Thunderbirds: A Complete Guide to the Classic Series

Posted on 9th September 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

Panini Magazines are set to publish a lavish 116-page ‘bookazine’ celebrating the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds. Writers include former Fanderson chairman Chris Bentley, Andersonic editor Richard Farrell and Thunderbirds author Sam Denham.

Highlights include:

A detailed guide to all 32 episodes of the classic series and the original feature films
Previously unpublished interviews with Gerry Anderson and director of photography Paddy Seale
A tribute to Derek Meddings by BAFTA-winning special effects director Mike Tucker
New interviews with voice artists David Graham, Shane Rimmer, Jeremy Wilkin and Matt Zimmerman, model-makers Alan Shubrook and Mike Trim, director David Lane and head of merchandising Keith Shackleton
A guide to 1960s Thunderbirds collectables

…and much more.

Thunderbirds: A Complete Guide to the Classic Series is edited by Marcus Hearn and designed by Mike Jones, the team behind the 50th anniversary book Thunderbirds: The Vault. “In terms of its content and scope the bookazine is very different from The Vault,” says Marcus. “The articles offer fresh perspectives on the series and we’ve uncovered some rare and previously unseen material. Fifty years is an important milestone, and it’s our aim to celebrate it in style.”

Thunderbirds: A Complete Guide to the Classic Series is available from WH Smiths and all good newsagents from 10 September, price £9.99.

Marcus and Mike will be attending Fanderson’s The Future is Fantastic convention on 3 and 4 October, where copies of the 50th anniversary publications will be available.

Space:1999’s Roy Scammell to attend The Future is Fantastic!

Posted on 6th September 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

Space:1999 fans will be pleased to know that actor and stunt artist Roy Scammell will be attending The Future is Fantastic on Saturday 3rd October.

Roy appeared as Jim Nordstrom in Space:1999’s opening episode, Breakaway, and went on to play monsters in the two Year Two episodes, The Bringers of Wonder Part 1 and The Dorcons.

There’s still time for you to register your tickets for the convention – Fanderson’s first full-weekend event in five years…. Will you be there?

Ticket Prices

Tickets to The Future Is Fantastic! are just £65 per person for one day, or £110 for the whole weekend. We’ve managed to keep the ticket price the same as our TV21 convention in 2010 because we’re a fan club and no-one is taking a salary from it. Note that Saturday or Sunday-only tickets do not include any refreshments that are included in the weekend ticket.

Trial Memberships

If you’re not already a Fanderson member you must apply for a trial membership with your ticket to The Future Is Fantastic! at a special trial price of just £10. The trial membership will start when you arrive at the convention and run until 31st December 2015. This will get you the latest issue of the club’s FAB magazine, membership badge, enable you to buy our merchandise at the convention at special prices, access to our full range of merchandise online, access to the members’ area of the Fanderson Forum.

Members

£110 full weekend Member includes some refreshments click here
£65 Saturday only Member click here
£65 Sunday only Member click here

…and if you have already paid a deposit:
£60 as final payment of £90 – full weekend Member click here *
£25 as final payment of £55 – Saturday only Member click here *
£25 as final payment of £55 – Sunday only Member click here *

Trial Members

£120 full weekend Trial Member includes some refreshments click here
£75 Saturday only Trial Member click here
£75 Sunday only Trial Member click here

…and if you have already paid a deposit:
£70 as final payment of £100 – full weekend Trial Member click here *
£35 as final payment of £65 – Saturday only Trial Member click here *
£35 as final payment of £65 – Sunday only Trial Member click here *

* Final payments for fans who have already paid a deposit for the early bird prices. Early bird prices have now closed. If you have yet to purchase your ticket or to pay a deposit, you must pay the full price.

You can find out more about what to expect at The Future is Fantastic! here.

ITV to release Thunderbirds 50th anniversary DVD set

Posted on 2nd September 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

ITV Studios Global Entertainment has announced the release of a new classic Thunderbirds DVD set to celebrate the series’s 50th Anniversary.

The limited edition DVD set is available from 28th September and has an RRP of £39.99. Also available from the date will be the Stingray Complete Collection and Captain Scarlet Complete Collection. Details of these to follow soon! In the meantime, feast your eyes on the beautiful cover artwork for this release!

As well as all 32 episodes of the series, there’s a host of special features available, including a set of collector’s edition postcards and No Strings Attached Documentary, a documentary about the making of Thunderbirds Are Go that was presented by Reggie Yates broadcast earlier this year.

