THUNDERBIRDS 1965: NEW EPISODES FROM 1960s RECORDINGS

Mastermind
about 8 years ago – Tue, Apr 05, 2016 at 11:53:22 PM

It may be our last few days, but it's still been an eventful and positive week in many ways.  Last week we appeared on Mastermind as part of a filmed insert shot last September when contestant Alan Heath came to visit the studio. His specialist subject was, of course, Thunderbirds!

Also, given how sad it is breaking the studio up, we didn't want to leave things on a sad note. So, David Elliott stepped back into the director's chair to do one last bit of filming for us. What were we up to? All will be revealed soon...

The crew are very sad to leave their home and move onto new projects, but we're all delighted that we had the chance to work on this project. For the moment, Supermarionation is going back to rest. We will not being doing Stingray, Captain Scarlet or any of the other Gerry and Sylvia Anderson puppet shows. This really is the end. For now, at least.

Well, it will be the end when the rewards go out! We've never lost sight of the fact that the project didn't end with the filming - but will only finish once and for all when every backer receives their reward packages. To that end, we request that people stop sending us messages (especially the aggressive ones) accusing us of 'repeating history' by throwing stuff out. It is impossible to keep everything - and in general the only stuff going on the skip is the stuff that really has no value (sandbags, waste wood, polystyrene shavings etc). There are very few sets left - a lot of them were cannibalised in the course of production. You really cannot keep everything. The most important thing though is that the principal items (including the small props) are being retained. We also ask that people stop writing to us requesting free items such as Lady Penelope! Even if meant in jest, these messages are clogging up our inboxes and making it really difficult to deal with the important correspondence. 

As we outlined during the tours the other week, we wish to keep most of the Thunderbirds 1965 collection together. We hope that there will be opportunities to either return these items to work in the future, or to allow close-up and hands on access at displays. However, there are a couple of items we don't have any future use for, and given that they are still intact, we are prepared to offer these for sale. 

We have three special effects miniature sets: the exterior of Wickfens, a foam model of Traitor's Gate (The Stately Homes Robberies), and a model of the interior of Lady Penelope's yacht where FAB 1 is kept. If you are interested in these items, please send us a sensible offer via the private messaging system. 

And now back to the packaging of the items. Despatch is getting nearer. We'll let you know as soon as the first items are ready for the postbox. Thank you again for your continued patience.

Thunderbirds 1965

P.S. Leaving might be sad, but there's still time for some silliness...

Last Day. All Had Champagne. Cried...
about 8 years ago – Fri, Apr 01, 2016 at 07:38:22 PM

"Last day. All had champagne. Cried," is what one puppeteer wrote in her diary on the day the puppet unit closed at Century 21 back in 1969. This week it was our turn. Following a weekend of tours - a chance for us to share this unique experience with so many fans - the Thunderbirds 1965 studio officially closed. Very soon, our building, plus all of the original A.P. Films / Century 21 buildings will disappear forever.

We are very grateful to Slough Trading Estate and SEGRO for letting us bring Thunderbirds home to Stirling Road one last time for the show's 50th anniversary.

Across the last six months, we've had over 1000 visitors at the studio - ranging from die-hard fans, to people on the estate who remember the series fondly. The best thing about this project though has been the chance to reconnect individuals to times, places and people long gone. It's been a fun and challenging project, but it's also been an emotional one - not just for the crew, but for many of our visitors.

Now, is the next stage. Puppets, props, models etc. will be removed from the building into storage whilst we think of a plan for the future. Lots of people have asked us whether we will be selling or giving away the items. For the moment, we will be retaining possession of everything worth keeping. There are a couple of smaller items we may consider selling at some point - mainly miniature model scale sets that are difficult to store - but for the time being the principal items of the Thunderbirds 1965 collection will be retained. As we explained on our tours, we don't want the majority of this stuff ending up in private collections or museums - away from where it can be enjoyed by a wider public.

