Author: 1266 Nick Williams

Vote for the Fanderson Podcast!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

We hope you’re continuing to enjoy the Fanderson podcasts and, if so, ask you to vote for us in the British Podcast Awards!

Established in 2017, the British Podcast Awards were created to highlight the best podcasts of the year, made for Great Britain. The BPAs welcome all podcast makers to enter: from big brands to bedroom publishers, charities to comedians…

Whilst the winners in most categories will be decided by a panel of judges, anyone can nominate any podcast listed in the Apple Podcasts directory for the Listeners’ Choice award, which is being sponsored by BBC Sounds.

Please vote for the Fanderson Podcast at the Listeners’ Choice page before Sunday 4th July.

NEW! Cereal promotions book and more!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Now available in the Fanderson Shop are four new, exclusive club items:

Click on the links to see more and place your orders!

We’ve popped FAB 97 in the post!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

We’ve popped FAB 97 in the post to over 1,300 Fanderson members around the world.

We’re sorry that it’s taken longer than usual to get it ready, but included in this issue:

  • David Sisson’s report on the recent auction of models, puppets and more from Terrahawks, Space Police, Dick Spanner and several unfilmed projects
  • Ian Fryer explains his Space:1999 Year One fantasy chronology
  • club members give their views on Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons The Trap in our regular Timelash column, with exclusive Glen Garry Castle cutaway by Graham Bleathman
  • Chris Drake looks back at The Protectors Chase
  • Alistair McGown recalls how he first became aware of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s productions – through Dinky Toys!
  • Virgil Tracy In Tights is the first part of Lorraine Malby’s in-depth look at the stage musical recordings of our favourite puppet voice artistes
  • Jonathan Baxter takes a critical look at The Hood’s exploits to decide whether he’s a criminal mastermind or comic villain
  • the third part of our exclusive Thunderbirds Are Go photo-strip by Jonathan Baxter
  • plus FAB news, FAB Mail and more

This issue is so packed that there’s no room for the next part of Ian Fryer’s look at UFO in Countdown and TV Action comics, so it’ll be back next issue!

With FAB 97 we’ve mailed a little something to kick off our 40th anniversary celebrations. We hope you like it!

As we’re currently running a whole issue of FAB behind schedule, FAB 97 sees the final mailing of our 2020 membership gift – the fantastic Century 21 Complete Puppet Catalogue, which has been mailed to our last batch of renewing members. We will, of course, continue mailing this book to new members until our new 2021/22 membership gift is available (with FAB 98). We’re all working really hard to get FAB back on track, so that we should reach our 100th issue by the end of this, our 40th anniversary year.

If you’re ever worried something we’ve sent might have gone missing in the post, please check our Shipping And Returns page before contacting us.

 

How to get FAB magazine? Join Fanderson!

FAB magazine is available exclusively to Fanderson club members – we publish three times a year, and we do our very best to make each issue a joy to read for every fan – regardless of your favourite series!

ITC Entertained The World Podcasts

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Fans of the wider ITC catalogue beyond the Anderson productions are sure to be interested in the ITC Entertained The World podcast.

Host Jaz Wiseman is joined by Rodney Marshall and Al Samujh to discuss a single series or film in each issue. Each lasting around an hour, there are 11 in the series already, featuring The Baron, Danger Man, Gideon’s Way, Hammer House Of Horror, Man In A Suitcase, The Persuaders! The Saint, Strange Report, The Zoo Gang and the feature film The Tamarind Seed.

They’re all available from the link above, or you can subscribe at either iTunes or Google podcast store.

Plenty to enjoy on Gerry Anderson anniversary

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

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

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

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

Virtual AGM – 27th March 2021

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Fanderson’s 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is today.

You can hear the facts and figures right now in a special podcast, in which host Ros Connors is joined by Fanderson chairman Nick Williams and designer/FAB co-editor Mike Jones to also get answers to members’ questions.

The club committee will also be available live on the Fanderson Forum today 12:00-13:00 UK time to answer any further questions.

 

 

 

The Fanderson Forum is back!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

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.

 

 

Podcast 8 – Space:1999 special

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Click here for Podcast 8.

THIS EPISODE: By popular demand, a Space:1999 special!

Christopher Penfold (Space:1999 Story Consultant and Scriptwriter) joins Ros, along with writer/journalist/editor David Hirsch and author Robert E Wood in a Space:1999 special. Plus more from the archive with Barry Morse recounting his time on the series.

There’s a link to all the podcasts in the menu bar above, or click here.

You can also subscribe to Fanderson podcasts at the iTunes and Google podcast stores.

Thunderbirds in 4:3 on Britbox

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

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