Thunderbirds (TV Series) - Merchandising

Merchandising

Like other Gerry Anderson productions, having vehicles as the effective 'stars' of the show made it intrinsically 'toyetic'. Coming off the back of 'Beatlemania' and 'Dalekmania', the success of Thunderbirds generated accompanying merchandise that was quite unprecedented in both of range of product and diversity of its subject. Almost no form of toy, publication or food product marketed at children (peculiarly girls and boys alike) escaped a Thunderbirds related tie-in at some point in the 1960s (or since). One example, the Fab ice lolly, has been produced continuously for the UK market from 1967 to this day.

Several companies, including Matchbox and Dinky were licensed to produce die-cast metal and plastic toys based on the Thunderbird vehicles. They proved hugely popular and were one of the best selling merchandising lines of the decade. Original Thunderbirds toys are now expensive and highly sought after collectors' items.

Japanese kit forms of Thunderbirds vehicles continued to be produced into the 1980s. Toy company Bandai produced toys to coincide with the release of the 2004 live action movie in the UK. As of 2007, Japanese companies such as Aoshima, Konami and Takara were still producing new Thunderbirds toys based on the original series vehicles, including Takara's very expensive Thunderbird 2 model with lights and working motorised legs, which lift the fuselage, exposing the cargo pod.

To coincide with a BBC2 revival of the TV series in the 1990s, Matchbox manufactured a new range of toys, though they were generally marketed outside the US and in Canada. It included a Tracy Island model playset that became the UK's most sought-after toy, leading to a widespread shortage during the run-up to Christmas in 1992. It became headline news and the archetypal example of the mistake to be avoided by the whole toy industry every Christmas since. Such was the demand that the BBC children's television show Blue Peter instructed viewers on creating their own version from household materials. Remarkably, the free "fact sheet" that detailed this process also became so sought-after that it too became difficult to obtain. Further Matchbox toys accompanied the new movie.

In 2011, the British Royal Mail launched a commemorative Gerry Anderson stamp series, including Thunderbirds 2 and 5 and a hologrammed set of stamps displaying Thunderbirds 1, 2, 3 and 4 by tilting each of the four stamps back and forth.