Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet - Trading Cards - (Zavvi)
Stingray is a British children's science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Filmed in 1963 using a combination of electronic marionette puppetry and scale model special effects, it was APF's sixth puppet series and the third to be produced under the banner of "Supermarionation". It premiered in October 1964 and ran for 39 half-hour episodes.
Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans. The WASP's flagship is Stingray, a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, navigator Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute young woman from under the sea. Stingray's adventures bring it into contact with various underwater civilisations, some friendly and others hostile, as well as strange natural phenomena.
In preparation for the series, APF acquired new, larger studios that it would continue to occupy for the remainder of the 1960s. Filmed at a cost of approximately £1 million, Stingray was the first British TV series to be made entirely in colour, a move intended to increase its appeal to the lucrative American market. The underwater sequences were filmed "dry" by shooting the sets through thin aquaria, while surface shots were filmed on water tanks incorporating lowered back walls to create artificial horizons. Stingray was the first Supermarionation series whose puppet characters had interchangeable heads showing a range of facial expressions.
Stingray' was originally broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and in syndication in North America. The series has drawn a largely positive response from commentators, some of whom have compared its premise to the Cold War.
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Thunderbirds is a British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was produced between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry (dubbed "Supermarionation") combined with scale-model special effects sequences. Two series were filmed, comprising a total of thirty-two 50-minute episodes; production ceased following the completion of the second series' sixth episode when Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer, failed in his efforts to sell the programme to American network television.
Set in the 2060s, Thunderbirds is a follow-up to the earlier Supermarionation productions Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Stingray. It follows the exploits of International Rescue (IR), a life-saving organisation equipped with technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space rescue craft; these are headed by a fleet of five vehicles named the Thunderbirds and launched from IR's secret base in the Pacific Ocean. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, the founder of IR, and his five adult sons, who pilot the Thunderbird machines.
Thunderbirds began its first run in the United Kingdom on the ITV network in 1965 and has since been broadcast in at least 66 other countries. Periodically repeated, it was adapted for radio in the early 1990s and has influenced many TV programmes and other media. As well as inspiring various merchandising campaigns, the series has been followed by two feature-length film sequels, a 2004 live-action film and a mimed stage show. The second of two TV remakes, Thunderbirds Are Go, premiered in 2015; the same year, three new episodes, based on soundtracks of tie-in audio plays and produced using the same techniques as the original series, were produced in celebration of the franchise's 50th anniversary.
Widely regarded as the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, Thunderbirds has been praised for its special effects (directed by Derek Meddings) and musical score (composed by Barry Gray). It is also remembered for its title sequence, which begins with an oft-quoted countdown by Jeff Tracy voice actor Peter Dyneley: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Thunderbirds Are Go!" A real-life rescue service, the International Rescue Corps, is named after the organisation featured in the series.
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Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often shortened to Captain Scarlet, is a British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor ITC Entertainment. Running to thirty-two 25-minute episodes, it was first broadcast on ITV regional franchises between 1967 and 1968 and has since been transmitted in more than 40 other countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It is one of several Anderson series that were filmed using a form of electronic marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation" combined with scale model special effects sequences.
Set in 2068, Captain Scarlet follows the "war of nerves" between Earth and the Mysterons, a race of Martians who possess partial control over matter. When a misunderstanding causes human astronauts to attack their city on Mars, the Mysterons vow revenge and launch a series of reprisals against Earth. These are countered by Spectrum, a worldwide security organisation. In the first episode, Spectrum agent Captain Scarlet acquires the Mysterons' self-healing power of retro-metabolism and is thus rendered "indestructible", being able to recover from otherwise fatal injuries. In this way, Scarlet becomes Spectrum's top asset in its fight against the Mysterons.
Captain Scarlet, the Andersons' eighth of ten puppet series, was preceded by Thunderbirds and followed by Joe 90 and The Secret Service. In terms of visual aesthetic, it represents a departure from Thunderbirds in its use of non-caricatured puppets sculpted to realistic body proportions. Repeated several times in the UK, it has generated tie-ins from toy cars and dolls to audio plays and original novels as well as comic strips in Century 21's weekly comic TV Century 21.
Compared to Thunderbirds and earlier Anderson series, Captain Scarlet is generally considered "darker" in tone and less suited to child audiences due to its violent content and themes of alien aggression and interplanetary war. The change in puppet design has divided critical opinion while the wisdom of making the protagonist "indestructible" has also been questioned. However, the series has been praised for its use of a multinational, multi-ethnic puppet cast and depiction of a utopian future Earth. A computer-animated reboot series, Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, was first broadcast in 2005.
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A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) or customizable card game, is a kind of card game that first emerged in 1993 and consists of specially designed sets of playing cards. Successful CCGs typically have upwards of thousands of unique cards, with the first developed, and most successful one, Magic: The Gathering, having over 16,000.
Typically, a CCG is initially played using a starter deck, or intro deck, which has a basic complement of cards that can be used to play the game. This deck may be expanded or modified with cards from booster packs, which contain a random selection of cards of varying rarities, usually between 8 and 15 cards. One of these cards is a rare or unique card that is much harder to obtain than the remaining cards and often has a higher value than the rest. These values can change over time as distribution changes, cards become banned in playing formats, or the metagame is altered by interactions with new cards. Eventually, with enough cards, players may create new decks from scratch.
Despite the dominance of Magic: The Gathering in the CCG market, a few have met with success and have built a niche for themselves including Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and Legend of the Five Rings. Other notable CCGs have come and gone: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Middle-earth, World of Warcraft, Dragon Ball Z, and Netrunner among others. Many other CCGs were produced, but had little or no commercial success. More recently, digital collectible card games have gained popularity, spurred by the success of Hearthstone.
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