Tracy Island

Any more news? Yes, Scott.

Now, where is Tracy Island, then? In the Pacific, is it, I guess, somewhere? In the Pacific, yes.

Secret location in the Pacific, yes.

41 minutes

Yeah.

But then we cut to Tracy Island where Tracy Villa is, which is the home of Jeff Tracy, the founder and head operative of International Rescue.

And this is when we finally meet all of the characters that are supposed to be the stars of this movie.

Yeah.

Cool.

Great.

Cut to Tracy Island.

We see Jeff Tracy reading a newspaper saying world waits after president's dramatic TV appeal for six days.

It was like, there's Marina, very quiet, like my mum who was always very elegant and beautiful, but she didn't say a lot, and so then she's there, and then you get...

Tracy Island.

My sister was called Tracy.

My first husband was Scott.

Can you believe... well, not...

I think it was just because I moaned and said, "I cannot believe I've not had a gold Blue Peter badge." And it was 31 years since making Tracy Island.

They finally, it was the, the current editor realized, 'cause I, I think I must have said something at an event and gone, "You do realize I don't have a gold Blue Peter badge." You know, I have supported the flag for such a long time.

I have really gone for it.

And then it was in the year that Thunderbirds was 60, and I was doing... that I actually got Tracy Island from the loft, brought it down, gave it a little bit of a makeover for Thunderbird 60th.

And I think that's what propelled them into feeling embarrassed.

Isn't it, isn't it funny? Of all the amazing things you've done throughout your life, and, and, and basically having a little bit of a moan has got you that gold badge.

It did, absolutely, and that Tracy Island is up there in the loft.

Time for the toy shop and a gadget.

Uh, the toy retailers, uh, made Thunderbirds their toy of the year in '93 after the, uh, Tracy Island shortage, um, the Christmas before, uh, had, uh, people queuing outside toy shops all night.

Barbie was a huge seller too, and, um, Action Man and, uh, Captain Scarlet were both in the top 10.

None of the lists I found break it down by boys and girls, so there's no honest top three for, for each.

That's brilliant, Lee, because the best-selling toys of '93 were mostly older than the kids playing with them.

And honestly, if somebody had handed me, uh, Tracy Island that Christmas, I'd have been quiet for a week.

And the tech moment is the Amiga CD32.

Commodore launched it in Europe on the 17th of September, calling it the first 32-bit games console with Diggers and Oscar in the box.

The Toy Retailers Association made Hasbro’s WWF Wrestlers, uh, toy of the year for 1992, so plastic Hulk Hogans were everywhere.

Thunderbirds Tracy Island was the other famous want that Christmas, and shops simply could not keep it in stock.

For a 14-year-old lad, it was, uh, wrestlers, a Super Nintendo, and, uh, maybe a Super Soaker if the parents were brave.

For a 14-year-old girl, the chart still mixed dolls and games, with Barbie holding the fashion aisle and the Game Boy still crossing over, uh, for everyone.

Tracy Island shortages are a British legend, Lee.

Parents driving to three towns and coming home empty-handed.

And WWF Wrestlers next to Street Fighter makes perfect sense because 1992 was obsessed with larger-than-life fighters, whether they shouted from a ring or a cabinet.

Uh, and I couldn't find, uh, a list broken down for 14-year-old lads and lasses, so, uh, I'm going on the toy retailers' own records.

The Toy of the Year for '93 was Thunderbirds Tracy Island, the Matchbox playset of the International Rescue base.

The year before, it had sold out so badly that people queued all night outside toy shops.

Barbie was a massive seller as well, and, uh, the Independent reckoned she was the number one toy that Christmas, beating, uh, Sega and, uh, Nintendo.

Captain Scarlet and Action Man were in the top 10, too.

Oh, Tracy Island.

I remember Blue Peter showing kids how to make one out of cereal boxes, um, because nobody could find one in the shops.

Uh, it's funny, how many of those were old shows and toys, with Thunderbirds and Action Man both dating back to the '60s? And Barbie beating the games consoles at Christmas is a great little twist.

Nothing you can't make with a bit of sticky back plastic.

And the infamous Tracy Island model.

Yeah, that was Anthea Turner, wasn't it? It was Anthea Turner.

Yeah.

So, yeah, they were...

Now, looking into this, I thought I knew something about Blue Peter that I didn't, if that makes sense.

So we spoke about Anthea Turner and the Thunderbirds, Tracy Island.

Yeah.

So we've now got a tat toilet downstairs, and there's all sorts of rubbish down there.

But actually, do you know what's also in there? We've got rubbish down there, but we've also got some Palm Springs stuff that we bought when we went to Palm Springs together, and it was hard to find tat in Palm Springs, 'cause actually, e- everything was this lovely Jetsons kind of, you know, Tracy Island vibe, so tat was hard.

Yeah, it was, but, you know, the, you...

If, if you dig deep enough, you can find, you know, like a, a hideous, um, flamingo, uh-