Dinky Toys: TV Shows, Space and Specials
Including Gerry Anderson and other TV shows plus specials and novelties
9th December 2020
A while back QDT, the diecast specialist, sold a range of Gerry Anderson models curated by an unnamed collector. However the collector wrote a blog about his love of this models and why he amassed such a comprehensive and high quality collection. For those who have not seen it, I thought it was worth highlighting it again. Click HERE if you can’t see the blog below.
The collection, now sold, can be viewed here:
(Added originally to Updates page and copied here)
A new version, possibly a prototype or maybe a one-off special of the 353 Shado 2 Mobile has come to light. This version has a radar dish instead of the rocket. Both share the same base and this version can also flip round into the body and be angled like the rocket. More details on the 353 Shado 2 page.
The comments section on the 353 Shado 2 page is describing this as the ‘Holy Grail’!
Some detective work required please! Fellow collector Andrew has these three SPV 104s in his collection. They are believed to be all original including the aerials, of which there appear to be three types.
The most common version is on the left, the other two appear to be rarer. If you look at the roof top plungers, they are bare metal which indicates all three SPVs are very early editions.
Does anybody have further examples of the less common aerials? Or who can shed a little more light this?
GA expert Martin Gainsford has provided images from the Christie’s Auction catalogue of 11th July 2002 . It features a stunning set of pre-production models and prototypes of four models, 106 Thunderbird 2, 104 SPV, 351 Interceptor and the 353 Shado 2 .
He says: “I was fortunate at the time to have been involved with FANDERSON and requested by Christie’s to act as one of their advisors for the Anderson related items so had the chance to handle and see up close all the pieces for sale.”
The catalogue does not have an image of the 353 Shado 2s but Martin photographed them a year or two prior to this auction at an exhibition.
Until 1966 the famous Rolls Royce ‘FAB1’ was a model starring in many of the Thunderbirds TV programmes and in both the films. A full-sized replica of FAB 1 was built to transport writers-producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson to the premiere of the second movie ‘Thunderbird 6’ * in London. It was constructed by the company Toby Baxter Contracts under Sylvia’s supervision and not by Brains or Rolls Royce.
* In the linked article below, it incorrectly says that the premiere was the first movie ‘Thunderbirds are Go’. (see comments)
Petrolheadism, a well known motoring blog, has the fascinating story of what happened to this model and where it is now.
Continue reading “What happened to the full size FAB1?”
Back in October 2018 two original props from Gerry Anderson’s The Investigator TV series were sold at auction (see news story below) and now they are back up for sale at Vectis Auctions on September 26th.
These props were used in ‘The Investigator’ which was produced in 1973 as a pilot episode for a new series mixing live action and puppetry techniques, similar in approach to ‘The Secret Service.’ No further episodes were produced.
A matt green variant of the first version, with a riveted base, of the 101 Thunderbird 2 has been sold on eBay for £549 ($670). According to the seller it was purchased new in 1967 and then stored carefully until its sale on August 31st 2019. There is an FAO Schwarz (a well known New York toy store) price sticker for $18.69 on the box.
A change of paint finish for a model on its first production run is unusual especially as the riveted base version was only sold for a year before the rivets were replaced with screws to enable easier repairs of the thin yellow legs that were very prone to breaking under normal play use.
Has anybody out there got a similar variant? Would love to hear from you and see some pictures.
OK not strictly Dinky Toys but its always interesting to see the original props and models that the Binns Road designers worked from to produce the toys that then sold in their millions.
Gerry Anderson TV is the official YouTube account of Anderson Entertainment & the Gerry Anderson Estate and has a raft of short background videos looking at different aspects of the GA productions including the vehicles and series featured on this site.
You can either go direct via the link above or via this site’s series and vehicles pages
Thunderbirds Primer
Captain Scarlet Primer
Space 1999 Primer
UFO Primer
FAB 1 C21 Tech
Thunderbird 2 C21 Tech
Candy and Andy Audio FAB Facts
And there are three new USS Enterprise original prop images on the
8th August 2019
Two interesting new variants for the site for the 102 Joe’s Car from the Joe 90 TV series.
The first is a gunmetal base version, possibly an export version or even a factory error, whatever the origin, its certainly a strange colour combination.
The second newly identified variant is the omission of the on/off switch labelling, next to the double headed arrow and possibly a tooling issue. A short lived change as the very first versions had the text labelling as did later and the last versions of the 102.
4th August 2019
JK Auctions recently sold a resin prototype of the never commercially released 113 John Steed’s Jaguar from the 1970’s New Avengers UK TV series. The prototype was originally part of the Parodi family collection who had exclusive import rights to Dinky Toys for Italy.
