Unofficial Official Health & Safety Posters For These Worrying Times...

I did a handful of warning posters during Lockdown. 

The germ of the idea came from some fiddling around in Photoshop over the Easter holiday. For some reason, I'd photoshopped a rabbit's head onto a Judoon soldier... just because I could. It looked quite disturbing and after getting off the phone to my therapist, I decided to put the now cursed image to good use as a warning poster. I hope it did its job. 

After I'd tweeted two further ones, Jamie Anderson asked me to do a Supermarionation-themed one. I did a Captain Scarlet one and, as with the series itself, it was a bit dark. A BIT DARK!  Most people found it amusing but one person didn't get the subtle humour behind it and felt it in poor taste. 

If you've enjoyed this post (or the 500 odd other posts on this blog), why not purchase for me a cup of nice warming coffee via my Ko-fi account. The link is here.

What Brand of Cigarette Did Lady Penelope Smoke?

There's a lot that is different in the new ITV 'Thunderbirds Are Go' series when compared to its sixties predecessor. 

For one thing, none of the characters chain smoke like they used to...

Crossroads Mini-album Adventures from Century 21 Discovered in Skip!

There was a skip of stuff at the bottom of the street where I live. I had a rummage through it as any good citizen would and what did I find...? A selection of old single records no less. So I scraped the now rancid baked bean juice from them and took them home.

There were fourteen of them in all - mostly original sixties releases. In amongst them was a pleasant surprise!

An original Century 21 mini-album!

Sadly, it was not that 'Doctor Who' Dalek one with the odd narration on it. It was one of the very rare 'Crossroads' ones that I'd only heard talk of in very exclusive and hushed conversations at comic marts. 

If I recall correctly, Century 21 tried their hand at releasing non-Gerry Anderson material back in the mid-sixties and they dipped their toes into new markets with a handful based on the ATV soap opera. 

Needless to say, it didn't really catch on. I mean, who wanted to pay and listen to a show in sound only when they can watch it four nights a week for free on the telly. 

I put the record on and found it to be crap. They used a dreadful 'space-age' version of the 'Crossroads' theme performed on a theremin and the narration by 'Sandy' was inaudible - either due to poor mixing or the actor's adenoids. 

Pretty shit day really...

More "rare" Century 21 Mini-albums here.

Unreleased Century 21 Mini-albums Uncovered...

In the mid-sixties, you couldn't move for Century 21 mini-albums - 7 inch 33rpm records each with "21 minutes of adventure". The likes of Scot Tracy and Lady Penelope narrated bite sized audio cut downs of classic Thunderbirds rescues whilst Steve Zodiac and Venus kidnapped a young boy and played sound effects from the moonshot to him. There was even a chance to go on a date with Troy Tempest...!

No Gerry & Sylvia Anderson puppet series was left untouched... except perhaps 'The Secret Service'. (We don't talk about the priest and his little gardener any more...)

There were a few that didn't get released. They tried to make them more instructional at one point but the arrest of Captain Zodiac and Dr. Venus and their subsequent trial put paid to that. 

One oddity was their 'Daleks' record - a laboured re-telling of "Doctor Who's" battle with the Daleks on the planet Mechanus featuring the soundtrack of the final episode of 'The Chase'. It was narrated by an enthusiastic David Graham and book-ended by Eric Winstone's dance band version of the Doctor Who theme. They were going to do another Dalek themed one for Christmas and prepped a cover for it - until someone told them that the series' special Christmas episode - which occurred halfway through a mammoth twelve part Dalek adventure - had replaced the Daleks with a silent movie skit that wasn't really suited to audio... despite Tristram Cary's fun music. 

Here's a selection from the archives. As always, none of this was ever released. It was just another dream episode...!

Would you trust International Rescue with this job?

THE THUNDERBIRDS PREGNANCY TESTING KIT

Unknown maker

Originally available c1995

Price £1 (available at early Poundland stores in the Midlands)

You need someone or something REALLY reliable to carry out certain tasks. International Rescue are one of the most trustworthy organisations in the world (of fiction). Every day throughout the world (of fiction), people trust them with their lives when they need help of a desperate nature. They are the go-to guys when it comes to sorting out emergencies........ especially in the fictional world of 2066.

So let's put their name to a Pregnancy Testing Kit!

(It seems Gerry had a better agent than Sylvia did....!)

SUPERMARIONATION SCANDAL! What if the 'Daily Mail' had published 'TV21?

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