The Albert Heyn Codes
the Dutch
merchandising
campaign to promote Thunderbirds started on june 9th, 1966, two weeks after the last episode of the first season had been aired. On that date, the Albert Heyn grocery chain published the first of six folders, Blue Code, which came as a premium with 3 packets of Silver or Gold Queen margarine. The next five Codes, named Green, Violet, Red, Yellow and Orange respectively, appeared every fortnight of that same year. They were approximately A3 sized, four page folders, heralded as giving a glimpse of International Rescue: the fantastic reality of the 21st century. (Remember these were the Sixties, possibly the 20th century's most forward looking decade as explained
elsewhere.)
The front page showed photographs of one of the six main craft and its pilot/chauffeur (plus, on some, a third picture related to it). The second page was split in two: the upper half contained plan, reverse plan, front, rear and side elevations of the featured craft combined with technical specs and explanation (allegedly by
Brains)
while the lower half was devoted to
Lady Penelope's
sixpart puzzle, culminating in a trip to the AP Studios in Slough. This was counterpointed by a cut-away drawing on the right and, on the back page, biographies and full length portraits of two of the 12 most frequent characters.
The elevations and full length pictures originated from so-called 'model sheets' which were issued to promotors for each new series, the cut-aways and biographies were lifted from British Annuals; where applicable, picture & text credits on pages throughout this site indicate such sources.
Blue Code
publishing date june 9th, 1966
Green Code
publishing date june 23d, 1966
Violet Code
publishing date july 7th, 1966
Red Code
publishing date july 21st, 1966
Yellow Code
publishing date august 4th, 1966
Orange Code
publishing date august 18th, 1966
