2003 Archive 
December 2003Terrahawks set for release on DVD in the US in January 2004A 5 disc set of Terrahawks will be released in the US on 27th January 2004. It comes with 39 episode and does contain some extras as well:
 New Stingray CGI movie?A company in North Carolina appears to be working on a pilot/test movie based on Stingray. The company is called Dreamstable Entertainment and it looks like the movie will be a CGI production. This marks the second Supermarionation series to be revamped using computer animation after Captain Scarlet started production recently in the UK. This is what they have to say about it:
November 2003New UFO book and Captain Scarlet music CDTwo great new items just in time for the holiday season. The "Complete Book of Gerry Anderson's UFO" carries on the tradition of the other Anderson books written by Chris Bentley. Great pictures and plenty of interesting content. The Captain Scarlet music CD contains all original Barry Gray music, restored and ready for action. Unmissable for any fans of the show. Reviews of both items will appear shortly. New Thunderbirds toys available in Japan
If you have a bit more cash, while at HLJ, pick up the 3 CWE (Charawheels Ultimate Edition) sets from hotwheels. Last year hotwheels did die cast versions of Stingray(!), FAB1 and SPV. The CWE sets are all die-cast and come in nice presentation boxes. Each box costs around $28. The complete set of 3 includes 12 vehicles, as well as hover bike figures and Braman the robot. This is a set not to be missed. Captain Scarlet game killed?!?!!Sadly, it looks as if Batfish Studios will not be releasing their eagerly awaited Captain Scarlet game for the PC. The game was set for release this month. Here is what they have to say:
Obviously, this is a blow to all concerned. There is an interview with the developers on this site. Includes high res renders. Another one here. Sigh. September 2003
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If you missed out on the Konami thunderbirds toys earlier
this year, your luck is in. Konami has re-issued the 
New Die-cast Anderson toys coming soon
A company based in the UK called The 
New MM comics!
However,
this is by no means the end of the story. Rather than have three separate
comics, in September they will launch a 48
page comic called SUPERMARIONATION ADVENTURES No. 1
of 5 that will feature both
SUPERCAR
and FIREBALL XL5.
A "Classic" SUPERCAR. This is an accurate repaint
of the original extended wing model released with "Hollywood on
Wheels III". The wings are white and the SUPERCAR logos are properly
in place. |
 |
 |
Denise Bryer and Jeremy Hitchen. |
From left to right: |
Denise Bryer with a couple of zeroids. |
Terrahawks Cast Reunited! (updated)
Recently, four of the five Terrahawks cast members reunited
after 20
years. This was for a featurette that will appear on the third set of UK DVDs
later this year. Interviews were done with the team as well as some voice acting!
Photos by Andrew Swann. Click on the images for a larger version of each.
The information was originally sent in by the writer and director of the piece, Stephen La Riviere. He sent in more details:
I was responsible for getting everyone there - but I did have help finding the voice artistes from a helpful lady and from Elizabeth Morgan - who was of course Destiny Angel in Captain Scarlet. She also attended the day to say 'hello' to Denise and Robbie who she hadn't seen in 20 years!
It is true we get to see them do some acting. I won't say too much about what they do, but I can say that the photograph shows them reading the final scene from an original script of 'Two for the Price of One'.
The piece was shot last Friday, 11th April, in London.
The whole cast were delightful on the day and I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. On the day we were lucky enough to be joined by Stew Dapples and Cy-star (the puppet forms) and two zeroids.
Don't forget to check out my web site, www.supermarionation.net - we'll shortly be running a competition to win one of three Terrahawks box sets signed by Denise Bryer, Ben Stevens, Jeremy Hitchen, Anne Ridler and Kevin Davies.
Fireball XL5 comic coming soon!
Got word from the publishers of the Supercar comic that the Fireball XL5 comic is in production and should be available April 30. To the right is preview art from the Fireball XL5 comic.
