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Toys R Us & Doctor Who
Doctor Who Action Figures Online Exclusive
For those of you who have visited Toys R Us, you will know that Britain's biggest Family Leisure, Baby Care and Toy Megastores are well known for their amazing “Feature Walls”.
 Positioned at the entrance to all their stores and measuring an impressive 24' wide by 16' high, these Feature Walls provide a great advertising space for some of the latest hot property in the toy world and have in the past featured a range of merchandise from blockbuster movies such as Pirates Of The Caribbean and Transformers.
Often enhanced with lights, sound and moving parts and stocked with a wide range of products these displays have created an exiting and unique shopping experience for visitors, which can not be found in any other toy store.
To date, Doctor Who has featured in two striking displays since its revival back in 2005, making available a wide range of Doctor Who merchandise from the popular 5 inch Doctor Who action figure range from Character Options to the Dalek Alarm Clock from Wesco.
Doctor Who Action Figures Online takes a look back on these two displays which have blown away Doctor Who fans both young and old…
Doctor Who Goes Large!
Toys R Us commitment towards the Doctor Who brand dates back to 2005 when only a small number of Doctor Who toys were available, however with a growing range of Doctor Who merchandise, the toy superstore dedicated more and more shelf space towards the brand, building up one of the biggest ranges in the United Kingdom.
In order to display all thes great products in all their glory, Toys R Us got to work constructing their first ever Doctor Wall Feature Wall back in October 2006 (pictured above).
The display, which would not look out of place in any multiplex cinema, covered the top half of the 24’ feature wall over three high quality gloss panels, while below, Toys R Us full range of Doctor Who merchandise could be found.
Looking at each of the three panels from left to right of the display, the first panel of the 2006 display featured the Cyber Controller and Cybermen from Doctor Who Series 2.
The Cyber Controller featured in a prominent position on this display as much of the merchandise for this character formed part of an exclusive range for Toys R Us. Items included exclusive 5 inch and 12 inch action figures (pictured right), a Cyber Controller Voice Changer and a 5 inch Cyberman Controller Chair Gift Set.
Moving to the centre panel, the Time Lord himself, The Tenth Doctor along with his TARDIS features in a 3D display. It is from this panel that the display is enhanced with sound effects from Series 2 featuring the Daleks, Doctor, and Cybermen. The centre display also makes use of lights, a feature also seen in the first panel to highlight the Cyberman’s eyes and mouth. The Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver glowed with the help of a bright blue LED light while the top of the TARDIS glowed white!
The final panel of Toys R Us first Doctor Who display, featured the Doctor’s greatest enemy, the Daleks - three gold Daleks along with Cult Of Skaro leader, Dalek Sec, each complete with glowing LED Dalek eyestalks ready to terrify visitors.
With Christmas gone for another year and summer 2007 just around the corner, another Feature Wall was ready to be unpacked. The Doctor Who display came to an end in July 2007, but little did we know the Time Lord was set to return later that year!
Guess Who’s Back!
With the summer over and another feature wall drawing to a close, October 2007 saw Toys R Us commission a second feature wall for the Doctor Who range at each of their 73 nationwide stores.
 Once again stocked with one of the best ranges of Doctor Who merchandise from Remote Control Daleks to Doctor Who Cookie Jars, the company pulled out all the stops and offered their shoppers another truly unique shopping experience.
The display (pictured below) took on a similar form to the 2006 display by using high quality images spread across three glossy panels and featured characters from Series 3 of Doctor Who, along with characters from the Doctor Who spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures!
The first panel of this new display used images of Dalek Sec and the Dalek Sec Hybrid from the Doctor Who episode, Daleks Of Manhattan along with a standard gold Dalek and the TARDIS. FX were added to the panel with the use of lights and moving parts which saw each of the Daleks eyestalks light up with a bright blue LED light while Dalek Sec Hybrid head rocked from side to side.
The middle panel used an impressive 3D backdrop of the TARDIS consol room complete with a glowing central consol column with the Doctor and Master standing back to back holding their Sonic and Laser devices. Once again, the panel made use of lighting and LED lights were used to highlight the glowing tips of the Doctor and Master‘s Sonic and Laser devices. Sound effects from Series 3 were also played from the middle panel in order to enhance the display and featured quotes from the 10th Doctor and the Master.
Unlike the last display in 2006, the last panel moved away from the Doctor Who brand and was used to highlight the spin-off show, The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Sarah Jane herself, complete with a glowing LED lit Sonic Lipstick featured alongside a nodding K9 and transparent Star Poet. The lower shelves directly under this display were used to display the brand new range of Sarah Jane merchandise which included a brand new Sarah Jane action figure range and Sonic device gift sets while the rest was devoted to the Doctor Who range.
Who’s Next?
The display once again proving a great success for Toys R Us and the second display featured in stores until the third week in July 2008. In order to keep things fresh, the display was later replaced with a brand new Star Wars: Clone Wars feature, ready for the premier of what is to believed as the year's biggest film, but the question currently now on everyone’s lips is…
When will the Doctor be back? - only time will tell!
Shop Till You Drop!
Even though there isn't a Doctor Who display in-store at present, don't forget to call in to your local store for all the latest Doctor Who merchandise or why not shop online by clicking the following image below...
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