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Plenty to enjoy on Gerry Anderson anniversary

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As the anniversary of Gerry Anderson’s birthday (14th April) draws near, broadcasters and streaming services in the UK are planning to celebrate!

On the day itself, BritBox in the UK will offer Gerry Anderson’s Greatest Episodes. This will apparently include Gerry’s favourite ten episodes of his own productions, including linking material by the man himself. The episodes are:

  1. Stingray Pilot
  2. Thunderbirds Trapped In The Sky
  3. Thunderbirds Terror In New York City
  4. Thunderbirds Attack Of The Alligators
  5. Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons The Mysterons
  6. Joe 90 The Most Special Agent
  7. UFO A Question Of Priorities
  8. UFO Reflections In The Water
  9. Space:1999 Breakaway
  10. Space:1999 Black Sun

Surprisingly, the selection doesn’t include Gerry and Sylvia’s least known series – The Secret Service – which Gerry had told fans on many occasions was his personal favourite of all his series (and is also available on BritBox). Keen Fanderson members will know that all these episodes have been on BritBox since January, although the linking material will be new to the platform. Normally costing £5.99 per month, if you sign up to BritBox now you get a free 7-day trial.

Network Distributing are offering another of their popular Night In experiences from 14th April via their streaming platform. At just over 4½-hours, Gerry Anderson’s Night In includes Supercar False Alarm, Fireball XL5 A Day In The Life Of A Space General, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons The Inquisition, Joe 90 The Birthday, UFO A Question Of Priorities, Space: 1999 Black Sun, Terrahawks Close Call and New Captain Scarlet Dominion in high-definition (all already available on Blu-ray Disc). Each episode has a special introduction, and special features include “some Supermarionation commercials advertising everything from Sugar Smacks to… er, more Sugar Smacks….”. All for just £4.99 for 7-day access!

The UK’s Forces TV (Freeview/YouView 96, Freesat 165, Sky 181, and Virgin 274) is inviting UFO fans to choose their favourite episode from the pre-selected shortlist of Mindbender, Sub-Smash, A Question Of Priorities, Reflections In The Water and The Cat With Ten Lives. Voting closed on 10th April. The winning episode will be broadcast at 10pm on 14th April (repeated on 17th April at 9pm), accompanied by some “never before seen on TV” footage including Gerry giving a very special introduction to the winning episode. UFO fans immediately expressed their dismay at the seemingly arbitrary episode selection, which would appear to be geared to those for which it was possible to create an introduction by the man himself.

Shout! Factory are also holding a 24-hour marathon of Anderson productions on the day for viewers in territories with the Shout! Factory TV streaming service.

Bachmann reboxes Aoshima Thunderbirds kits for Europe

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Adventures In Plastic (part of the renowned railway modeller Bachmann) has recently launched a series of Thunderbirds models to the European market. The range of 11 models (essentially reboxes of the highly-regarded Japanese Aoshima kits) includes the main five rescue vehicles, plus fan favourites FAB 1, The Mole and atomic airliner Fireflash.

Completing the range is a launch bay for Thunderbird 1, which includes a model of Thunderbird 1, a very cool Transparent Thunderbird 2 with an assortment of mini rescue vehicles and a launch bay for Thunderbird 2, which includes Thunderbird 2, 3 pods and a further assortment of mini vehicles.

www.bachmann.co.uk

The Fanderson Forum is back!

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We’re delighted to announce that the Fanderson Forum is back! You can get to it using the link above, or under to “Social” button on the menu bar.

For a decade, the Fanderson Forum was an online place where club members could share their news, views and ideas. Unfortunately, due to insurmountable technical issues, the Forum closed in 2019.

The club’s Facebook group has continued to be a great place for Anderson fans to share their thoughts and ideas. But members have repeatedly asked when the Forum is coming back, as it offered the ability to put and follow threads in discrete spaces (modelling, fan fiction for example) rather than the stream of consciousness that is Facebook.

It looks a bit different now, and you’ll need to log in to your Fanderson account to post anything (as you do to buy merchandise or renew your membership). Your old Forum log in will not work and, sadly, we haven’t been able to recover any of the old Forum conversations.

As it’s part of your online membership account, you can be sure that you’re talking with other club members on the Forum. Although this also means that when your membership expires you’ll lose access to the Forum.

It’s a new, blank canvas. Come in and join the conversation.

 

 

Thunderbirds in 4:3 on Britbox

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Britbox (the digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV) is replacing the widescreen versions of Thunderbirds with the original, full-screen, versions!

Fanderson members based in the UK were delighted when ITV added Thunderbirds, along with other Anderson productions and cult TV, to the streaming platform in August. They were less than happy, though, when they learned that they were the same 16:9 widescreen versions already on Blu-ray Disc. Although there is occasionally a little more picture to the left and right, about a third of the picture has been ‘cropped’ off the top and bottom. You can see the difference in the images below. The UK version also has the incongruous sound effects added for Carlton’s DVD releases in 1999, and on every UK release since.

Fans in Germany, Japan and the USA also have Thunderbirds on Blu-ray, but their versions are all in the ‘square’ 4:3 format that the series was created and first broadcast in, and with the original sound.