The Misc!Mayhem site will be giving away sets of Supercar, Fireball XL5 and UFO DVDs. This is to coincide with the publication of the comics from each series. The new Supercar DVD set will feature a sticker for a free comic offer inside.
Here are the preview pages for Supercar, Fireball XL5 and UFO.
Firestorm TV show debuts in Japan!
The TV show Firestorm has finally started in Japan and
there is an official
website as well as a Firestorm
shop web site selling clothing and other items.
The show appears to be a standard Anime show, except that it is "Based upon an idea by Gerry Anderson and John Needham". Please drop me a line if you have any further information.
Thunderbirds Movie News gets its own page!
Due to the substantial amount of information coming in about the Thunderbirds movie, I have set up a special page just to contain news and information about it. All news relevant to the movie will go there from now on.
Thunderbirds exhibition to tour Japan!
Japanese media group Tohokushinsha Film Corporation has announced
that it will be creating a large scale, touring THUNDERBIRDS
exhibition to
coincide with the latest broadcast of the series in Japan. The
classic 'Supermarionation' series will be broadcast for the first time
since 1966 on the national platform, NHK.
The tour, set to run in 10 venues for up to 2 years, will commence
in late March with an exhibition at Laforet Harajuku, a shopping centre
located in one of Tokyo's most popular and trendy shopping districts. Entitled
'THUNDERBIRDS MODERN', the exhibition will feature an array of themed
rooms, including 'The Tracy Art Saloon', displaying forty original
illustrations from the famous illustrator, the late Shigeru
Komatsuzaki; 'Salute to
THUNDERBIRDS' from the renowned Japanese expert, Hideaki Ito; 'Gerry's
Studio' with original puppets; 'THUNDERBIRDS in Tokyo' a display of
ideas from top Japanese artists for new THUNDERBIRDS vehicles and a
modern
version of the programme; and the 'THUNDERBIRDS Experience', a recreation
of the inside of Thunderbird 1. The exhibition will be launched
with a range of promotions including the screening of THUNDERBIRDS episodes
in 30 café/bars in the Tokyo area, TV and magazine advertisements
and promotion on the official THUNDERBIRDS website in Japan, www.tbjapan.com.
Tohokushinsa, which licenses rights
to the property in Japan from Carlton International, has also announced
a raft of new licensing deals and
extensions. On
the high-tech front, a cellular phone content transmission service, currently
only available on the EZ-WEB platform is being extended to I-MODE and
J-SKY. I-MODE is run by NTT DoCoMo, which is presently the leading
telecoms company in Japan, and has previously used THUNDERBIRDS in
a television advertising campaign to promote a range of its services.
The THUNDERBIRDS branded advertising campaign from Tokio Marine and Fire
Insurance Company has also proved hugely successful, with the TV commercial
set to continue until August this year.
In addition, a deal has been agreed with Fuji Shoji for THUNDERBIRDS
Pachinko machines, enormously popular in Japan where Pachinko Parlours
house rows and rows of these traditional slot machines, derived from
a pinball-style game. Plastic vehicles and character mini-marionettes
will form part of leading arcade games supplier Taito's summer range
of arcade game prizes.
Nick Yanagida, of Tohokushinsha's Merchandising & Licensing Department
said, "We are pleased with the huge success of Thunderbirds which
we have handled in the market place for the last 36 years. With
the upcoming touring exhibition "Thunderbirds Modern" and
the new broadcast of the TV series on a major terrestrial TV station,
we
look forward to its continued success."
Emma Simpson, International Manager, Carlton Licensing, said: "Thunderbirds
has always been popular in Japan, and whilst in the previous few years
the core market has been the 25-40, male-biased cult collectors, we
are now seeing a move toward a more mainstream appeal, with young children
enjoying the show and the merchandise."
THUNDERBIRDS will broadcast weekly on NHK's Educational Channel from
13th April 2003.
New Supercar comic finally published!
