BBC K9 MkII, Instructions

RADIO CONTROLLED

K9 MkII

Art No: 05177-150714-V1B

Doctor Who logo TM & © BBC 2004. TARDIS TM & © BBC 

1963. K9 images © BBC 1963. BBC logo TM & © BBC 1996. 

Licensed by BBC Worldwide Limited. 

DOCTOR WHO and the DOCTOR WHO logo, K9 word, logo 

and device marks are trade marks of the British 

Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.

K9 is a mobile computer in the shape of a dog constructed by Professor Marius of a medical 

foundation to be a companion for him whilst in deep space. K9 is both a huge database and has 

defensive capabilities being equipped with a retractable laser in his nose which can be set to stun 

or kill. He can integrate with virtually any computer system including the TARDIS and has been 

responsible for getting the Doctor out of many a tricky and dangerous situation.

CONTENTS:

1 x RADIO CONTROLLED K9 MkII

1 X RC CONTROLLER

5+

Item: Doctor Who 1/4 Scale 

          Radio Controlled K9 MkII 

Item Number: 05447

Age Grade: 5 years plus

2.4 GHz

CONTROL

FREQUENCY:

X

Character Options Ltd., hereby declares that this radio equipment is manufactured in compliance 

with the essential requirements and other relevant provisions of directive 1999/5/EC.
A copy of the Declaration of Conformity can be obtained from Character Options Customer 

Services Department, OL4 5JL.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Radio controlled devices using the same frequency will interfere with each other if run together.

Item No: 05447

Radio Frequency: 2.4 GHz

Not suitable for children under 36 months. Choking hazard (small parts). Please 

remove all packaging attachments before giving this product to a child. Please 

use discretion if making purchases for children younger than the age 

recommended on this package. At the end of the useful life of this product do 

not dispose in normal household waste. Check with your local authority or  

responsible disposal centre and submit to the collection point for the recovery 

and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment. Product specifications, 

colour and contents may vary from those illustrated.

IMPORTANT: Please retain packaging/instructions and purchase details for 

future reference as they contain important information.

WARNING! CHOKING HAZARD.

RECYCLING OUR PRODUCTS

All our product and packaging is designed with easy and 

safe recycling in mind.
For information on the 

National Recycling Strategy 

and the recycling logo on this pack or product please visit 

– 

www.Recycle-More.co.uk – where you will find 

the answers to your UK recycling questions.

•

 Alkaline batteries recommended.

•

 Rechargeable batteries must only be recharged under adult supervision. 

•

 Rechargeable batteries must be removed from the toy before recharging. 

•

 Non-rechargeable batteries must not be recharged. 

•

 Different types of batteries, or new and used batteries must not be mixed.

•

 Only batteries of the same or equivalent type as recommended should be used.

•

 Batteries should be replaced by an adult.

•

 Batteries must be inserted following the correct polarity.

•

 Exhausted batteries should be removed from the product.

•

 The supply terminals must not be short-circuited.

•

 Batteries should be removed from the product when not in use.

•

 Do not dispose of batteries in fire.

•

 Batteries supplied are for demonstration purposes only and may require replacing 

within a short  period of time.

BATTERY RECYCLING INFORMATION

Help the environment by disposing of batteries responsibly. 

The wheelie bin symbol indicates that batteries must not be 

disposed of in domestic waste as they contain substances which can 

be damaging to the environment and health. Please remove 

exhausted batteries from the product and use  designated collection 

points or recycling facilities when disposing of batteries. 

Picture the scene, Tom Baker is invited 
to dinner at our house, by which time 
in the evening our seven-year-old son 
Guy was already in bed, though wide 
awake.  Tom insisted on going up to 
see him in order to read him a 
bedtime story, so my wife Judy took 
Tom upstairs to his room and I dare 
say Guy heard the best bedtime story 
he’d ever had in his life! The following 
day after school Judy asked him if he’d 
told his school friends about ‘Doctor 
Who’ coming over for dinner?  ‘No’, 
he said. ‘They think I’m silly and that I 
think my daddy is K9, and that Doctor 
Who comes to dinner”.  

