New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – Time War Daleks

Welcome to the next phase in this tour through my collection of custom-painted New Series Daleks. Following the Expanded Universe Dalek Customs, this instalment includes a tour of my collection of New Series Time War Dalek customs. All of these customs are made by me unless stated otherwise in the description.

Cult of Skaro Set Custom Eyestalk Fix:

One of my favourite addition to Dalek lore that the New Series brought to the table was the concept of the Cult of Skaro. Not only were they led by Dalek Sec, one of the best Dalek characters in all of Doctor Who, but each individual Dalek had its own name and personality, and individual voices and ID tags to match. This set, based on their first appearance at the end of Army of Ghosts and in Doomsday, includes three bronze Daleks with unique ID tags, the black Dalek Sec and the Genesis Ark. I actually got two of these sets when they were cheap, and that was how I was able to bolster the ranks of my New Series Dalek collection, so overall it is a great set for army building. The Genesis Ark is great too, the figure includes about as much detail as you can pack into a practically featureless postbox-like design. One slight problem I had with both of the sets that I bought was that none of the Daleks inside had their eyestalks painted. I don’t know if that was just a quirk with the sets I bought (possibly why they were going cheap?) or if this is a widespread issue, but it meant I had to paint on most of the eyestalk details with cyan paint, except for one or two which I left as ‘inactive’ eyestalks for some of my Asylum customs. Overall, a great set, although it is hard to come by nowadays.

Series 3 Cult of Skaro Figures and Open Dalek Sec Custom Figure:

One of the strangest elements of Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks was how quickly the Cult of Skaro was discarded after appearing in just one other episode before it. Although their Final Experiment made for some interesting Dalek ideological conflict, the overall result was disappointing as this episode killed three out of the four Cult members and left Dalek Caan with just one more appearance before he would die too. However, one good thing that did come out of this episode was that we finally got to see a Dalek mutant in its full form, since Dalek Sec opens his entire casing to engulf Mr Diagoras. I created this custom using a spare Dalek Sec, and although it does not open in exactly the same fashion as Sec does in the episode, it still gives the same effect. This custom was quite difficult to make as it required precise hacksaw cuts, plastic framework glued in place to keep the parts steady and a lot of hot glue to bring it all together. The final result, however, is a custom that I am very happy with.

Other Dalek Time War Figures:

Since figure sets were made for almost every Dalek episode between 2005-2010, there were a lot of Time War era Dalek variants out there to collect. I particularly like the unique sculpts of the claws featured on both the Vault Dalek and the Assault Dalek, but the one that takes the cake for me is the awesome Red Supreme Dalek, especially since he recently reappeared in The Magician’s Apprentice. 

Dalek X Figure:

Another odd collectable of the early era of Character Options Doctor Who toys was this cool RC Dalek found in a two-pack pitted against a standard Dalek. Whilst later releases of this set would replace the Gold-and-Black ‘Supreme’ Dalek with Dalek Sec, there were a lot of these sets made back in the day so there are plenty floating around. Interestingly enough, the Tennant-era novel Prisoner of the Daleks canonises this design as the fascinating ‘Dalek X’, a particularly brutal Supreme Dalek from before the Time War who commanded the Dalek flagship, the Exterminator. It’s a great design and a valuable addition to the collection.

Dalek Saucer Pilot Custom Figure:

Whilst this custom may at first glance resemble Dalek X, upon closer inspection it becomes clear that this is a homage to the Saucer Commanders seen in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. These Daleks feature briefly in the 50th Anniversary Special Day of the Doctor, piloting the fighter pods seen attacking Gallifrey in the Time War sequences. However, this is not the only manifestation of these New Series homages – in the Fighter Pod 3.75 inch set, the ‘Dalek Pilot’ included actually features this design, which I have painted here on an up-scaled 5 inch Dalek figure.

Temporal Weapons Dalek Custom Figure:

Featuring in the War Doctor novel Engines of War, the Temporal Weapons Dalek is terrifying in its implications. Anything or anyone hit by this Dalek’s cannon is erased from history, meaning that if you get hit by this thing, you were never even born. Although the cover of the novel portrays the Temporal Weapons Dalek as a standard bronze Dalek with a Special Weapons Dalek cannon, I decided to be a bit more creative with my custom, and so I used a spare Dalek X figure and modified the front using the oversized gunstick of a Dalek Bubble Bath dispenser (yes, they actually make those).

Dalek Time Controller / Eternity Circle Commander

Also featured in the Engines of War novel is the Eternity Circle, an order of Daleks tasked with preserving the Dalek timeline. It makes sense, therefore, that among their ranks would be a Dalek Time Controller, who are specific Daleks bred to be able to track timelines and see the universe in a way that few other lifeforms who are not Time Lords can barely even dream of. I based this design on a variant of the Dalek Time Controller created by Big Finish, although there have been several variations on the design.

Next – New Series Dalek Customs Collection Tour – New Series Daleks with Classic Colour Schemes

 

Bonus – Daleks vs Cybermen / Exodus Ark Custom Figure:

By far one of the best things to come out of the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who was the concept of a Dalek-Cyberman War. Long had fans waited for a confrontation between two of Doctor Who’s most iconic villains, and for many it was over too soon. My personal theory is that since the Void Ship can cross between parallel dimensions, technically the Cult of Skaro that hid inside could have come from any dimension, or any other dimension’s Cult of Skaro could theoretically come into our universe at any time, with a new, possibly different version of the Genesis Ark that contains a whole new army of Daleks… but again, that’s just a theory…