant it was sot of the older fans that were still getting something.
And then when it came back on the TV it just opened this world to a whole new generation of children.
So there was toys, the episodes...having the visual thing and they weren't as dark and serious as a lot of the audios so kids could get on board with it.
So little girls and little boys have been totally mad for it since it came back on the TV with Eccleston.
And the adults have been pleased its finally back on the screens so it's in a very unique place that it can appeal to everybody.
"But what is it about collecting that fascinates us?"
"And for some people turns into a possession? Is it a harmless pursuit?"
"Or can it be an indication of a more serious personality trait?"
There are many reasons why we collect things,
and toys are an important part of what we collect, perhaps one of the first things we collect in our lives.
From a psychological point of view we look at this behaviour because we do border with pathology like in the case of hoarding, for example.
Hoarding is very upsetting and is a compulsion, something that can't be stopped.
And has to do with lack of certain things that the people miss in their life.
And therefore there is a sense of being full of other things, and almost being unable to move
so in a sense, your choices are restrained and this problem is resolved by the presence of sheer mass in your house.
This is similar to why people want to collect everything to do with Doctor Who
Even just a piece of paper that's got "Doctor Who" written on it on the floor, perhaps a cinema ticket.
It's because at some point a collection take over and becomes part of who you are,
and really parts of your inner-self becomes externalised in this collection that keeps growing
and showing all the things you've done, the places you've been, the effort and energy you've put in it.
For some collectors, the attraction of action figures is projecting themselves as the characters.
But what happens when it's for real?
When an actor finds himself immortalised as a 5.5" plastic figure?
Now, Doctor Who started for me in 1966. I was a young actor out of work.
I'd only just started, I had a couple years in the theatre. And I'd done one television series before, a programme called Newcomers.
And straight after Newcomers, because it was the same production manager I got this job in Doctor Who.
Coming towards me in the bar, I'll never forget this, was the director called Michael Ferguson with a pile of scripts.
There were six initially, it's a four-part now, but there were six episodes originally.
And he said "What do you look like in gold?" and "Do you think you could do this?"
I didn't know what he was talking about, but he then explained it was a sort of golden monster.
And well, I read it through and thought "Oh dear, this is going to ruin my career!"
When they aired this episode I don't think they'd ever thought of making little figures of all the people in it
because nobody knew how popular it was going to be.
I mean it was popular at the time, and it had lifelong fans even then, but not to the extend that it is now.
I think I was at a convention early last year and I saw a photograph that Katy had.
This is Katy, by the way, that she had.
And it was of me and her and the Brigadier. She put them in a flowerpot.
And then took a photograph and put them in a flowerpot.
And I said to her "Where'd you get those from?", "What is this?"
And she said "Oh they make them, they're Doctor Who action figures. And this is us in 'The Claws of Axos'.
And I said "I didn't know anything about this!"
She gave me a copy of the photograph, so I took it hope and gleefully showed my wife,
and I said "I think I'm going to be one of these things".
I'm not entirely sure how they thought they could make me, and I presume they got production photographs from various sources
or even looked at the cover of the DVD. It gives a very clear indication of what I look like.
And there's been a myriad of photographs going around the conventions
of me that the fans have been buying.
And it's going to be lovely. They're going to let me have some copies, of course.
And I'll sell them on the black market.
Was a joke!
It's just lovely. I just love it. Never expected it of course, you think how long I've been an actor.
Never for a minute did I think anybody would ever want to make an action figure of me
so it's terrific. I'm very proud.
It's a terrific thing to have.
It will be on my mantlepiece forever!