I find it quite extraordinary that I 

have played K9 on and off since the 
last century… 1977 to be exact – in 
other words from when David 
Tennant was only six… and Matt 

Smith hadn’t yet been born! Let’s face 
it, the character had been written in 
for a single storyline only – The 
Invisible Enemy – and here I am today, 
still voicing K9 for Big Finish and other 
companies’ audio CDs, or making 
personal appearances all over the 
place – even worldwide. The air miles 
– the expense… the thought of it!  

So we’ve just had 50 years of 

Doctor Who which from its relatively 
flickering beginnings in black and 
white back in 1964 is now – arguably 
the biggest drama ‘property’ the BBC 
has got.  I am told that the anniversary 
episode shown before Christmas 
2013 went out to no fewer than 96 
countries worldwide, with an 
audience overall of 77 million, and it is 
not hard to point to the factors that 
have led to the series’ phenomenal 
success: The premise that its central 
character the Doctor can regenerate, 
plus a host of imaginative and 
inventive scripts that have been 
wonderful trampolines for the series’ 
many actors to bounce on… and, 
don’t forget, everything you hear 
onscreen starts with the hugely 
important basis of a scripted storyline.    

The enforced gap of Doctor Who 

being off the air for fifteen years or so 
has been revelatory too – giving the 
series a new and vibrant impetus for 
the 21st century. Gone today, of 
course, are the homespun 
woolly-knitted monsters whose 
onscreen physicality used to keep us 

A Message from John Leeson

all ‘behind the sofa’ – anyone remember 
Planet of the Spiders? Would you believe 
that only last week I was recording the 
voice of the evil prawn-like monster The 
Virus of the Swarm – a part I played in 
1977 in The Invisible Enemy alongside my 
very first outing as K9 – in a specially 

written script for a new audio CD.    

Today, of course, digital technology and 

computer graphics are a commonplace 
in film and television and, I am sure, will 
keep us visually amazed well into the 
future… 

INSTALLING BATTERIES

YOUR K9 REQUIRES 4 

X

 AA-TYPE BATTERIES TO OPERATE, AND 

THE CONTROL UNIT REQUIRES 1 

X

 9V BATTERY. (THE 4 

X

 AA 

BATTERIES THAT COME WITH K9 ARE FOR “TRY ME”/DEMO  
PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY SOON NEED REPLACING.) WHEN 
FIRST OPERATING K9, MAKE SURE TO INSTALL FRESH, NEW 
BATTERIES  RIGHT  FROM THE  START AS THIS WILL  GIVE YOU THE 
BEST PERFORMANCE. INSTALL THE BATTERIES INTO THE BASE 
OF K9 AND REAR OF THE CONTROLLER AS SHOWN (FIG. 1) 
ENSURING THE CORRECT POLARITY. SHOULD K9 FAIL TO 
OPERATE CHECK THAT THE BATTERIES HAVE BEEN INSTALLED 
CORRECTLY.

AUTOMATED K9 FEATURES
K9 HAS THREE AUTOMATED FEATURES BUILT-IN:

• “TRY ME” MODE – K9 SHIPS WITH A BUILT IN FEATURE TO 
DEMONSTRATE IT’S SOUND AND LIGHTS WHILST IN PACK AND 
IS ACTIVATED BY PRESSING A SWITCH IN THE DETAIL PANEL. TO 
SET K9 TO NORMAL PLAY MODE, SLIDE THE SWITCH TO THE 
‘ON’ POSITION.

• ILLUMINATED EYE, BACK AND DETAIL PANEL LIGHTS – WHEN 
SWITCHED ON, K9’S EYE WILL AUTOMATICALLY LIGHT UP AND 
STAY LIT UNTIL SWITCHED OFF. THIS IS A GOOD INDICATOR AS 
TO WHETHER THE BATTERIES ARE CORRECTLY INSTALLED AND 
WHETHER THE POWER IS ON. IF K9 MOVES NORMALLY, BUT THE 
EYE IS NOT ILLUMINATED, OR IS WEAK CHECK THE BATTERIES 
(SEE TROUBLESHOOTING ON BACK PAGE.)

