New, and produced exclusively for Fanderson club members, are two new key ring designs.
Choose from TV Century 21 or Moonbase Alpha metal key rings, each with a new-design ring that makes it easier to add or remove keys, hang on a belt loop etc.
Both designs are available right now from Fanderson Sales.
Christmas is a time for giving, so from 1st December we’ll be giving club members special offers each day in our online advent calendar, right up to Christmas Eve, and raising money for charity.
Some items have been donated by our generous friends, and we’ve been checking our storage units, cupboards (even down the back of the sofa!) to collect some great offers for Fanderson members. We’ll have product discounts, charity raffles, freebies, lucky dips, charity auctions, and you’ll be able to get some items in return for a donation to our advent charity – Hearing Dogs For Deaf People.
Come back on 1st December to open the first window!
We are absolutely delighted to report that our winter mailing is now underway.
We’re hoping the packages will navigate their way through the ongoing postal disruption in the UK, so that Fanderson members around the world will be enjoying our latest FAB Express (issue 102) plus FAB Annual 2023 in time for Christmas.
As part of our updated membership package launched this summer, FAB Express is published each spring, summer and winter, with a hardback FAB Annual in the winter mailing too. Everyone’s membership expired in the summer, and we’re chuffed that over 80% renewed their membership before the 1st October deadline (that’s one of our best-ever renewals!).
We’ve also heard from a few members who realise they’ve missed the deadline. Of course, we’ll see what we can do to help them to ensure they don’t miss out.
Keep your eye out for the postie!
Fanderson has improved the way we handle merchandise orders.
By relocating our merchandise mailing operation we’ll better keep our costs under control. Also, from today, orders will shows as ‘Complete’ in your online club account*, so you will know that your order is on its way.
* Unfortunately, we’re currently unable to show ‘complete’ for memberships or Silva Screen products in your order, though we intend to add this just as soon as we can. If your order includes any of these products, the ‘complete’ status does not apply to them.
Today’s the last day for Fanderson members to renew their memberships for 2022/3!
In FAB 100, mailed back in May, we explained that as part of our changes to the membership package, all memberships would expire with the then upcoming FAB Express 101.
All copies of FAB Express 101 mailed in August were accompanied by a letter to explain the changes again, and invite everyone to renew their membership by 1st October. The letter also included details of how we were ensuring those owed issues of FAB under their existing membership would not be out of pocket, and coupon codes included in letters expire today.
We need all renewals in by 1st October so that we can plan to produce the right number of FAB Annual 2023. Producing too many copies would be a waste of members’ money, so we won’t be over-printing for those who don’t renew their membership in time.
We close the database at midnight tonight, so if you haven’t yet renewed your membership (including Friends of Fanderson), get your skates on and do it now!
If you still need a nudge, here’s all five preview pages of the Annual that we’ve shared this week…
Fanderson’s all-new FAB Annual 2023 will be sent to all club members in our winter mailing.
If you haven’t yet renewed your membership since FAB Express 101, you’ve only got until 1st October to be included in the winter mailing and get your copy of the FAB Annual. This 100-page, A4 hardback book includes features on all your favourite Gerry and Sylvia Anderson productions, with a few surprises too!
To ensure we don’t waste members’ money, we won’t be over-printing FAB Annual in case anyone renews after the 1st October deadline. Don’t miss out – if you haven’t already done so, renew your membership now!
The first issue of our new club magazine – FAB Express – has been mailed to all Fanderson members around the world!
As part of our updated membership package FAB Express will be published each spring, summer and winter, with a new hardback FAB Annual in the winter mailing too.
We’re aligning memberships so that everyone expires with the summer mailing each year. This will streamline our operation, helping to control costs by having fewer individual items, and fewer permutations of each mailing. FAB Express 101 is being sent to you as a free extra mailing, so you know what you’re signing up for when you renew your membership.
