2003 Archive 
Technical details
The 16 discs have been recorded in colour (as well as color), using the available two sound channels for bilingual audio. This means that the left channel will broadcast the Japanese dubbing, which includes the Japanese title song based on Barry Gray's instrumental title theme. The right channel contains the original english soundtrack. Phew! For most of the world without this track the discs would be pretty useless. But now they are a "hot item" to get for all those Thunderbirds fans that want to have the best next thing to owning the original 35 mm film prints.
Each disc contains two episodes: one on each side. Each episode has been subdivided into five to eight chapters to which the viewer can jump. Since each episode runs for the full 50 minutes, the recordings have been made in CLV format: Constant Linear Velocity. The disc will spin slower when the "grooves" at the outer edge are being read than when the center sections are read. The CLV format makes still frames impossible when the laserdisc player does not have a memory in which to store the picture. (The other format, CAV - Constant Angular Velocity - does allow still frames but allows only some 30 minutes on a disc side).
The discs are sold in 4 boxes of 4 discs each. The recommended retail price is a stiff 22,200 yen per box. When you order for such a box, do keep in mind that air mail shipping may add another 4,000 yen per box and further import duties, VAT and other taxes may further spoil your happiness. On the bright side: recently these boxes have been seen in Tokyo for as little as 9,000 yen. This will be a short lived situation as the boxes are no longer in production and the low prices are clearance sale prices.
Quality
In a sense it is a pity that the material Emotion used for producing
these laserdiscs is not of the same quality as the recent screenings of
the series on the British BBC
and
European continental tv stations. These stations used brand new 35 mm prints
with a rich colour saturation and excellent sound.
Emotion however, must have used Japanese library prints which are OK but not as excellent as they could have been and for which laserdiscs are ideally suited. Some of the prints have washed colours and sometimes the audio tracks contain a little noise, but still of HiFi quality in digital audio. An occasional scratch or white spot on the master films can also be noticed.
Contents
The four boxes that contain all 32 episodes are well produced and resemble the old grammophone boxes used for multi-disc recordings. Their front covers contain airbrush painted pictures of the Thunderbirds that have a definite "Japanese" touch as also found on many model construction kits of Thunderbirds machines.
The backside of each box contains four small pictures taken from four of the eight episodes stored in that box, completed with a standard credit title list.
Inside the box are the four laserdiscs in plastic protection bags and an eight pages thick square booklet of approx. 10" size. The booklets contain many photographs of various sizes and of variable quality - not unlike the many Japanese photobooks and paperbacks that were produced around the same time. The text seems to explain some of the background of the show and of other Supermarionation series - some of which are also released on laserdisc.
Pages 6 and 7 always contain the episode list of the four discs in the box, complete with chapter divisions. If you don't read Japanese, they are of little help.
THUNDERBIRDS - IR BOX PART 1
Published by Emotion, Order No. BELL-533
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| Disc 1 side a | Disc 1 side b | Back of set 1 |
- Booklet:
- Supermarionation (by Gerry Anderson)
- Thunderbirds (concept, characters)
| 1A | Trapped in the Sky | (8 chapters) |
| 1B | Pit of Peril | (5 chapters) |
| 2A | Sun Probe | (2 chapters) |
| 2B | The Uninvited | (5 chapters) |
| 3A | City of Fire | (2 chapters) |
| 3B | The Mighty Atom | (2 chapters) |
| 4A | Operation Crash-Dive | (3 chapters) |
| 4B | End of the Road | (3 chapters) |
THUNDERBIRDS - IR BOX PART 2
Published by Emotion, Order No. BELL-534
- Booklet:
- Supermachinery in Thunderbirds
- (all Thunderbirds and some of the pod verhicles)
| 1A | The Perils of Penelope | (3 chapters) |
| 1B | Terror in New York City | (3 chapters) |
| 2A | Edge of Impact | (4 chapters) |
| 2B | Vault of Death | (4 chapters) |
| 3A | Martian Invasion | (3 chapters) |
| 3B | Day of Disaster | (4 chapters) |
| 4A | Attack of the Alligators | (3 chapters) |
| 4B | Danger At Ocean Deep | (2 chapters) |
THUNDERBIRDS - IR BOX PART 3
Published by Emotion, Order No. BELL-535
- Booklet:
- Thunderbirds plastic models
| 1A | 30 Minutes After Noon | (5 chapters) |
| 1B | Security Hazard | (3 chapters) |
| 2A | Move And You're Dead | (4 chapters) |
| 2B | Desperate Intruder | (7 chapters) |
| 3A | The Imposters | (4 chapters) |
| 3B | The Dutchess Assignment | (4 chapters) |
| 4A | Brink of Disaster | (3 chapters) |
| 4B | Cry Wolf | (3 chapters) |
THUNDERBIRDS - IR BOX PART 4
Published by Emotion, Order No. BELL-536
- Booklet:
- ITC Films "Thunderbirds" History
- (the other Anderson series from Supercar to Space 1999)
| 1A | The Man From MI 5 | (4 chapters) |
| 1B | Atlantic Inferno | (7 chapters) |
| 2A | Path of Destruction | (4 chapters) |
| 2B | The Cham-Cham | (3 chapters) |
| 3A | Alias Mr. Hackenbacker | (4 chapters) |
| 3B | Lord Parker's 'Oliday | (3 chapters) |
| 4A | Give Or Take A Million | (3 chapters) |
| 4B | Ricochet | (2 chapters) |