John Brown, who sculpted puppets in Stingray and Thunderbirds (including The Hood, Jeff and Virgil Tracy), died on 18th April. You can read this tribute in John’s local newspaper.
We’ll have an obituary for John in FAB Express 104, due this summer, alongside one for his puppeteer wife Wanda (née Webb) who died just a few months earlier.
Fanderson is surprised, but delighted, to report that limited stock of some of our most requested titles will be available again very soon.
Our triple-CD Space:1999 Year One soundtrack and Century 21 mini album sets 1, 2 and 3 will all be available soon once again via our Shop. The stock was found during the relocation of Fanderson Sales a few weeks ago, and preparation for our advent calendar. Some had been inadvertently packed into boxes with other titles, whilst other boxes had been incorrectly labelled.
Once Christmas preparations are out of the way (including our fantastic advent calendar), we need to carefully check and count what we’ve got for stock control purposes, but we hope to have them available again in time for a happy new year!
One or two other items are already available once again – just click on the Low Stock Remaining category when you go to the Shop.
Keep an eye on the website for further news, and save those Christmas pennies!
Many of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s classic productions are now available, free of charge, on ITV’s new streaming service ITV X. Anderson programmes owned by ITV are usually free of commercials on the platform.
All episodes are available of Supercar, Thunderbirds (including the crowdsourced ‘anniversary episodes’, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, The Secret Service, UFO, The Protectors, Space:1999, Terrahawks and New Captain Scarlet.
For some reason, only selected episodes are available of Stingray and Joe 90, whilst Fireball XL5 isn’t there at all! Curiously, only selected episodes of ITV’s own 2015 reboot Thunderbirds Are Go are available.
ITV X is free to view, with most of the above content available ad-free too. There’s a free seven-day trial of the subscription Premium service (normally £5.99 a month) which offers even more content, all ad-free, with access to additional content over on BritBox.
Big Chief Studios have announced their first range of retro collector action figures, enabling fans to create their own miniature adventures.
Designed with collectors in mind, each 3.75 inch figure in The Anderson Collection sports five points of jointed articulation, authentic character likenesses and detailed costumes. Priced at a pocket-friendly £14.99 each, the figures are made for fans to build a collection, and with a far simpler product specification manufacturing lead times are drastically improved from their previous studio scale puppet replicas.
Collection 1 is due in December and includes Troy Tempest, Scott Tracy, Captain Scarlet, Joe McClaine, Ed Straker and John Koenig. Collection 2 will follow in 2023 and is due to include Lt George “Phones” Sheridan, Virgil Tracy, John Tracy, Captain Black, Lt Green and Alan Carter.
Having long been available to view in the UK on Britbox, many of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s classic productions are now available on the ITV Hub.
Fans can now watch Supercar, Fireball XL5 (selected episodes), Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, Joe 90 (selected episodes), The Secret Service, UFO, The Protectors and Space:1999. ITV’s own Thunderbirds Are Go reimagining is available too, along with the crowdsourced Thunderbirds anniversary episodes.
All are available free to view and ad-free, once the programme itself starts. Watching fully ad-free costs £3.99/month or £39.99/year, but there’s a free 7-day trial available (surely long enough for any die-hard fan to binge-watch the whole lot!).
Click on the link to go to the ITV Hub.
Australia’s cult and classic film and television label Via Vision is releasing Stingray, albeit only on DVD, unlike Network’s recent Blu-ray Disc release.
For AU$69.95 (but currently on an introductory offer at AU59.95) this Complete Series set includes all 39 episodes across five discs, with special features:
Also unlike Network’s BR set, this is ViaVision’s fourth DVD release to proudly acknowledge the series’ co-creator on the front cover, as “Gerry And Sylvia Anderson’s Stingray″, following similar treatment on Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and Joe 90.
Network are offering Stingray fans the chance to watch yet another episode in high definition – free of charge!
Although we’ve all got to wait a little longer than planned for the complete series on Blu-ray Disc, Network are teasing us with the episode Deep Heat (having already shown us Treasure Down Below and A Christmas To Remember late last year). Not only that, but Deep Heat will be shown alongside a new documentary We Are About To Launch Stingray.
Enjoying this free treat couldn’t be easier:
There are seven Anderson-inspired projects on Lego Ideas right now that need your support to become reality!
Lego Ideas was set up so that budding Lego set designers could see their design made into sets that we could all buy. Fans can click to support the designs they like and, if a project gets over 10,000 supporters, it goes on to be assessed by the Lego team as a potential set.
Since Lego Ideas was set up in 2010 (as Lego Cuusoo), 49 sets have been produced on a wide range of topics.
Andrew Clark has been luckier than most budding designers, as his Doctor Who and The Flintstones sets were both chosen to become reality. He currently has three projects on the Ideas platform:
You’ll also find:
See all these designs and thousands more at the Lego Ideas website.
On 12th February 2022, specialist collectables and memorabilia auctioneers Excalibur will be offering the second part of late author Simon Archer’s collection, including six drawings by series art director Bob Bell.
Bob worked on many of the Anderson TV productions and was art director and supervising art director on Thunderbirds Season 1 and 2 respectively, as well as on the Thunderbirds films.
The series of six pencil and watercolour sketches (lots 547 to 552) represents the evolution of the Supermarionation technique and featured in Gerry Anderson’s lecture tour in the 90s. Estimate is £200 to £400 for each lot.
Wanting to gen up on the Super Space Theater films whilst you await Network‘s Blu-ray Disc package at the end of the month? Why not get ready by reading the background story of the 13 SST films, and maybe even decorate your room with the beautiful cover art prints?
It’s all in our Super Space Theater book and art print pack – at a super special offer price for January!
