Rating: 
Summary: Big Ships, Fast Rescues, and Small Heroes
Review: 22 inched heroes, that is.
The Thunderbirds is the fantastic and hope filled story of the Tracy family's ultimate rescue organization, International Rescue. Five sons, one genious engineer, incredible machines, and ex-astronaut father together with various allies serve the world over in action packed and technology driven 32 episodes. Hour long episodes range in rescues from ships, fire, airplane, aliens, you name it! There are a few black and white featurettes, but this colorful and precious DVD megaset of the cult 60s British supermarionette tv show really is FAB!
Rating: 
Summary: Dated But Still Great!
Review: For a television series created in the 1960's, on a shoe-string budget, and with marrionettes as actors, the show was great. Anderson's view of the future was brilliant throughout all of his Supermarrionation series, and including his two live-action series; UFO and Space:1999.
Regarding the statement made in the Editorial Review -- "who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in color and (b) it's got puppets in it?" The show was filmed for a British audience. At the time, only one of the BBC's TV stations broadcast in color. Americans got to see the series in color years before the fans in the U.K. In fact, the BBC released the entire first season as comic books, to placate the British fans. Therefor, the fact that the show was shot in color was indeed a virtue.
Rating:
Summary: this dvd set is a must have!!!
Review: I had first watched Thunderbirds when i was young ,
in black in white.
Then it came in color !
this set is a collectors item !!!
Rating:
Summary: A well earned reputation
Review: Imagine James Bond and Mission Impossible performed by marionettes. Throw in some eye opening and lavish (miniature 1/3 scale puppets) sets, special effects, and a "gee whiz!" attention to detail, and you begin to get an idea of why "Thunderbirds" has such a cult following. The scripts are involving and could just as easily have been performed by live actors with good results. There are enough cool gadgets in this series to please the ten year old boy in every grown up man (I suspect this series is more of a guy thing because relationships take second place to action). There is something else fascinating about this series and that is how seriously the producers, directors, designers took what was essentially a children's puppet show and kept to such high (and unnecessary) standards. This may be partly due to producer Gerry Anderson's frustrated desire to work as a mainstream film director/producer with live actors (he eventually got his wish years later). Seeing marionettes perform in realistic sets, with sophisticated action scripts, and good voice acting is a novel experience that appeals to everyone who has ever had a train set and tried to build a miniature town or city.
I bought this series for my mindless summer vacation viewing and it has been great fun. The DVD transfers are very clean.
This is great family entertainment, summer viewing, father and son get together material. Way to go, Thunderbirds!
Rating:
Summary: A well earned reputation
Review: Imagine James Bond and Mission Impossible performed by marionettes. Throw in some eye opening and lavish (miniature 1/3 scale puppets) sets, special effects, and a "gee whiz!" attention to detail, and you begin to get an idea of why "Thunderbirds" has such a cult following. The scripts are involving and could just as easily have been performed by live actors with good results. There are enough cool gadgets in this series to please the ten year old boy in every grown up man (I suspect this series is more of a guy thing because relationships take second place to action). There is something else fascinating about this series and that is how seriously the producers, directors, designers took what was essentially a children's puppet show and kept to such high (and unnecessary) standards. This may be partly due to producer Gerry Anderson's frustrated desire to work as a mainstream film director/producer with live actors (he eventually got his wish years later). Seeing marionettes perform in realistic sets, with sophisticated action scripts, and good voice acting is a novel experience that appeals to everyone who has ever had a train set and tried to build a miniature town or city.
I bought this series for my mindless summer vacation viewing and it has been great fun. The DVD transfers are very clean.
This is great family entertainment, summer viewing, father and son get together material. Way to go, Thunderbirds!
Rating:
Summary: F.A.B
Review: Like most of the reviewers, I grew up with this show as a child, it is re run every Saturday Morning here in Australia at 6 a.m. While we know they are puppets, the show hooks you in with its plot, which where way ahead of their time for the years that the shows where made. One of my favourite episodes has to be the ones set in the desert with the pyriamds where the bad guys live and they shoot down Thunderbird 1. and the Episodes with the baddy with the hypnotic eyes. I still enjoy the show 35 years on. I have one question that I would like answered, why does Scott (Thunderbird 1) have an American accent when all his brothers have English ones???
Rating:
Summary: Thunderbirds in Brazil
Review: Minha infancia e ate mesmo minha carreira foi influenciada por esta serie: 5...4...3...2...1..THUNDERBIRDS. Tenho hoje 42 anos, moro em Belo Horizonte e me lembro com muita nostalgia de quando passavam Thunderbirs na TV Itacolomi. Hoje sou engenheiro automobilístico, tenho como hobby plastimodelismo - carros, aviões, barcos e naves espaciais, inclusive o Thunderbird 1 e o Thunderbird 2. Os Andersons foram muito felizes com o trabalho que fizeram. Aqui no Brasil, em Belo Horizonte, tivemos também um trabalho em marionetes que atingiu sucesso internacional: Alvaro Apocalipse e sua crupe Giramundo. Pena que não existe a coleção Thunderbirds em Portugues. mesmo assim fiz o pedido na amazon e estou ancioso pela chegada. Dica: O dvd player Gradiente D-461 já vem de fabrica com a regiao 1 desbloqueada.
