Product Details

• Actors: John Tate
• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 3
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 27, 2001
• Run Time: 156 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000524F8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,217 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Created by Gerry Anderson (Space: 1999), this '60s-vintage British series remains a one-of-a-kind. With its "Super-Marionation"-animated characters (their strings endearingly in plain sight) and way-cool supersonic vehicles and space-age gadgets, each hour-long episode plays like a mini-James Bond film. This boxed set contains six fab episodes that chronicle the further futuristic adventures of International Rescue, led by former astronaut Jeff Tracey and manned by his five sons, who pilot the five Thunderbirds aircraft. They are aided on the ground by the glamorous and unflappable Lady Penelope, who is squired around in a pink Rolls Royce by her devoted chauffeur, Parker ("Yes, milady"). PC alert: Lady Penelope smokes and drinks! Perhaps her finest hour is "The Perils of Penelope," in which she searches for a missing scientist who has converted seawater into rocket fuel. With each attempt on her life, she is the epitome of grace under pressure, while her more flustered companion, Sir Jeremy, is more apt to yell, "Open this door. We're British." The squad is also heading for trouble ("and I mean trouble") in "Vault of Death," "Operation: Crash-Dive," "Move and You're Dead," "Martian Invasion," and "Brink of Disaster." Adults who formed their own Thunderbirds squadron on the playgrounds of America in the '60s and '70s should be thrilled with these newly digitally remastered episodes. Yet this is not some Baby Boomer nostalgia trip. The Pokémon crowd will probably watch with rapt fascination and dig these adventures once and again. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

Welcome to the year 2065. Self-contained city-towers soar 350 stories! Transcontinental monorail systems and multi-lane Superhighways criss-cross the planet! Atomic supersonic airliners travel 6 times the speed of sound! Astronauts rocket toward Mars and the Sun! But high technology brings high risk! when projects at this scale go wrong, the results can be devastating! That’s why multi-millionaire Jeff Tracy has created a rescue force for the 21st Century: International Rescue, known as...the Thunderbirds! Now, join the Tracy family and their fearless colleagues Lady Penelope, Parker, Kyrano and Tin Tin, in Producer Gerry Anderson’s (Space: 1999, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Fireball XL5 and UFO) legendary Supermarionation masterpiece, THUNDERBIRDS! This set contains the following 3 episodes: SUNPROBE: Thunderbird 3 must save a space ship before it collides with the Sun! THE UNINVITED: Scott stumbles into the pyramid lair of the mysterious Zombites! THE MIGHTY ATOM: The villainous Hood destroys a nuclear reactor! F.A.B. FACT: Initially entitled "International Rescue", THUNDERBIRDS was renamed after USAF Thunderbird Field.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars F.A.B!, January 2, 2001

By 

G. Turner (Chiddingfold, nr Godalming, Surrey England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thunderbirds - Set 2 (DVD)

I have just watched the whole Thunderbirds re-run on the TV over here in England. Once again, I still find myself dropping everything to sit and watch this fabulous show 35 years after it was originally broadcast (I was 5 yrs old at the time). When I was a kid, you either wanted to be Scott Tracy who piloted Thunderbird 1 (fast rocket, first vehicle to the disaster area), or Virgil Tracy who piloted Thunderbird 2 (fairly fast carrier with some cool rescue stuff stashed away in the pods), or Alan who piloted Thunderbird 3 (space rocket). I don't ever remember any of my friends wanting to pilot Thunderbird 4 (small yellow submarine that didn't do that much) or Thunderbird 5 (space station). My best friend Peter wanted to be Lady Penelope with the Pink Rolls Royce, but that's another story! Buy the DVD, the picture and sound quality are F.A.B. These discs are considerably better value than the ones released in the UK. This is for all you grown up 'boys' out there - If you're going to buy one action packed DVD this month, buy this one, I promise you you won't be disappointed!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars F.A.B.-tastic!!!, February 25, 2001

By 

Justin Ratcliff "egovirus" (S.Pasadena, Ca.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thunderbirds - Set 2 (DVD)

Though I as born fully one decade after the series was originally shown, my brother and I still have fond memories of watching this show as children. And though many of the details of the show were for so long shrouded in the faint rememberings of this true classic, I still did not hesitate to purchase set two the instant I saw it. And I was not disappointed.

First of all, the effects are truelly breathtaking in their cheesiness. But that is absolutely the charm of the show. Never mind that you can see the damn strings sticking out of them. Additionally the remastering is first rate. Sound and picture quality are tip top. Possibly better than back in '65, when you consider that they had to watch it sans digital home theater systems! Every episode brings a new, thrilling, and death defying challenge to the indomitable crew that are the Thunderbirds. They're rolling XXX large in their incredible machines that defy the laws of physics, and the limits of the human imagination.

Whats more is that they smoke! Cigars, cigarettes, and who knows what else? You will also notice that they not only sweat, constantly; but that mysteriously, they always manage to some how get filthy. It is obvious that the budget was of little issue in the making of this truelly original sci-fi masterpiece, as every special effect will get your heart racing with uncontrolable laughter. I especially liked that from time to time, real human hands and other limbs are used to give some continuity to the story line. Bravo! If you loved this show as a kid, which most of us, of a certain age did... you should also not hesitate a moment in purchasing either, or both sets. It's approx. 312 minutes for both discs, so you will be getting your moneys worth.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Calling International Rescue..., December 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunderbirds - Set 2 (DVD)

This should be the 2nd set of the classic Gerry Anderson TV series, The Thunderbirds. I don't know what episodes are going to be on it, but my understanding is that it should be the remastered (video and sound) version recently broadcast in England. The show is popular worldwide, but seems to lack any kind of following here in the U.S. Filmed in Supermarionation (ie., puppets), this is unlike anything seen before to the unitiated. The production values, f/x and model work are all top notch. Amazon needs to label this for what it is too. FAB!