Steve Cage Terrahawks interviews to appear in best-selling crime thrillers

Posted on 1st September 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

The 2015 edition of SFX maestro Steve Cage’s best-selling crime thriller, Now The Killing Starts, includes a 25-page interview with the author about how he started his career in SFX on Terrahawks. “Part 1: Working for Gerry Anderson” includes digitally-restored, never-before-seen SFX photos from Terrahawks. Part 2 of the interview carries on in Cage’s To Kill The Queen, with more photos from his work on Terrahawks and Aliens. Book 3, due out in October, also has restored Terrahawks photos of the AS4 and the World President 1, plus many other general SFX shots.

These behind-the-scenes DVD-style extras are in direct response to readers’ desire to learn more about the author.

Please note: only the paperback editions contain the extras, NOT the Kindle versions.

The titles are available from Amazon now for all fans of Terrahawks and fast-paced action-adventure!

…And just to prove that Steve hasn’t left SFX behind altogether, the exploding lorry on the front of Book 3 is a 1/16th scale miniature which he shot! Likewise the cars on the back of Now the Killing Starts. This was the only way to get just the right look for his cover!

Marcus Hearn unlocks Thunderbirds: The Vault

Posted on 28th August 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

Thunderbirds: The Vault

Gerry Anderson’s official biographer Marcus Hearn has released a sumptuous new Thunderbirds book to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the series.

Thunderbirds: The Vault is a beautifully packaged hardback bursting with design sketches, production memos and specially commissioned photographs of original costumes, studio artefacts and vintage merchandise.

Compiled with the help of Fanderson’s own FAB Co-Editor Mike Jones, the book required unprecedented access to the ITV archive. It also draws upon numerous exclusive interviews with the people who made the show, including John Blundall, David Lane, Alan Perry, Shane Rimmer and Keith Shackleton!

Published by Ebury Publishing and released on 10th September, this book looks like it’s going to be a collector’s dream and is available to pre-order on Amazon now.

About the author

Marcus Hearn is the official biographer of Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson and author of the New York Times bestseller Doctor Who: The Vault. His other books include the award-winning The Art of Hammer, Saucy Postcards, The Avengers: A Celebration and Eight Days a Week, the story of The Beatles’ final world tour.

Marcus has written for The Times, The Guardian and The Independent, and has contributed booklet notes, audio commentaries and documentaries to nearly a hundred DVDs and Blu-rays.

He is an associate research fellow at Leicester De Montfort’s Cinema and Television History Research Centre and is the official historian of Hammer Film Productions.

A long-time supporter of Fanderson’s conventions, Marcus will be attending The Future in Fantastic! in October to sign copies of the book. Will you be there too?

FAB 81 is go!

Posted on 19th August 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

FAB 81

FAB 81 is on its way to all Fanderson club members!

As always, we have all the latest news from the Andrson universe. We profile the opening 13 episodes of ITV’s smash hit new series Thunderbirds Are Go, and chat to the voice artists about their involvement. We also have news of Vivid Imagination’s return to Tracy Island and three vintage audio adventures of International Rescue that will be filmed with your help!

Following the sad news of Judith Shutt’s death earlier this year, we remember the puppeteer who brought the characters of Thunderbirds, Stingray and Fireball XL5 to life with her talents.

In this issue’s major article, Ian Fryer takes a close look at Century 21’s only live action series: UFO. We take you through all 26 episodes, exploring the world of SHADO and discussing the key themes of the series. We also catch up with special effects model maker Alan Shubrook and his memories of working on the series. Oh, and our amazing front cover is courtesy of Chris Thompson!

Did you grow up with any of the Anderson activity books? For many fans these books became their first collectables. Steve Kyte explores the early years of this fascinating type of merchandise in the first part of a new series of articles.

The Thunderbirds 2004 movies gets the Timelash treatment this time. Has history been kind to it? Read on to find out…

Finally, and incredible though it may seem, it’s been 10 years since New Captain Scarlet burst onto our screens. To mark the anniversary, Stephen Baxter analyses the series comic, and the small selection of associated books based upon New Captain Scarlet.

How to get FAB magazine? Join Fanderson!

FAB magazine is available exclusively to Fanderson club members – we deliver 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!

Find out how to join Fanderson and receive FAB

New Thunderbirds books: Parker’s cars, Brains’s physics and Penelope’s cocktails

Posted on 11th August 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Thunderbirds, Octopus Publishing has published three special gift books in which Parker, Brains and Lady Penelope speak about their favourite topics!

In Parker’s Cars, Parker gathers together a collection of facts and figures of the greatest motors from the past 50 years, with one car for every year since the creation of the greatest car of all time – FAB1.

Parkers cars book

In Brains Explains Quantum Physics, Brains guides us through a series of seemingly complicated scientific theories and shows how quantum physics plays a central part in all our lives.

