cigar bands

in its day, Thunderbirds could lay claim to being supported by the largest merchandising effort since Disney's. As has been pointed out in other pages on this site, the number of items related to the series was nearly inexhaustible. Small wonder then that, at some point, some bright soul at AP Films (Merchandising) came up with the idea of linking Thunderbirds to the pleasures of smoking. Even in those days, children were not in the habit of setting fire to a tasty cheroot but their fathers, uncles and grandfathers certainly were (and, come to think of it, so was Gerry). Hence Thunderbirds cigar bands. So here is what is probably one of the more outlandish items of Thunderbirds merchandising.

As far as I have been able to trace, four series saw the light of day, consisting of bands with different small photographs of characters and machines from the series. The first two were manufactured in 1968 by the Dutch Karel I cigar factories as the HG [half–groot — half size] and KF [klein–formaat — small size] series; apparently Karel I had a limited set of publicity stills to work with since the images of both series largely overlap. The third originated in Belgium and was issued in 2000 by the Morrita cigar factory. They issued their set of pictures on bands in four different colours: white, yellow, red and green.

And then there's Melior. According to Gerard van Eijk's cigar bands site, traders could order bands straight from the factory. These bands were never intended to be wrapped around cigars and went directly from printer to trader and Melior is such a 'fake' brand. Their set, issued in 1994, consisted of 10 bands in 5 different colours and 2 different shades and were adorned with b/w pictures. These depicted Jeff and his sons, Lady Penelope, Thunderbird 1 and, quite surprisingly, two supporting characters from different episodes.

kf series

Thunderbird 2 in flight against a mountainous background

medium shot of Scott Tracy holding a microphone

Thunderbird 1 hovering over a yellow tracked vehicle marked 'Firefly' with a large scoop at the front with a gun sticking through against a mountainous background

portrait of lady Penelope in the Mondriaan dress with matching cap

medium shot of Alan wearing headphones sitting in Thunderbird 3's pilot chair

greyhaired and bearded man in evening clothes sitting at a table

FAB1 parked in front of Creighton-Ward mansion

medium shot of Virgil Tracy in evening clothes

a yellow tracked vehicle marked 'Firefly' with a large scoop at the front with a gun sticking through against a mountainous background

a medium shot of a mustachioed man in uniform looking left

hg series

Virgil Tracy and lady Penelope wearing evening clothes and sitting at a restaurant table

Thunderbird 1 taking off amidst large clouds of smoke

Scott, Virgil and Alan Tracy in the Tracy villa living room, a row of portraits visible in the background

lady Penelope at the roulette table, Parker standing behind and slightly to the left of her

medium shot of lady Penelope in the Mondriaan dress with matching cap

Scott Tracy at London Airport control tower holding a microphone and surrounded by equipment labelled 'International Rescue' talking to commander Norman

lady Penelope sitting in the Creighton-Ward mansion drawing room

Alan Tracy sitting in Thunderbird 3's pilot chair

Alan and Gordon Tracy sitting in the Tracy villa living room

morrita series

portrait of Virgil Tracy in evening clothes

melior series

portrait of lady Penelope wearing sunglasses

cigar bands

images sourced from the Catawiki and eBay websites