My childhood and my career were colored by THUNDERBIRDS series. I'm 42 and I live in Belo Horizonte and I remember w/ great nostalgy from the last 60's in Itacolomi TV broadcast. Now I'm an engeneer and I use to do plastimodels of cars, airplanes, ships and spaceships, including the Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2 models. The Andersons were very successful w/ their work, like here in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, Mr. Alvaro Apocalipse and his Giramundo's puppets. It's a pity that this serie Thunderbirds is not available in portuguese. Despite this, I've purchased it in english so. I'll use a dvd player Gradiente D-461 to play the films region 1.
Rating:
Summary: Great for first and second generations alike!
Review: My mother called me downstairs one day and told me that she saw the Thunderbirds on television. I wasn't impressed at first by the show where marionettes save the day, but I decided to watch it for the heck of it and discovered that I actually liked it! The most popular of the Supermarionation series, Thunderbirds is a great family show. My 3 year old niece normally gets scared of science fiction shows, but the marionettes didn't bother her and pretty soon she was talking the "5..4..3..2..1 Thunderbirds are GO!" introduction. I think this is a great family show because the plot lines are easy to understand, such as helping people stuck in a building or stopping a crazy dude from hurting people. Also, the characters are so lively because they enjoy what they are doing. Many children from my mother's day were inspired by these lifesavers to become pilots and astronauts. Such a wonderful television show spawned 2 marionette movies and the 2004 live action film. Hopefully more people will enjoy the series a older generation grew on and a newer generation enjoys like a Star Wars or a Star Trek fan.
Rating:
Summary: The best way to experience the classic series
Review: SERIES INTRODUCTION:
In the sixties, Gerry Anderson created a number of puppet shows. But these weren't the lame kind - they were actually all very interesting. Among them were Fireball XL5, UFO, and, of course, his crowning achievement - Thunderbirds. At long last, the classic series has gotten a DVD release, and now all of the DVD volumes are available in one handy set! Read on for my review.BASIC PLOT:
The basic plot of Thunderbirds is simplistic, but it works. Jeff Tracy, a former air force pilot, as put together an organization to rescue people around the world from danger. Appropriately enough, he calls his new agency International Rescue. The operation is carried out by his five sons, each of which operate a vehicle that can be used to help people in dangerous situations. The Tracy brothers have a variety of adventures, no two of which are alike. Two of my personal favorite episodes are Trapped In The Sky, an episode in which a bomb has been placed on a commercial airliner, snd The Uninvited, in which Scott Tracy discovers an ancient Egyptian pyramid that has been turned into a base for terrorists. You get every episode of the series in this set. FILM OPINIONS:
For being filmed in the sixties, this series was well ahead of its time. Sure, there are a few plotholes (for example, every newspaper in the series says the date is December 24, and they can't seem to decide what year the series takes place), but it's still an excellent series. It's just a shame the show tends to go so underrated these days, because it is actually quite excellent. DVD:
The DVDs have beautifully restored the series, and the episodes look about as good as a show from the sixties on DVD possibly can look. The final disc in the set has a number of bonus features, which will really appeal to die-hard fans of Gerry Anderson and the series as a whole. OVERALL:
Overall, Thunderbirds is one hell of a classic science fiction series. If you're a fan of the genre, this is a series well worth checking out - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how good it is.
Rating:
Summary: Get them all and save money
Review: The four Gerry/Sylvia Anderson series with which I am familiar ("Thunderbirds", "Captain Scarlet", "UFO", and "Space 1999") all have much in common. At their best, they have high-spirited adventure, good character situations, campy humor, and gee-wiz sets, costumes, and gadgetry. At their worst, they have jaw dropping logical flaws, stock footage overused to the point of obvious inconsistency, and excruciatingly painful sci-babble. "Thunderbirds", ironically enough, has the best acting of the four series. The exagerrated expressiveness of the puppets is delightful. Intentional or not, the humor of the series is its saving grace. The restaurant scene in "Path of Destruction" is outstanding, as is the champagne scene in "Danger at Ocean Deep". The episodes do tend to have absolutely the worst, most eye-popping plot gaps, and every now and then some pretty lame sci-babble will creep in. Also, the stories tend to ramble, as if they have a hard time filling in an hour-long format. The set could have been done with fewer discs (the final disc is a throwaway) but I'm still glad to have the complete set.
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