Jim's 12 Days of Christmas: TV21 Spring Extra 1967

This tattered and forlorn copy of the 1967 TV21 Summer Extra is one of the only remaining copies I have that I actually owned as a child. Complete, but showing its age, all I wanted to share with you guys is still very viewable. By the Summer of 1967 THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO had done the rounds at cinemas across the nation and readers of TV21 were more than familiar with Paul Travers and his companions in their ZERO X adventures. Publishers recognised the popularity of the spectacular space exploration vehicle as a worthy successor to the previously illustrated Mike Noble FIREBALL XL5 so this edition was very much focussed on the concept.  

The background article on the crew and the launch process also gave readers an almost 'Apollo' level of detail which would be seen in reality a few years later when COUNTDOWN showcased the real Moon missions.

The typical snakes and ladders type dice game offered some 'extra' fun for kids stuck in caravans, tents and chalets during what was I'm sure for many a suitably wet Summer holiday.

[below is a poor attempt to splice the two above pictures together. Woodsy]

The back page is also interesting as it shows the latest advert for the JR21 range of THUNDERBIRDS toys and used movie poster art as its basis. Jim Lewis

Tracy Island Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere and back in 1966 the cast of Thunderbirds were celebrating too! In the episode Give or Take a Million you can even see a small fleet of JR21 plastic Thunderbirds toys! I love the line 'nationwide publicity for a sack of toys' - product placement Anderson style! You can see the full hour long episode in 6 parts on You Tube. The JR21 toys appear around the 2 minute mark in Part 1 and then on and off for a while.

And You Thought You Had A Big MLP!

Modern Fred has kindly given me permission to post this fantastic flickr shot of his huge MLP [Mobile Launch Platform]. At 8 feet tall it's a whopper! You can check out more of Modern Fred's fab flickr albums here.

Mike Burrows' Christmas Card

by Mike Burrows 2010

Jim's 12 Days of Christmas: Thunderbirds Are Go Original Film Script

This AP Films Ltd Thunderbirds are Go film script has 167 pages and is the film "as made" and contains many rewrites, either official, denoted by the use of pink paper, or hand written as filming progressed. The script also features the dialogue of the deleted scenes that we sometimes see stills published from. These slot in after the initial ZX crash and the request for IR assistance. Jeff gives a TV interview incognito from Tracy Island with the camera being operated by Brains. Elsewhere, whilst this interview is taking place, Kyrano is interrogated in the usual way by The Hood from his temple. This sequence is followed by scenes showing Lady P and Parker on the way to the US by Fireflash airliner. The take off of Fireflash would have been another highlight of the film. Pictures and text courtesy of ‘Steve Zodiac’

Otherworldly Ocean

A thick blanket of snow covers the land around me and the extreme quiet and eerie glow in the evening makes the landscape appear very unearthly. At times like this i'm drawn to thinking about the surface of other worlds. A recent acquisition which suits this idea is a Johnny Quest Porpoise submarine which might be well suited to exploring the newly discovered seas on Titan or Europa.

 A single seat minisub, its fitted out with manipulator claws, camera and a firing torpedo. The engine is clockwork and drives the sub through the water. Johnny Quest was a cartoon series in the sixties by Hanna Barbera which was revamped in the 90's to include futuristic virtual reality environments and high tec equipment.

To Venus and Mars by Booster

Hard to believe that it's already over 2 months since Wote posted his brilliant pieces on the 1961 American Rocket Group Expo and the origins of the Booster Rocket, where the timeline shifted back to a start year of 1962. Reader Darth has sent in further evidence of the Booster's conception around that time in the form of a paper by Franklin P. Dixon of the Philco [Ford] Corporation most likely from 1962 as well although it isn't date stamped.

The paper is about the Aeronutronics [aka Ford Nucleonics] Empire design and is titled the EMPIRE DUAL PLANET FLYBY MISSION and describes "the EMPIRE study program performed for NASA by Aeronutronic in 1962." EMPIRE stood for "Early Manned Planetary Interplanetary Round Trip Expedition" and the dual planets were Venus and Mars. if anyone would like a copy of the paper, which is in pdf form, let me know and I will consult Darth. In the meantime here are the three key illustrations from the paper.

and by way of comparison here is reader Barry Hinchcliffe's great graphic of the same design posted by Wote in October

and Ed Valigursky's artistic interpretation from the book Man and Space 1964

and finally the final toy product, our friend the Century 21 Booster Rocket from 1967

PS. There's some footage of Aeronutronics at work on You Tube.

Come Into My Laboratory

Catalogue Pic: Darth, Toy Pics: Ebay

Hey Paul,

Wasn't sure if you were aware of this Paya Lunar Laboratory toy. I certainly didn't equate it with the other three large Paya lunar vehicles until I found this catalog page [top picture]. I love the whole lunar laboratory thing, and the NASA logo etc. I'd love to have got my hands on this one!
Best

Darth

Nice one Darth. Beautiful toy. If it's as big as the Paya Climber it'll be a whopper! The multi- wheels are the same as the Climber! And what are those vehicles visible on the TV screens inside the lab? Cool.