Thunderbirds

FAB: Incoming on runway 99!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Have there really been 99 issues of FAB magazine? Yep, we’ve popped FAB 99 in the post today!

In this issue:

  • Inspecting Morse – Ian Fryer’s examination of Barry Morse’s seven decade career
  • Love it? Hate it? Chris Drake is affected by the lambda variant as he takes a look at Space:1999 The Lambda Factor
  • Alistair McGown goes back in time to Blackpool in 1977 to recover Gerry Anderson’s Space City exhibition from his personal memory bank
  • John Wilkinson takes a trip round the UK to see when Anderson shows were first seen in colour in the various ITV regions
  • Jonathan Baxter loves Lady Penelope so much that he surrounds himself with her various Tracy Lounge portraits
  • club members give their views on Joe 90 Project 90 in our regular Timelash column, with an exclusive cutaway painting of the Darota Clinic by artist Graham Bleathman
  • Alistair McGown looks at the life and career of Joe 90 Project 90‘s director – Peter Anderson
  • the fifth part of our exclusive Thunderbirds Are Go photo-strip by Jonathan Baxter
  • obituaries to Shaun Whittacker-Cook and George Gibbs
  • take a look through Lady Penelope’s wardrobe in our competition
  • plus FAB news, FAB Mail and more

With this FAB we’ve mailed a third set of our 40 FAB Years picture cards. Stick with us and by the end of the year you should have a full set (and an album to put them all in – photo corners/Gloy gum not included)!

FAB 99 also sees the second wave of deliveries of our 2021 membership gift – the oft-requested 7″ Barry Gray EPs from 1986 and 1988, together on our exclusive new CD! We can only give this CD away as part of our membership package, so if you get a renewal notice with FAB 99, make sure you renew by the date given on it so that you don’t miss out!

This mailing also includes your 40th anniversary badge, which we stupidly missed out of the FAB 98 mailing!

If you were late renewing your membership, and so haven’t been included in the FAB 99 mailing, we haven’t forgotten you. Your membership will re-start with FAB 100.

Mail is still being affected by the pandemic, so please be patient whilst your FAB 99 wings its way to you. Amazingly, we know from experience that members living in the same town can receive their packages days apart! Nonetheless, if you’re worried your package might have gone missing in the post (having allowed a reasonable amount of time), please check our Shipping And Returns page before contacting us.

Anyone who missed FAB 98 can now buy it as a back issue, and last year’s membership item – Century 21 Complete Puppet Catalogue – is also now available to buy in the Shop.

How to get FAB magazine? Join Fanderson!

FAB magazine is available exclusively to Fanderson club members – we usually publish three times a year, and do our very best to make each issue a joy to read for every fan – regardless of your favourite Anderson series!

 

UPDATED: Puppets for auction on 17th November

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Two puppets created by Century 21 sculptor Terry Curtis will be up for auction at Bonhams’ Film, Rock and Pop sale on 17th November.

From the collection of Terry Curtis, both have original heads, with Travers having an original Jeff Tracy body, whilst Blue has a replica body.

You can see the full auction catalogue, which includes items from the estate of Dame Diana Rigg, at Bonhams website.

Update

  • Captain Blue sold for £6,375 inc premium
  • Paul Travers sold for £12,750 inc premium

UK: Thirty years ago today… Thunderbirds were back!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

It’s hard to believe now, but the BBC’s purchase of the then 26-year-old Thunderbirds for broadcast in 1991 was so, so significant.

It was, of course, the first ever UK network broadcast of the Supermarionation series (until that point, all screenings had been on the regional ITV stations).

Many of us were particularly keen to watch Trapped In The Sky, Sun Probe, Operation Crash Dive, Terror In New York City, Atlantic Inferno and Ricochet uncut as (unless you were lucky enough to have home video recordings of earlier broadcasts) they were only widely available in edited form as part of the Super Space Theater releases on Channel 5/Polygram VHS cassette.

The BBC clearly weren’t overly confident of their acquisition, as Lady Penelope was tucked into the corner of that week’s Radio Times cover, playing second fiddle to Liza Minnelli. Compare that to when the the series returned again in 2000: Scott, Virgil, Penelope and Brains had a cover each to themselves!