Brains explains quantum physics book

And perhaps best of all, in Lady Penelope’s Cocktails, Lady Penelope shares her top 50 Thunderbirds-inspired cocktails, as well as personal anecdotes on other characters’ favourite tipples, and which drinks were used to celebrate successful missions.

Lady Penelope' s cocktail book

By the way, we plan to test some of these splendid cocktails at The Future is Fantastic! in October. Anyone for a Tracy Island Iced Tea…?

Tracy island iced tea

In the meantime…it’s Competition Time!

The lovely people at Octopus Books have given us copies of all the books to give away as prizes to Fanderson club members. To be in with a chance of winning a set of the three books, simply answer these three questions:

1) What is the formula Brains gets Braman to calculate to save the Sun Probe?
2) Which tyres are “best for speed” at Parola Sands?
3) When In Paris, what is Lady Penelope’s favourite tipple?

Send your answers to query@fanderson.org.uk and be prepared to quote your club membership number.

Good luck, and see you for that drink in October!

What would you like to watch at The Future is Fantastic!?

Posted on 5th August 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

As Fanderson’s first full-weekend convention in five years draws closer, we’d love to know what you would like to see screened during the event.

We have received a few requests for a confirmed programme of events, but we know from past experience that attendees like to be surprised!

Things may change right up to and during the weekend, as more people decide to join us, participate, and offer things to be displayed and give interviews.

Let us know

So there’s still time for you to let us know what you would like to see in the programme (both Anderson and Anderson-related) that we might have in the club archive.
If there’s a particular TV interview, rare foreign edit of a episode or other such ephemera that you’d really like to revisit, let us know at fabmail@fanderson.org.uk and you may just see it on a big screen at The Future is Fantastic!

Thunderbirds Are Go watched by over 1 million UK kids

Posted on 21st July 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

Thunderbirds Are Go

According to the ITV GE Kids July Newsletter, over 1.3m unique kids in the UK have so far watched Thunderbirds Are Go on ITV and CITV. More boys 6-11 have watched Thunderbirds Are Go than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and Power Rangers for the same age group. In Australia and New Zealand, it was the top-rated show for 5-12 year olds across all channels at the time of launch.

Thunderbirds Are Go is also ready to launch in the Middle East and Israel later in the year. MBC3 will air the series from August. ITV Studios Global Entertainment has appointed MBC as the licensing agent for the market, and Toy Triangle as the master toy partner, with products launching from January 2016.

The series will air on Noga in Israel from December, with toys from Ilanit launching just after the TV broadcast. ITVSGE has appointed LDI as the licensing agent for the region.

Meanwhile, the Tracy Island playset has been listed as one of the ‘Top 10 toys for Christmas’ by Argos, Hamleys and Tesco in the UK. Initial sales of the Thunderbirds Are Go toy range in Australia and New Zealand have proven to be strong. The DVD is also a success, reaching top of the charts at all major retailers according to ITV.

Fans who are signed up to the series official website, www.thunderbirds.com will already be aware of the imminent launch the Thunderbirds Are Go: Bootcamp, featuring a host of weekly activities, downloads, videos, fun facts, polls and quizzes to keep fans engaged until the main site returns with episode 14 in autumn 2015. ITV reports 33,000 active users and over half a million page views per month, with an average 7 minute dwell time.

Original Captain Scarlet mini albums now on sale!

Posted on 11th July 2015 by 1266 Nick Williams

Specially recorded versions of 3 Captain Scarlet episodes
Special narration from Captain Blue

Around fifteen years ago Fanderson released two special mini albums containing four Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episodes that had previously never been released.

What made them unique was they had been given the ‘mini album treatment’, and contained specially recorded narration by Captain Blue voice artist, Ed Bishop.

Ralph Titterton selected the episodes whilst Cathy Ford and Ros Connors took the scripts and wrote the linking dialogue. The recordings took place at TVS Studios Maidstone in September 1993.

The first two stories, Manhunt and Model Spy were released by Fanderson in 1999 under the title The Manhunt For Captain Black. A second release including Big Ben Strikes Again and The Heart Of New York appeared on the CD The Power Of The Mysterons.

Four other titles were recorded but never released as the club focused on developing its range of highly successful soundtrack albums, the most recent of which is the hugely popular Thunderbirds 50th anniversary 4-disc set.

We have received several requests to re-release the first four Captain Scarlet episodes. Rather than do that, we thought we would take the opportunity to incorporate two of the previously unreleased stories, Flight 104 and Special Assignment, together with Big Ben Strikes Again into a new set. This will form the first of a special range of Captain Scarlet mini albums.

Buy your copy online now!

Please remember that our merchandise is available exclusively to Fanderson club members. If you are not yet a member and want the chance to buy a fantastic range of items from Fanderson sales, you can join Fanderson by completing our online form.