h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I loved "Sting Ray" - much better than the ever-repeated "Thunderbirds", and only surpassed, if at all, by "Captain Scarlett". To this day I still often say "Anything can happen in the next half hour" at least once a week...
...In fact, when I got my very first Yellow Submarine, what did I name it but "Stingray"?

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I also regularly repeat 'anthing can happen in the next half hour' and nobody ever knows what I'm on about. It's nice to learn that I'm not alone.

I felt exactly the same. Normally when I say it people look at their watches and give me a puzzled look, and I normally have to explain it to them about two or three times. For some reason "Stingray" isn't as popular as "Thunderbirds" - if I said "F.A.B." I think everyone would get the reference.

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I agree. I think it's because Thunderbirds had more explosions. Everything used to explode on Thunderbirds. Solid steel girders used to burst into flames and explode. Perhaps everything was built of magnesium or something. I think that expains its popularity, though - people like explosions.

There were more toys in Thunderbirds as well - Stingray just had the submarine, Thunderbirds had all the actual Thunderbirds, plus Lady Penelope's car. I wanted a Thunderbird 2 - it had a removable pod with Thunderbird 4 in it. And Thunderbird 1 had swing wings. I had a Fab 1 - it had an opening roof with a removable Parker and Lady P., and it used to fire a big rocket out of the grill and 4 little ones from the tail lights. Needless to say, I lost the rockets. I had a Stingray, but it was a big plastic stupid thing that wasn't moulded accurately.

I could never get my head around the Yellow Submarine model you mentioned - it wasn't really the sort of thing that fitted with the way I played as a kid - I wanted my cars/boats/planes/rockets to race or fight or just vroom about - the Yellow Submarine was a music thing - not the same feeling at all. I'm putting this really badly.

I feel there's a lot to be said for Fireball XL5. I know it's not in colour, but it has a robot, and Zooney the Looney, and you could argue that the monochrome adds atmosphere, or at least some period charm. It hasn't been on for ages though, so maybe it wasn't as good as I remember. I had a Fireball XL5 too, with a detachable Fireball Junior. That was good for vrooming!

Captain Kebab, I believe you have just written the outline for a ripping h2g2 article about the Thunderbirds. I look forward to reading the finished yarn

i agree. get cracking on that article captain kebab!

i agree. get cracking on that article captain kebab!

sorry, i must have pressed the 'post' button twice....
(i'm new to all of this)

Ooh, that's an interesting challenge! I could be some time...

Best you get on with it. You wouldn't want to keep Lady Penelope waiting

Admittedly I skipped through the article pretty quickly (well, I have to leave for work in 5 minutes ), but I don't recall seeing the name of Troy's co-pilot, and I can never remember his name. And wasn't Marina the daughter of the king of another underwater race, or am I imagining that?

Was it Commander Shore? I'll watch it tomorrow night & confirm, unless someone knows better ......

Righto, Troy's co-pilot was Phones. Commander Shore was the base commander on shore in Marineville - he was the one in the motorised wheelchair. I think Marina was indeed one of another undersea race, and had been enslaved by Titan. In the very first episode, Troy and Phones are captured by Titan, and Marina helps them. She then joins W.A.S.P.

Does anyone else think I should get out more?

CK

Ooh - I forgot to mention - Titan had an agent on the surface called Agent X Two Zero who was a master of disguise, despite being green.

Of course it was Phones, silly me!! Doh!

And didn't he speak like a perfect southern gentleman, y'all?

Indeedy!!

Isn't Troy wonderful - ahhhhhhh! He saved them all tonight - my hero!

Doesn't the nasty agent sound like Peter Lorre "... my collection of human skulls ...."?

Ah do believe that Phones full name wus Phones Sheridan. I once saw the actor who did the voice for him in a movie in the wee hours after a friday session. He had an unmistakable voice.

When I woke up next morning my mind was a blank and I had forgotten both the film and the actors name

Robert Easton - Lieutenant George Lee 'Phones' Sheridan

And this page makes very interesting reading. He seems to be working as a dialect coach these days, and still acting too.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Easton,+Robert+(I)

Good lord a 20 year mystery cleared up in a trice Thanks Gosho.