Toys Used In Thunderbirds

Matteline 1967 has done a whole series of You Tube videos on the models, kits, and toys, that served as the basis of the craft used in various Gerry Anderson productions, or provided detailing parts. 

In this video he looks at the plastic, tinplate, and die-cast toys that were used.

Some were used almost straight, with just a little re-painting and weathering, others were extensively modified. 

Very interesting. Do you agree?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlD912KKMhA

Paul Adams from New Zealand

GRIZZLED!

Have you seen Grizzly, the wilderness 'horror' film from the 1970's?

As you can imagine its about a Grizzly bear running amok in an American National Park and eating the campers. There are some tense moments amongst the ranger chatter, especially as the beast approaches its prey and virtually no-one goes home without a bear hug.

It was panned at the time of its release as a brazen JAWS clone and to be fair there are many elements that the director has nicked from Speilberg: the der-der music during stalking, the flying severed arm and most starkly, the ending, which I've leave at that in case you watch it!

But I enjoyed GRIZZLY. I always wanted to be a National Park ranger in the UK. I studied nature conservation for 3 years including national park management but alas in the 80's all the jobs were in Cities and I ended up part of the urban conservation 'industry' and got based in a Leeds environmental charity, where I stayed for 20 years! I am a creature of habit if nothing else! I certainly never came across any Grizzly bears. 

I also like GRIZZLY because it captures something I imagine has gone in the US, the atmospheric olde-worlde mountain restaurant where the walls are made of redwood logs and the big wood fire is always burning, casting a soft light onto healthy-looking hikers sipping brandy from huge bowled glasses. Aah.

It also reminds me of two other films I enjoyed; Prophecy about a mutated bear monster and the very similar Snowbeast repleat with chisel-jawed mountain men too. Grizzly was very successful financially and I bet it beat these two into a cocked hat.

GRIZZLY had one 'official' bit of merchandise as far as I can tell and its quite sought after by the looks of it: the GRIZZLY rubber bear by Imperial Toys [yes, they who brought us Apollo Moon Exploring!]. 

The Imperial bear seems to have been an example of the 'hey, quick, slap a header card on that old toy and get it in the shops and we'll make a few bucks!" school of marketing!

They already had a growling polar bear in stock and when GRIZZLY came out they painted it and shipped it out. I imagine the header card was the first thing to go and few will have survived unlike the tough rubber bear. 

Having said that I found this pic online of three Imperial Grizzlies all with their 'official' card labels present and correct! Looking at it again I see that the word Grizzly, in its correct film font, is TM'd on the card. Could Imperial have actually got a licence for this toy?

Did you or do you have a Grizzly?

      Image: Mego Talk

*

Addendum!

Here's Brian F's Grizzly toy in front of a MC post!!

Grrrrr!

READERS SPOTTING TOYS: ARTO'S SEVENTIES TOYS IN SEE NO EVIL

Just watched See No Evil (1971), a cherry of Brit horror of the early Seventies. Not sure if you are aware of these toy shots in the opening credits, at 0.55 mark on the YouTube clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELkRmGb-NzU

Arto

Helsinki Base

Airfix Kits in Thunderbirds on You Tube

Here is another video from Matteline 1967, looking at various kits, mainly by Airfix, and how the parts were used on various vehicles and buildings in Thunderbirds.

Most of the kits are from the Airfix Trackside range, such as the Footbridge, Travelling Crane, railway Signal Gantry, and others; along with the SR.N1 Hovercraft. There are also a few US kits by Revell and AMT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN77RPBVUjY&t=19s

Paul Adams from New Zealand

DUELS IN THE DUST

 Can you name the toys visible in this still from the 1971 road thriller with Dennis Weaver, Duel?

SUDDENLY SOME TOYS

 I was off work one day in January with Vertigo brought on by olive oil dribbling in my ears.

As I normally do after an poorly-sick sleep I recuperate later with some afternoon telly.

As usual I often spot something bloggable.

The UK TV show Homes under the Hammer was on. I don't normally watch it but the abandoned house's contents caught my eye. Scattered all over a bedroom were games and oddments from yesteryear. I've screengrabbed them. What can you see?

