TRACY FAMILY AFFAIRS : ANDERCON GUESTS 6

The final guest talk I attended was the Tracy Family Affairs.  Mary Turner, Judith Shutt and David Elliot returned for this, but the big pull for me on this occasion was David Graham, Shane Rimmer and Matt Zimmerman.

I remember enjoying David, Shane and Matt being interviewed at the Cosford event in 2012, and what an entertaining team they make.

Voice of Parker, David Graham appears to remember everything he’s done over the years when he recounts stories of working with Gerry Anderson.

Voice of Scott Tracy, Shane Rimmer , on the other hand can’t recall a thing, much to the delight of voice of Alan Tracy,  Matt Zimmerman who constantly takes the mickey out of both of them.

During this interview Mary Turner’s microphone failed giving cheeky Matt Zimmerman another opportunity to entertain.

A definite high spot of the day.

WRAP STARS

There's something uniquely satisfying about gift wrap. It could be the stiff white paper. It could be the promise of gifts. It could even be the beautiful symmetry of the pattern. With this wrapping paper though, it's obvious what the  appeal is, its all those fabulous Thunderbirds craft! Now, what would you ideally wrap in it?

THE EARLY YEARS OF A P FILMS: ANDERCON GUESTS 5

The next talk I attended on the Sunday morning was ‘The Early Years of A.P. Films’. The guest panel consisted of director, David Elliot and puppeteers, Mary Turner and Judith Shutt.  Director Des Saunders was scheduled to attend, however ill health  meant he was unable to appear.

The talk, with two of AP Films original puppeteers, not surprisingly had a strong bias towards puppetry, with replicas of Lady Penelope and Colonel White sharing the stage.

David appeared with White, who ironically he’d presumably have never met, having left   A P films  (or Century 21 as it would have been by then) before Captain Scarlet started.

Mary Turner started with A P Films way back during the filming of Four Feather Falls, working with the late Christine Glanville, who was the person in charge of A P Films puppet section. 

Everybody on the panel had the greatest respect for Christine, not only for her skills as a puppeteer but also for her infinite patience and pleasant nature.   This publicity photo shows Mary with Christine on the left.

Mary was the original sculptress for Lady Penelope, who, as many of you will know based the puppet on Sylvia Anderson. 

Judith Shutt whose family were all professional puppeteers in the fifties joined A P films during the filming of Fireball XL5. She left the company following Thunderbird 6.  Her brother, Ernest, known as Plugg also joined the team during the filming of Thunderbirds and went on to work in film special effects.

While my interest in  Gerry Anderson’s productions are primarily models and special effects it’s right and proper to be reminded of the skills and dedication of the A P Film puppeteers.

CAR AD ON TV WITH KID AND MYSTERY SPACE TOY?

There's a car ad on British TV at the moment. It shows a kid with a space toy in the front garden. The toy looks like a mash up of the Galoob Gobots Guardian Command Centre and a Space 1999 Eagle Transporter. I can't find the ad online otherwise I'd show you. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

SPACE 1999 MODELS AT ANDERCON

I'm always happy to see the exceptionally well finished fan produced models from the 'All Sections Alpha'  Space 1999 modellers forum that have been quite prominent at several of the recent Gerry Anderson conventions and exhibitions.

There’s usually a large 44” studio scale Eagle. This one with a interchangeable pods was  made and is owned by Chris Potter. It  really is well finished,with a fully detailed and illuminated cockpit.

With the many resin kits available these days that go so well with the different Product Enterprise Eagle variations it seems a pointless exercise to scratch build smaller models. The hard part is getting that meticulous paintjob.

This Eagle Pad with what looks to me like a Product Enterprise Rescue Eagle is a Small Art Works resin kit which was built and detailed by Paul Stankevitch.

A  Laboratory Eagle on what looks like a Warp lift display.

The Swift from ‘Brian The Brain’.

The models on display were a joy to see and a credit to the enthusiasts who brought them along. 

The Ultra Probe from ‘Dragon’s Domain’. This example owned by James Winch.