The long-awaited Supercar comic was released very recently in the US. It is available from most comic stores, but few carry more than 1-2 copies. The comic features full colour art throughout as well as the first part of an episode guide. A full review will appear on this site soon. Here are some more details:
Supercar is back and ready to take flight into all-new adventures. Investigating an abandoned silver mine in the desert near the secret Supercar lab at Black Rock, Nevada, Mike Mercury and company fall prey to another plot to steal Supercar hatched by arch nemesis Masterspy.
If all goes according to plan, Masterspy will be the proud mew owner of the Marvel of the Age, while Team Supercar is buried under tons of rubble.
March 2003
Fireball XL5 DVD released in US!
The long-awaited DVD release of Fireball Xl5 finally hit the stores - but only in the US! In a situation bizarre to say the least, there are no current plans to release Fireball Xl5 in the UK. Luckily, many fans have DVD players capable of viewing region 1 NTSC DVDs. See the review here.
January 2003
Thunderbirds CD released by Silva Screen in UK
This month, Silva
Screen finally releases "THUNDERBIRDS - ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK"
containing all original Barry Gray music, from the TV Series. This is
the first time such a recording has been released; about bloody time!
Rumour has it a follow-up Captain Scarlet CD is in the works...
From the Silva Screen site:
This CD represents the first in what will be a historic series of releases of Original Music from the much-loved Gerry Anderson SuperMarionation shows.
These recordings have never been made available before and have been carefully restored and edited from composer Barry Gray’s own archives courtesy of The Barry Gray Estate and Carlton International.CONTENTS
Main Titles featuring the famous Jeff Tracy countdown “5…4…3…2…1…..Thunderbirds Are Go!”
Music from the episodes Sun Probe, The Perils Of Penelope, The Cham Cham, Vault of Death, The Man from MI.5, Desperate Intruder, Pit Of Peril, The Impostors, and Trapped In The Sky.
- Plus - Original Music from the Lyon’s Maid TV commercials from 1965 featuring puppets from Thunderbirds.
- Plus – Lady Penelope sings!!!
You can order the CD from Amazon UK.
Thunderbirds is go for movie production!
Well, it looks like the much-speculated Thunderbirds movie is probably going to happen. Oh well. Jonathan (Cmdr Riker) Frakes will direct. He freely admits to not knowing much about the show. That should certainly comfort the skeptics. The history of TV shows to movies has been terrible and signs are that this will be no exception. Production is slated for March 2003 with a release some time in 2004. This will be a live action movie, not puppets or CGI as previously speculated. Right now it is unclear what if any involvement a certain Mr. Anderson will have with this production. Location filming is said to include South Africa. Hmmm.
Sophia Myles (who?) is set to take on the role of Lady Penelope. Apparently, Alan Tracy will be 12 years old in the movie! Perhaps someone needs to send the DVDs to the production office.
Fireball XL5 Region 1 DVD!
Fireball XL5 fans rejoice - the series finally gets released on DVD on February 25th 2003. However, this is only a region 1 (US) release, so you need to have a multi-standard DVD player if you are not in a region 1 country. The 5 disc set includes the following features:
- Commentary by director Alan Patillo on "Space City Special"
- Commentary by voice artist David Graham on "The Doomed Planet"
- All 39 episodes on 5 discs
- Featurette: "The Noble Art of TV21" with artist Mike Noble
- Production stills photo gallery
The episodes are black and white and the DVD has a Dobly soundtrack. Hopefully, this will supplement a "true" mono soundtrack. You can pre-order the Fireball Xl5 DVD set from Amazon.
Stingray released on region 1 DVD set!
Stingray has also been released on DVD in a set. it contains the following features:
- Commentary by series creator/producer Gerry Anderson on two complete episodes
- Commentary by original series production members on two complete episodes
- 39 episodes on 5 DVDs
- "The Thing About Stingray...": brand new 20-minute making-of featurette
- French end-credits sequence
- Expanded Gerry Anderson biography
- Production stills galleries
You can order the Stingray DVD set from Amazon.
