BBC’s Worldwide’s licensing tentacles have fixed their suckers on the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown, today yanking open the portal to a “pop-up” store selling just one class of merchandise, namely Dr Who kit.
Fat Duck’s Wumpus made the journey to the opening and found about 30 be-costumed fans waiting to be admitted. The first 20 scored Dr Who toiletries bags, a nifty, waterproof, be-zippered rectangular prism imprinted to resemble the TARDIS and which will set you back $11.99.
While we neglected to obtain a price list, it’s probably for the best.
The Wumpus’ eyes’ just about popped out of its furry face at the cost of Who-adorned mugs and teapots, items that are part of the Dr Who homewares range sold on Australian soil for the first time in the store. Framed celebrations of each Doctor (A4 size, landscape mode, portrait on left, vital statistics on right) were $40. Miniature sonic scredwrivers/LED torches were $12. Fancy a life-sized Dalek wall decal? Get ready to hand over 110 Gallifreyan Pandaks (exchange rate 1PDK=$1AUD).
The shop’s not big and the BBC licensing staff were only letting about 20 people at a time inside, the better to prevent against death by crushing or other unseemly behaviour.
The TARDIS replica at the back of the store doesn’t open and the Dalek at the front doesn’t exterminate, but was apparently once used on the Who set. It’s the only bit of memorabilia on show, but the merch is fun enough, and you’ll stick around for a while if you make the journey to Newtown.