To please 'Reggie' from the Thunderbirds documentary whose memories of the iconic show came from the ninties here's the set that every Thunderbird fan would have owned, to go with their Blue Peter Tracy Island.
This was a beautifully presented set. It reminded me of the golden days of Matchbox gift sets in the Sixties. SDadly I've never owned one and oddly never saw any at car boot sales in the 90' as opposed to the Matchbox Tracy Island. I found at least five of the boxed and one was mint and unopened! It went to New Zealand of all places, pivotal in the making of the new show! I noticed in the documentary with Reggie that Weta had loads of models and toys around the studio walls - think I saw the Joe 90 U50? and SHADOmobile. Wonder of they were old props or model kits?
I think between his gabbling he said they were original props. Judging by the size of the U59, they probably were, or studio scale replicas, like Kevin builds.
They looked studio scale, but as far as I know, no Shado mobile, or the mole survives, no Thunderbirds either (but the ZeroX mev and some landing gear does).
I reckon you're right about that Kev, although I believe the surviving Zero X MEV was from Captain Scarlet. The jeep used by the Hood and others, along with a vehicle first seen with the Crab logger in Path of Destruction survived when all three were apparently rescued from the dreaded skip outside the studio. I believe Alan Shubrook rescued one of the Scott Tracy puppet heads from a skip, so thinking about it, quite a few bits and pieces might have been rescued and are lying at the back of somebody's garage or shed, but I'm don't know whether any bits made it to New Zealand.
Just looked at the Gerry Anderson props site http://www.gerryandersonprops.com/puppets.php and they show the Superon from Path of Destruction [ at also appears as an outline drawing on the SWORD Annual! ha ha] and the Hover Bus. The site also shows an original Parker figure. That skip must have been the best skip in the world!
I owned this set! Likely still have it in a closet somewhere. The pieces were so beautifully made! Wished we could afford the electronic island, but I always had great fun with the ships themselves :D
This was a beautifully presented set. It reminded me of the golden days of Matchbox gift sets in the Sixties. SDadly I've never owned one and oddly never saw any at car boot sales in the 90' as opposed to the Matchbox Tracy Island. I found at least five of the boxed and one was mint and unopened! It went to New Zealand of all places, pivotal in the making of the new show! I noticed in the documentary with Reggie that Weta had loads of models and toys around the studio walls - think I saw the Joe 90 U50? and SHADOmobile. Wonder of they were old props or model kits?
ReplyDeleteI think between his gabbling he said they were original props. Judging by the size of the U59, they probably were, or studio scale replicas, like Kevin builds.
ReplyDeleteThey looked studio scale, but as far as I know, no Shado mobile, or the mole survives, no Thunderbirds either (but the ZeroX mev and some landing gear does).
ReplyDeleteI reckon you're right about that Kev, although I believe the surviving Zero X MEV was from Captain Scarlet. The jeep used by the Hood and others, along with a vehicle first seen with the Crab logger in Path of Destruction survived when all three were apparently rescued from the dreaded skip outside the studio. I believe Alan Shubrook rescued one of the Scott Tracy puppet heads from a skip, so thinking about it, quite a few bits and pieces might have been rescued and are lying at the back of somebody's garage or shed, but I'm don't know whether any bits made it to New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteJust looked at the Gerry Anderson props site http://www.gerryandersonprops.com/puppets.php and they show the Superon from Path of Destruction [ at also appears as an outline drawing on the SWORD Annual! ha ha] and the Hover Bus. The site also shows an original Parker figure. That skip must have been the best skip in the world!
ReplyDeleteWe've shown the Zero X landing gear on the blog a few years back. Trying to recall who sent in the picture. I think it was Jim Lewis.
ReplyDeleteI owned this set! Likely still have it in a closet somewhere. The pieces were so beautifully made! Wished we could afford the electronic island, but I always had great fun with the ships themselves :D
ReplyDeleteHi Sari, yes it's a lovely set and for those who got into Thunderbirds in the ninties I suspect it's very special.
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