We will be updating everyone on the status of rewards shipping next week. We are now waiting for the final items to be produced and delivered. We are unable to commit to a definite date, but... something would have to go wrong for you not to be watching these episodes this month.

We sincerely apologise for the amount of time it's taken to get these items together. Following the end of shooting we've been reduced to very much a skeleton crew of four of us. Each item needs a lot of care and preparation. Some backers have glibly stated that, 'It's only the episodes that matter'. This is not true. All the items we are producing helped fund those episodes, and we owe it to our backers to ensure that every item is made to the highest standard. Indeed, some backers didn't even buy a copy of the episodes!

We've put a lot of care into the discs themselves. Unfortunately, as indicated before, it takes a lot of time to check these. With five sets of subtitles to go through that means each episode has to be watched five times to catch any errors, as well as lengthy checks to ensure the disc navigation works. We were also slightly delayed when, at the end of last week, we came to assemble the Special Thanks list for the backers. Quite a few of our backers abused this by putting in names for every family member (sometimes six or seven of them!), comedy names, adverts for companies and, in a couple of instances, lengthy self-penned thank you letters from either the production crew and / or Jamie Anderson (who is a valued supporter, but not on the project itself!). With over 3000 entries to go through, fixing this list took up quite a lot of time.

A huge number of you have also suddenly changed your delivery addresses after completing Backerkit. So many, in fact, that we don't have the time to individually acknowledge each of your messages and still get everything sorted on the rewards front. If you don't receive a reply, please don't panic. We will go through all these address changes when we come to the despatch.

Thunderbirds 1965 remains a gargantuan task - but the end is approaching. Hold on tight!

Best wishes,

Thunderbirds 1965 

Rewards Update
about 8 years ago – Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 10:54:54 PM

Dear all,

It's been another busy week for us, preparing not only to close the studio, but also sorting everything in readiness for posting out the rewards.

Barring any major accidents, we expect the discs themselves to finally go to manufacture this week. This has easily been the biggest and most complicated part of this part of the project and so we're quite relieved to be finally bringing this to an end. One of our biggest challenges has been to ensure that the discs work for our audiences worldwide - not just in terms of compatibility, but that where a sufficient number of backers have donated from a particular country that we have supplied appropriate subtitles for both the episodes and the documentary. We've also received our BBFC rating - unsurprisingly 'U' for suitable for all!

The discs are the final part of this jigsaw puzzle. Once they have been received, the packaging and posting will commence and the project will come to a formal close.

The Thunderbirds 1965 studio is also coming to the end of its time. We have one final weekend of studio tours - a chance to see the props, puppets and models from the production - and then the following week the building will close once and for all before the bulldozers come in. We're delighted that we had the chance to bring Thunderbirds home one last time. For those that would like to attend, there are still a handful of tickets left available here: http://www.seetickets.com/tour/thunderbirds-1965-studio-open-day

For those that can't wait for their discs, as something to whet everyone's appetite, a few weeks ago we released the documentary below telling the story of bringing back Supermarionation and classic Thunderbirds one last time.

The wait is very nearly over...

Sylvia Anderson (1927-2016)
about 8 years ago – Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:00:05 PM

We are extremely sad to hear that Sylvia Anderson, co-creator of Thunderbirds and voice of Lady Penelope, has died.

Sylvia was extremely supportive of us during the production of Filmed in Supermarionation and Thunderbirds 1965.

We present, in tribute, what is now the classic Lady Penelope's last ever scene in Thunderbirds. The dialogue seems strangely fitting.

Thanks for everything Sylvia. You were simply FAB.

More rewards!
about 8 years ago – Mon, Mar 07, 2016 at 10:44:19 PM

Dear all,

Another brief update from us as we like to keep you in the loop with the news about the rewards. We took delivery of the Thunderbirds TV Series Photo Collection and copies of the scripts today. We're very happy with how these have turned out. The photo collection in particular pleases us as we've been able to fill it with lots of rare images - including recently discovered shots from Trapped in the Sky test footage that we were given during the production.

The journey is very nearly over...