Tom, I can’t believe you had the die-cast Thunderbird 2 and somehow didn’t know what it was! That toy was great, except for the fact that it had a Thunderbird 4 inside of it.
Thunderbird 4 is a total waste of container space. I was always much more excited when they picked up the container with the sci-fi bulldozer or the sci-fi drill. A yellow submarine? pfft.
I’m only 32, and so wasn’t around for Thunderbirds’ heydey in the 60s, but the show was re-run constantly until the 90s, so practically every in the UK knows what it is. I loved watching the show and its near-future miniatures, and it definitely had a lasting effect. e.g. About 5 years ago I designed and made a prototype (of a prototype…) of a computer game called “Rescue Force”. It was basically Desert Strike meets Thunderbirds, and I reckon it’d be a fantastic game. Plus: no killing!
As for the tangent on local game groups: I go to one each Wednesday in Aylesbury and am quite luck that there’s a wide variety of games on offer. e.g. last week I played Agra for the second time. I remember seeing someone playing the Thunderbirds game sometime last year, as it had just arrived from Kickstarter? I dismissed it as I assumed it was a cash in on the new (and terrible) CGI cartoons and movie*, and it had those stupid looking heads. But after your review I really want to play it. Makes me wish I’d bought it when it was on sale in Novemeber.
*Edit: Actually, the movie wasn’t CGI but some horrible live action thing sporting a Busted soundtrack and directed by William Riker Jonathan Frakes.
edit2: ps yeah, the car is called FAB 1. I had a matchbox model of that.
pps: you guys ever read Ministry Of Space by Warren Ellis? That’s definitely Thunderbirds inspired.