hen the British science-fiction series Doctor Who first aired in late 1963, kids worldwide were introduced to a unique character who could traverse time and space. In the very second serial, a threat was introduced that has stolen the imaginations of fans worldwide for 40 years. Created by Terry Nation, Daleks became the most popular villains ever in the United Kingdom, and their influence spread throughout the world.
There are two separate origins of the Daleks, an early one used in the first years of Doctor Who and a more elaborate one that came later as the Dalek backstory was being fleshed out by subsequent writers and producers. The latter story revolves around beings born from the remnants of a once-humanoid race devastated in a bloody nuclear war. The Daleks mutated into small creatures who shelled themselves in strong, armored, mechanized bodies. They made it their mission to conquer and control the entire universe. Countless times, the renegade Gallifreyan Timelord called the Doctor foiled the Daleks' plans and thwarted them at every turn.
As with most lucrative science-fiction franchises, companies are eager to get licenses for TV shows such as Doctor Who, series that have proven sustainability and worldwide appeal. During the past decade or more Dapol held the franchise, turning out many small-scale figures from the series and some quite nicely detailed Daleks. In the last few years, though, one company has stood out from the crowd by producing some of the finest memorabilia from Doctor Who in several decades.
Rivaling some of the earlier and treasured items from companies such as Marx Toys, Product Enterprises has issued a series of toys based on the series, including 6-inch talking Daleks and 8-inch talking Cybermen, which feature great detail and accuracy along with excellent light-up and sound features.
One of the coolest of Product Enterprises' current line, and certainly the largest at present, is the 12-inch Radio Command Dalek. This large toy is well detailed and nicely functional. It represents one of the Daleks commonly seen in a command capacity—a black body with silver detail including 56 hemispherical sense globes, a ball-jointed manipulator arm and a detailed blast gun. The Dalek features light-up "energy dispensors" often referred to by fans as ears, and a pivoting eyestalk mounted on a head that rotates from side to side whenever the Dalek is in motion.
The Dalek issues loud, clear sound samples as it moves: "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!", "Under Attack!", "You cannot escape the power of the Daleks!", "Exterminate the Doctor—the enemy of the Daleks!", "Dalek sensors indicate presence of Timelord!", "Advance and destroy!" and the sound of its energy weapons firing.
The remote control for the Dalek features two buttons and an extendable antenna. This Dalek runs at 40MHz, while others run at 27MHz, two of the most common frequencies for radio-controled toys.
The Radio Command Dalek requires six AA batteries for the Dalek itself and one 9-volt battery for the remote unit.
Sensors indicate presence of fun
Of all Dalek model toys available, this one certainly shines in its detail. While this one has many of the same features found in smaller toys, such as the manipulator arm, ear lights, eye stalk and 56 sensor globes, it also has a more detailed energy weapon. Unlike other versions I have seen, this weapon not only has the barrel, which is usually done as a solid piece whose cross section would resemble an asterisk, but it was given some much-desired accuracy, modeled instead as a tubular barrel with six smaller tubes running from the base to the tip. A nice feature for those fans who demand detail and accuracy from their toys.
Running on strong, rubber-coated main wheels, the Dalek moves slowly but surely and has a great deal of traction on most surfaces without showing signs of struggling. The casterlike front wheel rotates to support any angle of movement the Dalek may be taking.
The remote-control hand unit of this toy is an interesting thing in itself. Rather than being molded as a rectangular box, the remote is very unusually shaped and contoured, and includes knobbed hand grips. The base of the antenna protrudes from a ferrule that resembles some early science-fiction ray gun barrel. The remote has two red push-button rocker switches, each of which can be pushed forward or backward to make the Dalek move in a tractorlike fashion. Press both buttons forward and the Dalek goes forward. Press both back and he moves in reverse. Pushing one forward and one backward makes the Dalek spin on the spot, a pose most Daleks go through eventually when facing the genius of their archnemesis, the Doctor. The remote also has a small contoured Dalek etched onto its surface.
The way the head rotates and the sound triggers on this toy is not entirely optimal, but is a clever way to achieve more features without extra production expense. The head swivels back and forth as long as the Dalek's left wheel is moving. Using the right wheel only will cause the Dalek to spin in circles, and its head will remain still. And when the Dalek's head reaches the rightmost portion of its arc, it triggers one of seven random sound samples. While it may be more desirable to have individual function buttons for each of these features, such additions would no doubt have raised the cost of this toy considerably.
Of all the detail, the one part of this Dalek that falls down is the band around its outer casing at the midsection. On a Dalek as it appears on TV, this is surrounded with screening, then with about 20 vertical metallic slats with rivets. This toy achieves this effect with a silver strip that has the screening and the slats molded together as one flexible piece, which joins awkwardly at the front. The effect is less than realistic. I know of some fans who removed this and created their own detailing for this part.
The Radio Command Daleks are also available in silver with blue detail, and red with black detail, each replicated from various episodes of the TV series.
