Following my comment about Terrahawks Hudson roller recently, here's some of my collection of the Bandai/Popy Terrahawks toys, which show the contrast between the small plastic toys and the wonderful large diecasts.
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| Hawkwing De-Luxe |
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| Battlehawk De-Luxe |
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| Terrahawk De-Luxe |
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| Spacehawk Mini |
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| Treehawk De-Luxe with Mini Spacehawk |
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| Battletank Mini |
Smaller scale models
A Deluxe version of the Spacehawk with a flashing light in the engine bay was shown on promotional literature, but probably never made it into production.
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Diecast Action Zeroid, standard figure Zeroid and Hawkeye. The humanoid figures were appallingly bad and on a par with the ugly Mattel Battlestar figures, lacking any real articulation and detail.
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Terrahawks is a series I have always wanted to catch up with, but never managed to. Wonderful vehicle designs, almost a return to the Golden Age of Supermarionation. SFZ
ReplyDeleteIts a bit of a mish-mash really. Considering the last few Supermarionation shows were sophisticated and slick, both in terms of writing and technical expertise, Terrahawks puppetry goes right back to the clunky, wooden action of Supercar and Fireball. The vehicles and SFX were good, but the storylines were puerile and silly, with Zelda and her android companions seemingly there for comedy relief rather than any sort of actual threat or jepardy. The secondary villains ranged from a ridiculous teddybear, to a predator-like alien and a shapeshifting being derived from one of Wayne Douglas Barlowes creations. These were recycled every other week in vapid rehashes of the same script. The later series included some really cool ships and vehicles, but the storylines and pathetic in-jokes such as a character called 'Stew Dapples'. The inclusion of Windsor Davies as the voice of the Zeroid commander, reprising his role in 'It Aint Half Hot Mum' begins to grate by episode 2 and just gets more annoying as time goes on! Very much a missed opportunity to re-instate the Supermarionation genre, but by the time of its release, Gerry Anderson had clearly washed his hands of the project and let Christopher Burr take the reigns. A shame. Bill
DeleteWow - I had no idea the series was so weak! I will avoid! But at least we can enjoy the spirit of the toys and models. SFZ
DeleteHave a look here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0NXq1NHbJMJ4Uz-GAnOCZNEMTT6kqLP0
ReplyDeleteI still have my deluxe Terrahawk and Treehawk. Couldn't afford the others. The Battlehawk was £18.50 in 1983 (equivalent to £64.59 in 2026 !!!) ; Terrahawk £10.60 (£37.01 today); Hawkwing £9.60 (£33.52) ; Treehawk £10.60 ( £37.01); Action Zeroid £8.75 (£30.55), and the Gift set (a small Treehawk, Hawkwing, SpaceHawk) was £8.72 (£30.44 today).
ReplyDeleteThey didn't sell that well though they were later discounted in Woolworths!
You also have to remember that Gerry was starting anew. There was no more financial backing from Lew Grade so they had far less money and could only afford a much smaller crew. who were very keen but mostly inexperienced . No props or anything they could have reused were left over from the supermarionation days. It was also the 80s so its going to be cheesy! , plus the Muppets were still very big so they went with rubber hand puppets rather than the more expensive marionettes. Script editor Tony Barwick (who wrote most of the shows) was interviewed in the SIG magazine at the time and confessed that basically it was the equivalent of the XL5 or Stingray days - they were starting afresh with a new generation, though they hoped to be popular enough to get bigger and better and hoped the supermarionation fans would still enjoy it for what it was but that it wasn't really made for them. It wasn't to be. Windsor Davies' Sergeant Major Zero proved very popular with the kids and the comedy stories with the grown ups so they just went with what worked for them at the time. They even had a Kate Kestrel song in just about every episode and tried to sell her records. IMHO it was just a fun 80s kids show, not one of Gerry's best but not his worst. Great model designs though! Then the 80s cartoons like Transformers, MASK, Turtles etc took over every kids sci fi show on TV and that was basically the end of supermacromation, with the exception of Gerry's Space Police pilot.
I loved those vehicles
ReplyDeleteOdd toys here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb7puqDyqRk
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EExo3RDSSO8
I actually bought the Kate Kestrel single and the Terrahawks theme on vinyl! Space Precinct did redeem the Anderson shows a little, but TH really was a disappointment for me. I couldn't afford the toys at retail, but snapped them up when they were discounted! Bill
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Terrahawks but am liking your collection miniatures Bill.
ReplyDelete