As a lifelong Dutch Thunderbirds fan I can give you some more information on the Dutch cards. We never had the black-end-white sets, which is strange, for they were printed by Monty Gum in Leiden. We had the colour Somportex set and they were hugely popular. I remember taking my cards with me to school and showing them to my classmates. We never had the blue wrapper. The green wrapper was used for the original release in 1966/67, and came not with a piece of gum, but with salmiak powder (zwart-wit poeder). That's why you somtimes see a darkbrown stain on the cards. The Rolls Royce wrapper was used for the re-relaese in, I think, 1972. As far as I know this was not a general release, for I could not get them in the village were I lived, but I could buy them in other places. The mail away item on the back was not a photo of Lady Penelope in action, as you mentioned, but a very large poster of card number 11, Lady Penelope with the gun in front of the mirror. I have that poster and it is one of the rarest Dutch collectables. I was very surprised to see the Adams cards in your collection. Today these are very rare, even here in The Netherlands. The cards you have of series A is a mix of originals and reprints. You can tell the difference by looking at the red-and-yellow block in the left hand corner. The smaller blocks are the originals, and larger ones are the reprints. Cards 25 to 34 never came in small block, so these are always the originals, and only part of cards 1 to 24 were reprinted. These are: 1,2,3,6,7,8,9,10,12 and 22. The main difference is in sharpness and colour. They were wrapped around a piece of (very sweet) chewing gum, which had an outer wrapper. Again, this wrapper is very rare, but I have one and I can supply a photo if you're interested. Series C was mainly a stopgap and didn't give any information. Every card was a kind of competion. Series D comprised of 24 cards, as you mentioned, but was not based on any of the comic strips, but on the Thunderbirds are go/Zero X movie. As with the Somportex cards you could mail away for a very large Zero X poster. Around the edges were designatetd spaces were you could glue all 24 cards of the series. I don't have this poster, so this again is one of the rarest Ductch collectables. Series E has 18 cards and was based on The Angels comic strips, which was on the back page of TV2000. As far as I'm aware there was no mail away item for this series available. Series F is the most difficult series to find. It has 84 cards and is based on the Captain Scarlet comic strips and general information about the tv-series, personel and vehicles of Spectrum. Captain Scarlet was never popular in The Netherlands, only 6 episodes were shown at the end of 1968, so it is no surprise that the bubble gum with the cards was not a great succes either. I have 83 of the 84 cards, which is very uncommon. You were partly right about the number of episodes shown here. You mentioned 29 of the 32 episodes, which is true. We never had The mighty atom, Attack of the alligators and Atlantic inferno. Path of destruction however, was shown, but not seen by the general public. It was broadcast in the autumn of 1967 as a demo (colour) transmission from the Firato audio and video fair which was held yearly in Amsterdam. It was one of the first colour transmissions here in The Netherlands and was repeated daily for the duration of the fair... You were also partly right about about the transmission dates and Thunderbirds being broadcast 15 days earlier here then in the UK and they were indeed shown on a monthly basis. The last episode however (Security hazard) was shown on Saturday June 8, 1968 at 19.06h. You mentioned august 1968, which again is true, but these were repeats: - 06-07-1968 - Trapped in the sky (16.02h) - 03-08-1968 - Sun Probe (16.02h) - 31-08-1968 - Oprearion crah cdive (16.02h) Another thing to mention is, that the first ten episodes shown here were dubbed in Dutch and shown in black-and-white. The rest of the series had the original language with Dutch subtitles and was shown in colour. The transmission dates of the first 5 episodes are: - wednesday 15-09-1965 - Trapped in the sky (21.00h) - wednesday 13-10-1965 - The perils of Penelope (21.00h) - wednesday 10-11-1965 - End of the road (21.00h) - wednesday 08-12.1965 - Thirty minutes after noon (20.20h) - saturday 29-01-1966 - Sun Probe (19.05h) Looking at the days and times the first four episodes went out the programmers apparantly thought that this was not a kids show... TV2000 started in September 1966, not in September 1965 as you mentioned. The first thirty issues were the same as TV21, on the newspaper format. In march/april 1967 it changed to a more regular magazine size, and in mid-1968 it changed again to the standard (American) comic size. The last issue was published in the last week of december 1969. Hope this fills in some of the gaps. Looking forward to the next instalment....Ron
@@JulesBurt Thanks so much for all that incredible information, Ron. Certainly fills in many, many gaps in my knowledge (the TV2000 start date was a slip of the tongue, however !) I would love to see a scan of the Adams gum wrapper.