After Homes I watched Suddenly, an old black and white thriller with Frank Sinatra playing an assassin hell-bent on bringing the President's career to an end. The town of Suddenly was the setting, hence the film's mysterious title.

At the start of the flick a kid peers yearningly through a toy shop window. he wants a cap gun and the local sheriff buys him one because he fancies the kid's mother!

Anyways, here's the toy shop window screengrabbed for your enjoyment. See anything you like?

Oh, and that final grab, M & N Market. Is that a real shop? Was it a chain? Anyone know?

Have you seen any toys in films and in TV shows? Piccies welcomed!

REFRIGERATED TRUCK MYSTERY: SOLVED

I saw this refrigerated truck on an old sale by Blue Box and thought, hmmn, Gerry Anderson, but i can't think where I've seen something like it on his shows.

You?

*

UPDATE:

Kev has got it, the Captan Scarlet Swift Removals van!

Here's Kev's own kit version all made up. How cool is that!

ACTION MAN ON THE LOOSE

Did you hear the one about the dad who gave his son an empty Action Man box? Its the Action Man Deserter he said!

I think I saw that deserter the other day.

A chap ran by the car dressed exactly like the Action Man footballer I had as a kid. Red top, white shorts, baggy red woolly socks and black footy shoes. I had to look twice! He had the same thin legs as my Action Man too! ha ha. All that was missing were the dog tags!

Googling the footballer again I was amazed to see that you get a new 50th Anniversary re-issue  from Amazon for just shy of thirty squid! The picture above is one of their's. Oddly it's described as for adult collectors only and is not a toy! Why not?

Seeing it again reminded me of my own in the mid-Sixties. I adored Action Man and had loads of the uniforms. I had the cricketer too and I remember the plastic base it came with topped by fake grass!

Back in 2006 when I was a full-time old toy trader I sold a few Action Man figures I got as payment for a cellar clearance I did.  It included the cricketer. Here's a snap of it from my attic office back then. Howzat!

Have you seen any real-life Action Men and do you like the sports figures?

MYSTERY THUNDERBIRDS TRUCKS

This Thunderbirds still shows two truck-type vehicles which I'm sure were toys.

Anyone recognise them?

PHANTOM FIGURES FROM FILMS

Fans of Colourforms Outer Space Men will recognise Electron+, The Man from Pluto.

[pic:MCWToys]

Toy creator Mel Birnkrant's inspiration came from the movie The Man from Planet X [1951].

Mel's genius for absorbing older fantasy and sci-fi references into his Outer Space Men has always fascinated me.

I often wonder which other films influenced space figure toys?

To get the ball rolling here's one I'm throwing in the ring.

See the red helmeted guy in this poster for Phantom From Space [1953].....

.... well check out this action figure, a Gi Joe miniature Deep Sea Diver!

What do you think?

Have you any ideas?

SEASTAR5 UPDATE BY RICHARD DIXON

Hi Paul......Happy new year to you mate....sorry its been a while since I sent you anything over.....have been busy of late so here's a few images recently completed.....feel free to share with your readers.....Best regards Richard Dixon ....

PICTURE ONE - BLACK VIMANA BATTLE CRUISER - IMPERIAL LEMURIAN SUB CRAFT - WEAPONS FIRE - FROM SEASTAR 5 EPISODE NINE.....SEASTAR 5 THE SERIES .

PICTURE TWO - DSR -1 TAURUS - FLYING SUB CRAFT - FROM THE SEASTAR 5 - OVER THE REEF.....UNDERSEA MODEL LANDSCAPE ON THIS WAS BIG - SIX FEET WIDE AND FIVE FEET DEEP.....ALL UNDERSEA EFFECTS ADDED LATER IN POST PRODUCTION.

PICTURE THREE - USS ATLANTIS - AT MIDAS BUILDING DOCK WHARF - HAWAII.....ANOTHER LARGE MODEL SET - FOUR FEET IN HEIGHT AND THREE FEET IN WIDE......SEASTAR 5 THE SERIES.

