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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 4, 2020 11:47:21 GMT -5
Was this the early 90s? I am sure I remember reading about how stores here in the UK were selling out very quickly (I even heard rumours of fights over the set). Probably. My "boys" are 29 and nearly 33, so I'm guessing it was around the mid-90s. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 11:59:25 GMT -5
Due to shortages of the set, a TV show here (Blue Peter) gave instructions on how a person could make their own:
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 15:30:44 GMT -5
Can't believe I missed this thread - Century 21 was the first thing I was ever a fan of, starting with the TV series (Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet particularly) and rapidly going into the early years of TV 21 comic (which, of course, my parents threw away when we moved - the story of every young collector). I can't rememeber a huge amount about them, but I can remember this issue, which was towards the end of my run  , which appears to be from late April 1968, which would be about right - I think we moved just after that. I had scads of merchandise from the series as a kid - a complete Thunderbirds outfit, Captain Scarlet hat & gun, a set of Thunderbirds including the hard-to-get cinnamon flavour Thunderbird 5, then later a Joe 90 kit (radio, gun and some other stuff), a set of Captain Scarlet vehicles collected from cereal packets, and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.
I was a member of the Spectrum Shades fan group for a while as a kid (my whole area were Leftenant(?) Khaki - can remember the colour, not sure of the rank) This was all from about '65 to early 70s. Never really got into Space:1999, mostly on the grounds that it was rubbish, but was a big fan of UFO. After that, for a while I subscribed to Supermarionation is Go! fanzine, around the mid-80s - I think around this issue:
I kind of lost interest around then, being much more interested in superhero comics, and later Anderson stuff was just embarrassingly awful (yes, Terrahawks, I'm talking about you). But I still think Thunderbirds is some of the best kids TV ever - the length of each episode, and time they'd take to build suspense before the main characters even appeared - modern series couldn't even dream of that. Also became compulsory viewing on Sunday mornings in the early 80s as a group of students at university :-)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 15:33:49 GMT -5
Welcome to the thread!
Yes, Terrahawks is awful. Both during my childhood and when I gave it a second chance. The puppetry seems more primitive than the shows that preceded it by twenty years. And it just didn't work on any level.
Regarding Thunderbirds, I agree. The latest issue of FAB dissects "The Mighty Atom", long considered a bad episode by most. I can't remember much about it. What do you think of it, if you can recall it?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 15:36:22 GMT -5
Forgot to mention, I think I've still got a couple of the annuals up in the loft - I definitely had these (and may still have them)  (I loved Project Sword, which was only ever in the comics, rather than being a TV property - a kind of post-apocalyptic earth & space story)   These are all from '68, I think. None of the art on the comic strips was ever much to write home about, but I always loved the schematics etc in Project Sword |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 15:42:22 GMT -5
Welcome to the thread! Yes, Terrahawks is awful. Both during my childhood and when I gave it a second chance. The puppetry seems more primitive than the shows that preceded it by twenty years. And it just didn't work on any level. Regarding Thunderbirds, I agree. The latest issue of FAB dissects "The Mighty Atom", long considered a bad episode by most. I can't remember much about it. What do you think of it, if you can recall it? I can't honestly remember the episode, but it is one of the episodes which I managed to acquire a couple of years ago, so I'll have to give it a watch.
To be honest, the only episodes that I have a clear memory of are the Sidewinder one (which might be Pit of Peril), as that one got shown so often in repeats when I happened to be watching, and the Thunderbird 3 gets perilously close to the sun one (Sun Probe?), though I'd definitely remember them when I saw them again.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2020 15:44:59 GMT -5
We'll no doubt discuss some episodes in depth, but I think "Vault of Death", "Martian Invasion" and "Attack of the Alligators" are my favourites.
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 4, 2020 17:23:45 GMT -5
"Attack Of The Alligators" is one of the all time classic British tv eps! I'd rank it just above the Abigail's Party 'Play For Today' and a notch behind The Prisoner finale.  OMG! Look out Lady Penelope, that monster is going for your designer handbag!   I have this one too, forgot about it as it's a bit rough where the others are very clean. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2020 12:19:50 GMT -5
Issue 6 featured a pull-out wall chart called "The Secrets of Tracy Island":  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2020 15:16:59 GMT -5
Who could have resisted the 7th issue, given the spotlight on Lady Penelope's stately home?  |
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 6, 2020 18:24:16 GMT -5
I actually forgot about one of the Anderson fan magazines... after S.I.G. ended with #20 (and Fanderson began a digest sized Fab), David Nightingale who had published S.I.G. (Super-marionation Is Go) and was still publishing Time Screen, started up a vintage TV 21 comic reprint title and a new Century 21 magazine (which also reprinted one comic each issue at first, as well as non-fiction text features). A lot of people didn't care for how the editor of this new magazine allowed fan inventions and additions in with the researched non-fiction, and when it ended after 15 issues there was some heated coverage and letters commenting on that over in Fanderson's Fab, with some of the letters defending the Century 21 mag being from the member who went on to start Andersonic which is still going. I have all 15 issues of the Century 21 magazine... the best material in it was by one Simon Archer who sadly died in a road accident right after seeing the first copies of his first official book on Anderson, Fab Facts, and before he could complete the biography of Gerry Anderson that was brought to completion after his death. The editor of Century 21 went on to work on model magazines that often included Anderson subjects. Nightingale still operates Thunderbooks/Star Trader mail-order last I looked, and was interviewed in a recent Andersonic about early Fanderson when S.I.G. was the magazine it's members received.  Here are the two digest-sized titles still going: Fab is the publication of the official Gerry Anderson fanclub Fanderson. And Andersonic is from the excellent cartoonist Richard Farrell of Merseyside and usually has some great humour as filler!   |
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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 6, 2020 18:38:25 GMT -5
(I loved Project Sword, which was only ever in the comics, rather than being a TV property - a kind of post-apocalyptic earth & space story) There were also toys for Project Sword for sale at the time. I think maybe it was to fill the gaps inbetween producing the tv show connected merchandise, to keep that shelf space. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2020 8:06:23 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2020 17:35:48 GMT -5
The 8th issue of the UK comic adapted the TV episode "Sun Probe":  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2020 16:37:37 GMT -5
Parker made the cover of the 9th issue:  |
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