A review I wanted to share

Spring has sprung, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. All is right with the world on this wonderful sunny day. What better way to wake up than to be greeted with a fantastic email from one of the harshest and most critical customers I have.

I won't divulge who he is but suffice to say he is an active member of the RPF and other boards. He's got a keen eye and knows his stuff. He and I haven't always seen eye to eye but I respect the fact that unlike some of the cunts out there, he put his hand in his pocket and without prejudice, bought one of my sonics to check out for himself.

His email to me makes for some interesting reading:

"Hey CT,

Got back from work an hour ago and just logged on to share my honest and frank and super critical views on your sonic.

Been a long time coming, and my hopes were high as I had got the details of the screen used sonic burned into my retina from seeing far too many stills and screen caps over the last few months, plus you pointing out the shortcomings of the MFX sonic and minutiae detail that was promised which no doubt were fuelled by your eye for detail and ginormous ego.

Opening the package was a good sign as I got a good whiff of quality automotive sealant.

So, what can I say? The emitter head is spot on, the lens the perfect colour and height and the specs of the head, to my eye, perfect to the prop. the butt cap is also great, nicely shaped and in the correct gloss finish. The main body is also good. Not accurate [actually, the shape and dimensions are entirely accurate to the Season 2 prop albeit there are some minor details that have been tidied up. The Season 2 prop just featured a narrower slider channel and a slightly different button - we used the button from the static prop as opposed to the blobby chewing gum style slider button], but who wants a 1CM wide slot.. not me. The button is correct, but large as it sits on the top of the smaller recess. A nice compromise to the original shitty prop and a great idealisation.

The paint job is cool and the sealant does it for me as it seems far far better than the MFX version. You could actually carry this for years with minimal wear.

The steel is light, did you use stainless in the end or go with aluminium, it is difficult to tell. I assume it's 420 if it is stainless.[it's actually 303 stainless, aluminium and brass internals - the reason being was that the stainless head kept fracturing during machining due to its brittle hardness and it kept destroying tool bits in the process. Galling is also a problem with stainless especially on threads with a tight tolerance so we used dissimilar materials next to each other for the threaded construction. In the end we have something about 18% lighter than the MFX due to the MFX using a lot of brass]

Anyway, my only gripe is the bore hole through the acrylic tube which shows small drill fractures. MFX used oil smeared up the tube to soak into the cracks, which hides it well and stops the white misting and makes the whole tube clear. Personally, I like the way your sonic looks, as two wires never looked alien and hi-tech to me, and the partial masking of the wires is a bonus. I understand why the Beeb coated the bore hole with crackle on the later versions. Looks much better. The other thing is the ease in which the whole emitter head unscrews from the stem. An easy fix with Loctite Green though, so no drama for clever folks. [yes, that caused me a lot of headaches. Too fast a drill speed and you get clouding and melting, too slow and you get drill marks and microfractures. Probably need to work a new technique for that or source predrilled acrylic rods]

I had a problem with the sound and light and it crackled like it was going to fail. After blowing out the connection with compressed air, it worked fine, so looks like some paint or debris got in. Works well now.[stick in some fresh batteries and it'll go fine. The sound chip is incredibly power hungry and the batteries needs to cycle for a few seconds after each use to regain charge.]

I did tell you that there was friction tape on the prop though, yours needs it as well. I can't see how you could have made an extending version without using the tape, the acrylic would get scratched up to buggery.[have a play with it and you'll realise something quite profound. The engineering tolerances mean that there is only about 0.5mm clearance between the acrylic rod and collar. The acrylic will never touch the sides of the collar even if you were to try your hardest. It seems tight but trust me, I have worked out every micron on this thing. The MFX will waggle all over the place. Mine doesn't. It slides up and down in the straightest path possible with only about 1mm deviance at full extension.]

All in all it is a difficult sonic to make as it is not screen accurate and more of a hybrid and idealisation of what it should be. In my mind you got it 100% spot on. Fuck knows what it must have taken to get the details right.

I look forward to the Tennant version. I want one in the white crackle as it looks so much better, plus DT hardly ever used the gold coloured thing in the later episodes. You may want to look at making a fixed non extending version with a resin body and butt cap for the cosplayers. If those details can lower the RRP then you should sell loads. I was expecting the sound to be quieter than it is due to the design, but you have done really well to make it that loud without drilling extra holes and slots.

Nice one CT. Tis the dogs bollocks.

Now, please don't let me wait so long for the DT version.

Keep well,"

Thank you Mr D, you've made my day!