PICTURE FOUR.....SEASTAR 5 COMES UNDER ATTACK FROM THE IMPERIAL FORCES OF LEMURIA.....ALL VFX / UNDERSEA EFFECTS ADDED IN POST PRODUCTION.....SEASTAR 5 EPISODE NINE - SEASTAR 5 THE SERIES .

PICTURE FIVE .....TYRANNIAN UNDERSEA PATROL CRUISER MOVING THROUGH THE CAVE ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERSEA CITY OF PATHOS - CAPITAL CITY OF THE UNDERSEA EMPIRE OF TYRRANIA - North Pacific.....A SCENE FROM EPISODE NINE - SEASTAR 5 - SEASTAR 5 PHOTO STORY SERIES .

Finally we have the first poster image of my latest studio creation - SINBAD GOLD RAIDER HEROES -



this is a new photo story model animation series which has just started this week in production....its my latest promotional item for the services / work expertise I do for the Toy Industry and Children's Comics.....its being made in a digital photography format with miniatures and should be released - in its first episode later in the year.....

images from the production should be available in the spring.......based on the Arabian Knights tales of Sinbad the Sailor - my inspired take on this will be different in some ways from what has previously been done - more on this very soon.....

Latest on SEASTAR 5.......now with nine episodes of the photo story series completed....it can easily all be seen by ...just Google me " RICHARD DIXON TPD STUDIOS - select the studio Home Page for the complete SEASTAR 5 menu from the search results.......all will then be revealed....

Thanks again Paul for putting my images on your site ....appreciate it .

Will keep in touch on progress on SINBAD .

Best Regards

Richard Dixon
UK

TALES FROM THE RIVERBANK: A NEW FAN

Continuing the boat theme like a lazy Monday sail, I did something special on Saturday.

I watched two TV programmes with my nearly-two-year old Grandson that I watched as a kid in the 1960's! Now that's the power on the interweb and in particular You Tube [watching old programmes on VHS with kids was a similar experience back in the 80's and 90's].

The two programmes [or parts - he got bored!] were Tales of the Riverbank and Trumpton.

I adored Tales from the Riverbank as I was and still am a nature nut. All those mice, hamsters and rats was a no-brainer. Throw in Johnny Morris's elastic voice and I wuz hooked! Hammy Hamster ruled!

Here's the short episode I chose for Moonbase Junior, GP's Medicine, which we watched full-screen on my phone no less!

They sail round in it in a beautiful little motor boat. Anyone any idea what it was? A toy? A prop? Its a lovely looking thing and the whole show was a complete delight. I think Moonbase Junior liked it. 

For some reason I recall Tales from the Riverbank being in black and white rather than colour. I will never forget the gorgeous theme tune though. Anyone know who wrote and played it?

Did you like Tales of the Riverbank readers? Black and White or colour series?

WITCH DOLLS

I saw these two dolls on an old Seven Arts-Hammer shocker last night, The Witches, from 1966.

Does anyone know which dolls these are?

PROPS USED IN THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO 1966

I originally wrote these two posts 5 years ago.

As we have been talking about props I thought I'd re-blog them together.

*

Thunderbirds Are Go, the Andersons' first of two Thunderbirds movies, is a real treat for any Project SWORD fan simply because the star of the film is Zero-X.

WOTAN recently gave me the DVD version, which I watched this week. With its brilliant effects, fantastic imagery and superb musical score, here are a few other things I noticed about the film.

The Zero-X appears in a Newspaper in the movie [top picture], which is an artist's impression. 

Comparing it with Derek Medding's original concept painting [bottom; looked on by Sylvia Anderson] its clear that they are the same. It does feel only right that a film about Zero-X should include it's origin like this and it was a nice touch by the Director David Lane. 

I wonder what happened to the painting?

When the MEV is trundling round Mars and fighting rock snakes it deploys a machine gun from it's roof [below, bottom pic]. 

As soon as I saw it I thought of the Action Man machine gun I had as a kid [below, top]. 

Comparing the two there are some similarities but they're not the same. Presumably the movie gun was made by the prop department.

