Big Chief- Doctor Who, The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith)1/6th scale review + pics

Personally I prefer the original. The head looks a bit like a funko on this one.

How did I miss this?
Not overly keen on the head, but that outfit.. Hell yeah!

Went back into the website. Nothing about it there.

You should know better than to use the Big Chief website

They put it on facebook.

True. I still say the website should be updated with stuff like this. It takes seconds to do!
Anyway, in all honesty, I'm in for this. It's THE outfit that I felt finally defined Smith as The Doctor... Just before he left!

I got the first Smith pretty cheap and with them now seeming to only do figures through their webstore exclusively I can't see myself picking this one up. 10 was my favorite doctor and when all was done with that one, including shipping and drops in currency value during the order date and ship date, I may not have placed the initial order if I had of known the true final cost.

But it is a very nice outfit.

I've picked up each of their releases so far, and preordered their First Doctor. I haven't bothered with the Angels tho.
I was hooping that they'd do this particular figure after sending the CO version, which I won't be getting.

He looks like he's just taken a hard shot to the head and may have a concussion.....

Nah, that's just Smith's natural look. Always looks a bit dopey.

Meh, I love the costume but the head just isn't doing it for me. Plus, it wouldn't match with my Amy figure.

More flattering (damage control) photo, posted on FB earlier:



As I posted on their facebook page, if the pictures are to blame (and I had stated elsewhere that I personally believed that to be largely the case) then it is on them to post better, more accurate pictures to begin with. Otherwise any negative response that they get is a beast entirely of their own making.

I mean they might well know that the actual quality is better than recent photos may indicate, but the rest of us can only judge by what we are actually shown, in the photos that they choose to show us, and go by the stories that those photos tell us. So the whole snide and petulant 'blame the fans' act that Big Chief launched into on facebook (including upvoting certain posts that insulted fellow fans over their negative opinions) after the backlash over recent 'unflattering' pics is a bit rich, and disingenuous, especially from a company that is using a largely online exclusive business model that forces us to decide our purchases over the images that we see online.

If one is talking about something that costs, say, twenty quid, then you can play the 'have faith' card, but when you don't see much change back from 200 quid, you need to be able to convince people that a piece is worthy of such a significant investment of cash. And photos that don't show off a piece at it's best help neither side in doing that.

End of rant...

^ That's a well justified rant!! Some very good points there!

The figure looks so much better in that second photo, no idea why they decided to show us that other one first, does nothing for the figure at all!

DVD1 said:

True. I still say the website should be updated with stuff like this. It takes seconds to do!
Anyway, in all honesty, I'm in for this. It's THE outfit that I felt finally defined Smith as The Doctor... Just before he left!

Click to expand...

I agree completely, I am glad that BCS updates are posted on here, as I never use facebook

I was a big fan of the purple outfit, so I'm in...again. Even though I already have the first. I guess I can always pretend in my head that the first one is the Ganger Doc...

I'll likely be in for the Tennant variant, too. If it's the expected blue suit version anyhow.

I'm such a wh0re to this line...

Ex-Parrot said:

As I posted on their facebook page, if the pictures are to blame (and I had stated elsewhere that I personally believed that to be largely the case) then it is on them to post better, more accurate pictures to begin with. Otherwise any negative response that they get is a beast entirely of their own making.

I mean they might well know that the actual quality is better than recent photos may indicate, but the rest of us can only judge by what we are actually shown, in the photos that they choose to show us, and go by the stories that those photos tell us. So the whole snide and petulant 'blame the fans' act that Big Chief launched into on facebook (including upvoting certain posts that insulted fellow fans over their negative opinions) after the backlash over recent 'unflattering' pics is a bit rich, and disingenuous, especially from a company that is using a largely online exclusive business model that forces us to decide our purchases over the images that we see online.

If one is talking about something that costs, say, twenty quid, then you can play the 'have faith' card, but when you don't see much change back from 200 quid, you need to be able to convince people that a piece is worthy of such a significant investment of cash. And photos that don't show off a piece at it's best help neither side in doing that.

End of rant...

Click to expand...

Okay, but I think in this case the 'backlash' was pretty excessive. Even based on the first promo pic and the pic of the Smith head in close-up, neither of which displayed them at their best, some people were going waaaaay over the top. It was a perfectly decent likeness of Smith, not remotely worth of the crapstorm that greeted it, and the second promo pic with the fez confirms that it is pretty good. Fine to make comments and say, as I said, that the hair looked a little high; but people were saying it looked nothing like Smith which is garbage. Maybe people didn't like the expression, but that's always a matter of opinion and its hard to see what BCS could have done differently - its a sculpt of a Doctor in his last season, facing regeneration after the departure of the Ponds, looking serious and a little haggard. If they'd done him smiling, or with some quirky facial expression, they'd have got ripped apart too. To describe it as 'really bad' as someone did on FB... no, just no. You may not like it, and that's your prerogative, but this sculpt didn't deserve what it got. If anything was 'snide and petulant' it was the lynch mob response to this.

