# No Tardis are for sale **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114 "2009-10-17T03:08:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/1 "2009-10-17T03:08:32Z")
I have been looking at some sites. I have found restored British phone booths (5,000 GBP), and nice red British letter boxes for sale. I maintain no company sells reproduction British police call boxes. (I did find instructions on how to make one. That does not count.) I would like very much for some smart Doper to prove me wrong. I see a market niche here. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/2 "2009-10-17T03:23:40Z")
I believe the BBC actually has a copyright on the image of the TARDIS/blue police call box, so that probably figures in to why you can’t find any for sale. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/3 "2009-10-17T03:30:01Z")
How can they have a copyright on the design of something owned by (some sort of British police organization)? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/4 "2009-10-17T04:05:52Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > How can they have a copyright on the design of something owned by (some sort of British police organization)? They don’t. There aren’t all that many still about, but there are a few: [Glasgow](http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~trekker/policeboxes/scottishboxes.html) [London](http://www.ukattraction.com/london/tardis-police-box.htm) [Edinburgh](http://www.flickr.com/photos/photojoy/sets/706576/) - there’s more than I thought - that crafty bastard Doctor ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/5 "2009-10-17T04:34:29Z")
> [@Struan](#): > > They don’t. OK, perhaps I was mistaken then. I thought I had read that somewhere before and looking now, just found this bit on Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > In 1996, the BBC applied to the UK Patent Office to register the TARDIS as a trademark.[11] This was challenged by the Metropolitan Police who felt that they owned the rights to the police box image. However, the Patent Office found that there was no evidence that the Metropolitan Police — or any other police force — had ever registered the image as a trademark. In addition, the BBC had been selling merchandise based on the image for over three decades without complaint by the police. The Patent Office issued a ruling in favour of the BBC in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/6 "2009-10-17T14:37:23Z")
OK, so does anyone out there make a full-sized Tardis for the home? I bet it would make a great vestibule for a closet. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/7 "2009-10-17T16:42:59Z")
Dumb question: What do they _have_ in the blue police boxes? Do Bobbies sit in there feeling down about themselves, or do they store their guns, ammo, and LAW rockets in there? Are they like police ‘sentry’ huts? Seriously, what are they for? And what happens to the box if it’s unmanned in the middle of a busy street? Tripler Curious Yankees want to know–we put our Bobbies on horseback or make 'em walk. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/8 "2009-10-17T16:48:24Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Dumb question: What do they _have_ in the blue police boxes? Do Bobbies sit in there feeling down about themselves, or do they store their guns, ammo, and LAW rockets in there? Are they like police ‘sentry’ huts? > > Seriously, what are they for? And what happens to the box if it’s unmanned in the middle of a busy street? > > Tripler > Curious Yankees want to know–we put our Bobbies on horseback or make 'em walk. We also have Police call boxes in the USA. It’s a secure land line, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/9 "2009-10-17T17:29:21Z")
In the old days, it was a police telephone. They also contained some first-aid stuff and paperwork the constable might need from day-to-day. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/10 "2009-10-17T18:42:31Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > We also have Police call boxes in the USA. It’s a secure land line, that’s all. If you mean something like [this](http://www.policeguide.com/Photo_Galleries/Police_Call_Boxes/police_call_boxes.html), which is basically just a telephone, that’s very different from a [Tardis](http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Tardis-Tennant.jpg) style police box, which I have never seen in my decades of living in the United States. As the picture shows, it looks vaguely like an old-fashioned telephone booth, but the phone is actually on the exterior. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/11 "2009-10-17T18:55:34Z")
[Here’s a computer rendering of a police box in use.](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/File:Police_Box_4.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/12 "2009-10-17T19:15:37Z")
Why do I obsess over everything to do with Doctor Who? I think I may have to quite watching once David Tennant leaves. It’s just not healthy. > [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > OK, so does anyone out there make a full-sized Tardis for the home? I bet it would make a great vestibule for a closet. [http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/page31.html](http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/page31.html) Caveats: 1. It’s modeled on the Tardis from the lamentable Peter Cushing movies, which is supposed to be very close in appearance to William Hartnell’s Tardis but differs significantly from the current incarnation. (Although word has it that the St John Ambulance logo is back on Matt Smith’s Tardis.) 2. It’s extraordinarily expensive. 3. It does not include a working light (you would think for that kind of money it could include a working light) or travel through space (without an external force) or time (except forward at the rate of one second per second). 4. Some assembly required. 5. I can only imagine that if the deliver at all to the United States, the shipping fees would be considerable. On the other hand, you can pick it up in Slough. 6. It is not guaranteed waterproof or durable. The same company also offers to build Daleks and Cybermen for you (also sadly nonfunctional). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/13 "2009-10-17T19:41:52Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Although word has it that the St John Ambulance logo is back on Matt Smith’s Tardis. It is, there’s on-set photos. Matt’s Doctor is being filmed in proper high-def so there are new props that will look decent under that level of scrutiny. New TARDIS interior too. Can’t wait to see it - hopefully it isn’t going to be the “Leopardskin” desktop. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/14 "2009-10-17T19:47:43Z")
