Toy Tuesday: Thunderbirds are Go!

This intro to the 1960s TV series Thunderbirds brings back fond memories from my childhood as well as my career in the toy industry.

I stumbled upon this article from io9.com, and it looks like Thunderbirds are coming back.

A fansite for Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson (titled Fanderson) is reporting that on the BBC Radio 5Live show creator Anderson confirmed that he has finalized a deal to make new Thunderbirds series.

All Anderson could say about the project is this, "I don't want to sound conceited, but because I'm going to make it... I'm confident that it will be a smash hit!" Which is understandable, since he has signed a confidentiality agreement with the BBC. BUT - the big question still hasn't been answered. Will there be puppets? And will the world embrace puppet theater once again? The people making the Muppet movie are certainly banking on the world's nostalgia for puppets, but Thunderbirds had a very different look. Our guess is the whole thing will be CG, which would be sad, hopefully it won't go that route.

Thunderbirds follows an International Rescue team who traveled the world in their various boats, submaries, spaceships, and planes righting the wrongs and saving the day. They were like team James Bond for kids.

In the mid 1990s at Tyco Toys, we had great success with Thunderbirds toys under the Matchbox brand in the UK and Canada, though we didn't get much traction in the US. Ten years later, Thunderbirds toys were back in Canada when I was working as Marketing Director at Irwin Toy. With (desperately needed) new entertainment coming, let's hope those working on the new Thunderbirds capitalize on all the cool technology that will bring the brand amazing special effects and lots of media formats.

Could whatever new bells and whistles are brought by today's technology be cooler than the original "Supermarionation"?

To a new generation of kids, "Thunderbirds are Go!"