A few photos of the JR 21 Thunderbirds 3D Painting set which I believe first appeared around 1966. Obviously, a variation of the painting – by numbers sets, which I seem to remember were quite popular at the time.
It’s notable as using artwork by the late, great Ron Turner, the artist behind the 1950’s Rick Random space detective stories and later the artist who took over The Daleks strip in TV21. His work also appeared in many Century 21 annuals and specials.
Each set would contain one of four different designs; Virgil and Tin-Tin foil the Hood, Thunderbird 1 blasts off, Thunderbird 4 to the rescue, and finally, Lady Penelope scores a hit.
It’s surprising that a lot of these sets seemed to have survived more or less intact over the years; old shop stock perhaps, or just a bit of a chore with the equipment supplied? The set came with a less than useless paint brush, along with 10 small pots of poster colours, which, looking at them would probably run out before you’d finished! Creativity could run wild, but I suspect the end result would more than likely find itself in the bin!
The gimmick was the 3D effect. The set featured three cards with detailed line illustrations, and once painted could be suitably cut out and fixed in front of one another creating a three-dimensional effect.
Finally, the box doubled as a picture frame.
As a youngster, during the sixties heyday of ‘Thunderbirds mania’ I think it’s fair to say I preferred the JR21 toys of the actual Thunderbird craft. However, my eyes would occasionally be drawn to other items of colourful Thunderbirds merchandise, as is this case in point.
I don’t think I would have specifically asked for it, but I’d imagine the Thunderbirds 3D Painting set would have probably been bought for me by an aunt or uncle as a birthday or Christmas present.
Adverts for it appeared in comics at the time. This one appeared in Lady Penelope comic during the latter part of 1966, and TV21 offered it as a competition prize in early1967.
