Thunderbirds Interactive Tracy Island Playset, Multicolored

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The original Blue Peter clip is available online (the BBC at the time also sent out instructions to those who requested them). In it Anthea Turner informs people they'll get a lot of fun out of making their own Tracy Island out of household junk. I can now speak for every parent dragged into this early 90s maelstrom that no, you won't. For Thunderbird One's hangar, Blue Peter again suggests a yoghurt pot - Anthea assures viewers she thinks 'a cream pot would be alright' as long as you make sure Thunderbird 1 fits inside. No longer having a Thunderbird 1 I decided to use the cold coffee cup mentioned above as it would probably be ok.

The series focused on the head of the organisation, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, and his five sons who piloted the "Thunderbird" machines. A popular show, the series is still shown today and has inspired a number of subsequent television programmes and films. Several companies, including Matchbox and Dinky Toys were licensed to produce die-cast metal and plastic toys based on the Thunderbird vehicles. They proved hugely popular and were one of the best selling merchandising lines of the decade. Original Thunderbirds toys are now expensive and highly sought after collectors' items. For kids whose parents didn't manage to buy one and didn't fancy brawling in Woolworths or paying a marked up price on a dodgy pub car park, things looked bleak in the winter of 1992. However, help was at hand from long-running BBC staple Blue Peter. a b "Retro-futuristic". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Trinity Mirror Midlands. 2004. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014 . Retrieved 2 February 2014. Over 50 Years of Toy of the Year". BBC News Online. 11 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. Although that description makes it sound like the Thunderbirds vehicles are included with the set they are in fact sold separately.Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation".

Tracy Island is the secret headquarters of the International Rescue organisation in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds and its adaptations. In the original series, the heavily camouflaged island is located in the South Pacific Ocean and is home to the Tracy family, scientists Brains and Tin-Tin, and housekeeper Kyrano. The name "Tracy Island" originates in Thunderbirds comic strips and other tie-ins; within the series, the characters simply refer to it as International Rescue's "base". For the 2004 live-action film, the main shooting location for the island exteriors was North Island in the Seychelles. Co-producer Mark Huffam described Tracy Island as "the most idyllic[...] imaginable, with crystal-clear waters, tropical jungle and mountainous peaks", adding that it was "fantastic" that North Island provided "all these essential elements". Various locations on Praslin, including Anse Lazio beach and Vallée de Mai nature preserve, were also used. [7] Edwardes, Charlotte (22 October 2000). " Thunderbirds Are Gone in Clamour for Classic Toys". telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2020. Robinson, Neil (21 December 2000). " Thunderbirds Have Gone". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2020.It was the fourth Supermarionation puppet TV series to be produced by APF. Previous shows included Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Stingray. Supermarionation used a form of electronic marionette puppetry combined with scale model special effects sequences. Derek Meddings, special effects supervisor on the puppet series, described his excitement at designing Tracy Island as "one of those feelings you get when you're a kid, imagining that you're Robinson Crusoe living on a lovely island." [6] The pile of 'junk' gathered to build Tracy Island (Image: Tom Burnett/BerkshireLive) All about that base

Moon, Naomi (23 December 2020). "Lancashire Nostalgia in 1992: New PNE Manager; Christmas Toy Craze; and Confused Cat Burglars". lep.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 December 2020 . Retrieved 24 December 2020. Kamen, Matt (9 February 2015). "ITV offers first look at Thunderbirds reboot's miniature sets". wired.co.uk. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020 . Retrieved 30 August 2020. White, Jim (26 September 2005). "Wilson talked of technology – and along came Thunderbirds". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014 . Retrieved 14 September 2023. However in some other areas it would not stay on - the papier mache was still wet and I had dared to hope that would do the job. However I resorted to using some tape.

a b c Blair, Andrew (2 February 2016). "Remembering '90s Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet Toys". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. a b "A Basic History of Popular Toys". toyretailersassociation.co.uk. Toy Retailers Association. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Cumming, Ed (7 January 2023). "How a Blue Peter model became a TV phenomenon". telegraph.co.uk . Retrieved 19 October 2023. MacDonald, Marianne (21 August 1995). " Thunderbirds Are Going, Going, Gone". independent.co.uk. Independent Print. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016 . Retrieved 16 February 2020. A shopper gets her hands on Tracy Island after an early visit to Toys R Us. Bizarrely this photo isn't from 1992 - it is from 2000 when Thunderbirds was repeated again and the same thing happened with toy issues (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

a b Cope, Nigel (10 December 1992). "Toys rise above the recession: The unpredictable dictates of fashion can mean a nightmare for manufacturers and panic for parents". independent.co.uk. Independent Print. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2020. Blue Peter Makes a Thunderbirds Tracy Island' on BBC Video". videocollector.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 July 2016 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. Daly, Emma (13 September 2015). "Anthea Turner still has that Blue Peter Tracy Island". radiotimes.com. Immediate Media Company. Archived from the original on 10 February 2018 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. In 1992, Tracy Island became a phenomenon in the UK, after Thunderbirds was re-run on BBC2 and generated massive interest in Thunderbird related toys. The Tracy Island playset was top of many Christmas lists but large demand resulted in a shortage that left many parents and children upset. The centrepiece of the island is the Tracy Villa, the home of the island's residents. Various features of the original series' villa – such as the outside staircase descending to water, the large windows, and the prominent stone chimney – suggest that its design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house.The buildings on the re-imagined island were deliberately given a " retro-futuristic" appearance, described by production designer John Beard as "based in the '60s and '70s, which is similar to what we were doing for Brazil." [8] Further inspiration was drawn from the work of Oscar Niemeyer and others. [8] The interiors set at Pinewood Studios was built in what Beard described as a "kind of double-'S' shape". He added that "because we're not building the top, it means we can hang the building from the top ceiling in the studio, which we couldn't have done outside." [9] Toys and Blue Peter [ edit ]