As a child in the 1960s in Norfolk I collected the Somportex Thunderbirds b & w cards which I still own. They are the larger-sized cards. The only time I saw the smaller cards was when I bought a packet in London. I was disappointed with these due to the small size, the lower quality reproduction and the thinner card used. It was mentioned, I think, in your video that the big cards came out after the small ones but, in my experience, it was the other way around. The Somportex colour Thunderbirds set was very rare in my town. There was a rumour at school that a shop was selling them so some of us dashed up to the shop after school had ended only to be told that they had sold out. I came across Fireball XL5 cigarettes at a shop in King's Lynn a long time after the show had finished airing on TV and even after Thunderbirds had started. I bought a packet only to find that the card inside was not from the XL5 set but from a set entitled, I believe, "Top Secret". I was most disappointed.
When Thunderbirds was repeated in the early 90s I watched it every week. I had a whole bunch of trading cards that came out at the time, the comic and yes, shock horror, i was one of those lucky enough to get a tracy island for Christmas in 92.
Wow! Fireball XL5 was a favorite show of mine when I was a kid in the 60s. I have a dvd I watch once in awhile now. Those cards are great. I don't remember any toys being available here in the 60s. I'm in Maine, USA. Great pesentation. Thank you.
As ever a fascinating overview of yet another subject close to my heart. Seriously collected Anderson stuff since early ‘80s but there was new info and things I’d not seen before in this. Thank you both so much mate!
I’ve just got a copy of a Jan/Feb 1967 Cigarette Card News magazine. It reviews the colour Somportex THUNDERBIRDS cards so Andy’s very educated guess at a late release ‘66 is now confirmable.
Me and my friend were huge Thunder Birds fans, we love Stingray, Joe 90 . Indeed all things Anderson . Mayhaps , except Captain Scarlet, this was dark and scary, even the characters were grim . The Mysterons made the Hook look like a chior boy. 😁😂. Who can forget " this is the voice of the Mysterons ....we are going to... " I remember those cigaret sweets they came with a card . We can still get the here but alas there is now only a tempoary tattoo in the box. I remember one of our shop keepers refuse to sell those sweets... fearing it will teach kid to smoke . Ok i will shut up for now ...Thanks Jules , thanks Andy , i always enjoy these vid . Bye till next time.
I have the Stingray card set and the UFO set (the sweet cigarette style cards) I picked up the Stingray cards in 1978 or so from a guy I met in a pub... no, I don't recall his name... I think it was something Irish..
Theres a fansite on Monty cards, which says that they produced the original colour 'Thunderbirds' set for Somportex and one year later Monty negotiated with Somportex to bring out their own version (for Netherlands only). So they did that, but now a lot are going around as part of the original Somportex set?, as the only 'difference' is the copyright text on the back, so the original set is classed as 'three line' while the later Netherlands set is classed as 'two line' - there seem to be a mixture of both sets in the album shown?
As a lifelong Dutch Thunderbirds fan I can give you some more information on the Dutch cards.
We never had the black-end-white sets, which is strange, for they were printed by Monty Gum in Leiden.
We had the colour Somportex set and they were hugely popular. I remember taking my cards with me to school and showing them to my classmates. We never had the blue wrapper. The green wrapper was used for the original release in 1966/67, and came not with a piece of gum, but with salmiak powder (zwart-wit poeder). That's why you somtimes see a darkbrown stain on the cards.
