For many growing up in the sixties Dinky’s famous blue Thunderbird 2 was a major childhood frustration. Even if you had a black and white television, you still knew from the TV21 comics that Thunderbird 2 was green. So why was the Dinky Thunderbird 2 blue?!
Well – the story goes something like this…
Dinky were desperate to shift as many units of the new Thunderbirds toys as possible since they knew they were going to be a huge hit. Dinky employed a child psychologist/behavioural expert to make sure the toys would fly off the shelves.
In the expert’s opinion at that time, they should make the Dinky Thunderbird 2 blue, because children didn’t buy green toys – or at least they weren’t sufficiently attracted to them when on the shelves. So the psychologist suggested an eye-catching metallic blue. Totally inaccurate of course, and they did later release a green version.
It’s also worth noting that by the next decade (with UFO and Space:1999) the psychologist had either been replaced or changed their views – recommending that the SHADO Interceptor and Space: 1999 Eagle be painted a garish metallic green, when their on-screen counterparts were in fact white!
Many collectors stripped and repainted their blue TB2 models. Did you? Comment below and let us know!
If you want to grab a Thunderbird 2 toy in the right colour then look no further than the Gerry Anderson store…
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