2003 Archive 
The following walk-through details the contents of the exhibition hall clockwise from the entrance. I detail the material around the walls and then talk about the contents of the middle tables. The exhibition actually changed a bit as the Saturday went on, presumably as more people arrived. Notably, more Thunderbirds puppets were added. Unfortunately the amount of items made it impossible to create labels for the items.
From Supercar there was a Jimmy Gibson puppet who looked odd to me until I realised that he was colour and all pictures I had seen were black and white! He stood in front of a door that looked like it might be from the lab. I did not see any XL5 items. Stingray was represented by a Titan reproduction and the set from the recent ad and an original Troy. Also saw the Troy from the contest which was recently discovered hidden in someone's house. There were 2 models as well, presumably original.
Next up was of course Thunderbirds, firstly a group of about 5 puppets from the 1970s stage show. I had not even heard of this prior to seeing them, but they are basically larger and really a characature of the originals rather than scaled up copies. In the corner were many of the original Thunderbirds puppets, all displayed in the lab set recently created for the "Brains behind Thunderbirds" video. The set was about 6 feet long, but as there were so many puppets they seemed crammed in. there was Jeff, Lady Penelope, Brains, Kyrano, Paul Travers, The Hood, Tintin, Grandma and Alan. Dave Finchett was there with his Parker puppet and graciously operated him, even doing the voice and talking to the video cameras. What a treat to see them "in the flesh", in 3D finally after all those years. David Graham appeared briefly and did a brief interview by the Parker puppet.
Next to Thunderbirds was the original moonbase girl (Lt Ellis) uniform from UFO. Phwoarrr. The rest of the side was taken up by the Space:1999 set that was built for the recent video. This featured a working replica set with sound effects and several costumes including Maya, astronaut and Zenia Merton's costume.
Half of the back wall was taken up by items from the later puppet shows right up to Space Precinct. To start with there was a superb display of about 30(!) puppets, with most of the characters from Scarlet (no angel?) including 2 Scarlets. Joe 90 was there too, twice. along with Mac and Sam Loover. Father Unwin was present too. Immediately in front of the puppets were three original studio miniatures and sadly, it is almost all that is left. There was an SPC, an Angel and MSV from Scarlet and the tan tanker truck which was first used in Thunderbirds, but also used in Scarlet. There was also a large SPV which had no detail, but might have been a prototype or mould. There was also a few heads and hats from various later show puppets. What an unbelievable shame it is that Thunderbirds only has one or two models left after so many were built.
Next up was Terrahawks with many of the original puppets. They looked a lot larger than the earlier ones, presumably due to the way they were operated. I had been previously told that these has disintegrated due to foam rubber used. I guess not. There was also the big wheeled articulated transporter from the show. Lastly, there was a display of costumes and the robot from Space Precinct, this included a door, presumably from the police vehicle.
In the middle of the room was an astonishing array of very large vehicles; both studio originals and replicas. I saw XL5 and all the Thunderbirds (repros), several UFO originals including some mobiles, a UFO, a great SKY1 original, shuttle, and an Alien helmet. There was a massive Space Precinct round spaceship which I think was the home area for the characters; it was about 4 feet across. There was a whole table full of Space:1999 miniatures. Some Eagles alongside Hawks and others. The middle also had original Mike Trim artwork of models from Scarlet. There was also sketches from Space:1999. Among the exhibitions there was also a variety of original TV21 art, Graham Bleathman cutaways and a great Noble (poster?) of Captain Ochre. The remainder of the outside was fan-built models and the Fanderson sales area where all the merchandise was available. Sadly, no t-shirts were available, but some resourceful people had created their own to wear. It took about hour just to really see everything. what an incredible display and a mega treat for all.
