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.
Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the freebies and offers in our Easter Egg Hunt over the last couple of weeks, and to everyone who bid in the charity auction, or bought tickets in the charity raffle.
We’re delighted to report that Kouichi Miyazaki bid the highest for the Terrahawks soundtrack CD, and Mrs LM Jones has won the Thunderbirds ‘Hackenbacker’ watch.
Both prizes will be on their way to the lucky winners in the next few days.
Fanderson is the proud sponsor once again of the Anderson On Film presentation as part of the Southend Film Festival, enabling fans to enjoy Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s work with other fans this summer… on film!
In this digital world it’s easy to watch programmes on your phone, to stream, or even to watch from DVD or Blu-ray Disc. This year’s Southend Film Festival gives Anderson fans a chance to have that collective experience of watching with fellow fans, thanks to the beauty that is celluloid film!
This year’s programme of Anderson goodies on 11th June 2023 – all on the big screen and all shown from 16mm film – includes:
The popular Southend Film Festival has been running for fourteen years in two parts – as well as the main festival, the Film Festival Fringe encourages various venues around Southend to put on film screenings. The festival’s patrons are actors Ray Winstone, Vicki Michelle and Phil Davis, and you can see more at www.southendfilmfestival.com (the website is in the process of being updated for 2023).
Fanderson is delighted to be able to support fan-organised events such as this. If you need help or support with your Anderson event, please drop us a line at fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com.
UPDATE 22nd March 2023: Read all about Andrew Clark and his creation in this Lego Ideas interview.
Andrew Clark’s Thunderbird 2 Lego Ideas project is included in the third review of 2022, with the result due this summer.
Thunderbird 2 gained the magic 10,000 supporters in October and so will go forward to be considered as an official Lego set, along with 35 other projects!
The Lego team carefully assesses each project to ensure it meets their stringent build and playability standards, doesn’t clash with any official sets in development, as well as considering any licensing requirements. The licensing team at ITV has in the past been extremely positive and excited at the prospect of such a tie-in with Lego, though as the company becomes more commercially-focussed the fees being asked have put some potential licensees off.
After 57 years, Thunderbirds remains incredibly popular worldwide, with high concentrations of Fanderson members particularly in the UK, Japan and Australia, so we can only be hopeful that Lego and ITV can work together to make this happen!
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s 1966 feature film Thunderbirds Are Go will be broadcast in the UK on Film4 (and a hour later on Film4+1).
Thunderbirds Are Go will be shown on Film4 at:
Film4 (+1) is available in the UK on Freeview/Youview 14 (47), Freesat 300 (301), Sky 313 (314) or Virgin Media 428 (in HD on 429).
If you know of an Anderson production being broadcast, anywhere in the world, please email details to fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com so we can share the news!
New, and produced exclusively for Fanderson club members, is this pack of five reproduction publicity brochures for Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and UFO.
Available whilst stocks last from Fanderson Sales.
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.
UPDATED 3rd October: We did it! The project has reached the 10,000 milestone, so will be entered for assessment by the Lego team next year (which will include licensing discussions with ITV, as required).
There’s just 100 days left to get behind Andrew Clark’s Thunderbird 2, help it reach the 10,000 milestone and be considered to be an official Lego set!
Andrew’s Doctor Who and The Flintstones ideas were both chosen to become reality. His Thunderbird 2 was originally submitted with the ability to be built as the craft from ITV’s 2015 remake or from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s iconic 1960s original Thunderbirds. This submission is purely the classic craft, together with TB4, Elevator Car and Virgil Tracy!
Lego Ideas was set up so that budding designers could see their designs 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.
Show your support and see thousands more ideas at the Lego Ideas website.
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.
