It started by accident.
After leaving film school in 1985 and working freelance on numerous television commercials, as an animator in Bristol and venturing into the world of pop production with an instantly forgettable Right Said Fred video, I stumbled into 5 years as a product designer in London, primarily designing toys for Mattel, Disney, Hasbro and Bluebird.
As a passion project, I badgered Bluebird into developing a toy range based on the then long defunct series Doctor Who. The new TV Movie was due to air in 1996 and the BBC were happy, and slightly bemused, to grant a licence. With the limited information available, I proceeded to design and prototype a Dalek Playcase, Cyberman Playcase and a large Tardis Playset that opened to reveal a TV Movie inspired play environment complete with Paul McGann figure.
Bluebird hesitantly moved forward into production releasing the Dalek Playcase but shortly after went into receivership - hopefully the two not connected.
It was at this time I struck out on my own, and in 1997 established Product Enterprise. Granted a licence by the BBC, I purchased all remaining stock of the Dalek Playcase from Bluebird. Staring at them filling every room in my terraced house in Hounslow, I wondered how I went about selling several thousand of them?
So began a guerilla style strategy that involved flyer drops in nightclubs, posters in shop widows and reviews in trendy magazines of the day. Our Daleks started to appear on TV shows and featured in one particularly flamboyant Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen makeover in Changing Rooms. We had arrived!
Our next product was the Dalek Rolyikin. An updated version of the classic 60's toy, the plastic parts were injected moulded in an old railway shed in Hertfordshire and then glued together at the kitchen table in Southport by my sister and friends for 10p a Dalek!
When orders exceeded five thousand, we knew we were onto a winner. It was time to make the switch to manufacturing in China.
So began a 27-year journey that allowed us to indulge in creating some of the most stunning toys and collectibles from classic shows that we loved.
A 27-year journey that has seen some adventures along the way. Warehouses burnt down, warehouses flooded, 40-foot shipping containers of delicate models dropped by cranes, lunches with Gerry Anderson and Peter Rodgers, phone calls from Peter Jackson, shouted at by Christopher Lee, appearing on the Richard and Judy show, and even an aborted stage play of Doctor Who and the Daleks licenced by Canal Plus and Terry Nation estate starring Bernard Cribbins as the doctor!
Out of it all is a breadth of stunning toys and collectibles that came from a passion and love of the subject and that will live on in the official cannon of the shows from which they were born.
Steve Walker