Now, at last, fans in the UK can enjoy the fantastic world of Thunderbirds in high-definition and in the sound/picture format as it was produced. All episodes should be available on Britbox in the new format from 1st March.

16:9

4:3

Vinyl soundtrack albums now available in the Shop!

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We’re delighted to announce that Silva Screen’s wonderful (and growing) collection of vinyl albums is now available for Fanderson members to buy in the Shop!

Until now, you’ll have only found products in the Fanderson shop that we’ve produced exclusively for our members. Products that we’ve had complete control over in terms of design, production and quality.

However, as Fanderson members have been so closely involved in the production of Silva Screen’s latest Anderson soundtrack releases, we’re proud to offer them to club members too!

Of course, for those who prefer CDs, we still have our own extensive range available in the Shop as well. Pop over to Soundtracks now to add the vinyl albums to your basket.

NOTES:

  • Vinyl albums will be despatched separately to other items you may buy in the same transaction.
  • UFO is due to be re-pressed at the end of the month, but we are taking orders now and will ship them as soon as we have stock.
  • Supercar is currently out of stock, but we’ll have it in the Shop just as soon as stock is available.

Stingray and The Secret Service added to Britbox

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Britbox (the digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV) has recently added Stingray and The Secret Service to the streaming platform in the UK.

The first series to go before the cameras in 1963 at AP Films’ new studios in Stirling Road, Slough, Stingray was also the first British television series to be filmed wholly in colour.

The Secret Service was the final Supermarionation series to be produced by Century 21 Productions (as AP Films had by then become) and was Gerry Anderson’s personal favourite of his productions.

With Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons on the platform since last summer, Joe 90 is now the sole colour Supermarionation series to be left out of the ‘box’ (The Most Special Agent notwithstanding!). Hopefully, Britbox will remedy this before too long.

Virtual Annual General Meeting 2021

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Fanderson’s Annual General Meeting is a chance for the committee to report on the club’s status and respond to members’ questions, thoughts and suggestions.

Fanderson’s next Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Saturday 27th March 2021. Once again, due to the ongoing pandemic and to give as many members as possible the opportunity to be involved, the 2021 AGM will be held virtually.

The deadline for any questions or proposals is Sunday 31st January 2021. Please check our Constitution for the criteria by which proposals should be submitted for member voting.

This year the club committee will be responding to as many members’ questions as possible in a special Fanderson podcast, and members are encouraged to record their questions for that:

  • Send your name, postcode/zipcode, club membership number and email address to fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com no later than Sunday 31st January 2021.
  • Podcast host Ros Connors will contact you after 31st January to arrange a convenient time to record your question(s)
  • Your question(s) will be answered by a committee member as part of the special AGM podcast

If you don’t want to record your question for the podcast, you can still write in to fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com no later than Sunday 31st January 2021, and a committee member will respond as part of the special AGM podcast. Just remember to include your name, postcode/zipcode, club membership number and email address with your question.

Voting on any matters raised that require a vote by the membership will be open early in March, to enable results to be presented as part of the AGM.

Details of the AGM itself will be confirmed nearer the date.

Fireball XL5 soundtrack CD, vinyl and 7″ single from Silva Screen

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Taken from their upcoming Fireball XL5 album, Silva Screen have released a teaser 7″ single in transparent orange vinyl!

The disc features two tracks from the upcoming album: Fireball (Don Spencer and the XL5) on side 1 is accompanied by Zero G (Barry Gray and his Spacemakers) on side 2. Don Spencer’s original 7” single release on His Masters Voice in 1962 reached number 32, remaining in the UK charts for twelve weeks (the original B side was another Don Spencer track, I’m All Alone Again, replaced on this release with Zero G).

The full soundtrack album follows in January, and you can pre-order it on CD or transparent orange vinyl right now! Produced in association with Fanderson, the album has 61 minutes of diverse tracks that give a flavour of Fireball XL5 and show Barry Gray’s musical ingenuity.

You can find a link to the Fireball single, along with lots from other Anderson productions, in our new non-club merchandise section.

Enter Fanderson’s FAB 40th Quiz

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As members will see with FAB 96, we’re running a competition to be in with a chance of winning a special prize.

  • This competition closed on 31st January 2021.
  • The competition is open to members of Fanderson only.
  • Entries for which the membership name, number and postcode do not match our membership database will be discarded.
  • In the case of any member submitting multiple entries, the last entry only will be included in the draw and the others discarded.
  • Entries with the highest number of correct answers after the closing date will go into a draw to win a ticket to Fanderson’s 40th Anniversary event in 2021.
  • Marks may be given if a member suggests a ‘correct’ answer to a question, albeit not the one the judges are looking for.
  • The judges’ decision is final.
  • The winner’s name and answers will be published in FAB 97.

UFO on Forces TV

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Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s UFO is now showing again on Forces TV in the UK on weekdays at 21:00, repeated on weekends at 23:00.

You can get Forces TV on:

  • Freeview/Youview 96
  • Freesat 165
  • Sky 181
  • Virgin 274
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