Indeed, although ITC were in the process of lining up an array of licensees to produce merchandise, many were surprised by the series’ success and would be unable to satisfy the unexpected demand that Christmas.

Being the official fan club, Fanderson experienced a surge of interest, with an astonishing 29% jump in members, we had just re-launched the club magazine with FAB issue 1, and a few weeks later hundreds of members would gather in Leeds for our Fanderson 91 convention in October.

Ratings-wise, Thunderbirds secured the #1 spot for BBC2 for its first two weeks (Trapped In The Sky 6.83m and Pit Of Peril 5.83m) and it usually maintained a single-digit position on the chart for the rest of the run. By comparison, the top-rated programme in the UK right now is BBC One’s Vigil, with just 3.607m watching live (although, admittedly, adding catch-up services brings this up to 8.93m). But Thunderbirds still beats today’s #2 programme, Silent Witness, which had 6.749m viewers all told (Thinkbox).

Thunderbirds was so popular that it was obvious that the BBC would quickly snap up Stingray, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and Joe 90 for broadcast too, and the UK would enter a purple patch for Anderson fans.

Perhaps hardest of all to believe is that although there were 26 years between Thunderbirds‘ production and those BBC broadcasts, another 30 years has now passed!

EXTENDED: four special offers for our 40th year

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

OFFERS EXTENDED: As members are still receiving FAB 98 (due to postal delays) we’ve extended this offer until the end of September.

As a special celebratory offer to club members for the whole of August* – our 40th anniversary month – we’re offering a whopping 40% off four popular items of our fantastic, exclusive, merchandise:

All these offers and lots more great exclusive merchandise, always just for Fanderson members, is now in the Shop.

*Obviously, as stocks last, as all our merchandise is limited edition.

UK: Thunderbirds voted #19 TV theme!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Classic FM are asking listeners to vote for their favourite TV theme so that they can present the UK’s Top 50 favourite TV themes of all time!

Forget the sweeping strings of the Downton Abbey Suite, the cinematic splendour of the Blue Planet soundtrack, or even the foreboding opening music for The Crown. For Fanderson members there is only one contender – Barry Gray’s stirring theme to Thunderbirds!

VOTE NOW! By voting, you will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win £500, an iPad or a Sony soundbar.

Voting closes at midnight on 23rd August, and Classic FM will reveal the Top 50 themes written for the small screen in Classic FM’s TV Music Countdown on Monday 30th August.

UPDATE 30th August: Thunderbirds came in at a respectable #19. See the full countdown here.

NEW! FAB Book of Gerry Anderson… Jigsaw Puzzles

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Now available in the shop to pre-order…

Our brand new, 60-page, full colour FAB Book Of Gerry Anderson… Jigsaw Puzzles covers UK products based on The Adventures Of Twizzle, Torchy The Battery Boy, Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, Joe 90, UFO, Space:1999, Terrahawks and Space Precinct, plus a brief tour of puzzles for other territories and the 90s and 00s revivals.

Fanderson Podcast 10: It’s the end of the road!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Click here for Podcast 10.

THIS EPISODE: In a format twist, for our 40th anniversary podcast we’re trying an episode discussion panel. For this first panel, regular host Ros Connors discusses all things Thunderbirds End Of The Road with fans Kirsty Brown and Ian Fryer.

If you’d like to take part in a future Podcast panel, email fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com, noting the Anderson series that you’re most interested in.

There’s a link to all the podcasts in the menu bar above, or click here.

You can also subscribe to Fanderson podcasts at the iTunes and Google podcast stores, and now on Amazon podcasts and Audible too!

Thunderbirds End Of The Road clips ©1964 ITC, licensed by ITV Studios Global Entertainment

All other content ©2021 Fanderson

FAB 98: Winging its way to you!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

We’re delighted to report that FAB 98 is now winging its way to hundreds of Fanderson members around the world. Hopefully, for many it should arrive just in time for the club’s 40th anniversary – 20th August 2021.

