Original 7th Doctor item on eBay - November 2013

I haven’t spotted many original Seventh Doctor items on eBay recently, but this one did catch my eye.

Silver Nemesis
Cyberman gun

UNSOLD FOR £5,500

Here we have what is quite literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, to own a genuine piece of Doctor Who history. This is an original, screen used, Cyberman gun from the 1988 25th anniversary story 'Silver Nemesis'. Never before has a gun like this been up for public sale, even at Bonhams! The gun is 1 of 8 that were originally made for the story, and is 1 of only 2 or 3 COMPLETE guns that remain today.

The gun is in magnificent condition for a prop that is 25 years old, no cracks or breaks or anything of the sort. The gun has been stored in an air-tight, ultra-violet resistant, custom made display case, which is also included in this listing. The gun has the obvious golden colour to it, which as I'm sure everyone knows, occurred when the original chrome props were sprayed with lacquer to make them shine on camera.

This gun was originally owned by a prop collector named Chris Balcombe, who I'm sure some of you are familiar with. The gun was then acquired by arguably the biggest Doctor Who props dealer in the world, and owner of www.doctorwhoprops.com and www.thepropgallery.com, Jamie Smyth. I obtained the gun directly from Jamie, only a few years ago. There are plenty of photos circulating of this prop being held by Mike Tucker, the chap who originally made the 8 guns for the BBC back in the 80's, when he inspected this gun and passed it as original.

The Happiness Patrol
Drone Mask

SOLD FOR £181.76

Original as seen and used on screen Doctor Who prop from the Sylvester McCoy story "The Happiness Patrol" 1988 Drone Mask.

Your chance to own a piece of television history in the Doctor's 50th year, the perfect Christmas present for the Whovian in your life or for yourself.

Stored in a smoke free home.

Purchased by myself from a one day Doctor Who convention in a hotel close to Heathrow London in 1996 the auctioneer was Richard Franklin who played Captain Mike Yates of UNIT.

Name inside of mask Paul Holmes. Easily mounted on the wall for display.

I paid cash for the item and there were no receipts or catalogues.
Happy to supply letter of authenticity.

I am starting the auction at 99p with no buy it now, so you may grab a bargain.
I have already had some interest in this item but I do not intend to finish the auction early or to do a deal outside ebay so please do not ask.

Doctor Who Celebration - costume exhibition

This weekend’s Doctor Who Celebration has been a feast for the eyes for fans.

As well as catering for those who have come to Who through the relaunch series, there has been a good nod to the history of the show with a wide variety of guests and an extensive exhibition of costumes culled from Cardiff’s Doctor Who Experience.

They had a near complete set of Doctor’s costumes on show (missing was the Eighth and War Doctors) arranged in a circle around Bessie.

The Seventh Doctor costume on show was not the one from The Experience. In fact it is actually from the tv Movie when Sylvester returned to the role to hand over to Paul McGann.

Other Seventh Doctor item on display include a Tetrap from Time And The Rani, the debut McCoy adventure; and a cat person from Survival, what turned out to be the final classic series adventure.

There was also the stylish grey two-piece costume Ace wore in The Curse Of Fenric.

If you want to see the costumes for the other Doctors at the exhibition, click the links below

Third Doctor             Fourth Doctor

Fifth Doctor                Sixth Doctor

Tenth Doctor          Eleventh Doctor

Doctor Who Celebration - Sue Moore and Steve Mansfield

There was a LOT to see at the Doctor Who Celebration, and it was quite hard to get round to see everything.
The costume display was an obvious draw for me, and it was worth dropping back form time to time and catch up with some of the designers and costume makers who were on hand and happy to chat.

During the 1980s period of the show Sue Moore and Steve Mansfield became the new John Freidlander when they created some amazing monster.

They brought along a great display of their work, including The Destroyer from Battlefield, and a collection of Heamovores from The Curse Of Fenric.


I had a great chat with them, talking about their work on Doctor Who as well as Terrahawks.
Sue and Steve were signing autographs too, and I got them to sign my book.

Bonhams auction - 18th December 2013

With December looming, it is time for another Bonhams Entertainment Memorabilia sale!

The past few auctions have been Doctor Who lite when it comes to items, so there is no surprise that the first post-Anniversary is brimming with costumes and nick backs, dating back to 1968.

Bonhams sale 20772 (18th December 2013) Entertainment Memorabilia

Lot 151
DOCTOR WHO: SILVER NEMESIS - A PART CYBERMAN COSTUME, the silver painted body suit, with moulded and painted chest pieces, tubing to arms and legs, gloves having attached laser gun, on stand




Estimate £1,000 - 1,500
Sold for £2,437

Lot 152
DOCTOR WHO: BELIEVED FROM REMEMBERANCE OF THE DALEKS - A DESTROYED DALEK, the skirt of wood, fibreglass, foam, metal and plastic, the base painted black and overpainted with red highlights, the foam explosion detail containing wire and metal poles, height approximately 48 inches (122cm)
FOOTNOTES
This was originally sold in these rooms as lot 140, 23rd June 2010, when it was described as having been made for exhibition purposes. Since purchased, further research by the vendor indicates this was actually the Dalek destroyed in the Totter's Lane junkyard by Ace's Nitro-9 explosives, then loaded onto Ratcliffe's lorry and later seen in his office. It is constructed from fibreglass with bolt-on hemispheres consistent with all the 'jelly mould' Imperial Daleks made for the story.

Examination of the destroyed Dalek shows marks to the hemispheres and elswhere that closely match that used in the production. Some of the hemispheres are now fixed in a slightly different way from how they appear on screen due to becoming loose and being tightened back into a different position over the years.

According to information from the vendor, after the production the top was redressed and repainted for exhibition use and further distressed with new foam detailing as well as new paint, with lights mounted underneath for exhibition purposes. Certain other details match it to the prop that appears in the office, most notably the box iron on the top. The prop appeared in several exhibitions over the years, most notably at Llangollen and the recently-closed Blackpool exhibition.

Estimate £4,500 - 5,000
Unsold

Radio Times - 50th anniversary issue covers

The 50th Anniversary week is almost here, and as expected the cover of the latest Radio Times features The Doctor - not just once, but TWLEVE times!

The sources of the images used are quite interesting, the majority of which are from the Radio Times own extensive archive of Doctor Who images. All are out-takes, so are being published for the first time.

The First and Second Doctors come from the 10th Anniversary Special published by the Radio Times in 1973. The Third Doctor comes from a photoshoot in 1970 for the launch of Jon Pertwee in the role.

The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors are pictured from the shoot for the 30th Anniversary special, which featured in the 1993 Children In Need.

This shows that they were all taken separately before being composited into the group on the cover.

The rest of the Doctors come from bespoke cover shoots done for the Radio Times in more recent years. For example the Ninth Doctor is from the gatefold cover which launched the new series in 2005; and the Tenth from The Next Doctor in 2008. The Eleventh and War Doctors are obviously newly taken.

Here’s the full size version of the Seventh Doctor’s cover.

Finally, have you noticed that all 12 covers join together to form a long single image?