The Rolls Royce wrapper was used for the re-relaese in, I think, 1972. As far as I know this was not a general release, for I could not get them in the village were I lived, but I could buy them in other places. The mail away item on the back was not a photo of Lady Penelope in action, as you mentioned, but a very large poster of card number 11, Lady Penelope with the gun in front of the mirror. I have that poster and it is one of the rarest Dutch collectables.
I was very surprised to see the Adams cards in your collection. Today these are very rare, even here in The Netherlands. The cards you have of series A is a mix of originals and reprints. You can tell the difference by looking at the red-and-yellow block in the left hand corner. The smaller blocks are the originals, and larger ones are the reprints. Cards 25 to 34 never came in small block, so these are always the originals, and only part of cards 1 to 24 were reprinted. These are: 1,2,3,6,7,8,9,10,12 and 22. The main difference is in sharpness and colour. They were wrapped around a piece of (very sweet) chewing gum, which had an outer wrapper. Again, this wrapper is very rare, but I have one and I can supply a photo if you're interested.
Series C was mainly a stopgap and didn't give any information. Every card was a kind of competion.
Series D comprised of 24 cards, as you mentioned, but was not based on any of the comic strips, but on the Thunderbirds are go/Zero X movie. As with the Somportex cards you could mail away for a very large Zero X poster. Around the edges were designatetd spaces were you could glue all 24 cards of the series. I don't have this poster, so this again is one of the rarest Ductch collectables.
Series E has 18 cards and was based on The Angels comic strips, which was on the back page of TV2000. As far as I'm aware there was no mail away item for this series available.
Series F is the most difficult series to find. It has 84 cards and is based on the Captain Scarlet comic strips and general information about the tv-series, personel and vehicles of Spectrum. Captain Scarlet was never popular in The Netherlands, only 6 episodes were shown at the end of 1968, so it is no surprise that the bubble gum with the cards was not a great succes either. I have 83 of the 84 cards, which is very uncommon.
You were partly right about the number of episodes shown here. You mentioned 29 of the 32 episodes, which is true. We never had The mighty atom, Attack of the alligators and Atlantic inferno. Path of destruction however, was shown, but not seen by the general public. It was broadcast in the autumn of 1967 as a demo (colour) transmission from the Firato audio and video fair which was held yearly in Amsterdam. It was one of the first colour transmissions here in The Netherlands and was repeated daily for the duration of the fair...
You were also partly right about about the transmission dates and Thunderbirds being broadcast 15 days earlier here then in the UK and they were indeed shown on a monthly basis. The last episode however (Security hazard) was shown on Saturday June 8, 1968 at 19.06h.
You mentioned august 1968, which again is true, but these were repeats:
- 06-07-1968 - Trapped in the sky (16.02h)
- 03-08-1968 - Sun Probe (16.02h)
- 31-08-1968 - Oprearion crah cdive (16.02h)
Another thing to mention is, that the first ten episodes shown here were dubbed in Dutch and shown in black-and-white. The rest of the series had the original language with Dutch subtitles and was shown in colour.
The transmission dates of the first 5 episodes are:
- wednesday 15-09-1965 - Trapped in the sky (21.00h)
- wednesday 13-10-1965 - The perils of Penelope (21.00h)
- wednesday 10-11-1965 - End of the road (21.00h)
- wednesday 08-12.1965 - Thirty minutes after noon (20.20h)
- saturday 29-01-1966 - Sun Probe (19.05h)
Looking at the days and times the first four episodes went out the programmers apparantly thought that this was not a kids show...
TV2000 started in September 1966, not in September 1965 as you mentioned. The first thirty issues were the same as TV21, on the newspaper format. In march/april 1967 it changed to a more regular magazine size, and in mid-1968 it changed again to the standard (American) comic size. The last issue was published in the last week of december 1969.
Hope this fills in some of the gaps.
Looking forward to the next instalment....Ron
Thanks Ron, fantastic information which I'll pin to the top of the comments. I'm sure Andy will have something to add as well.👍
@@JulesBurt Thanks so much for all that incredible information, Ron. Certainly fills in many, many gaps in my knowledge (the TV2000 start date was a slip of the tongue, however !) I would love to see a scan of the Adams gum wrapper.
