It’s been nearly thirty years since Thunderbirds, Stingray
and Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 began a spell of being repeated nationally in the
UK.
With these repeat broadcasts came a fresh new line of
merchandise for those four series.
While I like all the Supermarionation shows, I do have a
particular fondness for Stingray, and can still remember watching the first
episode when it was first broadcast in 1964.
So, consequently, I was pleased that Matchbox released this line
of Stingray action figures and play sets from the famous sixties TV series
following on from the success of the initial BBC UK television repeats
beginning with Thunderbirds in 1991.
This had prompted Matchbox to produce what became a very successful new
Thunderbirds toy range in 1992, including the sell-out Tracy Island.
It transpires that in 1990, BBC Radio 5, adapted and
transmitted eight of the Century 21 Records Thunderbirds audio dramas. This
proved a success and the BBC decided to acquire the rights to show the TV
series on UK television.
BBC 2 began broadcasting the series in September, 1991, and
over its first run the series was watched on average by six million
viewers. The BBC, knowing they were on
to a good thing, repeated Stingray shortly after.
New toys, books and comics began to appear, with Matchbox
releasing a twin pack die-cast Stingray and Terror Fish.
The two die-cast toys, although small are reasonably
accurate, and relatively robust, apart from the little clear plastic periscope
on Stingray which is prone to being broken off. The weak points on the Terror
Fish are the plastic fins.
The bubble-packaging shows the classic pose of the craft
leaping out of the ocean.
The carded back has brief descriptions of both Stingray and
the Terror Fish, plus a photo of the rest of the range.
The Marineville Headquarters: This action play set features
Marineville Tower with a removable top, showing the control room. Everything is
a passable, but not particularly accurate representation, of the Tower and the
surrounding base. It can slide down into
its underground silo, just like in the show, and the two detachable Hydromic
Missiles can emerge from their silos ready to defend the base. As it’s very
much a toy, I would have expected the missiles to have been spring-loaded, but
I imagine health & safety rules might have scuppered that!
The separately supplied small die-cast Stingray can berth behind
the opening ocean door waiting to launch, which for tiny fingers could be a
fiddly operation. Just for the record, in the TV series the ocean door slides
down; on the toy for practical reasons, it pushes up.
One thing that the toy suffers from is the colours fading
over time from blue to a sea green. Apt, I suppose. Old Stingray toys from the
sixties don’t seem to have this problem.
Matchbox produced a range of Stingray action figures, although not as
many as Thunderbirds, with just five in the set. All are very nicely detailed,
with fairly good facial representations, and all come with a small accessory.
The card back has a brief description of the character.
Captain Troy Tempest with hand gun accessory. It certainly
has a passing resemblance to the puppet. He’s even got that one raised eyebrow.
Commander Sam Shore in his hover-chair; the chair is a dark
blue plastic, rather than light & dark green as in the series. The figure
of Commander Shore figure is just a torso, presumably for production reasons, and
comes with hand gun accessory.
Marina, the girl from the sea: As Marina is wearing her
seaweed dress, she has limited articulation. She also comes with a hand gun. I
think I’d have preferred a different accessory, though, maybe a little figure
of Oink the seal.
Titan, the evil Sea lord: He comes minus his cloak, which
makes him look a bit half-dressed to me, but again, probably down to production
reasons. He comes with a nicely detailed
aquaphibian rifle, presumably for added play value. I don’t recall him using a rifle in the
series.
Lieutenant ‘Phones’ Sheridan: Again, the figure actually
looks like Phones and has a different rank insignia on his cuffs, when compared
to the Troy figure. He naturally comes
with a set of hydrophones. I note that this
figure seems to have been added a little later as it doesn’t appear on the full
range photo on the card backs.
I would have liked to have seen a few more
figures- Atlanta, X-20, and an Aquaphibian; and maybe at a push, Lieutenant
Fisher.
For the figures, Matchbox produced a large Stingray action
submarine. The toy is 13” (330 mm) long and fits two of the figures, by
removing the detachable cabin cover.
Actually, it fits two
figures that can bend their legs, so Marina and Commander Shore are out.
Curiously,
the figure of Shore is shown sitting in the toy on the packaging, but he must
have been separated from his chair otherwise he just wouldn’t fit. I’m thinking, that’s where Phone got his
action figure call up orders, otherwise Troy would be sharing Stingray with
Titan, and that just wouldn’t do.
It comes with four spring-loaded firing sting missiles which
are placed into the opening torpedo bays on each side of the toy.
It has a hand-rotated rear propulsion unit, and a
retractable periscope.
Like the Marineville play set, this toy suffers from colour
fading, with the cabin and the blue strip hull detail turning green.
I don’t know how many of these toys were released by
Matchbox, but by all indications there are still plenty of cheap, inexpensive
examples turning up on the second-hand market, with many in pretty good unused condition. Good news
for Stingray fans who maybe missed out on the nineties revival.
