It was hella formative.
The renewed popularity ofThunderbirdshad led to Matchbox releasing a Tracy Island playset.
With supply failing to match demandBlue Peter the BBCs flagship-show-named-after-a ships flag intervened with instructions for making your own.
My memory is of large shiny plastic replicas of the Thunderbirds being in shops at this point.
These didnt appeal to me because they lacked the requisite weight.
Then in 1994 a promotional deal on boxes of Frosties made me aware of an alternative.
This is mainly how we found things out in the Nineties: through offers on packets of cereal.
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This was much easier than what Anthea Turner was proposing.
Youd be eating breakfast anyway; you might as well get toys for it.
Both television and toy manufacturers explored the rest of Gerry Andersons output.
FromSpace PrecincttoStingrayandCaptain Scarlet, toys and playsets were available in shops and lured folk in via breakfast cereals.
This was eminently sensible.
Thunderbird 4 was a baseless nugget of yellow metal with no moving parts whatsoever.
The legs of Thunderbird 2 were red.
The nosecone of Thunderbird 1 was the wrong kind of red.
Still, even an imperfect representation can be played with.
Thus, the Matchbox Thunderbirds range actively encouraged mash ups with other toy ranges.
For example: the 6076 Dark Dragons Den Lego set proved surprisingly flexible.
The issue of scale was not a problem.
Nose cones fell off, paint peeled and plastic spring-loaded parts became sluggish.
Plus our Tracy Island went mouldy.
The real star of theStingrayset was the Terror Fish with its blank, bulging white eyes and hinged jaw.
Captain Scarlet toys were made by Vivid Imaginations rather than Matchbox.
The Angel Interceptor toys had a small design flaw: their rear wings were as solid as prawn crackers.
Every landing was a crash landing.
And lo, unto us the SPV was mass produced.
Its probably the fastest transformation from covert to ridiculously unsubtle that fiction has ever seen.
Next time youre on a long car journey, why not play Secret Garages to pass the time?
Even if the toys werent perfect and never could be, the idea of them was enough.
We were watching classicDoctor Whoand original seriesStar Trekon BBC 2 at this point.
Clearly we could see beyond dated special effects, and we still watch these shows today.
People are now paid to create shared universes as multimedia franchises.
Working with things you already have to make something greater: a lesson for storytellers of all ages.
