Hello! It's me again. With little excitement at the moment, the fact that we should hear a new Doctor Who figures announcement any day now within the next couple of months has probably come just in the nick of time. Given the success of the past year's releases, being one of my personal highlights of 2020, I think it's safe to assume CO have no plans of slowing down at the moment, and we should be in for even more surprises and wonderful treats over the course of this year. Obviously, there has been a rumoured leak from B&M, but as we have no idea whether any of it was actually true, I'm going to ignore it in this post for the most part, as enticing as it sounds.
2021 FIRST WAVE
Assuming that they follow the same format as last year, we can probably expect to see 3 sets of 3 figures, 2-3 Dalek twin packs and 1 or 2 Doctor & TARDIS boxsets. So what are we most likely to get?
Doctor & Tardis Sets?
In past years we've had a flurry of Classic TARDIS releases fly on and off the shelves of B&M so it seems almost certain that we'll see more this year. The most likely candidates I would say are a '1st Doctor & TARDIS' set or a '7th Doctor & TARDIS' set, as they haven't had a B&M release yet. They've both been done before, but they're ridiculously expensive to get hold of now so I think they'd probably be a welcome release in whatever form they might take. The 6th and 8th Doctors also lack an official TARDIS of their own, but due to the tooling needed for McGann's TARDIS from The Movie, and the amount of paint needed for 6's coat, whilst they may not be entirely out of the question, given the boundaries being pushed each year, I would say they are less likely than a straight rerelease.
A 1st Doctor's TARDIS could take a number of designs. A Black and White variant would be something new and exciting, but as someone lacking the original release, I'd happily take a straight rerelease. Another possible idea would be to make a Twice Upon A Time box, reusing the flat roof model, but whether or not CO would stretch to making a new head sculpt for David Bradley is a question I don't have an answer to. Then again though, they probably could get away with just sticking a Hartnell figure in with it anyway if he's given a new paint job.
A 7th Doctor's TARDIS would be trickier to find a variant unless, of course, you went for the pink variant from The Happiness Patrol. However, unless CO forks out for a new hatted head sculpt with neutral facial expressions, I doubt they could justify releasing another standard McCoy figure so soon after the Big Finish Dalek sets and the Silver Nemesis set. In an ideal world, we'd get the duffle coat variant from The Curse of Fenric, which we know exists as a prototype. Whilst it may not be out of the question, I imagine it would need a lot of new tooling, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it ever becomes viable enough to release it.
History of the Daleks Sets
So far, these sets have come out chronologically, but given how many silver 60s models we've seen recently, it's not entirely unbelievable to suggest that CO might skip ahead to something like the more visually exciting Pertwee era Daleks and then come back to the Troughton era.
The next 2 sets chronologically would be:
The Power of the Daleks - most likely a standard silver drone and maybe a mutant scoop variant as well? It all depends on whether these sets accommodate for new tooling or if they're strictly straight rereleases as they have been so far.
The Evil of the Daleks - I would expect to see a couple of Emperor's Guard Daleks (silver models with black domes). A rotocast Emperor has also been suggested as a potential online exclusive. It's certainly high on many people's wishlists, but I would say it's probably too early to expect such a big thing as that because it lacks the potential for variants and would require entirely new tooling. (However, as always, I'm happy to be proven wrong by CO!)
If they do skip ahead, I imagine CO wouldn't skip too far ahead. Therefore, I think the Pertwee era is a safe bet. I would expect/hope for:
Day of the Daleks - Gold Supreme Dalek and Grey Dalek
Planet of the Daleks - Black and Gold Supreme Dalek and 'Invisible' Anti-Reflecting Light Wave Dalek
Death to the Daleks - Standard Black and Silver Dalek and Machine Gun variant
Of course, there are plenty of other Dalek episodes for them to dip into if they wanted to, but I imagine those ones are the safest bets for now because I have a feeling we may not have seen the last of the Davros twin packs. The boxes are the same size as the Dalek twin packs so I wouldn't say it's out of the question that we see the Doctor variants swapped out for Daleks, seeing as we get plenty of Doctors in the other packs anyway.
3-Figure Sets
The 3-packs are the fun ones because they're so unpredictable. They could be literally anything. In the past we've seen classic monster rereleases, surprise classic companions and even a curveball Doctor variant.
The packs have been known to stick to the pre-2005 era largely but there have been one or 2 revival era sets in recent years. If we do see anything from New Who, I'd expect a 13th Doctor era set or something from the RTD era. Given Jack returned in series 12, I'd have said a shirt repaint variant would have been a dead cert had we not already had the Judoon released last year, along with a figure of Yaz from Fugitive of the Judoon. Perhaps a Revolution of the Daleks set could work though. A Jack and Yaz repaint with a red-shirt 13 would probably be feasible, even though I'm sure people would rather have the prison jumpsuit for more costume variation.
However, I do reckon the sets this year will be predominantly based on the classic era. Considering the emphasis on the 70s with the last waves, I would expect the sets to focus more on the 60s and 80s. I would say there are plenty of kitbashes that could be done to get some new classic companions and a couple of enemies quite feasibly, but given my lack of knowledge in how the industry works, I can't say with any certainty how easy they would be to do. If the rumoured leaks are to be believed, we could finally be set to get a TARDIS team for both Hartnell and Davison, and I would certainly be happy if that were to be the case.
On another note, I feel like CO will probably do something to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Master's debut. Virtually all of the main characters within Terror of the Autons would be doable and would make for a great set. The Pertwee variant is an easy repaint and a very prominent gap. Jo could probably be done with a new coat wrap on the Claudia Brown body. Yates, Benton and the Brigadier are all doable with head swaps, repaints or rereleases. The Delgado Master could be a straight rerelease or a head swap on the suited body used for the Simm Master; even the Daffodil Autons could be achieved with a new head on a generic body with a suit.
Even if we don't get a Terror of the Autons set, with all the various characters that could be used, I'm almost certain that we'll see some sort of Master variant in the line-up this year. Who knows? Maybe we'll finally get that Ainley variant we've all been waiting for...
Online Exclusives
Who knows when or what these will entail... New figures from the current era perhaps? Maybe some new rotocast deluxe figures? Maybe this will be the place for that pink TARDIS... A quick fix for CO would probably be to churn out some repacks of deluxe figures previously released that are heavily sought after, especially the Collect-and-Build ones. Rumour has it that the K1 Robot may be hitting the shelves of B&M sometime soon, but whilst I certainly would pick one up, I'd rather see a Gelth Phantom or a Vespiform rerelease personally.
So that's it, folks! Now we just have to wait and see what goodies CO have got for us this time. I'll probably be back later with reviews of the wave once I've got them in hand, and I'll probably man updated prediction after the first wave of 2021 has come out. Until then, let the waiting game begin...