Fanderson to trial deliveries by drone

Posted on 1st April 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Fanderson will start piloting deliveries of FAB magazine and sales items later this year.

Initially the pilot will be restricted to south east England, where the club has the highest density of members in the country. The decision comes after Amazon Prime successfully trialed drone deliveries in America last year, cutting delivery times by up to 60%.

Best of all – look at the drone we’ve been able to acquire from a specialist manufacturer! If the pilot is successful, we hope to expand our delivery fleet to include an Angel Interceptor, Fireball XL5 and – of course – a Space:1999 Transporter Eagle!

Thunderbird 2 drone

Parker wins the jackpot in new Thunderbirds Halifax advert

Posted on 25th March 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

I won, M’lady!

Lord Parker can now finally go on his ‘oliday, this evening saw the premiere of a brand new Thunderbirds advert on ITV. The advert is part of a campaign run by Halifax in which Parker finally experiences a change in fortunes by winning the top prize of £500,000 in the Halifax Savers Prize Draw Superdraw.

The advert made its TV premiere on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, and follows a series of Halifax campaigns in which the bank is visited by the Flintstones, Top Cat and Scooby Doo and the gang.

Brian Johnson signs up for Special Assignment

Posted on 12th March 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Space :999 Eagle Transporter

We are very happy to announce that Brian Johnson will be attending Special Assignment.

As well as working on Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds, Brian contributed to many famous film productions, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, he was also responsible for creating special effects on Space 1999, and designing the now iconic Eagle Transporter.

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Tickets to Special Assignment start at just £55 per person for one day, or £90 for the whole weekend. We’ve managed to keep the ticket price the same as The Future Is Fantastic! convention in 2015 because we’re a fan club and no one is taking a salary. Note that Saturday-only or Sunday-only tickets do not include the Saturday evening meal or any other refreshments that are included in the weekend ticket. Ticket prices will, however, rise in spring 2017.

Find out more and register now

Nicholas Parsons joins the Special Assignment guest list

Posted on 24th February 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Spectrum needs you for a special assignment We are very excited to announce that Nicholas Parsons will be joining the guest list of Special Assignment in October.

Nicholas wrote his name into the Anderson universe when he was cast as the voice of Sheriff Tex Tucker in Four Feather Falls.

The hero of the show, Nicholas’s character Tex kept the peace in the eponymous small town in Kansas, with the aid of four magic feathers which allowed his dog and horse to talk, and his guns to swivel and fire by themselves!

Four Feather Falls is of course just a tiny part of Nicholas’s long career in television, radio and theatre, and he is perhaps best remembered for his role as gameshow host on the hugely popular Sale of the Century.

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New Captain Scarlet’s Phil Ford to attend Special Assignment

Posted on 15th February 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Captain Scarlet

We are very happy to announce that writer Phil Ford will be attending Special Assignment in October.

As head writer on New Captain Scarlet, Phil was one of the biggest influences on the creative development of the series, and is well-placed to reflect on the merits of the original show, which of course celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We hope to have long in-depth discussions with him about old and new Scarlets alike over the convention weekend!

Having penned almost every New Captain Scarlet script in the early 2000s, Phil has since made his mark on the Doctor Who universe, writing regularly for the main series, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures

Stay tuned for further guest announcements very soon.

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Fanderson releases more Century 21 mini albums!

Posted on 29th January 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

The Impostors - Century 21 mini album

Fanderson is delighted to announce the release of our tenth Century 21 mini album set!

The club has been faithfully releasing three-disc CD replicas of the original Century 21 Mini Albums for many years. The latest release features two re-tellings of classic Thunderbirds episodes – Thirty Minutes After Noon and The Impostors – plus a non-Anderson curio: Nursery Rhyme Time.

Each CD comes in its own card sleeve replica of the original record, with the trio then packaged together in a plastic wallet.

