Thunderbirds: The Complete Series

Geeks and nerds of a certain age, and Brit's of almost any will fondly remember Gerry Anderson's classic "Supermarionation" puppet based shows. More modern viewers may recognize the technique as that same one used by the South Park boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker to make Team America World Police a few years back. Well Thunderbirds is unquestionably the best known and in many ways the best of Gerry's offerings. The show wa sthe stuff of dreams for teh late 60's. A retired American Astronaut, now a Billionaire builds a fleet of 4 super vehicles. Flown by his sons, to act as a sort of secret Coast Guard. International Rescue. Monitoring the earth from an orbital satellite the team can swiftly respond to any global crisis big or small. They can go where others cannot, do what others cannot. While the puppets, are both creepy and yet oddly engaging, the real star of teh series is those amazing vehicles. Thunderbirds 1 through 4 and the Sattelite Thunderbird 5. We atched breathlessly each week to see them. If ever you wonder what the evolutionary step that got us from old school Flash Gordon and Captain Video type SciFi to 2001 and Star Wars effects and design work. This show is it. The late Derrick Medding's masterful designs were cutting edge yet incredibly grounded back in the 60's. And they still hold up well today. Everything about the show is grounded and oddly believable. Thunderbird 1 is a fast responding atomic powered Ballistic Ramjet. A true hypersonic transport designed to launch and arrive first and act as forward command and control. Much the way a Fire Chief does in his Chief's car for real emergencies. Thunderbird 2 is the heavy lifter. A massive VTOL cargo craft with a host of swappable cargo pods that can be loaded and equipped with a broad range of specialized ground or water vehicles. From high tech fire fighters to specialized digging or collapse rescue craft. You never know what will come out and watch breathlessly each week. Thunderbird 3 is the atomic orbital space shuttle. Mainly used to service the space station or to perform orbital rescues of astronauts. Thunderbird 4 is the least seen and arguably weakest of the lot, the small submarine. Carried in Thunderbird 2 it is a DSRV with robot arms. (Of all the vehicles Thunderbird 4 stands out as something of a holdover design wise from earlier shows. It feels more Stingray than Thunderbirds. The other three main vehicles actually not only look believable, but have been proven to actually be not simply viable, but outstanding aircraft designs by several major universities. T 4, not so much.) Perhaps the greatest charm os Thunderbirds is that while it was a kids show, it never talked down to kids or sought to dumb it down. The show was largely a straight up problem solving procedural. Think Apollo 13 or The Martian as a half hour weekly show. The cast and crew were steely eyed missile men out to save people by solving problems using their amazing technology. All while taking great lengths to avoid having that same tech fall into the wrong hands. While targeted at kids, it treats the kids as adults. It doesn't shy away from the fact that it was a cold war era show. Rather it quietly and subtly factors it in, in real and truthful ways. (Heck in one episode T1 gets shot down over a surprisingly Libya like Middle Eastern nation.) This show ran for several seasons and spawned two follow up movies Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6. The concept has also been revisited several times. There was a Japanese Anime in the 80's (hard to find), the rather awful Nikolodean Jonathan Frakes directed Hollywood movie from a few years back. And the new reasonably decent CGI offering. While the new one isn't bad... it is still unquestionably a silly kids show. Something that the original managed to never be. All of the new ones pale before the pure genius and fun that was the 60's puppets. If you like SciFi, and in particular of you have a fondness for special effects and really good model work, Thunderbirds is a must see.

The new Thunderbirds Complete Series set from Timeless Media Group/Shout! Factory/ITV is a must have for the newly remastered transfers and optional original (UNALTERED!!!) Mono alone! The new transfers are a real step up from the A&E releases (and despite what people say about Shout! and their so-called encoding problems resulting with compression artifacts, I haven't notice or even barely noticed. Don't listen to the nay-sayers, the compression problems are not as you think and like I said, I barely even notice it to not noticing it at all!), beautiful, crisp, colorful, and clean, a HUGE improvement and as mentioned you have the original unaltered mono mix (for the first time ever on the digital format in the US!) as well as the remixed 5.1 track featuring additional sound effects added for said mix when the series was first released on DVD by A&E so fans have the best of both worlds! The DVD and Blu-ray releases also feature a new (and by new, I mean done before Gerry Anderosn's death like before December 2012) documentary Launching Thunderbirds and vintage Thunderbirds publicity brochure as a DVD/BD-ROM extra (located on the last disc of both formats). But fans should not throw out their A&E sets just yet! If you still have the 40th anniversary megaset, you'll have extras (most of which are located on the 12th bonus disc) not included with the Shout! release including: -"The Making of Thunderbirds" vintage featurette (found on discs 1 and 3) - Pit of Peril with pop up trivia track (separated into 2 parts) -Another "The Making of Thunderbirds" vintage featurette (a different one) -"The Brains Behind Thunderbirds" documentary -Interview with Gerry Anderson There's also a Best of Thunderbirds DVD compilation which also contains (in addition to the Pit of Peril with pop-up trivia track) 2 exclusives not found on either release: -Before Thunderbirds Were Go -Interview with Gerry Anderson (very different one, I assure you) Still, fans should definitely get the new Shout! release for the remastered prints and optional original Mono (and the new documentary)! You will not be disappointed!

