The first of our all-new sets this month is a set of characters from the 2008 adventure, The Fires of Pomeii.
The Tenth Doctor and Donna arrive in AD79 Pompeii, the day before Mount Vesuvius erupts. This catastrophic event will wipe out the entire population of the city – tens of thousands of doomed inhabitants.
The Doctor learns that a market trader has sold his TARDIS to a local sculptor as a work of art. If the Doctor cannot retrieve his ship he and his companion will be facing volcano day!
Soon, the Doctor finds out that those who have the ability to look into the future are slowly turning into stone. He concludes an alien presence must be operating in the vicinity…
Hailing from the planet Pyrovillia, the Pyroviles are a species of living stone based humanoids, with a magma interior. Their helmet-shaped faces highlight their glowing orange eyes and mouths, which are capable of shooting flames, turning their victims to ash in a matter of seconds.
Pyroviles were not invincible – they could be destroyed by carefully aimed cold water being thrown at them. This would cause their scolding hot exoskeletons to solidify and shatter like broken glass, disintegrating them into ash. If a human unwittingly breathed in their remains, the small particles would begin to transform the unknowing victim into stone.
The High Priestess was the head of the ancient sisterhood of the Sibylline, who worked for the people of Pompeii, looking into the future and predicting events.
When we first meet her, her body has been engulfed by stone, having breathed in such vast quantities of the volcanic Pyrovile remains. The High Priestess had a plan to forcibly turn the population into Pyroviles, boiling away the oceans in the process. Then the threat of water would be removed and the Pyroviles would take over all of civilisation.
This soothsayer was a member of the Sibylline. On the back of her hands she had eyes painted on, to symbolise her psychic ability and the cult of the sisterhood. Her powers came as a result of breathing in Pyrovile dust. She was the first of her cult to see the Doctor’s “blue box” which had appeared to them in a prophecy. The sisters believe that the Doctor’s arrival will bring fire and death.
Our second release this month are a set of three Emojibots from the 2017 adventure, Smile.
The Emojbots are humanoid robots who communicate through the expressions shown on their digital ‘faces’. These servant robots act as interfaces to the Vardy, a race of microbots. Their main purpose was to ensure the human colonists they watched over remained happy at all times. Humans showing negative emotions such as grief would be immediately killed, their flesh stripped down to the bone and used as fertiliser.
When the Twelfth Doctor and Bill encounter the Emojibots they are handed mood patches which attach to their backs. These patches enabled the robots to monitor Bill and the Doctors mood status at all times. When the Doctor and Bill come to the shocking realisation that the human colonists have been killed by the Vardy, their mood turns to one of shock and sadness. The Emojibots close in on them, and only by desperately trying to appear happy and putting on false smiles are they spared.
The Emojibots are only around a metre in height but were capable of restraining fully grown humans by grabbing them or ‘hugging’ them. An orange screen in place of a face was installed in each model which would project different emojis.
They were capable of manufacturing mood patches in their hands, which would then be handed out to colonists and newcomers. The badges displayed an emoji that would be picked up by the Emojibot’s interface, so they knew how everyone was feeling at all times.