Doctor Who: Monster Invasion



Doctor Who: Monster Invasion was a new collectible Doctor Who magazine and trading card series, similar to Battles in Time, that was unveiled by BBC Magazines in April 2010 but was only available within a limited test area (in the south west of the UK) until July 2010. A revised nationwide release was planned for May 2011 around the time of the Series 6 television premiere.

Packs of trading cards were also available separately from newsagents and selected retailers.

The Monster Invasion series was supported by a online website where subscribers could build up there own online card collection, view interactive 3D content on some the cards and play a number of games (enhanced by codes revealed in the magazine which also unlocked other resources).

Doctor Who: Monster Invasion (magazine)
Each issue had a packet of trading cards (also available separately at newsagents) consisting of 24 pages that included the following features;
 * Card collection and gameplay'''
 * Website info (how to unlock areas of the website to play games and bring the 3D cards to life)
 * All-time top ten (cool countdowns)
 * Gadget’s Gadgets (coolest gadgets in the universe)
 * Alien Slamdown (monsters head-to-head)
 * Episode Guide
 * Where’s the Doctor (search and find)
 * A-Z of Aliens
 * Doctor Who Puzzles

Doctor Who: Monster Invasion (initial pilot card collection)
This was a regular magazine with a packet of 9 different trading cards released in the south west of England only.

The initial test run set featured a total of 90 common, rare and super rare cards based on the past era and series five of Doctor Who.

Seperately available in packs of 9 cards; these were divided into coloured categories;
 * Doctor (6 blue cards)
 * Villians (11 purple cards)
 * Adventures (24 yellow cards)
 * Monsters (26 red cards)
 * Doctor’s Allies (13 turquoise cards)
 * Gadgets (9 green cards)

16 of these cards were special cards with an interactive element on the official website

Doctor Who: Monster Invasion (National card collection)
Following the initial test run, a national set of 165 cards were available. These were available with Doctor Who Monster Invasion magazine or for seperate purchase.

Packs included a mix of cards; 130 Common cards, 17 Rare, 12 Super Rare, 5 Ultra Rare and one Infinite card. These cards followed the same categories as established in the initial run.

Several of these cards were special cards with an interactive element on the official website.

Doctor Who: Monster Invasion Extreme (National card collection)
An additional second national set of 180 cards was available under a'Extreme' wrap. These were available with Doctor Who Monster Invasion magazine or by seperate purchase.

Packs included a mix of cards; 150 Common cards, 18 Rare, 6 Super Rare, 5 Ultra Rare and one Infinite card. These cards followed the same categories as established in the previous releases.

Several of these cards were special cards with an interactive element on the official website

Doctor Who: Monster Invasion Limited Edition (National card collection)
A third a national set of 126 foiled cards were available. A full set of all of these cards were available exclusively with Doctor Who Monster Invasion magazine and NOT available to purchase seperately.

Packs included a mix of cards; 6 foiled trading cards comprising of 5 Rare and 1 Ultra Rare card. These cards followed the same categories as established in the previous releases.

A further four, magazine-exclusive, Ultra Rare flip cards were included along with the magazine issues 32, 38, 45, 52

Doctor Who Adventures issue 280 included the fifth of the additional Ultra Rare magazine-only cards.

NONE of these cards had an interactive element on the official website

Additional cards
A set of three official character-autograph cards featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Rory Williams and Amy Pond. These were available to subscribers with collectors tins and the Doctor card with X magazine.

Information
There have been three series' of doctor who monster invasion cards, the original series, extreme and the new only collectible in magazines series, ultimate. There are currently different types of card as well as the special features (rare, common, ultra rare, super rare 3-D, limited edition, special edition flip card and the infinite.) the categories are allies, doctors, enemies, villains, adventures and gadgets. It looks like the ultimate series will be the last monster invasion series As topps and BBC Doctor who are currently debating about a new card series.

Related Articles

 * Doctor Who: Monster Invasion (magazine)
 * Doctor Who: Monster Invasion (trading cards)