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Doctor Who: Alien Armies Trading Card Game was a trading card game published by Panini Comics in autumn 2009.
Following the success of GE Fabbri Ltd's Doctor Who: Battles in Time collectable trading cards and magazine series, Panini (better known to fans and collectors for their Doctor Who Magazine title) launched a more affordable collectable trading card game in October 2009 (without a magazine component). This title were only available until the end of 2009, but only cost 50p per pack of 6 cards.
The release of this set was announced in a press release from Panini Comics on 19 September 2009.
The series consisted of 260 cards, being numbered from 001-185, G1-G40, F1-F20, and E1-E20 featuring characters from TV: The Christmas Invasion-Planet of the Dead. They were split into the following categories:
180 Standard cards
40 Glitter Foil cards (Print Ratio 2:1)
20 Super Foil cards (Print Ratio 4:1)
20 Super Foil Emboss cards (Print Ratio 4:1)
Each standard pack cost 50p and contained 6 cards. The cards were split into five types, each with a different colour-coded background:
Doctor (Blue)
Children of Time (Yellow)
Villain (Red)
Ally (Turquoise)
Equipment (Time Vortex)
All the cards featured a single image against a different colour themed with the main image and other features being laminated. Each card (apart from the equipment cards) carried Power and Attack ratings along with a tiebreak rating (blue), and a power up options for use with equipment cards in blue, green, red and yellow, cards also credited the appropriate episode title.
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Starter pack
An Alien Armies Starter Pack was available from retailers priced at £4.99 and consisted of:
Alien Armies Collector's Binder – a plastic-sleeved folder to house the collection, with a removable cover insert. It contained a checklist listing all 260 cards.
Alien Armies Game Board - The players could mount their strongest cards, ready for play against an opponent by beating their opponents corresponding score; one board required per player. The rules of the game were printed on the reverse.
Four packs of Alien Armies trading cards.
As well as the standard version, there were three other Starter Packs each with a different Limited Edition trading card:
Davros card exclusive to branches of ASDA.
Rose Tyler card exclusive to branches of Martin's & McColl's.
Dalek card exclusive to branches of WHSmith.
Collector's tins
In November 2009, two Alien Armies Collector's Tins were released priced £9.99 each. Each tin contained 10 packs of cards and an exclusive Limited Edition trading card, for a total of 61 cards per tin.
The Tenth Doctor card exclusive to Collector's Tin 1.
Cyberman card exclusive to Collector's Tin 2.
A sixth Limited Edition trading card of The Tenth Doctor was included as a free gift with DWM 414.
Two packs of cards were included as a free gift with DWA 135, DWA 136, and DWA 137.
In both these titles, the promotional card packs included 5 consecutively numbered standard cards and one other.
According to Howe's Transcendental Toybox, in addition to the usual Limited Edition cards, a further six were printed, which featured Donna; Martha; Weeping Angel; Master; Sontaran; The 10th Doctor looking up), but due to lack of interest, exclusive cards were not distributed. Some have been found available for sale though, making them the rarest cards in this series. Additionally, The first batch of limited edition cards were made at the wrong, larger, size, and with a different type of foil. They were supposed to have all been destroyed, and replaced with the correct sized card however some have been found in the starter packs and the only known of these are the Dalek and Rose cards.