Finally, we have the grey rocket rests of Thunderbird 3 [below, top] and the Zero-X escape pod [below, bottom]. 

I'm sure I've read somewhere that these are parts from an old vacuum cleaner like Hoover but I can't find any reference to it. 

Does any one else know anything about this?

*

My last post on the movie Thunderbirds Are Go generated two great clues from Yorkie and Kevin about more stuff possibly used in the film: the Johnny Seven One Man Army and Dr. Who's Sonic Screwdriver. 

Armed with a strong cup of coffee and the two clues I searched the movie on You Tube for evidence.

It turns out that Yorkie's Johnny Seven sighting was bang on as you'll hopefully see from the two screengrabs on the left below. 

The Johnny Seven has indeed been modified into the cable-shooting gun Alan fires from Thunderbird 2 to attach a line to the stricken Zero-X. 

Besides the overall shape of the toy, the main giveaways are the classic Topper riveting and the circular embossing on the 'rear' side of the toy, the side with the maker's mark and name.

The lower of the two comparisons of both guns from the front clearly shows the dark aperture on the Thunderbirds device, the which formed one end of the slot for the spring-loaded grenade launcher on the toy. 

Although morphed and painted grey, there was definitely a Johnny Seven on board Thunderbird 2 in Thunderbirds Are Go! Result!

This leads onto Kevin's suggestion that Alan Tracy's tool used to repair the Zero-X was in fact the sonic screwdriver used by Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who. 

Looking into this I was able to get a good screengrab of the Zero-X repair tool from Thunderbirds Are Go, which you can see above left. 

The Pertwee screwdriver proved more elusive and the best shot I could grab was one from the Doctor Who story The Green Death, where the good Doctor is brandishing it in his hand in a landscape of mining of spoil. 

Even though the sonic screwdriver is partly obscured you can still make out enough detail to see that Kevin is indeed right. They appear to be the same!

As you can imagine, anything to do with Doctor Who has been poured over by countless fans and the origin of the sonic screwdriver is no exception. 

The story was brilliantly researched by purpleblancmange in 2009. 

It really is a truly fascinating read on the subject, involving Century 21 no less and corroborates Kevin's observation.

The Zero-X repair tool did in fact become the Sonic Screwdriver!

Thunderbirds Are Time Lords! 

Excellent!

Any more prop stories readers?

A L I E N and the Action Birdie

I caught ALIEN on the box recently and solved a mystery that's been bugging me for ages.

In the 1979 film can be seen some dangly springy plastic toy creatures in one of the Nostromo's doorways.

For yonks I've wondered what they are.....until now!

They are ...... Action Birdies!

Described as Patio and Room Decorations these slinky birds dangle and doingle from ceilings. I'm pretty sure we had one at home in the Seventies. Don't know the make. Do You?

You can even get modern re-issues!

They're called Hoptimist Busy birds

I can't find the scene in ALIEN where they appear though. i think its in a doorway near Mother. 

Can anyone help?

I'm not the only one who thinks about these things either! On Worthpoint's listing for an Action Birdie [pics courtesy of Worthpoint] the seller said 

"I believe there was a scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey that showed an Action Birdie in the spacecraft."

Its in ALIEN though isn't it readers?

The Galoob Giant Command Centre in the movie BIG

Having read that the Galoob Giant Command toy, which I posted a video of last night, makes an appearance in the old Tom Hanks film BIG, I thought I'd track it down.

Here's the video clip. It appears straight away in the young lad's hands. Its not there for long! Turn it off after a few seconds as the rest of the film rolls after that. I also had to choose this strange doctored You Tube version as its the only full version of BIG I could find of line.

https://youtu.be/IEsWT22GDzc?t=41m47s

Tom Hanks says it only cost ten bucks to make! The toy that is, not the film!

Although I'm particularly interested in multi-wheeled toys, largely down to the Scramble Bug I had as a kid, there are tons of other toys in BIG as well. They are vintage now but back then they were straight from the toy store store where Tom Hanks worked in the film!

Most of these toys have been ID'd already and quicker minds than mine have already done the work so here's Dinosaur Dracula's excellent take on the toys in BIG.

http://dinosaurdracula.com/blog/toys-from-big/

Have you spotted any other toys in this flick or any other film?

