Thunderbirds Kits are Go!

Having been on a bit of a modelling high after making up Ferrymans super Excavator kit, I surfed ebay one lunchtime looking for Bandai Thunderbirds kits. Being a little cautious after having my fingers burned with the apalling small scale Zero X and the rather rough Tbird 2 from Imai, I wasn't very hopeful of finding anything outstanding.

However, I came across a much more recent kit of one of the vehicles from the 2004 Thunderbirds Movie, again by Bandai. Now the film does have its detractors, not least for the deplorable script, acting, casting or dodgy hairstyles. It can obviously be criticised for taking a classic show and making a complete farce, but one thing I did appreciate about it was the effects. Distancing oneself from the fact that it didn't do the Supermarionation show any favours, the ships and vehicles taken on their own merit are pretty damn good. Ive managed to collect a lot of the movie toys made by Bandai and most of those are of a high standard.

Looking on ebay, I came across a Bandai kit of Tbird 3, albeit in a ripped box with no indication of size or scale. I won it without any competition for a couple of pounds and shortly after, the goods arrived. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the kit was actually very small, in fact at about the average Spacex miniature size. Detail was great and the whole build was in coloured plastic and need no glue at all. In fact, I managed to fit the whole thing together using no tools other than a fingernail to scrape the worst of the plastic flashing off and had it finished in about 20 minutes. The great thing about it is that it can be easily taken apart for finishing or painting at any time. Having said that, I was pleased with the toy-like finish of the three colours of plastic and the dedicated Tbird 5 stand which included a microscopic Tb4 as well! Im scouting about for a cheap Tb2 now as this was always my favourite vehicle!