Incredibly, one Doctor Who Dalek toy – that originally would’ve sold for £8 in 1964 – is now worth over $6,000. When it comes to Doctor Who, there’s one word every collector has to be familiar with: Dalekmania. In the 1960s, the malicious, malignant pepperpots were at their most popular. Children ran around the playgrounds, shouting out “Exterminate!” Peter Cushing played the Doctor in two movies that adapted Dalek stories. And one Doctor Who cereal competition meant kids could own their very own Dalek prop (now worth over $70,000).
But the most surreal collectible is undoubtedly the Scorpion Automotives Dalek. No, that’s not a new type of Dalek with a scorpion’s tail, nor is it a Dalek car. It’s a vintage playsuit costume created by an ill-fated company called Scorpion Automotives. According to Heritage Auctions, the playsuit comprises:
These would have originally sold for around £8. That may not sound like much, but these were actually very expensive for the time; in fact, adjusted for inflation, that would retail at around £144.36 (over $190). The price is one major reason these didn’t sell particularly well – and it’s made them a lot more popular as the years have passed. In 2025, one Scorpion Automotives Dalek sold for $6,875.
There’s another major reason the Scorpion Automotives Dalek is worth so much: the playsuits are incredibly rare. Collector Simon Danes put it whimsically in 2021: “This is the holy grail for Doctor Who merch collectors. It is rare. Very, very rare. I’d guess, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, that there might be 20 of these left in the world. It is as rare as a sighting of Lord Lucan galloping past on Shergar. As rare as a truthful utterance from the lips of Donald Trump. Nearly as rare as a film canister of episode four of The Tenth Planet. As rare as– well, you probably get the gist.”
Scarcity always drives up value when it comes to collectibles, and the Scorpion Dalek is the rarest of the lot. Dalekmania only really began in late 1964, peaking in early 1965. Scorpion Automotives had only shipped out a few before their factory in Northampton burned down in April 1965, with all the stock inside. Naturally, this meant Scorpion was unable to take full advantage of Dalekmania, and only a few suits were sold. Even fewer of the surviving Scorpion Daleks still have the TARDIS-style box they were sold in, which further drove up the value of Heritage Auctions’ collectible in 2025. All this makes the Scorpion Dalek some of the most valuable Doctor Who merchandise of all time.
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