Gorram Tracy Island

For obvious reasons, the BPTI was built from the base up but for making a wargaming table, I’m going to go about things a little backwards. I need certain parts of the island to look like they have been built in rather than precariously sitting on top so I figure making them first makes sense.

First up then is the house. This is a weird part of the fact sheet because they actually do use a brand name. The main house is make of one small matchbox and two Swan Vestas matchboxes (bigger than a normal box but smaller than the extra-long ones).

I’m not going to go into the steps/details because I just followed the fact sheet and video instructions… it feels a bit weird to take credit for other people’s work.

The BPTI was meant to replicate a toy rather than the original Thunderbirds tv show island. It is quite small in footprint and for wargaming will offer limited playable space. I’ve decided then to make it bigger, scaled to 10mm minis being on pennies. The caveat is that I can only use things they used in the original BPTI.

Anyone who has read my project logs for things in the past might notice that I’m a bit of a stickler for details. Watching the original video back again and comparing notes with what is actually in the fact sheet there are some differences in materials. It is silly things like instead of a yogurt pot, use a washing up liquid bottle. Rather than a toilet roll inner, they say to use a “potato crisp tube”. It turns out this is because the fact sheet on the website is a new(er/ish) version from 2000.

Aside: This also gives out international community members an insight into something that we all take for granted here – the BBC were not allowed to mention brand names back then. Still largely aren’t though it is more lax than it was when I was a wain. It can be covered by saying “other brands are available” but on kids tv they were much stricter. That’s why you’ll hear an entire nation use the term sticky backed plastic instead of Sellotape. Blue Peter lives on in all of us. So not a Pringles can, potato crisp tube.

The question is do I go for the screen accurate or fact sheet functionality. In almost every case the fact sheet is for a slightly larger, easier to get your hands into option. As this is meant to be for conventions though, the TV version is what people will remember. I am perfectly aware that these are the kinds of things that don’t bother other people but I have brain goblins and this is just how they roll.

For the last few weeks I’ve been watching eBay to pick up the original 1992 metal toys that the Blue Peter Tracy Island was built around (from this point on referred to as BPTI for ease). Anything older than this century is of course now referred to as vintage and costs more than I’m willing to spend on this dumb project so it took a lot of looking to find this bundle of well loved, badly chipped and possibly chewed upon Thunderbird 1,2 and 3 for £16 including postage. I’m in two minds about painting them but that is not something I’ll be taking a decision on any time soon.

The main reason for picking them up right now is every wargamers favourite BS topic, scale. I wanted to figure out what size of miniatures I’ll need for the game and then from there I can work on how big the table will be.

I was hoping to run the game in 15mm but seeing the toys in person, 10mm really does look better next to them. If we’re getting very technical they should actually be 6mm to scale next to the toys but that doesn’t feel right for a beer and pretzels game.

Back in 1993, the long running British kids tv show Blue Peter was doing all the things it had always done. A magazine programme it would have sections on gardening, animals, music, charity appeals and crafts. That year *the* must have toy was Matchbox’s Tracy Island from Thunderbirds and they decided to show us how to make our own so even us poor kids could get involved.

The reaction to the craft was a phenomenon. At the time, Blue Peter used to make a fact sheet for every craft that you could request by sending them a self stamped addressed envelope. Tracy Island was the most requested fact sheet the show has ever had (yes, Blue a Peter is still running).

I found this clip from the show the week after and it shows it all; 90s fashion, overflowing mail bags because the internet wasn’t a thing yet, BBC endorsing child labour to keep up with demand and John “not proven isn’t the same as not guilty” Leslie.

Now the BBC are never one to miss a nostalgia trip and have the fact sheet available on their website today. This version of the fact sheet is actually from 2000; this will definitely not cause me any head-scratching.

It would be rude not to make one and turn it into a wargaming table, wouldn’t it?

Another autumn has come around and TerrainFest is upon us. I’ve struggle the last couple of years to get something together but the brain goblins have been brewing a wee convention game for next year. It will need a custom table which sounds like a perfect TerrainFest opportunity.

I apologise for how incredibly a) British and b) 90s this project is. After a Hobby Hangout ended where we chatting our usual nonsense about kids tv shows, I fell into a YouTube spiral. This is where we ended up.

I also owe an upfront apology to any Thunderbirds fans out there – it wasn’t until I’d already started a research document that I realised that we are at the 60th anniversary of the show. I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen them all but my younger brother was daft on the show around the early 90s and so I was exposed through proximity. I always preferred Terrahawks.

Even so, I promise to try my best.

I can’t promise to not go with my original game idea which was to declare International Rescue a terrorist organisation and have special forces be storming the island to prevent them deploying their arsenal of attack vehicles on the world.