THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! FOR 2001 AND BEYOND!
This is from our Just-In-Space Article (June 2001) in “Collectormania Newspaper”, available at all leading Newspaper outlets right around Australia.
Click on any of the following images below to view larger pictures. Please
also wait for this page to load properly! With screaming collectors eager to find out news on the current Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds 2001 Australian market blitz, the following details may help you. Although some products were released last year in the U.K it appears some of that range is also on the way. With a huge resurgence, Thunderbirds are go! With cable T.V and Channel Nine Australia re-screening the entire series, new toys appearing on the market, along with the long awaited digitally remastered series appearing on Australian shores with DVD.
Vivid Imaginations:
Following the incredible success of their Thunderbirds "Tracy Island" Playset
released in the UK last year, Vivid is producing terrific new Thunderbird collectibles including: Talking Dolls of the Tracey boys, Brains and the Hood, with authentic outfit and accessories and three speech phrases. Soundtech Playsets based on the famous Thunderbirds 1 and 2 interception vehicles are also go for
2001. Experience the thrill of take off in TB1 with its opening and closing wings, landing gear, pivoting seat for flight and speech phrases and sound effects from the series. An exclusive micro figure Scott Tracy, equipped with hover bike and mobile control unit completes the set. Landing and take off sound effects also feature on the large TB2 Playset which includes opening cockpit to insert Virgil and Gordon bendable micro figures, safety winch and a concealed pod for TB4, these should hopefully begin release sometime very soon. New Soundtech Vehicle 2-packs with bend’em Action Figures are already in the market place and won’t be on the shelfs for long.
Soundtech Tracey Island:
With the release of the digitally re-mastered fantasy adventure series - Thunderbirds, Tracy Island has been magically transformed into an all-action techno Playset including electronic wizardry to bring the magic of the notorious Thunderbirds control centre to life! Experience the thrill of the 5,4,3,2,1
countdown and see Jeff Tracy and the boys spring into action and be illuminated on the launch pads. Tracy Island has speech phrases and launch music from the programme and a back section which opens up to reveal the workings of Jeff Tracy's office. TB3 rockets its launch through the Round House control tower. Just like in the series, the swimming pool pulls back to launch Thunderbird 1 while the palm trees part and the ramp raises to launch Thunderbird 2 (Vehicles sold separately!). It also has pictures of Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon, Lady Penelope and Brains light up and activated various trademark quotes from the series. Tracy Island also plays the theme tune and music from the show. This Playset is already in high demand and will become extremely collectible, as it is hard to stock in most shops.
Gerry Anderson:
The man behind the creation began his career studying fibrous plastering, but had to give it up when it gave him dermatitis. After a spell with photographic portrait work, a job in Gainsborough films and time spent in air traffic control, he set up AP Films with some friends. Commissions were few however, so he responded eagerly to the opportunity to make a puppet series called ‘The
Adventures of Twizzle’. Not for 8 years, however, would the ingredients combine to form the classic ‘Thunderbirds’. It was Gerry and his team who developed the technique of 'Supermarionation', which they first used on their children’s puppet series ‘Four Feather Falls’, set in the Wild West. First the soundtrack for the voices was recorded. Then when the puppets were being filmed the electric signal from the taped dialogue was hooked up to sensors in the puppets’ heads. In this way the puppets’ lips were controlled and moved in perfect sync to the soundtrack. The technique was further developed in ‘Supercar’ and ‘Fireball XL5’, and by the time Thunderbirds was created they were experts in the genre.
Gerry first came up with the story for Thunderbirds. In 1963, his studio needed a new concept for a show to go into production straight after ‘Stingray’. Listening to the radio one day he became engrossed in the story of miners being rescued from a flooded pit 300 feet below the surface. A unique machine was to be transported across Germany to drill the deep hole that would allow the miners to be release from their airlock. Suddenly the idea of an International Rescue team was born and the details began to emerge as he dictated them to his wife. International Rescue would operate from an unmapped Pacific Island. Villains would seek to capture the equipment that was used for the missions. Within 2 years, the Thunderbirds were airborne.
Recently in the U.K on 
BBC Radio 4, Gerry Anderson was interviewed about the past, present and future of the Thunderbirds.
He hopes that a new version of the series will be made soon (hopefully 2002) where girls will have as much of the action as the boys. He also said there will most certainly be a feature Film made, but did not disclose whether or not it would be CGI, Puppet or Live Action.
[To hear that
Interview, make sure you have a RealPlayer and click the Realplayer Logo
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interview and you would like one, click the above Logo at your right to
go and get one! There is a little Trivia in this too.]
The 1960's puppet-animated sci-fi show, Thunderbirds, appears to be rekindling it's pyrotechnic cult status not only here in Australia but around the globe. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Thunderbirds, was created by Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999 being most recognizable amongst his numerous other credits: 12 puppet shows, 4 live-action shows, 5 films, and numerous pilots, commercials, and videos!). The series depicts the adventures of the five Tracy brothers, their cook's daughter Tintin, a scientist named Brains, a
ex-safecracker-turned-chauffeur named Parker, and socialite spy Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward which make up International Rescue, an elite mercy organization equipped with futuristic vehicles (Thunderbirds 1-5). Of course there's Hood, the evil bad guy the gang must deal with. The show is one of the U.K and Japanese television's most popular shows ever and is starting to become blazing hot again in Australia. Rumour also suggests with other Anderson shows appearing on DVD shortly that Terra-Hawks maybe remastered for DVD too.
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