About twenty years ago, 800-TREKKER was the go-to for sci-fi nuts and budding Whovians like myself. On the in-depth review for Doctor Who: The Movie, I mentioned Critic's Choice, Signals, Movies Unlimited, and other catalogs as prime sources for Doctor Who. This, on the other hand, was something new: Doctor Who had merchandise available. Admittedly, it was a rather paltry selection of Dapol's figurines and gift sets, but at the time, it was something special.
[...I pause for a moment to take a quick detour. Dapol was based in Llangollen, Wales, and their primary stock in trade was model train sets. In the mid-80s, they'd acquired the license from the BBC to produce a toy line in time for the upcoming 25th Anniversary. The line included the Seventh Doctor; the TARDIS; his companions Mel Bush and Ace; a bat-like creature from the episode "Time and the Rani" called a Tetrap; several Daleks and their creator Davros; and, the crown jewel of the line, the Console Room Playset, which had a battery-powered console and a K9.
The show, at the time, would slowly peter out, and accuracy wasn't BBC Enterprises' top priority. This resulted in howlers such as a five-sided TARDIS console (in the show it has six sides); a K9 in green instead of silvery-grey (the result of a publicity photo depicting the computerized canine in a grassy field--his paint job picked up the color of the grass); and, most heinously, a Davros figure with two hands instead of one hand and a stump (only about 500 went out like this, and I have one, autographed by Davros actor Terry Molloy).]
Elsewhere in the catalog were goodies based on Star Trek's various series; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess; Mystery Science Theater 3000; Area 51 and aliens in general; and countless other subjects.
It must be noted that the website was 800-TREKKER.com. There was a little bit of trouble with this in the early 2000s--an adults-only site called itself 800TREKKER.com (note the lack of a hyphen). The catalog had to publish a disclaimer thereafter, but the damage was already done: The company folded following the dot-com bust of 2000, along with companies such as Pets.com.
That being said, all was not lost: In the late 90s, a store in Illinois called Alien Entertainment started selling assorted sci-fi merchandise and memorabilia, with its Doctor Who collection as its selling point. In the years since it opened, it has since taken 800-TREKKER's mantle.
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