
The Collars
Classic Daleks...
The first movie Daleks had gold-coloured collars that were made and fitted in exactly the same way as the TV versions. The only difference was in the depth - the lower callar was slightly deeper at the front, under the gun and arm boxes. Dalek collars were not fitted directly to the shoulders. Small wooden packing pieces were added in order to create an offset from the main body (see photo). This offset allowed the lower collar's bottom edge to overlap the top of the skirt section, hiding the join between the shoulders and the skirt. |
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Renegades and Imperials
During the 1980s the design of the Dalek shoulder section was simplified during the production of a new batch of props. The collars became part of the shoulders - part of the actual fibreglass casting - rather than separate entities. The lower collars of most Renegade Daleks from Remembrance of the Daleks clearly shows this. This is the point where metal collars, which had been a Dalek trademark throughout the previous two decades, finally disappeared for good. The new collars had no additional bolts or joints to give them character. To add definition, some were painted black. |
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Imperial Daleks followed the lead of the Renegades by having collars which were an integral part of the fibreglass shoulder moulding. They also went a step further by including the slats too. Below the slats, the upper collar was much deeper than that of the any previous Daleks. The lower collar on both Renegade and Imperial Daleks presents a problem. It is part of the shoulder moulding and so there is no overlap to cover the join between the shoulders and skirt. Builders copying these moulded in collars tend to use either fibreglass or MDF with the layers of the collars built up in stages and back filled. |
Dalek collars, 2005-2015
The collars on the New Series Dalek remain part of the shoulder moulding, though the slats are back to being separate parts. These shoulders and collars are the most complicated to date. The lower collar is actually two separate collars, running around a slightly smaller 'shrunken' inner shoulder section. The upper collar has been moved to the top of the shoulder moulding and protrudes only to the width of the shallower part of the lower collar. Again, the join between shoulders and skirt is not covered because the lowercollar does not overlap. However, this is unimportant for most of the props, as they have been built as 'all-in-one' GRP units, with the skirt and shoulders joined. |