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It’s not the first thing you expect to find in a dusty shed in Cornwall and, to be quite honest, it could scare the bejesus out of you unless you were equipped with a sonic screwdriver.

Imagine the surprise when the son of a collector in Gunnislake, who had passed away, opened his dad’s shed to find a full-size Dalek from one of the original Doctor Who series.

NOTE: Doctor Who experts have now told Cornwall Live this is a fan copy and not an original. Read all about it here.

It looked like it had gone seven rounds on its home planet of Skaro and could barely squeak let alone holler EXTERMINATE!

But now it’s been lovingly restored and is on show at Liskeard and District Museum and, yes, it now utters its immortal catchphrase.

Tina Barrett, of Liskeard Information Centre, said: “Our toy collector Phil Chapman’s fellow collector friend sadly died last year and he discovered a full-sized Dalek sat mournfully in his shed at Gunnislake!

“It is fairly sizeable as a grown man would sit inside. It is on a wooden base with castors and during filming a rope would be attached and the Dalek pulled along on wheels. Oh how CGI has changed that game!”

She added: “He has now been lovingly restored (the domed top is made of tin) and a motion sensor gives you full extermination when you are near and our free downloadable Zappar app (to smartphone or our museum iPads) means you can get a fully interactive experience with him which you can then share straight to social media.”

The museum is renowned for having the best toy collection in the South West largely down to collector Phil Chapman, who lives in Liskeard and is known simply as ToyMan.

Phil, who specialises in tinplate and vintage toys, told Cornwall Live: “A fellow collector in Gunnislake bought the Dalek 20 years ago from a man in Okehampton who worked in the BBC’s props department. He had brought it home for his children to play with.

“There aren’t many original Daleks left as they were often blown up in the series, or went off the side of cliffs. Ultimately, a lot of them were destroyed.”

It was originally thought this one was used in the Doctor Who film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., starring Peter Cushing as the Time Lord. However, many of the features have now led Phil to believe it was used in the TV series, possibly in the early 1970s meaning it could have done battle with Jon Pertwee.

Phil added: “My mate bought it and then left it in his shed for 20 years. When his son opened the door, he said ‘Crikey, I’d forgotten about this’.”

“As you can imagine, having sat in a shed for that long it had seen better days and had soaked up the damp.”

The toy collector restored the Dalek to gleaming, scary condition, using original parts.

“It stands in four sections and somebody would have been inside it, but they would have been pretty much blind,” said Phil.

The Dalek has now taken pride of place in Liskeard and District Museum, which is owned by the town council and has free entry.

The museum also has a gruesome History Of Medicine Through Time exhibition complete with AR Technology to enhance the experience.

The ToyMan himself is about to star in a pilot TV show by Studio Wallop production company, which is hoped will become a full-blown series.