Thunderbirds 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition Megaset

Blast off into classic sci-fi adventure with the daring International Rescue team! Made up of fearless former astronaut Jeff Tracy and his courageous sons, the team protects against disaster in the year 2065.

When danger arises, the team springs into action, rushing to the scene in their futuristic Thunderbirds vehicles and facing trouble head-on with their high-tech devices. Working together to pull off amazing rescues and astonishing heroic feats, the Thunderbirds are Earth's best defense against catastrophe and sabotage. Product Description

just a repackaging of the old

The video quality isn't really any noticeably better than the original set. I'm not a fan of the slim cases either but if you're looking to save space it's a good option. I preferred the case art in the original set still. All that is here that's new is a new box and a new interview. 5 star show, 1 star for just repackaging Gerry Anderson's most famous supermarionation series again in the hopes of earning a few more bucks. November 27, 2008

Love these puppets

Everything is here, in slim DVD cases to boot. Easy to watch, classic series, fun for all ages. September 16, 2008

Excellent animation

The first episode was a little hard to watch because you notice the fine string filaments that control the figures, but the amount of detail is fantastic. I'm about 50% completed with the series and I don't even notice the strings. The vehicles and explosions are amazing, even today.
Tom.
April 12, 2008

Pictures great - Menu problems

The product is per expectation, what I remembered from the past.
Thundebird 6 is better from a quality point of view.
Had some problems as the DVD's are region 1, even with an multiregion I face sometimes problems with certain menu features.
They are not accesable or only after a few tries. April 7, 2008

What's new about this one?

For those of you who do not know what Thunderbirds is I will give you a quick rundown. It was an immensely popular science fiction show back in the 60's done almost entirely with marionettes and models. The show chronicled the adventures of an independent organization called International Rescue that used highly advanced vehicles and equipment to perform rescue operations all over the world (and even in space). The show was popular because it paid a great amount of attention to detail, which made those models, puppets, and story plots all the more real and exciting.

This show was previously released on DVD a few years ago, including a complete collection set. So what makes this 40th Anniversary Edition different from the previous release? The big answer is that this collection is digitally remastered and is now shown in its original VIDECOLOR format. Now the original disks shown some signs of remastering as well and the shows never looked better. I'm not sure how much of an improvement this edition will make on that achievement, but it is one of their big selling points.

Aside from the remastering you also get some additional features not included in the original release. Here's a breakdown of all the features:

Making of Featurette: this was in the original DVD set and it's a ten minutes long vintage documentary that mostly covers the innovative (for its time) special effects for the show. These effects were so innovative they were used in many of the James Bond films of the day.

Interview with Gerry Anderson: this is a 40 minute interview with the creator of Thunderbirds (as well many other popular sci-fi shows like UFO, Space 1999, and other puppet-driven thrillers). This in depth conversation also has Gerry talk about his seven favorite projects (he created a total of 15 television shows).

The Brains Behind the Thunderbirds: A documentary narrated by a character of the show: Brains. This hour long feature covers the various characters and their exploits in the series.

Pop Up Trivia - The two part episode "Pit of Peril" will include a pop up trivia track much like the ones they shown on TechTV's release of the show.

There are also lots of production photos and gallaries placed throughout the disks in this 12 disk collection (features are on disk 12). This collection has all 32 one-hour episodes included and is mastered in Dolby Stereo (just like the first release). Total run time is about 26 hours.

If you do not have the Thunderbirds in your collection now is a perfect time to get it. The list price is a good deal lower than the original list price for the first collection plus the packaging takes up a good deal less space (not to mention the remastering and extra features). If you have the original set then I suppose it's going to be a judgement call. I haven't heard any first hand accounts on how much an improvement the remastering will be compared to the original and I can't see how a couple of new featurettes would be enough to do a double dip.

January 18, 2008

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