Wednesday, 22 May 2013

DALEKS TRANSFERS...


The DALEKS copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

DALEKS were everywhere in the '60s:  Toys, badges, games, jigsaws and transfers - and that's just a few items in a huge range of merchandise available to fans of the scions of SKARO in the wake of their television debut.  One such item I recall having was the Daleks Transfers.  I first got them on holiday in 1965, and a year or two later, bought another set, not having seen them in the interim.

The images are fairly high-quality and should jog your aging memories of this extremely rare '60s Daleks collectors' piece.  Obviously, the 'dabbities' were printed in reverse, as once you'd actually transferred them onto your arm or the back of your hand, they were the right way 'round.

(Although there were 40 transfers in number, only 20 of them were actually different, being merely duplicated on the other half of the sheet.  See picture of transfers below.)

Ah, the Daleks - don't you just love the cheeky little scamps?  (But we'll feature something different in the next post.  Three in a row on the same subject might be trying your patience.)

DALEKS SWEET CIGARETTE CARDS - PART ONE...

Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

Back in the mid-1960s, a confectionery company called CADET released DALEKS SWEET CIGARETTES (something the PC brigade would never allow nowadays), containing a collectable card in each packet for all fans of DOCTOR WHO and his enemies, the tin-pot tyrants from SKARO.

There were 50 full-colour cards in the series, the last of which I showed you all in the previous post.  Purportedly drawn by RICHARD JENNINGS, who'd worked on the Dalek Annuals of the '60s and the back page strip of TV CENTURY 21, some of the cards are better than others and reveal some odd departures from 'official' Doctor Who canon.

Firstly, the Doctor bears only a superficial resemblance to WILLIAM HARTNELL and is described as an Earthman.  What's more, his features and hair colour are inconsistent, and he acts more like an all-action hero (in a spacesuit too) than the somewhat doddery old grandfather-type who was then on our TV screens.

Some sources claim that two different artists worked on these cards and it may well be so, but I'm unable to determine who the other artist might've been.  I'm not even 100% sure that Richard Jennings was involved, though it sure looks like his style.  Anyone know for definite, feel free to let me know.

Anyway, here are the first 5 cards in the series.  More will follow not too far in the future.  









The DALEKS' PAL, DOCTOR WHO...


Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

Here's an unlikely sight - DOCTOR WHO being served a nourishing 'nosh-up' by his best pals, The DALEKS.  How did such a thing come about?  Stay tuned for upcoming posts, in which all shall be revealed.  You may now know how the story ends, but the fun is in discovering how it culminated in this curious conclusion.  And did you catch that reference to the Doctor being an Earthman?  Interesting, eh?