My son is a huge fan of Doctor Who and we love to sit down on a Saturday and watch the show together. For Christmas he had asked for some Doctor Who toys and hadn't been particularly specific in which ones and so when my Mum asked what she could buy for him I asked her to pick up some Doctor Who figures and the Character Options Tardis play set. My Mum bought the Tardis play set from her Littlewoods catalogue where it was on offer at £24.99 which according to them was half price! I note online now it is selling for £14.99 on Amazon who claim the recommended retail price is £39.99.

The Tardis play set came packaged in a huge cardboard box and on the front showed the picture of the play set assembled. This particular play set is a replica of the 11th Doctors console room which is something my son was pleased about as Matt Smith does seem to be his favourite Doctor! With the play set you also receive a figure of the eleventh Doctor complete with sonic screwdriver as well as a tiny almost Lego type Doctor which again my son was pleased with as he likes to buy these when we go to the shops but it is a bit of a lucky dip as to which you get and so we have lots of cyber men but had no Doctor!

I was expecting given the size of the box that the play set would be assembled inside but I was mistaken and it does require a good amount of assembly. Instructions are provided but to be honest they aren't brilliant and I think it would have been beneficial for them to perhaps mark the underside of the plastic parts with a number which could then have been used in the instructions to ease construction. I was quite surprised to see that although the floor of the Tardis and stairs and such like is made from a tough plastic that the bulk of the walls were made from cardboard which needed slotting in to plastic frames around the Tardis. I actually struggled to get the cardboard in to the slots on many occasions and was quite worried that I would end up bending or ripping it and making a mess before my son had even had an opportunity to play with it. Once the cardboard parts were securely slotted in to the frames though the set did look surprisingly well made and like it would last well in all honesty. The main issue that I had when building the upper level of the play set was that there is a clear sheet of plastic used as the floor but then you can add some bumpy plastic pieces over the top if you should wish too and both my son and I found these impossible to add to the plastic layer and so have left them off. This doesn't detract from the play value of the set though so it isn't really a major issue as they were optional anyway. I think the play set probably took me around forty five minutes or so to build fully but once it was done I was quite impressed with how sturdy it seemed really. The play set is quite large though and so sits on top of my son's toy box downstairs leaving little room for anything else around it and so I would say be mindful of the size really with this one.

My son was quite surprised by the level of detail within the Tardis play set because a swing and the Doctor's chair are included as well as pretend buttons to press on the main controls. I was slightly disappointed that the Tardis didn't have some form of flashing light or noise that some of the other Tardis play sets seem to have as I think this would have enhanced play perhaps when pretending the Tardis was about to set off but it is not something that bothers my son at all really. As my son received some Doctor Who figures for Christmas too he has been able to set up battles between the Doctor and the Daleks for example but he has also used his imagination and brought in some Harry Potter figures too telling me that the Doctor has visited Hogwarts on a trip one day. I like how this set encourages my son to use his imagination and to be creative with his play. When my son's friend came to visit they both got the figures and the play set out and created a game with it and so it really has been a very popular toy to have. I have to say that the play set can seem a little cramped as my son tries to walk various figures around it because of the large control panel in the middle but this doesn't seem to put my son off and he seems to really enjoy playing with it.

The play set is suitable for children aged five plus according to the manufacturers and whilst there are no small parts to be ingested by smaller children in the main set I would say that the age guidelines are probably correct because a slightly older child would understand the need to be relatively careful with the set as it contains some cardboard and it may damage. To be fair my son hasn't pussy footed around playing with this set and it has had a lot of play already and has stood up well to this but I do remind him not to bang characters against the cardboard and such like.

I think for the price on Amazon at the moment this is actually a really good buy for a young Doctor Who fan and recommended by my son and I.

Thank you for reading my review!