Monster Invasion Test Set

The Monster Invasion Test Set

Much like Doctor Who: Battles in Time before it, Monster Invasion began life as a regional test-market release. The Test Set was distributed exclusively through newsagents in the South West of England, allowing the publishers to assess the response to the proposed magazine and trading-card collection before committing to a nationwide launch. The resulting cards represent a fascinating snapshot of Monster Invasion before the collection was finalised. Although the overall concept and artwork closely resemble the subsequent national release, a number of important differences can be found across the cards, packaging and accompanying magazines.

The 90-Card Test Set

The Monster Invasion Test Set consisted of 90 cards, considerably smaller than the eventual national collection. The checklist covered characters and material from across Doctor Who's history, alongside content from the contemporary Series 5 era.

The cards were divided into seven categories, each identified by a distinctive colour:

Doctors — 6 blue cards

Villains — 11 purple cards

Adventures — 24 yellow cards

Monsters — 26 red cards

Doctor's Allies — 13 turquoise cards

Gadgets — 9 green cards

Sixteen cards within the collection also incorporated an interactive element connected to the official Monster Invasion website, demonstrating the increasingly important role that online content was intended to play alongside the physical card game.

The Test Set Regeneration Card

The most significant discovery within the Test Set is undoubtedly card 090, the Infinite “Regenerate” card. Unlike the corresponding Infinite card in the later national collection, the Test Set version features the title “Regenerate”. Its extreme scarcity has made it one of the most desirable cards in the entire Monster Invasion collection.

Based upon current collector knowledge and surviving examples, the number of Regenerate cards believed to remain in circulation may be extraordinarily small, with estimates placing the surviving population somewhere between approximately five and twenty examples. This figure should be regarded as an estimate rather than a confirmed production or survival figure, as no surviving publisher documentation establishing the original print quantity has currently been located.

If the lower estimates are accurate, the Regenerate Infinite would rank among the rarest Doctor Who trading cards ever produced, aside from deliberately unique 1/1 examples from other collections. Its scarcity may even exceed that of the legendary Battles in Time Test Set Super Rose.

Differences from the National Release

The Test Set provides collectors with an opportunity to see how Monster Invasion developed between its regional trial and eventual national release. Although the card artwork is broadly consistent, several production differences can be identified.

Card Backs

One of the easiest ways to distinguish the Test Set cards is by examining their reverse. The Test Set uses imagery featuring the bronze Daleks associated with the 2006 Doctor Who revival. The national cards subsequently adopted artwork featuring the redesigned Dalek imagery associated with the 2011 Monster Invasion launch. This makes the reverse of the card one of the most useful identification tools when determining whether an individual card originated from the regional Test Set or the later nationwide collection.

Packaging Artwork

The booster packs also contain subtle but useful differences. The Test Set packaging depicts the Doctor holding the Sonic Screwdriver with one hand, whereas the corresponding national packaging shows him holding it differently, with both hands. The packaging therefore provides another useful physical identifier for collectors attempting to distinguish surviving Test Set material from the much more widely distributed national release.

Magazine Contents and Cover Order

The differences were not restricted to the cards themselves. The Test Run magazines were also arranged differently from their national counterparts, with changes to the order of cover artwork and internal material. These alterations are particularly interesting when the two editions are compared side-by-side, as they demonstrate that the Test Run was not simply an early distribution of the finished national magazine. Instead, material was revised and rearranged before the nationwide publication began. Complete scans and comparisons of the Test Run magazines can be found within the dedicated Monster Invasion Magazine Scans section of this archive.

Rarity and Surviving Examples

Despite being available through newsagents during the regional trial, the Test Set had a very limited geographical distribution. Consequently, surviving examples are considerably harder to locate than cards from the subsequent national collection.

Sealed Test Set material is particularly elusive. Complete sealed packs and other unopened promotional material provide important evidence of how the collection was originally presented to consumers and are therefore of considerable interest to collectors and researchers.

Archive Note

All card scans displayed within this section have been taken from my personal collection. As a result, individual scans may contain minor scratches, surface marks, print imperfections or other signs of handling. These imperfections have been retained where appropriate because they form part of the physical history of the surviving cards.

The Test Set is one of the most fascinating chapters in the Monster Invasion story. Far from being simply an early version of the national collection, it preserves a moment in the development of the game before its checklist, artwork, packaging and digital features were finally committed to the nationwide release.