Tag Archives: Gerry Anderson

Thunderbirds to the Rescue!

Back in the 1960s if you needed rescuing and didn’t mind your rescuers being supported by a few wires then the Thunderbirds were there to save the day! Equipped with three flying rescue vehicles, a space station, one submarine, and a seemingly endless range of land based paraphernalia, the Tracey brothers were prepared for any situation. Piloted by Scott, Thunderbird 1 was perhaps the vehicle deployed most frequently, being able to fly like a plane, take off like a rocket, and hover like a helicopter. Or more accurately a Harrier jump-jet. This amazing recreation of the first Thunderbird is the work of Gary Davis of Flickr who has used some serious skill and a lot of pieces to recreate the famous aircraft in an enormous scale. He’s also managed to get it signed by the actor who voiced Scott in the series, which is a nice addition. Take a trip to Tracey Island via the link above for all the photos of Gary’s incredible build!

Seventies Escape

This TLCB writer wasn’t around in the 1970s, but from the remnants that exist today it seems like it was pretty bleak time in ’70s Britain. Everyone was on strike, nothing worked properly, and everything was brown.

Hence British TV series ‘UFO‘, written by Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett creator Gerry Anderson, and set in the near future of 1980, UFO offered some escapism from the drudgery of 1970s Britain. At least for a year, as it only lasted from 1970 to 1971.

UFO featured some pretty cool vehicles though, as is Anderson’s hallmark, and this is one of them; the S.H.A.D.O Interceptor, deployed to protect the secret moonbase from where operations against the alien invasion of 1980 could be orchestrated.

This slick mini-figure recreation of the Interceptor comes from previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Andrea Lattanzio aka Norton74, joining his previously featured UFO Command Centre, and was suggested to us by a reader. There’s more to see at Andrea’s photostream – click the link above to escape for yourself.

Cartoon Scarlet

What do spaghetti-O parasitic aliens fear most of all? Well according to Gerry Anderson, it’s a pointily-styled hatchback with a tail fin stuck on the roof. All is not what it seems though, as the driver of said hatchback has fortunately acquired the aliens’ powers of regeneration, rendering him ‘virtually indestructible’.

Captain Scarlet fought the Mysterons from Mars between 1967 and 1968, and if we’re honest we have no idea whether he and his Spectrum colleagues succeeded in thwarting the alien threat, so vague was the series’ ending. Still, it was miles better than Stingray…

This cheeky cartoon recreation of Scarlet’s Spectrum Patrol Car comes from serial bloggee Redfern1950s, and is beautifully constructed in his trademark style. There’s more to see at Red’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump to puppet-based sci-fi circa 1967.

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