This concept tank was built by Hilton Fitzsimmons.

The Kaldorian spacecraft from ‘ Earthbound’. This model built by Chris Potter.

The Infernal Machine.

TV21 PROJECT SWORD STORY: THE CLUE

TV21 April 28th 1968

SPECTRUM IS GREEN: ANDERCON GUESTS 4

Sunday morning's round of guest talks started off with both versions of Captain Scarlet being celebrated, although out of the nine people on stage only one was representing the original!

Liz Morgan was the voice of Destiny and Rhapsody Angels in the original Captain Scarlet series. She initially voiced Harmony for the first five episodes before being replaced by Chinese actress, Lian- Shin.

Liz's counterpart in the New Captain Scarlet is Emma Tate who voiced the digital Destiny.

Whilst the charming and dapper Francis Matthews voiced the original Scarlet in the style of Cary Grant, Wayne Forester, the new voice the digital Captain Scarlet played safe with just a generic heroic voice.

As most fans know, the original Captain Blue was voiced by the much missed, Ed Bishop. In the new series Terrahawks voice artist, Robbie Stevens, seen sat at the back, returned as Scarlet's partner.

Jeremy Hitchen is another returning voice artist in the new series, although he didn't play any of the major characters.

 Phil Ford had a spell writing for Coronation Street and Bad Girls before embarking on the new Captain Scarlet. Since then he's written for Sarah Jane Adventures and Doctor Who.

CGI director and concept artist Dominic Lavery  directed several episodes of the New Captain Scarlet, but he did get a few tongue in cheek boos when he told everyone he'd worked on the incredibly disappointing Thunderbirds film from 2004.

 
Mark Woollard, who had also worked on Terrahawks also directed several new Captain Scarlet episodes.

And last but not least, the producer of the New Captain Scarlet, Mark Sherwood.

GRECIAN 2000: MORE GREEK LP ASTRONAUTS

The first set of Greek LP knockoff astronauts I came across online were these greys by Petalo, which came in a bucket.

The next lot I saw were these whites [?] also by Petalo, but this time in a distinctive box. They appear to come with a hut, sandbags and signpost - very handy on the Moon! The circular things are model jets I think and came in the bucket set too.

The next set I found online is my favourite because, uniquely, they form the playing pieces of a Greek board game! They appear to be silvers with painted accessories. I'm not sure what's in the other game compartments or who the maker is. It has to be only LP astronaut board game around or? Anyone got this game?

So I was pleasantly surprised this week to see yet another and different box set of  Greek LP's. This time by a company called Solpa. They appear to be greys or silvers and come with a colour leaflet.

Here's a loose Solpa grey I saw elsewhere. None of these Greek LP's. loose or sets, are cheap [that's money I'm talking about!] and seem far more expensive than other knockoff LP's. Why is that?

TERRAHAWKS MODELS BY DAVID SISSON

It will come as no surprise that there was no shortage of models, both original and replica on display at Andercon.

Model maker, David Sisson whom I'd previously chatted to at last year's Cosford event, had brought along a few of the many excellent studio scale replicas he's made over the years.

Although many of his Supermarionation models were on display I was taken with his Terrahawks replicas which carried some incredible detail . In fact as they had their own table display with a couple of original Zeroid props if someone had told me they were original I wouldn't have known any better.

His Battlehawk is a fair size, around three feet long. Again, the attention to detail is awesome. 

You can just about see the tracks of a little Battletank on the underside.

David's Battletank is another nice model. I remember putting one of my models, a revolving Space City Tower on display at Fanderson '84, and while I was setting it up I was asked to repair the original Battletank which had been damaged in transit. The original was made of perspex sheet and fairly battered about, with heavy detail that would presumably have been picked out under the bright studio lights.

The excellent detail on David's Battletank is a little more subtle, but nevertheless effective.

David's Treehawk could quite easily fool anyone into thinking it was an original prop. The black scorch marks on the hull look very effective.

Note the detail around the cockpit - excellent stuff!

   More of David's other models later.