FAB CHALLENGE
August 2023
I am pleased to, at last, be able to talk about a very exciting and special project that I have been working on for the past 18 months or so. Fanderson’s ‘Fab Challenge’ card game. The game is n ot available from Fanderson - The Apprecaition Society of the works of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
I grew up watching the Gerry Andedson TV shows and Thunderbirds especially is very dear to my heart. I love this show! The Fab Challenge came about through Fanderson and has been co-created with Mark Whyte - another keen fan of all things Anderson - And we worked on the game together… through the wodners of the interent.
The game required a lot of research to be done and many hours were spent watching and re-watching classic episodes. But it was a lot of fun. It was my first time really sitting down and watching every episode of 'Supercar'. What a joyful, entertaining show. A real treat.
The game comprises 40 ‘trading cards’ each featuring a memorable aircraft, vehicle, submarine or spacescraft from one of the classic TV series - from Supercar to Space:1999. There is so much cool hardware to chose from, and I think we were able to include everything that fans would expect to find a deck of Anderson hardware . If we missed anyone’s favourite I guess we’ll have to do a bonus / extension pack :)
The Fanderson team stipulated that they wanted all of the cards to have the same look, and as there is not a sufficient consistency in the look, or quality of the production stills of the various craft the decsion was made to feature orighinal colour paintings from the same hand as it were. I was happy to take this on. I was already very familiar with a lot of these great looking machines, but you learn so much about something when sitting down to draw and paint, or make a model of it.
We wanted to present these machines in their best possible light so that the beautiful design work of Derek Meddings, Mike Trim, Reg Hill and Brian Johnson could be appreciated. At the same time these ‘portraits’ needed to look suitably heroic and convey the subject as it appaers in the show..
The images are approxiantely 2 inches square on the cards, preserving the 4 x 3 aspect raio of the TV series so the pictures needed a certain clarity and not cluttered. Fortunately there are a number of pictures of the ships from the Black & White shows and some behind the scenes or reference photos exist of the vfx models to help fill in the gaps of what can’t be seen in the show.
There were some interesting challenges in painting Ed Straker’s car which was a full scale live action car filmed on location - often on country roads - compared with Sam Loover’s car which was a miniature filmed on stages driving along miniature country roads. Lighting and overall design of the scene as well as camera angles were all carefully chosen to best represent the source material.
As the TV shows were all shot on standard 35mm film their aspect ratio is 4 x 3. This basic aspect ratio has been preserved in Mark’s card deisgn and as such most of the ships, cars etc fit the frame pretty well… or at least in a simialr to how they appeared on screen. The Thunderbirds feature films were both shot in Techniscope - a wide-screen film format (2.33:1 or 7 x 3) - and the Zero-X seen in ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ was designed to fit nicely within that wide-screen frame. A similar issue arises with the Crablogger (from the episode ‘Path of Destruction’) which is never seen on screen all at the same time. We fought hard to get a suitable composition that shows the whole thing, while still conveying its size.
As a card game, we needed to be sure of our information contained on the cards. This was an opportunity to include a lot of information in one place. Over the years - decadses - since the shows were made there have been numerous publications that list dismensions and technical specifications of the various vehicles and personnel. Unfortunately there is sometimes contradiction with the actual episodes. We set about providing accuarte information based on what is seen, or spoken on screen. Some of this matches the ‘official’ sources, but much of it does not. The scenario we were looking at was in terms of gameplay. If a paticular game gets s a bit heated' we wanted the players to be able to sit down and look at an epsiode for definitive ‘proof’. Or at least not have the epsiode contrdict the information on the cards. This has meant that some of our information differs from what many fans commonly believe. But in terms of gameplay, it al works!
The TV shows do not exist in the same world. There is no meaningful crossover between them. The Anderson themed comic of the day ‘ TV21’ had the worlds of Troy Tempest, Scott Tracy and Captain Scarlet all existing in the same time period. But this exist in TV21 only and is no way reflected in the TV shows. (People bring up the Zero-X which appears in both ‘Thunderbirds Ae Go’ and ‘Captain Scalet and the Mysterons’ but there are many inconsistencies if this is explored).
I am really pleased with how the cards came out. not ony as a nice collection of my artwork, but the game itself is fun. It works for hardcore fans of the shows as well as people less familiar. Mark’s design of the cards makes it very clear which series the vehicle is from - helping the less familair player - while also providing a unified and very appealing look overall. This is a great collectible.
Once done playing a game, you have been reminded of so much cool Sci-Fi that you want to rush to your DVD collection and watch an epsiode… or two. The Telvesion shows that Gerry Anderson and the team made are timeless. Created with a level of imagination, enthusiasm and craftsmanship that is rarely seen in a TV or Cinema production, even today. It is a pleasure to work on something that supports the memory of these tremendous shows. FAB indeed.
The game was made for Fanderson and is available exclsuively from them. You need to be a member in order to purchase any of their products.
Here is a link to the Fanderson website.
