n 2064, billionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy and his five sons formed International Rescue, an organization devoted to saving lives. Privately funded by Tracy's wealth, the organization also employed the expertise of rocket engineer Brains and relied on London Special Agent Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and her chauffeur, Parker, for intelligence operations worldwide.
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson created this series in 1964. It ran for 32 episodes and spawned two full-length feature films. It was very popular worldwide. Its signature vehicles and equipment, and its "fab" designs, are recognized immediately almost everywhere. And one of the things that was so unusual about this show is that it was all done with high-tech electronic puppets and miniatures.
Thunderbird 1 is a small, high-powered rocket that speeds toward rescue zone at speeds of up to 15,000 miles an hour to assess the situations and set up a mobile base. Its pilot is Scott Tracy, the eldest sibling.
Thunderbird 2 is a large cargo transport piloted by Virgil Tracy. TB2 carries various pods to the danger zone filled with highly specialized rescue vehicles and equipment. One of the most famous vehicles it carries is the Jet Mole, capable of borrowing deep underground.
Thunderbird 3, piloted by Alan Tracy, is the organization's large rocket, used in outer-space rescues.
Thunderbird 4 is the small submarine piloted by Gordon Tracy, and is used in all underwater rescue operations. Thunderbird 4 is carried to the rescue zone by Thunderbird 2.
Thunderbird 5 is an orbiting space station that constantly monitors all radio frequencies, filtering them out for calls to International Rescue. The reclusive John Tracy mans this station.
Vivid Imaginations has created the most recent toys based on this endearing series. The main ships range from four to eight inches in length and include sound chips that emit spoken segments when a button is pressed.
Thunderbird 1 has scissor-wing action. Thunderbird 2 has a detachable pod that includes Thunderbird 4 and the Jet Mole. Thunderbird 3 has no extra features, nor does the gorgeous FAB-1 six-wheeled Rolls Royce owned by Lady Penelope and driven by Parker.
Superior style, but
inferior sounds
The original craft for this show, as well as all miniatures and special effects, were designed by Derek Meddings, famous also for working the same magic for most of the James Bond films until his death in 1995. What he brought to the show was a visual concept that permeated all of Anderson's series, which gave the whole body of work a marvelous look and feel that has become legend.
The classic designs of these ships are well represented by Vivid's modelers. Thunderbird 1 mixes a sleek, bullet-like rocket body with scissor wings and a bulky heat-sink rear section that forms a perfect elegance that is hard to find in science-fiction design.
Thunderbird 2 is a large, green, bulky ship with then-innovative forward-sweeping wings, a central pod and two large red jet engines. Where even the most experienced companies have failed to perfectly capture its intriguing contours, Vivid has far exceeded those efforts.
The interesting thing about Lady Penelope's pink Rolls Royce is that not only does it have four front wheels, but, the design was officially approved by the Rolls Royce Company. Its gorgeous lines are also hard to capture. The 1993 Matchbox die-cast failed miserably. This toy captures its curves and edges better than most available.
There are two major problems with this line. The first is most obvious on Thunderbird 2. All of this toy's functionality, including spring-loaded legs, a lever to drop the central pod, and the button to trigger the sound samples, are bright red, detracting from the dark-green hull of the craft. At least on Thunderbirds 1 and 3, and FAB-1, the buttons are painted the same color as the body, making them slightly less obtrusive.
The second is the sound segments themselves. They are tinny and of low quality, but worse, they seem to use voices other than those of the highly recognizable original actors. And it seems clear that it's not just the result of the bad sound electronics.
Still, the line is gorgeous, and will bring back the memory of this show with razor sharpness for those who grew up with it.