With every issue is a letter explaining how we’re ensuring that anyone who was owed issues of FAB under their old membership won’t be out of pocket. Please wait until you receive FAB Express before renewing your membership, but be sure to renew by 1st October 2022 to be included in the winter mailing and get your next FAB Express and FAB Annual 2023!
The publication of FAB Express also means that FAB 100 is now available as a back issue, for anyone who missed out.
On Thursday, 20th August 1981, Gerry Anderson invited fans of his work to meet him at his office at Pinewood Studios, and together they formed Fanderson.
On Saturday, 20th August 2022, Fanderson members celebrated Gerry and Sylvia’s work, and the club itself at the 40th birthday bash (albeit one year late, due to Covid-19!).
Deliberately designed to be a social event rather than a convention, club members enjoyed music, models, puppets and lots of chat as it had been three years since they’d been able to get together (at our Supercelebration convention back in 2019). We were delighted that puppeteers Mary Turner and Judy Preece were available to celebrate with us too. It was a perfect day, weather-wise, and so we were able to enjoy the garden of the Pinewood Hotel much of the time, especially for the barbecue and cake (lots of cake!).
The event package included a birthday card, poster, badge and the first issue of our new club magazine, FAB Express.
Club secretary John Wilkinson also set a couple of quizzes for anyone with time on their hands:
You can have a go now (just for fun) and the answers are below the photos.
Well done to our winners Lily Ride (31 out of 40 headlines correct) and Mark Castell (32 out of 40 episodes correct) who each win a lifetime Fanderson membership and Zavvi’s reissued Topps trading cards or vinyl EP boxset (respectively).
Well done to all who took part in the quizzes, and a big thank you to everyone who was able to attend and/or contribute to our 40 FAB Years!
Headlines quiz answers:
Episode synopses quiz answers:
The first issue of our new club magazine – FAB Express – is go!
Fanderson members who are today at the club’s 40th anniversary event 40 FAB Years are the first to be given copies, as part of their event package. Next week, copies will be winging their way around the world to all current club members, and we’ll confirm this on the website just as soon as we’re sure they’re all in the post.
As we explained in FAB 100, as part of our updated membership package FAB Express will be published each spring, summer and winter and include the all the news, reviews, competitions, club news, merchandise, letters and any other time-sensitive content. You’ll see that FAB’s popular Timelash feature lives on here too, under the new title of Flashback and with a new resident team of ‘flashbackers’.
Meanwhile, club designer and former FAB editor Mike Jones is hard at work on getting the FAB Annual 2023 ready for the winter mailing. He promises it’s all looking good already, and will be packed with all the interviews, cutaways, research and in-depth articles you’ve come to know and love in FAB, with lots of new ideas thrown in for good measure.
Also as we explained in FAB 100, we’re aligning memberships so that everyone expires with the summer mailing each year. This will streamline our operation, helping to control costs by having fewer individual items, and fewer permutations of each mailing.
Every member will receive a letter with this FAB Express that explains how to renew your membership to be included in the winter mailing (and get your first FAB Annual) and how we’re ensuring that anyone who was owed issues of FAB under their old membership won’t be out of pocket.
Please wait until you receive FAB Express before renewing your membership, but be sure to renew by 1st October 2022 to be included in the winter mailing and get your next FAB Express and FAB Annual 2023!
It’s just one week until club members will be joining special guests and committee members to celebrate 40 years of the world’s only official appreciation society for Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson and their wonderfully talented teams that made some of our favourite television programmes and films.
We’d planned to do it in 2021, but Covid-19 and travel restrictions put paid to that!
We’ll be at the Pinewood Hotel (Wexham Park Lane, George Green, Slough, Buckinghamshire SL3 6AP) from 14:00, where we’ll have a barbecue and, like all good birthday parties, music, drink and (of course) cake! There will also be a cash bar for drinks.
We’ll even have some surprises to keep you entertained between conversations…
Just bring along your order confirmation to show us when you arrive, and we’ll check you against our guest list. Sorry, there will be no on-the-door admissions.
It’s a relaxed event, so dress code is casual.
See you on Saturday!
