Okay so just opened up my Tenth Doctor, and as with the Fourth Doctor, here's my initial impressions and a random few thoughts to bore you all with.
- Still love the box design. Never seems to get any less impressive to me. Unfortunately the fold over backdrop on mine was a bit poorly pasted on in this one, but no big thing seeing as how I'll never use mine anyway.
- The overcoat is better than I thought it would be, and a lot thinner in person than I expected as well. My Doctor is still going sans coat for now, but I like it a lot more than I expected to. The suit is great, no complaints there. I like the choice of tie as well. The shirt collar is a bit thick, but that's pretty par for the course at this scale, and it still looks better than some. There were quite a few loose threads, but thankfully nothing catastrophic.
- Much like Tom, the body is a bit floppy. It holds a standing pose, but am a bit worried about long term, especially as I don't like to use backing stands.
- The five o'clock shadow is present again here, but nowhere near as dark as on Tom, and even though I would prefer none at all, I can live with it on Tennant a lot easier, as it doesn't feel quite as anachronistic to the character as it did with Tom. In general the paint application is a lot better than it was with the Smith piece as well, miles away from the very pale and slightly grubby looking paint on the Matt Smith figure. The hands look miles better as well, though they might be bordering on being a touch too pink now. Or perhaps they just look that way due to just how pale and waxy looking Smith's hands were.
- Likeness is pretty damn good on this one. If I wanted to get nitpicky then perhaps his face looks a tiny bit too rounded, like The Doctor has eaten a couple too many pies, but honestly, I have no complaints here really. Well, actually, I do have one complaint, mine came with a clear spot on the chin, where the paint was completely missed, which bugs me a bit. But that's just me being unlucky.
- Accessories wise, it's a nice selection, but most of them feel, to me, a bit useless. Both sets of glasses are scaled nicely, and fit on tightly, but suffer the usual toy glasses problem of not looking very convincing when worn due to how they sit. A pair with folded arms for his top pocket would have been nice, it suddenly strikes me. The water pistol is done rather nicely, but I don't see myself ever using it really, while the fob watch, both open and closed versions, are okay, if a little bit dinky looking. Both open and closed versions of the sonic are nice, too, but it looks so tiny compared to Smith's...50th anniversary flashback moment there. And the return of the psychic paper is what it is. All the extra hands are nice, again, but I'm a bit confused as to why they made his left hand the sonic screwdriver holding one.
- Unlike my Tom, the base on this one works fine, with a nice bright light, so I'll take the battery out later and check to see if the problem with the other one is battery or wiring related. Hopefully it's just the battery.
Overall I have to say I'm much happier with the Tenth Doctor than I am with the Fourth. I really don't have any complaints about this one at all. A couple of small nitpicks maybe, but this is just a really well rounded figure that delivers pretty much exactly what it says on the box.
Now, where's that William Hartnell pre-order?
