To my mind, the iconic and unique design of the real thing did look like it was hastily cobbled together using bits of plywood and plastic kit parts.
Unlike the other Thunderbirds, Thunderbird 5 didn't do much except hang around above Earth. The space station shape didn’t much lend itself to a push along friction motor, and the lower pylon projecting from it’s base was a definite no - no!
The end result was a reasonable copy of the docking section of the station joined to an already available bump-n-go flying saucer toy.
Looks nothing like Thunderbird 5 but I still think it’s got great plastic toy appeal.
As a child I remenber the TB5 was pretty inaccurate but what really ruined it for me was the enormous John Tracy figure inside the dome. Like some giant on board and it looked daft when TB3 docked to it. So I decided to remove him. Of course cracking the dome trying to get him out. Stupid or what?
ReplyDeleteI reckon we''ve all done something like that at some time. My thing was always removing the friction drive in an attempt to make a toy look more realistic!
ReplyDeleteThere is something appealing to me about this toy. It may not be accurate, but it does have charm.
ReplyDeleteI loved the lights and movement as a kid, but I was really annoyed that my Thunderbird 3 friction model was too big to fit its nose into the docking hole! Simon
ReplyDeleteI should have said that my T3 friction model was also a JR21 model! Simon
ReplyDeleteYou know Simon, I've never tried that, and didn't realise it didn't fit. You'd think the manufacturers would have thought of that, but I suppose as it used another toy as its basis they just didn't consider it.
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