I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Doctor Who Korwin Figure

I first started buying Doctor Who action figures around 2007. The original plan was to buy the Tenth Doctor and Rose and maybe a Dalek and that's all. You can probably imagine how that turned out, four years and several hundred figures later.

This is my newest Doctor Who acquisition: the rare and elusive Korwin figure from the third series episode "42."

You're probably thinking, "What's the big deal? It's just a figure of a guy wearing a weird welder's mask," and you'd be right. But this has been an action figure Holy Grail of mine for years now.

See, pretty much every Doctor Who figure made in England in the past five years has made its way to American shores, but for some reason poor old Korwin never traveled across the pond. As near as I can determine he was sold only in England, and even then he was part of a 3-figure set exclusively available at Tesco, which is sort of the British version of Target.

Oddly enough the other figures in the exclusive 3-pack were Captain Jack Harkness and a generic Time Lord, which were available in the States. Why Korwin was never sold here, I have no idea.

You could snag yourself a Korwin on ebay of course, but sellers always wanted more than I was willing to pay. After years of searching I finally found a reasonably priced Korwin and was able to snatch him up. Huzzah! My Doctor Who action figure collection is now almost complete!

So scarcity aside, how does the figure stack up? Was he worth the wait? Actually, yes. He's very detailed and his iconic red helmet is sculpted spot on. He's also fairly well articulated; more so than the Tenth Doctor figures released at the same time!

Only two small complaints (you knew I'd have a complaint, didn't you?): first off, his welder's mask is not removable. Repeat, NOT removable. As you can see above they went to the trouble of sculpting the back of his head, but the mask is firmly glued into place and there doesn't seem to be a face behind it. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it seems a bit odd.

Second, in the "42" episode Korwin was possessed by a living star. When he'd lift the visor on his helmet, blinding light would stream out. It would have been cool if the figure had a similar light up feature.

Minor complaints aside, I'm happy to finally acquire him. There are still a couple more figures I need before I consider my collection complete. One is the Amelia Pond figure that's available only at the Doctor Who Experience exhibition in England. Since it's highly unlikely I'm going to find myself in London anytime soon, that particular figure remains tantalizingly out of reach, mocking me. The second is the rare (in the States anyway) Revenge of the Cybermen 3-pack. Once I get those two items I'll be content.

In case you're wondering, I don't have every figure they've produced. There have been a few that I purposefully didn't buy, most of them slight variations of figures I already had. Unlike Waylon Smithers, I'm not re-buying a figure just because it comes with a hat!