• AUTO EAR ROTATION – K9’S EARS AUTOMATICALLY MOVE AS 
HE MOVES ABOUT. DO NOT TRY TO FORCE K9’S EARS TO TURN 
MANUALLY, AS IT MAY CAUSE DAMAGE TO K9.

OVERVIEW OF K9

K9 IS A RADIO-CONTROL DEVICE WITH 360 DEGREE 
MOVEMENT, BACK LIGHTS AND BUTTON-ACTIVATED SPEECH. IT 
HAS LIGHT UP EYE, BACK AND DETAIL PANEL LIGHTS AND A 
REMOVABLE ‘SERVICE’ PANEL.

OVERVIEW OF THE CONTROLLER

THE K9 CONTROL UNIT HAS MOVEMENT CONTROL 

STICKS ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT, PLUS FIVE SMALL 

BUTTONS TO ACTIVATE ITS VOICE AND SFX.

OPERATING K9

TURN K9 ON VIA THE SWITCH ON HIS DETAIL 

PANEL AND DO THE SAME FOR THE 

CONTROLLER VIA THE SWITCH ON ITS BASE.  

YOUR K9 IS SIMPLE TO OPERATE. THE 

MOVEMENT IS CONTROLLED BY THE TWO 

CONTROL STICKS ON THE LEFT AND 
RIGHT. (SEE FIG 3.)

TO MAKE K9 MOVE STRAIGHT AHEAD, PUSH 

FORWARD ON BOTH STICKS. TO MOVE 

STRAIGHT BACKWARDS, PULL BOTH STICKS BACK. 

TO MOVE K9 LEFT, SIMPLY PUSH ONLY ON THE 

RIGHT-HAND STICK AND, SIMILARLY, ON THE LEFT 

STICK TO TURN RIGHT. BY USING A COMBINATION 

OF THE LEFT- AND RIGHT-HAND STICKS, YOU WILL 

VERY QUICKLY BE ABLE TO MOVE K9 AROUND IN 

ANY DIRECTION. THE MOVEMENT IS VERY 

AUTHENTIC AND VERSATILE ALLOWING FOR 360 

DEGREE TURNING WHILE VIRTUALLY  STANDING 
STILL OR WIDER MOVEMENT PATTERNS.

THE ‘SERVICE’ PANEL

K9 HAS A REMOVABLE/REPLACEABLE ‘SERVICE’ PANEL. THIS 

ALLOWS THE DOCTOR ACCESS TO WORK ON HIS INNER 
MECHANISM IN THE TV SHOW. HOWEVER ON YOUR R/C K9 IT IS 
JUST A ‘DETAIL’ MODEL PANEL WITH LIGHTS. IT DOES HOWEVER 
GIVE ACCESS TO THE ‘TRY ME’ AND ON/OFF SWITCHES. (SEE FIG. 4). 

TO REPLACE THE ‘SERVICE PANEL’ SIMPLY PLACE THE TWO LUGS 
ON THE BASE OF THE SERVICE PANEL INTO THE TWO SLOTS AT 
THE  BASE  OF THE ‘DETAIL’  PANEL. THEN  PUSH THE TOP  OF THE 
‘SERVICE’ PANEL INWARDS UNTIL IT CATCHES. PUSH ON THE 
CATCH AREA AND THE  CATCH ‘GRIPS’ THE TOP  OF THE  PANEL 
AND CLOSES IT FLUSH.

TO REMOVE THE PANEL SIMPLY PRESS ON THE TOP CENTRE OF 
THE ‘SERVICE’ PANEL TO RELEASE THE CATCH AND REMOVE THE 
‘SERVICE’ PANEL.

