Lady Penelope's "FAB I" Rolls-Royce.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is "FAB I" the full-size car built on Bedford running gear to promote the first full-length feature film, 'Thunderbirds Are Go'. It was used by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson for their journey to the theartre for the Film's premiere in London, when it broke down (sorry, failed to proceed), and they had to carry on their journey by Taxi.

The car is seen here at Woburn Abbey July 27th, 1968, on one of its tours of the country visiting Vauxhall dealerships and each dealer held in stock a tin of pink paint supplied by the the company who helped build the car in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, should the car get damaged at any one of those locations. The nice Young Lady pretending to be Lady Penelope is Penny Snow, hired for the job and travelled with the car (but not in it!), to each location.

Matchbox introduced their miniature version on catalogue number TB005 during 1991.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Is it still about? I guess this would be a Bedford VAL coach chassis to have working twin steering..........

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello SMS88, yes, it was the 'VAL' and it has survived. It was in a British Museum of other TV and Film cars for many years but that closed down and the exhibits were all sold. "FAB I" is currently in America in another restored form, in another 'Celebrity' based car museum, but still looking fairly close to her original form.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

I suspect that this car was used in some of the actual TV episodes as well because I can remember that hinged glazing arrangement being seen in some closeups of Lady P´s hands

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I suspect that this car was used in some of the actual TV episodes as well because I can remember that hinged glazing arrangement being seen in some closeups of Lady P´s hands

I don't recall any mention of this taking place in any of my own Thunderbirds media, they had four main models for the filming of the series, a 3 inch and a 6 inch model for 'Long Shot' footage, a 2 foot long model for 'Medium Shot' footage and then a 9 foot long 'Puppet' model for 'Close-up' footage. This 9 foot long model was designed to have the puppets actually sit inside the car and this can be seen in many of the TV episodes and clever use of younger members of staff hands and legs etc would be used for such close-up shots. Sylvia Anderson very occasionally had her hands or legs dressed in character and seen on TV, she did not really have the spare time to participate much more because she was script writer, editor, director alongside Gerry and voice artist and in fact it was her overall involvement with the production of the shows, that eventually led to her splitting up with Gerry.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Viewfield]

I honestly think that the Dinky model of "Fab 1" along with "Parker" and "M'Lady" is one of the best. Kept this one back when I sold my collection. Not sure why, perhaps because it has an intact sliding roof!

Rod

[matchboxmarcel]

Here you see the real thing filmed at a 1991 carshow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX4p9nKW8JA

matchboxmarcel

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello Viewfield, thank's for showing your particular Dinky Toys "FAB I" model. If your interested in such things, yours comes from the 1969-70 production period, I can see enough details to confirm this and is one of 14 versions listed in my book dedicated to this model.

The model overall was made from 1966 to 1976 and over two million examples were made, it was based on the TV puppet car so that's why it looks like it has four doors, which is wrong, it should only have two doors, Dinky missread the technical drawings!

Most collectors have been happy with the size of this model, no one actually questioning the scale, thinking it fits in with other Dinky Toy models of the period, 1/42nd, in fact it has a working scale of 1/44.5, I think it was a compromise, as in 1/42 scale, it would have been far too big and the packaging would have been even more costly to produce and have printed!

If any forum members are interested in the Dinky Toy "FAB I" model in more detail, let me know and I will do an article on it or maybe send you a copy of the book instead.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Viewfield...Happy Birthday to you...

Have a good one and celebrate with a nice trip out in your real Rolls-Royce, take care.

Ghosty.

[SMS88]

I honestly think that the Dinky model of "Fab 1" along with "Parker" and "M'Lady" is one of the best. Kept this one back when I sold my collection. Not sure why, perhaps because it has an intact sliding roof!

Rod

Nice to see an example with the Spot On wheel hubs - I dont know if they survived the Northern Ireland factory fire or if DInky Liverpool just used the wheel cutting tool that survived the fire. Either way the late 1960s Dinkys using Spot On wheels are from a very interesting period where Dinky worked very hard to match Corgi´s ever improving specifications without using any of the better Spot On tools which instead were exported to New Zealand