Alien Attax

There's something about collectible cards which appeal. I suspect you probably never quite grow out of wanting to get all the cards in a set ... and this appeal has endured for years and years, from the old cigarette cards from the fifties, right through to today's cards based on footballers and cult television.

Doctor Who has always had its fair share of cards. The earliest were in the sixties, when a set of cards were produced with packs of sweet cigarettes (remember those!) and then more were available with Sky Ray ice lollys ... In 2013 we have a new set available from Topps, and these are called Alien Attax.

The craze for these never seems to die, and since the show came back in 2005 there have been many sets and expansions being released,

Here's the technical gen on the Alien Attax set from Topps:

There are 5 designs of card pack available: 11th Doctor and Clara; Ood and Judoon; Sontaran and Silent; Weeping Angel and Ice Warrior; Cyberman and Dalek.

The box of 24 packets comes with an 'On Sale Here' window-poster.

Each individual pack costs £1.00 and contains 9 cards from the set.

There are 240 standard cards available: Cards 1-16 are rainbow foiled and with gold lettering; Cards 17-48 have mirror (silver) foil edges and silver lettering; the remainder are standard cards. The full list is available with the Collector's Pack

There are four collectible cards available:
LE1 - Clara Oswold Card (given away in a special packet with Doctor Who Adventures issue 313)
LE2 - Rainbow foil Weeping Angel (given away with the 5 Pack set)
LE3 - Lenticular 9th/10th Doctor card (given away with the Collector Tin)
LE4 - Lenticular 11th Doctor card (given away with the Starter Pack)

There is available on the UK Topps site a 'card generator' which allows you to create and have printed your own card designs for the range. These do not have the individual card number in the top right hand corner, but are otherwise the same as the actual set. This can be found at www.toppsdirect.com/printme.

The 5 pack set comes on a card and contains 5 standard packs of the cards (with 5 different pack designs) and a limited edition gold foiled Weeping Angel card (numbered LE2).

The Collector Tin has the 11th Doctor and Clara on the top. Contains: 26 regular cards; 3 mirror foil cards; 1 rainbow foil card; 1 exclusive animotion limited edition card (numbered LE3).

The Starter Pack is bagged and comes with a Binder, fold-out Collector Guide which contains details of all the standard cards, a fold-out two-sided Game Mat, a standard Packet of Alien Attax Cards, and a Special Promotion Card (Lenticular 11th Doctor card, numbered LE4).

The cards are printed on good quality stock, and I was pleased to see that they cover both the new and the Classic series. So we have Leela and Jamie alongside Donna and Rose; and Helen A and Commander Lytton as well as Jake Simmonds and Jenny Flint. The selections are a little strange at times, with minor characters included, while some of the more major characters don't have cards at all. I guess this just allows scope for future sets and additions to be made, which is what we have seen with all of the other recent cardsets that have been produced.

In terms of design they are simple and yet effective - a cut out image of the character against one of several generic background designs, and of course they have varying 'Defence' and 'Attack' values enabling you to play a variety of 'Top Trumps' type games with them.

I love that you can create your own cards too, using the generator on their website. These cards are identical in look and feel to the ones in the set (but don't have the card number in the top right corner) and you get four standard and one silvered card when you order them.

Another nice touch is that Topps allow you to order individual cards from their site, so collecting a full set is relatively simple. This is great for collectors, unlike some of the previous cardsets where it was basically impossible to get a full set without paying exorbitant eBay prices for the select cards which were ludicrously limited.

So get collecting and swapping, Time Lords!