K9 VOICE CONTROL

THERE ARE A SERIES OF 4  VOICE CONTROL BUTTONS 
RUNNING TOP TO BOTTOM ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF THE 
CONTROLLER. BELOW THIS IS THE BLASTER EXTEND AND 
RETRACT CONTROL AND SFX BUTTON (SEE FIG. 2). 

• A ROUGH GUIDE TO K9 PHRASES AVAILABLE TO PLAY ARE 
SHOWN ON THE LABEL NEXT TO EACH OF THE BUTTONS. TO 
ACTIVATE K9’S VOICE AT ANY POINT, SIMPLY PRESS THE DESIRED 
BUTTON TO  HEAR THE  SPEECH. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE  ONLY 
FOUR BUTTONS, THERE ARE 8 BUILT-IN PHRASES AS ALL FOUR 
SPEECH BUTTONS HAVE ROTATING SPEECH. IN OTHER WORDS, 
YOU WILL GET AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PHRASE WHEN YOU 
PRESS THESE SAME BUTTONS SEVERAL TIMES.

NOTE: THE BLASTER EXTEND/RETRACT BUTTON WILL ONLY 
WORK WHEN THE K9 IS STATIONERY. 

• BLASTER EXTEND RETRACT. TO OPERATE THE BLASTER 
EXTEND AND RETRACT FUNCTION K9 MUST BE STATIONERY. 
MOVE  K9 TO WHERE YOU WANT  HIM.  PRESS THE  BLASTER 
EXTEND/RETRACT/SFX BUTTON ONCE TO EXTEND THE 
BLASTER. PRESS ONCE MORE TO HEAR K9’S LASER GUN/BLAST-
ER EFFECT. THEN ONCE MORE TO RETRACT THE BLASTER. K9 
CAN NOW MOVE.

NOTE: K9 WILL NOT MOVE WHEN THE BLASTER IS EXTENDED.
RETRACT THE BLASTER TO MOVE HIM NORMALLY.

TO MAKE K9 MOVE: 
STRAIGHT AHEAD – PUSH FORWARD ON BOTH STICKS.
BACKWARDS – PULL BOTH STICKS BACK.
LEFT – PUSH RIGHT STICK FORWARD.
RIGHT – PUSH LEFT STICK FORWARD.
SPIN CLOCKWISE – PUSH LEFT STICK, PULL RIGHT STICK. 
SPIN COUNTER-CLOCKWISE – PUSH RIGHT STICK, PULL LEFT STICK.

TROUBLESHOOTING & SAFETY

NOTE:

 OPERATION PERFORMANCE MAY BE AFFECTED BY SURROUNDING STRUCTURES AND 

EQUIPMENT.  THE USER SHOULD NOT CHANGE OR MODIFY THE EQUIPMENT,  AS TAMPERING -
 WILL  VOID THE USER’S AUTHORITY TO OPERATE THIS EQUIPMENT.

THE PRODUCT PERFORMANCE WILL BE DEGRADED UNDER A STRONG RF FIELD. APPROXIMATE

 OPERATING RANGE IS 10 METRES INDOORS AND 20 METRES OUTDOORS.  

IMPORTANT NOTE:

 TWO TOYS HAVING THE SAME FREQUENCY WILL INTERFERE WITH 

EACH OTHER IF RUN TOGETHER.

PROBLEM

K9 EAR/EARS NOT MOVING.

K9 EAR/S NOT MOVING BUT TOY IS MOVING.

K9 EAR/S BECOME DETATCHED.

K9 MOVES JERKILY OR INTERMITTENTLY.

K9 MOVES VERY SLUGGISHLY AND EYE IS DIM.

K9 SOUND IS QUIET OR CRACKLY.

TROUBLE SHOOTING 

SOLUTION

CHECK BATTERIES.
ENSURE LASER IS RETRACTED INTO HEAD (K9 WILL NOT MOVE 
UNTIL LASER IS RETRACTED)

ENSURE EAR IS CORRECTLY LOCATED IN EAR SOCKET IF NOT GENTLY 
PUSH BACK INTO PLACE. CHECK FUNCTION BY USING CONTROLLER.