In this issue:

  • Ian Fryer looks at the birth of ITV, and how Noddy led to The Adventures Of Twizzle (via The Woodentops)
  • club members give their views on UFO Kill Straker! in our regular Timelash column
  • Chris Drake looks back at Stingray The Cool Caveman
  • we return for a fourth visit to the UFO comic strips in Countdown and TV Action
  • Alistair McGown explains how FOMO (fear of missing out) isn’t a new phenomenon – he experienced it with Space:1999
  • Andrew Clements’ account of adapting the 60s Thunderbirds novel for a new audience
  • we celebrate 60 years of the first Supermarionation series – Supercar – including an exclusive cutaway of Black Rock Base by Graham Bleathman
  • the fourth part of our exclusive Thunderbirds Are Go photo-strip by Jonathan Baxter
  • enter our competition to win a UFO Visual Archives book
  • plus FAB news, FAB Mail and more

With this FAB we’ve mailed a second set of our 40 FAB Years picture cards. Stick with us and by the end of the year you should have a full set (and an album to put them all in)!

FAB 98 also sees the first deliveries of our 2021 membership gift. For this special year we wanted to revisit two of our most popular and oft-requested gifts – the 7″ Barry Gray EPs given to members in 1986 and 1988. We’ve given them a bit of a brush-up and they’re both on our exclusive new CD! We can only give this CD away as part of our membership package, so if you get a renewal notice with FAB 98 or 99, make sure you renew so that you don’t miss out!

If you missed out on last year’s membership gift (or just want a second copy), the fantastic Century 21 Complete Puppet Catalogue is now available in the Shop.

Note that we made a mistake with the competition closing date and ‘renew by’ date – they should both read 30th September 2021. Sorry!

Annoyingly, as we completed the mailing we also noticed the box of this year’s anniversary enamel club badges – one of each should have gone in the packages! We’ll keep them safe and mail them with FAB 99.

If you were late renewing your membership, and so haven’t been included in the FAB 98 mailing, we haven’t forgotten you! Your membership will re-start with FAB 99.

UPDATE 26th August 2021

Although FAB 98 was mailed last week, it seems that quite a few members still haven’t received their packages. There is a distribution problem in the UK caused by a shortage of HGV drivers, coupled with people in the logistics industry isolating due to covid. In some areas post only being delivered every third day. 

Overseas packages seem to be relatively unaffected. 

Thank you for your patience, and we hope all UK packages will be delivered by the end of the week.

If you’re ever worried something we’ve sent might have gone missing in the post, please check our Shipping And Returns page before contacting us.

Anyone who missed FAB 97 can now buy it as a back issue, and last year’s membership item – Century 21 Complete Puppet Catalogue – is also now available to buy in the Shop.

How to get FAB magazine? Join Fanderson!

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

40 FAB Years: Extra free gift for new members!

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

As a celebratory free gift to new members in August – our 40th anniversary month – we’ll include a copy of either Journey To The Moon or Great Themes From Thunderbirds mini album on CD (as stocks last) in their membership package.

Join Fanderson now to get this great free offer! And don’t forget we’ve got some great anniversary merchandise offers right now too!

On 20th August 1981, Fanderson was formed at Pinewood Studios under the provisional name of ‘Anderclan’. Gerry Anderson and ITC had called a meeting with representatives from the various clubs, publications and the Fanderson 81 convention in the hope that they could all come together as a unified club. Our status as Sylvia Anderson’s official fan club was bestowed posthumously by her family in 2016. You can read more here.

Terms and conditions (in addition to our standard Ts&Cs):

  • Either of the mini albums will be inserted to new membership packages throughout August 2021, at random, and as stocks last.
  • This offer is only applicable to new Fanderson members (including former members that are no longer on our database, due to our GDPR privacy notice, who are rejoining the club). The discs were previously given as part of the 2008 and 2013 Fanderson membership packages respectively.
  • As an extra free gift these do not form a contractual part of the membership package, and Fanderson is under no obligation to provide an alternative gift once stock of these mini albums is exhausted.
  • Please don’t ask if you can buy either of these mini album replicas from us. Due to our licensing agreement, we cannot sell them. We can only give them away.

40 FAB Years: FAB Book Of View-Master Sets available again

Posted on by 1266 Nick Williams

Originally our membership gift in 2011, due to overwhelming demand from club members, our exclusive FAB Book Of View-Master Sets is back!

This 60 page, full colour book includes high-quality images from the Supercar, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Joe 90, UFO, Space:1999 and Terrahawks sets, booklet details, plus a brief look at View-Master advertising.