Character-Robosapien a Big Seller ?

kindly posted by domestos on other thread. looking good for next results


The Dalek is the must-have Christmas toy Dec 22 2005




Paul Rowland, Western Mail


CHRISTMAS sales of Doctor Who merchandise have been "in a different league" to rival TV and film spin-offs this year, toy retailers said yesterday.

The popularity of the toys and figures from the hit BBC series, which is filmed in Wales, has comfortably outstripped that of merchandise from blockbuster films like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins.

Chris Davies, at The Entertainer toy chain's Cardiff shop, said radio control Daleks had easily been its most popular items in the run-up to Christmas.

"They've just been flying off the shelves," he said. "Last Thursday we got 50 in, and by the next morning they were only four left.

"Most of the rest of the range has been going nearly as well. It's easily outselling things like Star Wars, which aren't even in the same league as it at the moment.

"We thought that might just be because it was filmed in Cardiff, and so might have been popular here because of that, but then we phoned our other shops around Wales and found it had been going just as well there as well."

The Doctor Who range also includes a battery-powered Sonic Screwdriver, a themed board game and walkie talkies modelled on Christopher Eccleston, who starred as the Time Lord before being replaced by David Tennant, and one of the bloodthirsty Slitheen aliens.

Ben Keywood, of mail order firm Galaxy 4, which specialises in merchandise from the cult series, said manufacturers had been taken by surprise by the popularity of the spin-off products.

"It's been very difficult to meet the demand," he said. "The problem has been that nobody really anticipated that it would be quite so popular, and so the companies who were licensed to produce it didn't make enough.

"It's only been in the last couple of days that we've had enough radio-controlled Daleks on our hands to fulfil all the pre-orders we've had, and so it wasn't until then that we could post them out for Christmas.

Mr Keywood said the visual appeal of the Dalek made it irresistible to fans of the show.

"Obviously it's to do with the fact that the Dalek is so iconic and if you see one in the shops, you will just buy it because it looks so good and it's quite quirky.

"I think you can't resist buying it when you see one, so when they have appeared, people have just snapped them off the shelves.

"But the biggest reason is because the series is so popular and it just brought people back to Doctor Who all over again.

"The merchandise has become this year's must-have present because the series was so well written and so well produced and it just captured everyone's imagination all over again."

Interest in the toys is also likely to have been boosted by the airing of a feature-length episode on Christmas Day.

In October, the new series of the show, the first for 16 years, scooped three prizes at the National Television Awards, including Most Popular Drama.