2: Thunderbirds Toys – for Girls and Boys
Last time, I looked at the first weeks of Thunderbirds and how young fans of the series (like myself) acted out our own adventures with toys, with existing toys often standing in for the International Rescue vehicles in our imaginations (well, mine at least). My original ‘Thunderbird One’ was played by a friction-drive Gloster Javelin (with realistic sparking engine), which you can see pictured below. It took a few months before any bona fide Thunderbirds toys appeared in the shops, but once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping them.
It wasn’t just the International Rescue vehicles that I wanted to own: my favourite piece of hardware from the series was the Fireflash airliner – arguably a better and more realistic design than any of the Thunderbird craft themselves. Back in 1965, no toy manufacturer would dream of releasing a model of a vehicle that appeared in only a handful of TV episodes, and although our dad valiantly searched the shops that Christmas, no Fireflash toy was to be had (I wonder how many other kids of my age also wanted one?) As a substitute, I received a battery-operated model of the coolest real world aircraft currently available – the ill-fated TSR-2. In real life, the TSR-2 project had been cancelled (by Harold Wilson) by the time I got my hands on the toy, and I knew nothing of its intended purpose (it carried a nuclear payload). Decades later I saw an actual example at RAF Cosford where I'd gone, ironically, to look at a Gerry Anderson exhibition...
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| Thunderbirds 'stand-ins': Left, Gloster Javelin (Thunderbird One), right, TSR2 (Fireflash) |
Apart from the vehicles themselves, the next most essential toy to own was a Thunderbirds outfit. This was available as a complete costume, comprising top, trousers and over-the-shoulder sash/belt, plus, of course, the famous cap. I don’t know whether our toy shop had sold out or whether the price of the complete boxed outfit was too steep, but I ended up with just the cap and the sash, which I had to wear over my ordinary clothes. The cap, being made of black felt, wasn’t exactly true to the series, and was replaced in the autumn of 1966 by a cardboard version given away with TV21 comic (issue 90, dateline October 8 2066). I wore it until I was old enough not to want to play Thunderbirds in the back garden any more, by which time it was held together with sellotape.
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| A near complete set of Thunderbirds dolls (minus TIn Tin), as seen on an auction site last year. The set realised £2,100 |
Spring 1966 had seen the very successful UK launch of Hasbro's GI Joe, rebranded as Action Man for the British market. Many adults were sceptical about a doll for boys, but the new toy was an immediate success, and inspired a range of Thunderbirds characters made in a similar manner, which arrived in toy shops later in the year. All the regular characters were available, and the likenesses were some of the best ever created for action figures. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near as robust as Action Man, being constructed of soft, flimsy plastic and held together internally by staples and elastic. When the staples rusted, your Thunderbirds doll fell to pieces. They were also incredibly hard to find in toy shops – all the Tracy brothers sold out almost immediately. A classmate turned up at school with Scott Tracy, but by the time I got down to the toy shop next weekend, only John Tracy remained. The less popular dolls (including, amazingly, Parker), could still be found in toy shops two or three years later.
1966 was the true 'Thunderbirds Christmas'. J.Rosenthal's range of toys had by now been rebranded 'Century 21', and dozens of other manufacturers had licenced products on the market. TV21 regularly featured whole page colour advertisements promoting the Century 21 range of 'Thunderbirds toys – for girls and boys.' These ads were to be found regularly in the comic (example above), with their last appearance coming in issue 131 in May 1967.
Sound Only Selected
Unless you’d taped episode soundtracks for yourself, the only way to revisit Thunderbirds when not on air was on vinyl. Century 21 records had launched in October of 1965, and amongst its first batch of releases was the Mini-album ‘Introducing Thunderbirds’. I had this bought for me, but didn’t think a lot of it – rather than an episode soundtrack, it was merely Jeff Tracy demonstrating the Thunderbird vehicles (or rather, their sounds) to Lady Penelope and Parker. What the record desperately lacked was music. Music was, of course, an essential part of the series, and I always made sure to hum some Barry Gray themes as I flew my Thunderbirds toys around the living room.
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| The Century 21 'Mini Albums' are launched in TV21, issue 41, 30 October 2065. This was also the first photo of Thunderbird One to appear in the comic. |
Much better record releases were to come – at my birthday in 1966 I was bought the ‘Thunderbird One’ EP, which condensed the pilot episode into a very effective twenty-minute narrative. My brother had the ‘FAB’ record bought for him at the same time, on which could be heard the decidedly iffy vocals of Lady P and Parker warbling a Barry Gray ditty about the Abominable Snowman.
Thunderbirds continued to be a big deal as far as I was concerned. Autumn 1966 saw new episodes appear in a two-part format, along with re-edited versions of the first series, now shown over consecutive evenings, Batman fashion. The series joined TV21 comic in January 1966, and by the end of the year had found its way onto the big screen. I was taken to Birmingham to see the film, my first experience of Thunderbirds in colour. I still recall hearing a child in a nearby seat telling his parents ‘that’s Thunderbird One’ as Zero-X Lift Body One emerged from its hangar. The fool!
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| Century 21 toys' Zero-X (1967) |
Zero-X provided the last of the Century 21 Thunderbirds toys, but it took nearly a year to reach the toyshops and was eventually released alongside the short-lived range of 'Project SWORD' vehicles. As you can see above, Zero-X was one of the most realistic toys ever produced by Century 21. The main body and MEV were independently powered, by batteries, with coloured flashing tail lights at the rear, activated from a walkie-talkie style controller. My brother and myself both received the toy as a present that Christmas and mine remains more or less intact, and boxed to this day. Although it hadn't been run for more than half a century, the motorised MEV, when loaded with batteries, whizzed away across the floor like it was escaping from a hoard of Rock Snakes...
Thunderbirds continued on British television for much of the 1960s, although it was banished for twelve months in 1968 when the ITA decided that ATV had been giving undue prominence to the Anderson productions in the children’s schedules. It also made a difference where you lived: we were in the ATV region, and as financial backers of the series, they kept Thunderbirds on air almost continually from 1969 through to 1971. From November 69, those with colour televisions could see it as it was meant to be seen (I wouldn’t get to see a colour episode myself until 1975).
In part three, I'll look at the 'afterlife' of the series...