My wife suggested the Thunderbirds collection and remembers them from her childhood. She knew the names of the kids and loved the story line. A great set and price for something you will never find again.

Really good Tv series

I grew up in the UK watching Jerry and Silvia Anderson's masterly puppet shows. I loved the models, and the pyrotechnics and even the weak stories. Stringray, Fireball XL5, Joe 90, and Thunderbirds, all great shows. Fast forward 55 years and our over the air antenna CBS TV station starts broadcasting a cartoon channel and my love of these series is even more strongly re-ignited as I watch the ingenuity of the Anderson team. To find these DVDs at such a reasonable price invoked me to dust off our DVD player. They are good quality and authentic originals. I love them!!

Exactly as I remember from when I was a kid. Perfect for nostalgic Sci-Fi fans especially if they grew up in the 60's.

Great flashback from the 60's T.V. era , got a kick out of it when I was young and now too!

I'm going out of my way to write this, out of a love for Thunderbirds and to state a few things I've run into with this Blu-ray collection. First off, this is the absolute definitive way of owning these episodes. The video is absolutely crisp given the transfer to HD, the special features are perfect and not overdone, and I must say that I am proud to display this on my shelf next to my kickstarted new-1965 episodes Blu-ray. Reading further into the comments, I noticed some absolutely silly comments and some notable ones. Of the silly, to clarify, these episodes were never shot in widescreen. Those complaining about pillarboxing need to revisit their film history books. This is a TV show. Of the more serious, and most notable, the Blu-ray appears to not be compatible with ALL players. I use an Xbox One as a primary player, and it had problems playing this disc, and my PC had a similar issue. This disc DOES work on PS4 without issue though, so this is something to keep in mind when buying. All-in-all, or tldr, this is an amazing set that works in most players, but not all. I'm giving 5 stars because Thunderbirds are go!

I have been a fan of Thunderbirds since I first saw it (on ITV) as a 5 year old, in 1965. I am now 56 years old & it is still as great now as back then. Lets be honest this must be one of the greatest and most popular television series ever made!! I have owned the series in every video format through the years - VHS tape, then DVD, then the first Blu Ray- which as we all know was re-sized/cropped for widescreen viewing 16:9 ratio. That version was "like Marmite" - you either loved it or hated it. Personally I did not mind the 'cropping' because I consoled myself with the knowledge that it was 'the best' version we were going to get at that time, and the video quality of the 'cropped' blu ray was excellent. However I always hoped that ITV would bring out 'the holy grail' of Blu Ray versions of Thunderbirds - which would be in its original 4:3 aspect ratio as originally broadcast all those years ago. It was always in the back of my mind that 'we were missing some portion of the picture' - at the top & bottom - I'm a bit of a purist/nerd really!! There was a Japanese Blu ray version brought out in the original 4:3 aspect ratio but it was prohibitively expensive & you needed to remortgage your house to get hold of it!!! All of a sudden news came that the 'Shout' factory, in the USA were bringing out the series on Blu ray in the original 4:3 ratio, & you did not need to be Donald Trump to afford it - it was being offered at a very reasonable price. I pre-ordered it and it duly arrived (from Canada) today. I put the pilot episode (Trapped In The Sky) on first. All I can say is "I think I have died & gone to heaven"!!! The old cliche "it looks like these episodes were made yesterday" certainly applies here!! The images are fantastic and completely blemish free. If you already own the 'British' cropped Blu Ray set - this new 'Shout factory' set is the best 'by a country mile' on video quality, and best of all it is in 4:3 aspect ratio & you get to see ALL the picture as Gerry Anderson intended!! Do not hesitate, all you British Thunderbirds fans (and there are millions of us in the UK) - purchase this immediately - you will not be disappointed. One down side is that I can confirm that this set IS locked to Region A (USA/Canada) so you will need a multiregion Blu Ray player (or a player bought from North America) in order to play them. But, believe me, hang the expense - just do it - Thunderbirds fans in Britain have been waiting too long 'to let this opportunity get away'. Anyway enough of this; I am off now to put on my favourite episode - 'The Cham-Cham' - F.A.B!!!

This was exactly what I was looking for: the original Thunderbirds episodes, presented in the original format. The only negative with respect to the shows themselves is that the quality is so crisp, and modern TVs so large and clear, that it's MUCH harder to ignore the puppet strings! It's a minor thing, and not really an issue What is an issue however is that the disks have a hardcoded commercial for some streaming service at the start. It can't be skipped, can't be fast-forwarded, and it plays every time the disk goes in. If I put down a hundred dollars for content, I feel I've provided the content creator with value for their product, and I very much resent having to sit through an ad to increase their revenue a little more. If you're looking for this series, or any other, ask the vendor about advertising content on the disks.

Excelente serie, la versión solo viene en inglés sin subtitulo, esta excelente

Great Older TV Series but once a fan always a fan. Childhood memories relived whilst rewatching this series.

No information on the product about it being region locked to Region 1. Came to my surprise after almost a month of waiting to get it to Sweden only to see it say "UNAVAILABLE REGION" when launched from my PS4.