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The radio controlled Dalek was one of the must-have toys this Christmas. What amazed me when it came out way back in 2005 was the fact that Amazon and other sites seemed to be completely sold out from quite early on. I find it amazing that such large companies can be caught short with a high-priced toy that should do them good business.

There are two things to take into consideration though: Firstly, I'm lead to believe that the BBC licenses cost a fortune, which means that the toys' RRP will be high, and therefore the markup of resellers like Amazon will not be high enough for them to be that overly concerned. And secondly I understand that the shortage of the radio controlled Daleks was at source and that demand was hugely underestimated by the makers. How much of all this is true, I don't know. Certainly the toy retailers quoted in the press were overwhelmed by the level of interest in the toys. In one example given, the stock of 50 remote control Daleks brought in one day were all gone bar four the next day. Chris Davies from the Cardiff branch of The Entertainer said that sales had been "in a different league" to other TV/film spinoffs, although I can't immediately think of anything that might have struck a particular chord. The Batman Begins film was not aimed at children, and Star Wars has been at saturation point for some years. Harry Potter similarly might have been on this list of possibe rivals but a launch so close to Christmas, and being another sequel in the franchise, may both have worked against it.

All that aside, the range of Doctor Who toys available for Christmas is now enormous and generally of a very high quality. When we look back on the awful stuff produced by Dapol in the 90s, who appeared to have never seen Doctor Who, or been shown any photographs from the series (the two-handed Davros, the five-sided console and the green K9 spring to mind...) the new Doctor Who merchandise has been superb.

The radio controlled Dalek started out life relatively simple and became more sophisticated. The original toys had speech that happened at random but in later versions this was modified so that it only spoke on the press of the buttons on the remote control unit. Maybe a future revision of the toy will have separate controller for the head but I suspect this will hike up the price even further.

The battery operated sonic screwdriver has apparently been selling well, along with the board game. Other fun little gimmicky items complete the range with the likes of the TARDIS which sits on your table and makes a materialisation noise a fraction of a second before your mobile phone rings!

Remote Control Dalek