Latest issue of Previews (April), for merchandise due out in June has an advert for kits (not the toys) by Bandai of Thunderbirds 1,2 and 3 from this year's movie. £5.99 ($10.95) each.

Look OK, better than the toys, though TB1 has wheels (?!). Can't tell what size they are.

Scan of advert attached.

Thanks, Yorkie! They don't look half bad for Snap kits.

Bit worried about the size of these things. Can't work it out from the pictures but they're only 400 Yen each ($3.79).


http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?BAN925309

http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljpage.cgi?BAN925310
Think they're only gonna be about 4 inches long darn it.

Going by the scales listed on the HLJ site and the size comparison chart that the studio released, TB-1 and TB-3 are going to be about 4.8 inches long, TB-2 about 4 inches long. The model of TB-1 is the smaller one in the picture, the larger one is the die-cast toy.

Just in case anybody's interested, here's my "out of the box" review of Bandai's movie Thunderbirds kits. I can't comment on the accuracy of these kits since I haven't seen the movie, but they look reasonably close at first glance considering the size--it looks like each kit will be about 4" long when assembled.

Thunderbird 1 - Stated as 1/200 scale. Snap together, molded in red, silver, and blue plastic. Movable wings, landing gear instead of a base, simplified assembly (the instructions are in Japanese, printed on the inside of the box), stickers instead of decals but they're printed on a very thin medium, so they shouldn't be too distracting. This kit also comes with a 1/450 scale Thunderbird 1 (with static wings) which is slightly less detailed, but is in scale with the other two kits.

Thunderbird 2 - Stated as 1/450 scale. Snap together, molded in red, yellow, green, and clear plastic. Removable equipment pod and optional use of struts, simplified assembly, instructions in Japanese, stickers instead of decals, no base. This kit also comes with a tiny "Mole" which is supposed to be in scale but looks a bit large. Again, I haven't seen the movie, so this may be accurate.

Thunderbird 3 - Also stated as 1/450 scale. Snap together, molded in red, silver, yellow, and white plastic. No moving parts, simplified assembly, instructions in Japanese, stickers instead of decals. This kit also comes with a tiny Thunderbird 4 (which may or may not be in scale, but it's close) and a base which is the top half of Thunderbird 5.

If I've left out anything you'd like to know, let me know.

Headed for a bargain bin near you....

Yeah, no kidding. But what the heck, at less than 4 bucks each these are fairly decent little kits. It's too bad they turned the movie into Spy Kids 4.

Keeping in mind what the original craft looked like (great toy material), the new ships are pretty cool looking. I also like the fact that it looks like Bandai has attempted to produce Thunderbirds 1-4 in the same scale.

Jim