There’s still time to vote to persuade LEGO to make this Classic Thunderbirds kit suggested over on LEGO Ideas, a project proposal that’s gained plenty of traction from brick builders worldwide – and earned a coveted “Staff Pick” from the company.

This idea from “NathanR2015” for a LEGO set is based on Gerry Anderson’s classic Thunderbirds television series, originally broadcast in 1965 – and still a personal favourite 25 years after Nathan first watched it with his parents.

The proposed set includes all five of the Thunderbirds craft, depicting them as they appeared in the 1965 series, designed with both play and display in mind.

The suggested models incorporate several fun features – opening wings for Thunderbird 1, a 25 cm long Thunderbird 3 complete with four detachable landing legs, and a lever that can be pulled to drop the pod and allow you to deploy the vehicle inside. (For your rescue missions, you can either load up Thunderbird 4 or take the Mole). Thunderbird 3 measures over 15 cm tall and can be docked with Thunderbird 5, and there’s even a Thunderbird 6,
the Tiger Moth biplane that was into Thunderbird 2’s pod.

Also included is a model of FAB 1, the futuristic Rolls Royce owned by International Rescue’s London agent, Lady Penelope.

“The model measures over 10 cm long,” says Nathan, “and is deliberately oversized with respect to the other Thunderbird vehicles in homage to the die-cast Thunderbirds toys that I played with as a child.”

But that’s not all – Nathan even includes the option to recreate International Rescue’s first ever mission with a design for the supersonic airliner, Fireflash, too, which Thunderbirds fans will recall was trapped in the sky thanks to the Hood.

Its landing gear has been sabotaged, and its fuel is running low. Help the International Rescue crew guide the plane to a landing on the roofs of the three included elevator cars. Will they bring the plane to a standstill before running out of runway?

The models use a total of 1655 pieces, designed by Nathan in LEGO Digital Designer, and exported to Mecabricks. Over fifty custom decals/patterns were created and added for the final image renders, which were performed using the Blender software on the Mecabricks render farm.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Are Thunderbirds Go? You can vote for the project here on LEGO Ideas (sign up required)

• Head over to Mecabricks for an animated, fully interactive 3D model of Thunderbird 2

• A fully interactive 3D model of Thunderbird 3 over on Mecabricks

• An interactive 3D model of Thunderbird 4 on Mecabricks

• An interactive 3D model of Thunderbird 5 on Mecabricks

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: downthetubes News, Merchandise, Other Worlds

Tags: downthetubes News, Gerry Anderson, Lego, LEGO IDEAS, NathanR2015, Thunderbirds