Collectibles

New Thunderbirds Novel published in the US

Details: Category: Publications; Last Updated: Monday, 05 August 2013 17:17; Written by Simon Wickes; Hits: 5634

While we wait for the pricey Thunderbirds Blu-Ray set to be published in the UK, a new Thunderbirds novel has been published in the US. The softcover book is entitled "Countdown to Action!" and is written by Joan Marie Verba. Although Joan is new to the world of Gerry Anderson, this marks the fifth (at least) book she has available at Amazon. I think the title is dangerously generic, especially for Anderson fare, but time will tell how good the story itself is. The book appears to focus on the formation of Internatonal Rescue, rather than on missions for IR. I just ordered the book, and will post details later, but the synopsis is as follows:

After his wife dies in a tragic accident, astronaut Jeff Tracy is left with five young sons to raise. But he turns his grief into a dream: to create an organization which will rescue people that no one else can reach. He builds a business which creates the new technology that the organization will require and earns the billions he needs to finance it. At last, he is ready to put it all together. He enlists the services of a genius to design aircraft and supporting machinery far beyond the standards of his time. Together, they find a Pacific island to use as the base for their operations. Jeff asks his five sons, now grown, to give up promising careers to build the base, operate the machines, and serve in his organization. But he finds that in order to make his dream a reality, it will require sacrifice, courage, and determination...far beyond what he, or his sons, ever expected. Can they make International Rescue a reality, and what will it take to make the fantastic Thunderbird machines go?

Thunderbirds coming to Blu-Ray!

Details: Category: BluRay; Last Updated: Saturday, 24 May 2014 02:09; Written by Simon Wickes; Hits: 6755

I guess it was inevitable, but Thunderbirds is coming to Blu-Ray disc on 15 September 2008. This will be in the UK only for now, but if past history is any indication, this will be the first of many Blu-Ray releases for Anderson productions. Right now details are very sparse, but it appears to be a box set of the entire series. Probably will be 16:9 which will inevitably mean that something gets lost. See the Stingray HD broadcast article to see what I mean.

Although its a fairly obvious first release, I was actually expecting to see the New Captain Scarlet show get the first high-definition DVD release, as it was produced in high-def and 5.1 sound. That would be an ideal candidate, as would the Thunderbirds movies. Expect little in the way of extras this time round though. One question that does come to mind is will they attempt to 'hide' the strings, now that the show is going to be high definition?

Price on this is a bit steep, too: £90.75. Pre-order it now from Amazon. That reminds me, are there any region-free Blu-Ray players yet?