🙂👍
As a child in the 1960s in Norfolk I collected the Somportex Thunderbirds b & w cards which I still own. They are the larger-sized cards. The only time I saw the smaller cards was when I bought a packet in London. I was disappointed with these due to the small size, the lower quality reproduction and the thinner card used. It was mentioned, I think, in your video that the big cards came out after the small ones but, in my experience, it was the other way around. The Somportex colour Thunderbirds set was very rare in my town. There was a rumour at school that a shop was selling them so some of us dashed up to the shop after school had ended only to be told that they had sold out. I came across Fireball XL5 cigarettes at a shop in King's Lynn a long time after the show had finished airing on TV and even after Thunderbirds had started. I bought a packet only to find that the card inside was not from the XL5 set but from a set entitled, I believe, "Top Secret". I was most disappointed.
Thanks for those memories 🙂 No doubt Andy can help with the timeline of releases 👍
When Thunderbirds was repeated in the early 90s I watched it every week. I had a whole bunch of trading cards that came out at the time, the comic and yes, shock horror, i was one of those lucky enough to get a tracy island for Christmas in 92.
Nice, that was it's second coming, I remember the revival well.👍
Wow! Fireball XL5 was a favorite show of mine when I was a kid in the 60s. I have a dvd I watch once in awhile now. Those cards are great. I don't remember any toys being available here in the 60s. I'm in Maine, USA. Great pesentation. Thank you.
Thanks very much Scott, they certainly are great cards, so vibrant. Andy is lucky to own them🙂👍
As ever a fascinating overview of yet another subject close to my heart. Seriously collected Anderson stuff since early ‘80s but there was new info and things I’d not seen before in this. Thank you both so much mate!
Thanks for the positive comments Martin. Pleased you enjoyed the video my friend 👍
More great sets, looking forward to future videos. Those boxes are amazing.
Thanks Martin, yes, aren't they amazing👍
I’ve just got a copy of a Jan/Feb 1967 Cigarette Card News magazine. It reviews the colour Somportex THUNDERBIRDS cards so Andy’s very educated guess at a late release ‘66 is now confirmable.
Ah, excellent research, thanks Martin🙂
It fell into my lap so fate played a hand. A full page ad and a review too. Mentions those lovely key rings too.
Me and my friend were huge Thunder Birds fans, we love Stingray, Joe 90 . Indeed all things Anderson . Mayhaps , except Captain Scarlet, this was dark and scary, even the characters were grim . The Mysterons made the Hook look like a chior boy. 😁😂. Who can forget " this is the voice of the Mysterons ....we are going to... " I remember those cigaret sweets they came with a card . We can still get the here but alas there is now only a tempoary tattoo in the box. I remember one of our shop keepers refuse to sell those sweets... fearing it will teach kid to smoke . Ok i will shut up for now ...Thanks Jules , thanks Andy , i always enjoy these vid . Bye till next time.
Great stuff Sylvan and good memories. Glad you enjoyed this one, I thought you might👍
I have the Stingray card set and the UFO set (the sweet cigarette style cards) I picked up the Stingray cards in 1978 or so from a guy I met in a pub... no, I don't recall his name... I think it was something Irish..
Love that UFO set🙂
Theres a fansite on Monty cards, which says that they produced the original colour 'Thunderbirds' set for Somportex and one year later Monty negotiated with Somportex to bring out their own version (for Netherlands only). So they did that, but now a lot are going around as part of the original Somportex set?, as the only 'difference' is the copyright text on the back, so the original set is classed as 'three line' while the later Netherlands set is classed as 'two line' - there seem to be a mixture of both sets in the album shown?
Andy will need to get back to you on this Bernard. Great information.
can you do an episode on old crisp packets?
I have some but not enough firca video I'm afraid, I'll ask my mate Andy, we might have enough between us....