Cheers and movies: brian's cheesy connections

New Jersey reader and Cheers fan Brian has dug out some info on those Cheers actors we were discussing this morning here on MB!

Brian says:

John Ratzenberger, above, of Cheers fame had roles in these horror/sci fi flicks. He played a "guy in a toga" in Warlords of Atlantis!

And a punk rocker in a delightfully sickening tale called Motel Hell, concerning a pair of farmers who turn the guests at their country inn into sausages! 

George Wendt (NORM!) ....

 .... deserves a shout out for his role in HOUSE too!

Woodsy says as an aside: I've blogged about the excellent movie House and its vintage toy props and lead actor William Katt before. He first made a splash as Tommy Ross, the doomed arm-candy of Sissy Spacek's Carrie. 

He was also auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker, which amazingly is still available for viewing on You Tube!

movie dolls

Its great fun spotting toys in old films and TV shows and we've done it many times on MC.

Whilst unable to sleep because of a pesky cough last night I watched an old Hammer called The Witches from 1966. A superb shriek of folk horror about witchcraft in Sixties rural England, the movie features two vintage fashion dolls.

Here's the female one in the hands of a young girl stood next to a bric-a-brac stall [what else in on there?].

I can't find a grab of the male doll, which the above boy gives the girl in a blued cardboard box.

I'm no expert on fashion dolls although I have bought and sold quite a few. Bearing in mind this film was made in 1966 by a British company I think the pair of dolls are Sindy and Paul by Palitoy but I'm not sure at all.

Maybe someone who's seen the Witches can let me know!

*

And so to another 'fashion' doll. When the Zero-X MEV in Thunderbirds Are Go is trundling round Mars and fighting rock snakes it deploys a machine gun from it's roof [bottom pic, unfortunately dark]. 

As soon as I saw it I thought of the Action Man machine gun I had as a kid [top]. Comparing the two there are some similarities but they're not the same. Presumably the movie gun was made by the prop department.

Can you think of any more fashion dolls in films?

LASERBLAST: SHOULD I BOTHER?

Reading about Laserblast [1978] in my Halliwell's Film Guide stationed in the khazi I was excited about mention of many cereal-packet style model spacecraft. So from the bog to the blog I did a little research.

Alas, my laser-zest faded when I scanned the only copy I could find on You Tube, the Mystery Science Thearte 3K version. Skimming through the whole 90 minutes I could see just one spaceship, which was not a breakfast cereal model. I was gutted.

Laserblast appears to be a sort of bullied-kid-finds-alien-blaster-and-seeks-revenge sort of flick. Every review I have read describes it as a lame, trashy, cheapo turkey and just plain bad. 

The only positive comment I could find was about the stop motion aliens, which look like a cross between the Eraserhead baby and ET.

Amazingly it has a really sizable page on Wikipedia, which suggests some Laserblast love somewhere.

Usually I will give a film a whirl but the sheer number of moans about Laserblast have put me off.

Should I bother to watch it readers?

TWISTED NERVE: MOON EXPLORER MYSTERY SOLVED!

Here's what she's [Haley Mills] referring to Woodsy.

19 seconds into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MNVGcF8neM

Sadly the only thing one can make out is that it was battery operated...

Hope it helps anyway, perhaps it rings a bell amongst the readership.

Best -- Paul V

*

Hi Woodsy, 

The Horror Channel comes up with some good classic British stuff. 

I've stumbled across a Youtube link (below) which features the Twisted Nerve toy shop opening scene. 

Twisted Nerve

From what we're shown of the box, it looks like Susan is asking about the the Alps Moon Explorer robot. 

I can also see the Marx Trumpton Climbing Fireman and an unboxed Horikawa Mr. Zerox. Great toys, great film :)

All the best, Tony K 

* 

Woodsy says: thanks Paul and Tony for such a swift response! Between you you've nailed it! 

Here's some footage of the Alps Moon Explorer Robot on You Tube too.

One last thing, what's Haley Mills got in her hand in the picture at the top?