Figure Review: Doctor Who – Peri & Sil

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Doctor Who Classics

Peri & Sil

5 Inch Scale

By: Character Options

$39.99

The Sixth Doctor and Peri visit the planet Varos to obtain supplies of a rare ore called Zeiton 7, vital to the functioning of the TARDIS. Varos was once a colony for the criminally insane and the descendants of the original guards still rule, while the poverty-stricken people are kept entertained by screenings of public torture from the Punishment Dome.

Their Governor has been trying to negotiate a better export price for zeiton ore from Sil, an envoy of the Galatron Mining Corporation, whose reptilian body is supported and kept cool by a mobile water tank.

Someone at Character Options must love the 6th Doctor. Either that or someone at Underground Toys (who commissioned this set) love them some Colin Baker. Seriously. First we get about a half dozen different variants of the 6th Doctor and now our first classic companion is the 6th’s most infamous gal-pal, Peri?

I’ve made it clear in the past that Colin Baker’s 6th Doctor is my least favorite Doctor. I don’t hate him, but I don’t love the guy either. The good news is that I quite like Peri. It’s almost hard not to like Peri because A. She’s got some nice uh, attributes and B. The 6th Doctor is constantly berating her like she’s a child. You almost feel sorry for the poor girl.

Sil was an interesting villain and had a pretty cool design. This makes for a most interesting two pack. Of course Peri herself is still an odd choice, but again… Somebody, somewhere must love Colin Baker. So is this set worth loving?



Packaging :

Classic two packs now come in boxes. Why the change? I have no idea. The good news is that the boxes are a little nicer as a presentation with a cool little window on the front. They’re also resealable so you could in theory repack these back up.

Obviously to me the big draw with the boxes is that they’re not as tedious to remove as the clamshells were.

The package has some nice still shots on the side of Peri and Sil, the 6th Doctor and Peri and another of Sil. It won’t make you go “wow” as it’s sort of par for the course at this point, but it’s still attractive enough. As always I think including a real shot of the actual actors/monsters is a ballsy move as it shows you specifically what this sculpt is supposed to look like.

The back of the package gives a little synopsis of the episode and shows off some of the aforementioned pictures. Inside are a few twist ties and a plastic container. I don’t mind the twist ties too much here, although they may have rubbed some of the flesh paint off of Peri’s arms and legs.

Sculpt :

The good news with both of these figures is that the sculpts are quite good. Character Options really hasn’t produced many duds in their Doctor Who line. While some figures aren’t as good as others, most are all pretty exceptional. Personally I think Peri and Sil land pretty high on the range.

Translating a beautiful woman to action figure form is hard. Making a sexy cartoon/anime woman? Easy as pie. Making a decent looking human girl? Not so much. So many bad female figures have come out. Many look like a man in drag. Peri looks very much like Peri. Obviously her frontal protrusions are readily apparent. It’s 9 times out of 10 the thing most people will first mention about Peri, so it’s important that CO covered those uh, bases.

Sil on the other hand is a grotesque little turd. So CO has done a great job of making him look like, well, a grotesque little turd. What’s not to love?

Peri has a lot of little details like the ring on her finger, the keychain on her shorts, even buttons painted on her pockets. One issue that has been pointed out is that she has a hair band sculpted into her hair, but she didn’t have one in this episode. She did in other episodes and thus, this sculpt is clearly designed to be reused. It’s okay, because if no one told you the hair band was there, you wouldn’t notice it. Painted brown it just looks like hair.

Even though Sil is largely devoid of color, he has a ton of little details sculpted on him. It’s the same sort of high quality craftsmanship that fans of this line have come to expect. He’s quite the gross little thing and the sculpting on his tongue just puts him over the top. The one area that looks kind of unsightly on Peri is her knees. The joints aren’t hidden in any way. It doesn’t bother me much, but it will some folks. Unfortunately, tis the nature of the beast.

There’s really not much negative to say about the sculpting. It looks like Nicola Bryant and that little goblin turd. What more do you want?

Paint :

Paint is always pretty good on Doctor Who figures, but I do have a couple issues here.

Because of the massive amount of flesh colored paint on Peri, she has a lot of potential for blemishes. Mine has a couple on the legs and arms. I’m not sure if the twist ties did it or not. Something about flesh colored paint tends to make it prone to such issues.

The paint work on the tank for Sil is quite good. Sil himself is pretty bland because of the character, so it seems like CO maybe tried to amp up the painting on the tank. As I understand it, the side is largely stickers but it doesn’t look that way to me.

It even has a faint tint of slimy stains from where Sil has been sitting in the chair. Plus lots of little buttons and doodads with paint applications. It helps you feel like you’re getting a bit of value. No bland single color molded accessories here.

Articulation :

This pack features one highly articulated figure and one massively disappointing articulated figure.

Peri has all the great range of movement we’ve come to expect. While the knee joints are a bit unsightly, the upper thigh hinge, the thigh swivel and the wrist swivel are nearly invisible. A testament to the overall design process and the outfit chosen for her.

Sil on the other hand has absolutely NO movement whatsoever. Not a single joint. This is disappointing. A ball jointed head would have been great here. Maybe even a little neck cut and some arm swivels. Something.

Accessories :

While these sets aren’t really known for their accessories, we do sort of get something.

Sil’s containment unit is a pretty big part of this set. Of course, do you consider it an accessory or part of the figure?

Whatever the case it’s quite nice. It’s actually probably superior to the actual prop in terms of design. It’s a sort of hollow rotocast deal, but it doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy at all. It actually has a little heft to it.

Value :

$40 for two figures? How can you spend that much?! Especially when one doesn’t even have articulation! Well, I don’t know how. I guess because these are pretty good representations of the characters. Sil is sort of an iconic creature, even if he only appeared briefly. His design does limit him quite a bit, but he is pretty well done. Peri is the first ever classic companion… It’s hard to pass up at this point. In two years when we’ve had 4 versions of her and a couple versions of Jamie, this set may not look as nice.

Score Recap

Packaging: 9Sculpting: 9Paint: 8Articulation: 7Value: 7

Oh Doctor Who toys, will you ever score lower than a 7.5? Look, Peri is pretty much next to perfect. Sil, while flawed because of the lack of articulation… Does look good and essentially hits his one pose. The set is a bit expensive and in a way it feels like I’m buying a nice Peri figure and a decent pack-in. Still, it’s a classic companion and one of the 6th’s most memorable foes. At least it’s not another Colin Baker!