Looking at this famous shot of Derek Meddings and the Fireflash [courtesy of lester demon nl] I can see various die-cast toy vehicles just below the control tower [what can you see?]
I've long pondered how Century 21 Toys/ JR21 Toys made the Thunderbird 5 toy in the Sixties and often perused the web and books for hints as to what the parts were from.
I say parts because its been long conjectured by collectors that the C21/ JR21 TB5 toy was made up of other existing toys. In other words the main brown body and the engine were from existing toys.
Ten years ago I posed this same question and I established a link between the toy's clone by Soma and an obscure ice crusher! Whether this assisted in the search for the origin of the JR21 toy I don't know, but you can read it here https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-saucer-full-of-secrets-soma.html
Have you any idea what the original toy was readers? is it a toy you own? Do you like it?
What is a bit clearer is the way Derek Medding's team made the actual Thunderbird 5 model for the TV show as some research has already been done by long-time Andersonist Marc J .Frattasio back in 1996! Published on the SuperM site, Thunderbird 5's origin can be found at the end of the Thunderbirds vehicles page http://lester.demon.nl/superm/tech/sfx/tbirds/models0.html
Do you like Thunderbird 5 readers? Is it an effective model and design for the show?