Ex-Parrot said:

I was a big fan of the purple outfit, so I'm in...again. Even though I already have the first. I guess I can always pretend in my head that the first one is the Ganger Doc...

I'll likely be in for the Tennant variant, too. If it's the expected blue suit version anyhow.

I'm such a wh0re to this line...

Click to expand...

I can totally relate.

That gold chain wasn't part of his outfit, was it?

Captain Britain said:

Okay, but I think in this case the 'backlash' was pretty excessive. Even based on the first promo pic and the pic of the Smith head in close-up, neither of which displayed them at their best, some people were going waaaaay over the top. It was a perfectly decent likeness of Smith, not remotely worth of the crapstorm that greeted it, and the second promo pic with the fez confirms that it is pretty good. Fine to make comments and say, as I said, that the hair looked a little high; but people were saying it looked nothing like Smith which is garbage. Maybe people didn't like the expression, but that's always a matter of opinion and its hard to see what BCS could have done differently - its a sculpt of a Doctor in his last season, facing regeneration after the departure of the Ponds, looking serious and a little haggard. If they'd done him smiling, or with some quirky facial expression, they'd have got ripped apart too. To describe it as 'really bad' as someone did on FB... no, just no. You may not like it, and that's your prerogative, but this sculpt didn't deserve what it got. If anything was 'snide and petulant' it was the lynch mob response to this.

Click to expand...

Anyone who couldn't see a backlash coming from that first terrible promo shot being released clearly isn't paying attention to how this game is played. Collectors always pick things apart, it's what they do. Even more so on high end items. It may not be logical, or sometimes very pleasant, but it always happens, every release will get a reaction that is either over-hyped or over-criticized, so you just have to learn to deal with it, and adjust your actions accordingly. So again, to release an image that débuts your product in such a poor light is always going to generate the kind of response that they got. And they should have realised that. If they had released the second promo image first, or as soon as the negative comments started coming in, then they could have stopped it in it's tracks, but they let it run for a day before doing so, and the negativity build up. Even the close up photo that was posted wasn't posted by them, it was posted by another facebook user to try and stem the tide. So again, to me that's entirely a beast of their own making.

These things cost more than Hot Toys do (a lot more in my case), and as much as I'm a Who fan, and as much as I like these pieces, the quality of these isn't close to being in the same league, and doesn't really represent what I would consider good value for money, comparatively speaking. But I choose to support the line anyway, because of my love of Who, and because they're still quality pieces overall. But the only way we get to make our purchasing choices is by the images that they show us. So if they fail to show us these things in their best light, then that's on them. And any such moves that creates an air of negativity, or loses them potential customer interest is, ultimately, bad for all of us who want the line to continue. I'm not trying to put the boot in, I just think they need to be smarter in the way they go about certain things, and getting pissy about reactions they should have seen coming isn't the way to do that, or win them any new customers. I also find it interesting that certain comments have now been deleted from their facebook page, both their own and those of other people, so I think they now realise that themselves, as well.

Not quoting...there's just too much. I concur.
These BC figures cost way more than Hot a Toys and really, they don't come up to the same standard. They are of course, the best Who figures ever to be issued, so I'm in for whatever they put out. However, not everyone will think like I do. BC must promote these things better. Photos are first, and maybe only advertising that they get. Even I thought that first pic sucked.

I have a question for those who might know - if BCS moved their head office to China, which I assume could be merely a paper exercise, could they then drop their prices by 20%+ since they would no longer have need to charge UK VAT & duty? .... Just a thought.

As for the figure, I like it, I think the sculpt and costume is much better than the first.

SAB said:

That gold chain wasn't part of his outfit, was it?

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It was certainly in the promo shots:




And, though perhaps not as noticeable, it was there, and showed up on the show as well:







By the way, looking at the image above, I kind of wish that he'd come with a stovepipe hat now...

I agree the first pic was terrible, but the photo of the HS showed that its a good sculpt. I can't understand why people would pick the sculpt apart when it was the promo shot that sucked - do they lack the ability to differentiate between the two? I also thought the backlash was way too aggressive and not justified by the product. It's always okay to criticise and comment, especially given the high prices, but people were piling in for the fun of joining a baying mob.