CHERILEA DALEKS - OR ARE THEY?

Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

I won't keep you in suspense - one is, and one isn't.  Approaching 11 years ago, I bought the gold Dalek on the left of the pic, which is an original Cherilea available solely from Woolworth's back in the '60s. 'Swoppets', they were called, due to the fact they were comprised of three sections that pulled apart, allowing the owner to swap pieces from one to another - or various others in fact.  They came in a variety of colours so you could create an army of 'rainbow' Daleks to your own colour preferences.  Not exactly accurate and imperfectly fitting, but they were inexpensive and could keep a kid entertained for what seemed like hours.

The head came in two versions as the first one was amended to make it more robust (I assume).  If you made the mistake of fitting the head over the 'peg' too tightly, when you pulled it off, the head 'rings' could separate, leaving you with two or three head-parts instead of one.  So Cherilea remade the head with no gaps between the rings so that it stayed in one piece when removed from the rest of it.  The Dalek on the right has the amended head, though it's not an actual Cherilea, but a 'ringer' with a few alterations.  Someone made and sold resin replicas of the original design a few years back on eBay and recently decided to make a 'phase two'.

The most recent version has a choice of two midriffs - one with 'slats' and the other with the disc on the back - plus a base more in keeping with the movie Daleks of the '60s.  They also come in a variety of colours - blue, purple, white, yellow, black, and grey.  There's only eight remaining, and once they're gone, they're gone, as the seller won't be making any more.  I think they're a great addition to any collection and something that all Dalek-lovers are likely to want, so don't let them slip beyond your grasp - get over to eBay and buy one now!

If you had a Cherilea Dalek as a kid, Crivs, share your reminiscences in the comments section.  (I believe they made Mechanoids as well, also known as Mechonoids, but I never had one.)