30 Minutes Afternoon - Century 21 mini album

Running to approximately 63 minutes, the set is available to order online now at the following prices:

UK – £19.50
Europe – £21.00
Rest of the world – £22.50

Order your mini album set today (scroll down from ‘Audiobooks and Mini Albums’)

Nursery Rhyme Time - Century 21 mini album

PLEASE NOTE
Please remember that our sales items are only available to Fanderson members.

Find out how you can join Fanderson today

Mike Trim confirms attendance at Special Assignment

Posted on 27th January 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Fanderson Mike Trim 1

We are thrilled to announce that Mike Trim will be attending Special Assignment in October.

A popular figure with fans at conventions, Mike began working for Gerry and Sylvia Anderson as a modelmaker and designer in the final days of Stingray. He then went on to work on Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, The Secret Service, and UFO, as well as the Thunderbirds and Doppelganger feature films.

Having worked closely with Derek Meddings for many years, Mike will be able to offer an invaluable insight into how the Century 21 series were produced. He joins what is already a great list of special guests for what will be Fanderson’s first full-weekend convention in five years:

Peter Hitchcock – AP Films projectionist, lip-sync operator and ‘puppet hand’ in his first convention appearance
Shane and Sheila Rimmer – Thunderbirds’s Scott Tracy and Captain Scarlet writer
David Graham – the man of a thousand voices, including Parker from Thunderbirds
Mary Turner – sculptor and puppeteer
Graham Bleathman – prolific cut-away artist
Mike Noble – TV Century 21 artist
Mike Trim – modelmaker and designer
Liz Morgan – the voice of Destiny and Rhapsody Angels in Captain Scarlet

…and there will be plenty more announcements coming soon!

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Space: 1999 Masterpiece Collection Launched

Posted on 22nd January 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Space 1999 masterpiece collection Sixteen 12 Collectibles Ltd has officially launched their fully licensed studio scale 44inch Space: 1999 masterpiece collection.

The company’s new website features the tooling models for a 44inch Eagle Transporter, Rescue Eagle, Laboratory Eagle, VIP Eagle Eagle Freighter and Cargo Eagle, as well as a 31inch Hawk!

Just to add to the exclusivity of these superb, museum-quality models, cast members Nick Tate, Prentis Hancock, Ziena Merton and Catherine Schell as well as Eagle designer Brian Johnson are acting as signatories for the range.

If you haven’t yet reserved your edition then don’t delay! You can find out more by visiting www.sixteen12.com

David Graham has a Special Assignment

Posted on 21st January 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

Voice artist extraordinaire David Graham is the latest big name to agree to attend Special Assignment, Fanderson’s upcoming convention that will mark the 50th anniversary of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Fresh from reprising his most famous role as Parker, we hope David will be available to give us some insights in what’s coming next in Thunderbirds Are Go!

But let’s not forget the original series. One of the many highlights from Fanderson’s last convention, The Future is Fantastic!, was seeing David reunited on stage with fellow Tracy brothers Shane Rimmer (Scott), Matt Zimmerman (Alan) and Jeremy Wilkin (Virgil). As you can see from the video below, it was a fitting way to mark the show’s 50th anniversary. We are working to secure the attendance of Matt and Jeremy, but we’re delighted that Shane and his wife Sheila have already agreed to attend.

Watch: David arrives pre-emptively on-stage with Marcus Hearn – a sign that he’s always keen to be interviewed!

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Colonel White has a Special Assignment for you

Posted on 17th January 2017 by 1266 Nick Williams

As the Mysterons would say: ‘Are you with us, Earthmen?!’

As it is, it’s Colonel White who needs you – all of you – for a very special assignment this October. Watch his exclusive Spectrum recruitment video* and you will understand why it is absolutely vital that you sign up to celebrate 50 years of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

…Just make sure you don’t drink the champagne or gamble at the roulette table when you get reach the rendezvous point in Maidenhead!

Full details of your special assignment can be found here.

* Kindly produced by Mark Simpson Wedge