Roundel Books publishes the non-fiction book Go Figure by Richard Lloyd, a detailed chronicle of every figure released in Character Options’ two decades of producing Doctor Who action figures, initially for the BBC’s 21st century revival of the TV series but eventually adding many characters from the 20th century run as well. 
Story: Like it or not, the BBC’s 21st century TV revival has produced added benefits for fans whose loyalties align firmly with the show’s 20th century iteration: the market for tie-in books, soundtrack and audio drama CDs, and especially toys has been healthy, particularly the Character Options line of 5.5″ action figures that began hesitantly in 2005 and, by the end of 2025, has produced every Doctor seen on TV in either of the show’s lifespans, along with an ever-expanding line-up of the Doctor’s friends and enemies. The book looks at each figure in detail, in the context of the entire figure line and in the context of Doctor Who as a whole.
Review: In 1999, I bought a very, very dangerous book – Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive, co-written by Steve Sansweet, which included detailed photography of every figure in the Star Wars toy line, either Kenner or Hasbro, up to that point. I suddenly had a complete and detailed reference to everything I had, and, more dangerously, everything I had missed. My next stop was eBay. I now had all of the classic Kenner Ewoks (except for those from the animated series). And Amanaman. And now I was a lot more broke than I had been before buying that $20 book.
Go Figure is that book for Character’s Doctor Who figure line, which I’ve been collecting from the start. Every figure – every variant of every character – is photographed under perfect lighting, in many cases next to unpainted or partially painted prototypes for comparison. Accompanying text exhaustively details how Character (and the various entities to whom it has outsourced sculpting the figures) has managed to battle dwindling budgets to keep the line alive and growing. Things I’d never noticed before were suddenly easy to spot – reused body parts, whether detail was painted or sculpted, and so on.
Image courtesy Roundel Books from their IndieGogo press kit
When this stuff is pointed out to you, you can’t unsee that, for example, Mary Tamm Romana and Yasmin Khan are wearing the same top. There are two ways to absorb that information – you can chide Character for being cheap, or you can marvel at how well they’ve reused these various bits and pieces to give us a far wider selection of characters than we would’ve had otherwise. I’m definitely in the latter camp. Having been through the years of Dapol’s hit-or-miss 3 3/4″ figure line of the late ’80s and ’90s, having all of the Doctors in figure form seemed like a far-off dream; having any of their companions as action figures was an even more distant goal. I’m appreciative of every major character the line has given us.
The cutoff point for the book is the newly-resculpted figure of Jon Pertwee’s third Doctor that was announced just prior to putting the book to bed. As with the aforementioned Star Wars book, Go Figure is exactly one new product announcement away from technically being obsolete. But the care put into the book’s photography, layout, and text also makes Go Figure an instant classic. The Character Doctor Who figure range is now the second most-prolific licensed toy line in the history of that industry – second only to that other galaxy far, far away – and my affection for both toy lines is on a nearly equal footing. A chronicle like this one is long overdue. The sheer amount of detail and research that went into it is just gravy.
This project was originally crowdfunded; since I’m on a tighter budget these days, I opted for the softcover version. The hardback version had over a hundred pages of additional material (!) plus a DVD with a documentary and added material that I was unable to feature in this review. As for whether this will prove to be as hazardous to my budget as the Action Figure Archive was a quarter century ago? Probably not, since I seem to be in a country whose current management has decided to start a trade war with the rest of reality – to be honest, I was worried about whether or not I’d ever see this book. The chances of me being able to put money toward figures that will now be a lot more expensive are next to none. But this book is a lovely way to cap off the collection – for now. It’s everything I hoped it would be as a guidebook to the collection.
Year: 2025
Authors: Richard Lloyd
Publisher: Roundel Books
Pages: 352 pages
Book review by Earl Green