Thunderbirds & Space:1999 – A Celebration of Collectibles
The Museum of Brands and Anderson Entertainment are proud to announce the opening of “Thunderbirds & Space:1999 – a Celebration of Toys and Collectibles”
This special exhibition marking the anniversaries of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s seminal shows Thunderbirds (first broadcast 1965) and Space 1999 (premiered 1975). The displays will celebrate the enduring legacy of the Andersons’ iconic television shows through the toys, games, comics and memorabilia that captured the imagination of generations. The exhibition is co-curated by acclaimed designer and Thunderbirds superfan Malcolm Garret MBE, and the Museum of Brands.
The exhibition opens on September 13th 2025, or Breakaway Day as fans of Space: 1999 fans know it, at the Museum of Brands in West London.
This nostalgic journey will showcase an unprecedented display of original Anderson merchandise and collectables from major TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Supercar, Fireball XL5, UFO and Space: 1999.
“These weren’t just toys,” explains exhibition co-curator Alice Kain “For children of the 60s and 70s, these objects were the connectors to the Andersons’ futuristic worlds. Each figure, board game and annual represents hours of imaginative play where ordinary bedrooms could be transformed into International Rescue headquarters or Moonbase Alpha.”
The exhibition features over 400 carefully preserved items, many on public display for the first time. Objects have been loaned from the Robert Opie collection and several private collectors who have treasured these pieces for decades. Highlights include die-cast Dinky Toys vehicles, still with their packaging, rare promotional items from confectionery tie-ins, original sets of cherished annuals and comics and vintage jigsaws and board games that brought the shows into family homes.
Jamie Anderson, son of the late Gerry Anderson said: “Although these series have been shown repeatedly since their original broadcast, it’s quite often the toys, games and collectables associated with the shows that bring people the most joy. The tangible ‘take home’ representations of Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 made the series’ stories, characters and craft come to life. So to have so many special pieces of nostalgia in one place will, for many, be a powerful and visceral reminder of why these shows endure decades on from their creation!”
Malcolm Garrett, curator of The Malcolm Garrett Collection, said: “My earliest memory of Gerry Anderson’s remarkable TV shows is watching Supercar when I was just five or six years old. My first toy was a red plastic Supercar with clear roof and yellow pullout wings, which I played with endlessly. I was an avid follower of all things Anderson from then on, subscribing to TV21 comic when it was launched in 1965, just ahead of Thunderbirds first broadcast, and demanding my parents bought all the Dinky toys for me. It was perhaps inevitable that much later I began to collect all those toys, annuals and books that I had either owned as a child, or wished I had. To be able to loan them now to this very special exhibition is something I couldn’t have dreamed of.”
There will be a VIP Opening Day on Saturday 13th September 2025. The VIP day entry includes Q&A with the exhibition curators and collectors, exclusive content, special guests. The exhibition runs from September 13th 2025 until 28th February 2026, it will be accompanied by a series of special events which will be announced to fans later this summer.
