Matchbox | Vintage Action Figures

Thunderbirds are go! It’s their evil nemesis The Hood!

Every great cult television show – and naturally, tie-in toy line – needs a dastardly foe who will try his utmost to ruin the plans of the good guys and prevent the heroes of the show from stealing the limelight through their daring deeds. Last time we looked at Captain Troy Tempest, the handsome hero from Stingray, so I thought it might be fun to follow that up with a villain from another absolute classic Gerry and Sylvia Anderson marionette TV show – The Hood from Thunderbirds.

Thunderbirds, alongside the two feature length marionette movies Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6, is quite possibly the most popular of all the Supermarionation shows, even inspiring a live action feature film in 2004.

Captain Troy Tempest from Stingray by Matchbox

Stand by for action! It’s Captain Troy Tempest from Stingray!

As promised in my last post, here’s another vintage action figure found at a flea market on my recent trip back to the UK, and like the Doctor Who collectible featured last time, this is a piece of UK television memorabilia from another cult show – Captain Troy Tempest, James Garner lookalike and the dashing hero of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s marionette masterpiece Stingray. The voice actors may have all been American – a ploy to ease overseas sales of the show – but the rest of the production was entirely British.

Set in the year 2065 at the headquarters of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) in Marineville, the ‘Stingray’ of the title was actually a state of the art submarine piloted by none other than our Troy here. First transmitted on ITV way back in 1964 and 1965, it may be hard for the younger generation of kids who have known nothing but CGI, to really appreciate the impact of those shows.

Vintage Matchbox Pee-wee Herman action figure

I know you are, but what am I?!… Pee-wee Herman!

Love him or hate him, if you were alive in the 1980s you can’t have missed American comedian Paul Reubens in the guise of his alter-ego Pee-wee Herman. Star of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, an enormously successful and groundbreaking Saturday morning television show for kids in the US, worldwide audiences were first introduced to him via Tim Burton’s debut film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which turned the road movie on its head and Pee-wee Herman into a cult favourite.

The last couple of decades have been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Reubens, both professionally and personally, but finally, Pee-wee Herman is back with a hit show on Broadway starring all the old Playhouse gang, so to celebrate (as I love Pee-wee to bits) I thought it would be fun to look back at this vintage Matchbox Pee-wee Herman action figure that was issued at the height of Pee-wee mania in the late 1980s.