Childhood memories return in major exhibition of Thunderbirds and Space:1999 collectables

The Museum of Brands is proud to announce the opening of “Thunderbirds & Space:1999 – a Celebration of Sci-fi Toys and Collectibles“. This special exhibition marking the anniversaries of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s seminal shows Thunderbirds and Space:1999. The displays celebrate the enduring legacy of the Andersons’ iconic television shows through the toys, games, comics and memorabilia that captured the imagination of generations. The exhibition is co-curated by acclaimed designer, Thunderbirds superfan and Fanderson member Malcolm Garrett MBE, and the Museum of Brands.

“These weren’t just toys,” explains exhibition co-curator Alice Kain “For children of the 60s and 70s, these objects were the connectors to the Andersons’ futuristic worlds. Each figure, board game and annual represents hours of imaginative play where ordinary bedrooms could be transformed into International Rescue headquarters or Moonbase Alpha.”

The exhibition features over 400 carefully preserved items, many on public display for the first time. Objects have been loaned from the Robert Opie collection and several private collectors who have treasured these pieces for decades. The exhibition showcases an unprecedented display of Anderson collectables from major TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, Supercar, Fireball XL5, UFO and Space:1999.

Highlights include die-cast Dinky Toys vehicles (still with their packaging), rare promotional items from confectionery tie-ins, original sets of cherished annuals and comics, vintage jigsaws and board games that brought the shows into family homes.

Malcolm Garrett, curator of The Malcolm Garrett Collection, said: “My earliest memory of Gerry Anderson’s remarkable TV shows is watching Supercar when I was just five or six years old. My first toy was a red plastic Supercar with clear roof and yellow pullout wings, which I played with endlessly. I was an avid follower of all things Anderson from then on, subscribing to TV21 comic when it was launched in 1965, just ahead of Thunderbirds first broadcast, and demanding my parents bought all the Dinky toys for me. It was perhaps inevitable that much later I began to collect all those toys, annuals and books that I had either owned as a child, or wished I had. To be able to loan them now to this very special exhibition is something I couldn’t have dreamed of.”

The Museum Of Brands is at 111 – 117 Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, London W11 1QT.