Thank you **TWDuke** , we have a vendor. [http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/page31.html](http://www.thisplanetearth.co.uk/main/page31.html) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/15 "2009-10-18T02:17:29Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > If you mean something like this, which is basically just a telephone, that’s very different from a style police box, which I have never seen in my decades of living in the United States. As the picture shows, it looks vaguely like an old-fashioned telephone booth, but the phone is actually on the exterior. Indeed, that’s more or less what it is a Police call phone with a telephone booth. Telephone booths themselves are quite rare in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/16 "2009-10-18T16:24:37Z")
FWIW, there were at least one booth-type police box in use on Long Island NY when I was a kid (1960s). It was in Lake Ronkonkoma. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/17 "2009-10-18T19:34:53Z")
“FWIW, there were at least one booth-type police box in use on Long Island NY when I was a kid (1960s). It was in Lake Ronkonkoma.” Actually there are a number (dozens probably, I couldn’t find a count) of police booths in use currently in Nassau County, (Long Island NY). Here is an [image of one](http://sbiii.com/pix/ncpdbvla.jpg), in the ‘wood shed’ style (again, not sure if this particular one still exists, but ones like it are in use), and there are others done in brick. None that I have seen look like Tardi, or even remotely British, though. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/18 "2009-10-18T20:59:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Indeed, that’s more or less what it is a Police call phone with a telephone booth. Telephone booths themselves are quite rare in the USA. Yes, but they were common enough here recently that one could be used as a disguised for a time capsule in **Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure** (1989) without the teenage protagonists having to ask “What’s a phone booth?”, just as no one in London in 1963 had to ask the Doctor “What’s a police call box?” I’m honestly not sure if you’re having a laugh or you don’t understand that when the OP asks about reproduction British police call boxes he is not talking about a “a secure land line,” but a structure that’s about 10 feet tall with windows and a door and was once common in London. The fact that he uses the word “Tardis” suggest that he specifically means one that looks something like [this](http://dustyloft.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/tardis.jpg). The phone is almost incidental. Really, it’s kind of like responding to a post asking where you can get good British-style fish and chips by saying you know a deli that serves tuna salad and a bag of Doritos. Some of the words may be the same, but it’s a very different concept. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/19 "2009-10-19T02:10:30Z")
A friend of mine found a guy who was willing to build him a modular TARDIS. Certain parts will be interchangeable to match each generation of TARDIS throughout the series. You can do such things for non-profit, I think, but anyone who builds props like this and gets paid for it is technically in breach of a copyright, or trademark, or some such thing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114/20 "2009-10-19T05:51:54Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I’m honestly not sure if you’re having a laugh or you don’t understand that when the OP asks about reproduction British police call boxes he is not talking about a “a secure land line,” but a structure that’s about 10 feet tall with windows and a door and was once common in London. > Really, it’s kind of like responding to a post asking where you can get good British-style fish and chips by saying you know a deli that serves tuna salad and a bag of Doritos. Some of the words may be the same, but it’s a very different concept. Except that I wasn’t responding to the OP, I was responding to " Originally Posted by \*\*Tripler \*\* \*Dumb question: What do they have in the blue police boxes? Do Bobbies sit in there feeling down about themselves, or do they store their guns, ammo, and LAW rockets in there? Are they like police ‘sentry’ huts? Seriously, what are they for? And what happens to the box if it’s unmanned in the middle of a busy street?" \* They have Police Call boxes in the USA. Now they don’t look like a Tardis, much, true. But they have call boxes that serve the exact same function, and even those that have a large phone booth like enclosure with them. So the question was- what was the purpose of a Police Box and why do just Bobbies need them, as opposed to American police. My answer explained the purpose and went on to show they have a similar purpose box right here in the USA. Americans are often honestly puzzled as to what the purpose of the non-Tardis actual boxes was. My answer was in no way to help the OP, but to answer **Tripler** , as should have been clear from the context. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-tardis-are-for-sale/514114.md?page=2)