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Fireball XL5 - The Complete Series

Fireball XL5 - The Complete Series

List Price: $99.95
Your Price: $89.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth the wait
Review: It took 41 years, but we finally have them all, and in glorious black & white! I loved these as a 6 year old and appreciate it even more now. Looking back at these, I see their influence on more mainstream shows like Star Trek (Space City's chief engineer was even Scottish...beam me back to '62 Scotty!). The re-mastering is superb, the bonus stuff is great. I wish there had been some sort of guide book in the set with info about the episodes, but all-in-all it's still a great set. A must-have for fans and campy fun for everyone else.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth the wait
Review: It took 41 years, but we finally have them all, and in glorious black & white! I loved these as a 6 year old and appreciate it even more now. Looking back at these, I see their influence on more mainstream shows like Star Trek (Space City's chief engineer was even Scottish...beam me back to '62 Scotty!). The re-mastering is superb, the bonus stuff is great. I wish there had been some sort of guide book in the set with info about the episodes, but all-in-all it's still a great set. A must-have for fans and campy fun for everyone else.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: As nostalgia, this is great
Review: Kennedy was in the White House when this aired. No one had heard of the Beatles yet. All televisions were black and white and most ran on cathode tubes. I was 7 years old. This is a great treat to anyone who wants to relive the children's programs of their youth. It is not sophisticated like "Thunderbirds", though. Thunderbirds had effects that still make you wonder how they did them. It also had scripts that approached B movie quality. Fireball is in black and white and is quite primitive by comparison. Still, it will make you want to grab some milk and cookies and watch with delight.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "I wish I was a Spaceman..."
Review: Those words at the closing credits bring back so many childhood memories. Written by Barry Gray and sung by Don Spencer, an Olympic hopeful from Down Under (did you know he's also Russell Crowe's Father-In-Law?!!), he'd released the song in the UK as a single in 1962 (called "Fireball"), complete with an extra verse at the end that was edited out (it takes away from the theme for the show). In the early part of 1963, he even performed the song LIVE (in concert) on an LP (One Night Stand on Columbia) which also featured John Leyton, Mike Berry, and Mike Sarne.

Out of all the Gerry Anderson SupermarionatioN puppet epics, this is my favorite. Though the characters my have outgrown this aging 50-year-old, I know I'll still enjoy the nostalgia of it all. I've picked up a couple of second rate videos of the Show in the past, but this should outdo them by far (I just ordered the Set). And to have ALL the episodes in one place!! Who could ask for more...?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Reunited after 40 years
Review: What a delight it was when the mailman dropped off this box set today, I dropped work at once to sit down and watch it. It's hard to believe that it has been 40 years since a young boy sat in front of his parents old Zenith to watch this delightful show, my favorite Anderson production after "Supercar".

The first thing I noticed was how the resolution and sharpness of the DVD format revealed exactly how cheesy an affair this show was. Every wire, scratch, scuffmark and dirt spot on the puppets and props shows up in crystal clarity. Before the DVD I never noticed the string that pulled Fireball down the launch rail, and I did not recall that Venus's eyes were just painted on her face. Of course, that only makes the whole thing more endearing in my book.

After the great Stingray box, the extras in the package seem skimpy. There are only two commentary tracks, director Alan Patillo, who speaks very quickly in a Scottish accent, and voice artist David Graham. There is also a not very interesting 17 min. feature on the guy who drew the Fireball comic art for the old TV21 magazine. There are also some production stills on each of the five disks. Also, note that the individual disc sleeves have some confusing discrepancies as far as what episodes are contained on which disc.

Still, it's great to be reunited with this show on something besides a poorly dubbed VHS bootleg. Thanks, A&E Video. Now, come up with Supercar and I can die a happy man.


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