CORRECTLY LOCATE EAR INTO SOCKET GENTLY AND PUSH BACK INTO 
PLACE. CHECK FUNCTION BY USING CONTROLLER.

BATTERIES WEAK IN CONTROLLER. REPLACE.

BATTERIES WEAK IN K9. REPLACE.
K9 IS TOO FAR FROM CONTROLLER ( 20 METRES).

BATTERIES WEAK. REPLACE.

TIPS & TRICKS

SLEEP MODE

IF  NO  KEYS  ARE  PRESSED  ON  THE  CONTROL  UNIT  FOR  ABOUT  5  MINUTES,  THE  K-9  WILL 
POWER DOWN.

TO WAKE K9, SWITCH HIM OFF AND ON AGAIN OR PRESS THE “TRY ME” BUTTON ONCE. THE 
SLEEP MODE ONLY AFFECTS K9.  THE CONTROL UNIT MUST BE SWITCHED OFF BY THE USER.

STRAIGHTENING K9’S TAIL.

IF YOU STORE K9 IN A CRAMPED SPACE OR LEANING UP AGAINST SOMETHING HE MAY 
END UP WITH A BENT TAIL. STRAIGHTENING HIS TAIL IS EASY. IT’S IMPORTANT TO GET 
AN ADULT TO DO THIS FOR YOU. GET A TALL MUG OR CUP AND FILL IT WITH VERY HOT 
(BUT NOT BOILING) WATER. DIP K9’S TAIL INTO THE WATER TO A DEPTH THAT GOES PAST 
THE BENT PART. THE TAIL WILL SOFTEN UP AND CAN BE STRAIGHTENED UP EASILY. ONCE 
STRAIGHT ALLOW TO COOL OR RUN UNDER A COLD TAP. DRY THE TAIL THOROUGHLY. K9’S 
TAIL IS NOW OK.

NOTE: ENSURE ONLY THE TAIL GETS HEATED AND WET OTHERWISE DAMAGE MAY OCCUR TO K9.

LOOKING AFTER YOUR K9
THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS YOU CAN DO TO EXTEND THE LIFE 
OF YOUR RADIO CONTROL K9:

• TRY NOT TO SUBJECT K9 TO SHARP KNOCKS.
• DO NOT CARRY K9 BY ITS TAIL, GUN OR HEAD ONLY. THEY 
MAY BE DAMAGED.
• CLEAN THE EXTERIOR OF K9 WITH A DAMP CLOTH ONLY.
• CARRY BY HOLDING AND SUPPORTING K9’S BASE.
• SWITCH OFF CONTROLLER AND K9 AFTER USE TO CONSERVE 
BATTERY LIFE.
•  CHANGE  BATTERIES WHEN THEY  GET WEAK.
• REMOVE BATTERIES FROM BOTH THE CONTROLLER AND K9 
BEFORE LONG PERIODS OF STORAGE.

PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT DROP THIS PRODUCT AS IT MAY
GET DAMAGED. HANDLE WITH CARE! 

REMOVE ‘SERVICE’  PANEL TO  REVEAL THE TRY  ME/ON/OFF 
SWITCH ON THE LOWER LEFT HAND SIDE. (FIG. 4.) 

ON

OFF

FIG. 1. BATTERY REPLACEMENT

THE CONTROLLER

K9 UNIT

BLASTER EXTEND/
RETRACT AND 
SFX BUTTON

VOICE CONTROL
BUTTONS

FIG. 2. BUTTON FUNCTIONS 

FIG. 3. OPERATING THE CONTROLLER

FIG. 4. TRY ME BUTTON AND ON/OFF SWITCH.

NOTE: AN EARLIER EDITION OF THE REMOTE CONTROL K9 
HAD AN ANTENNA ON THE CONTROL UNIT. THIS VERSION 
OF K9 DOES NOT REQUIRE AN ANTENNA.

FC

BC

IFC