SuperM - The Albert Heyn codes

The Albert Heyn Codes

the Dutch merchandising campaign to promote Thunderbirds started on june 9^th, 1966, two weeks after the last episode of that season had been aired. On that date, the Albert Heyn grocery chain published the first of six folders, Blue Code, which came as a premium with 3 packets of Silver or Gold Queen margarine. The next five Codes, named Green, Violet, Red, Yellow and Orange respectively, appeared every fortnight of that same year. They were approximately A3 sized, four page folders, heralded as giving a glimpse of International Rescue: the fantastic reality of the 21st century. (Remember these were the Sixties, possibly the 20^th century's most forward looking decade as explained elsewhere.)

The front page showed photographs of one of the six main craft and its pilot/chauffeur (plus, on some, a third picture related to it). The second page was split in two: the upper half contained plan, reverse plan, front, rear and side elevations of the featured craft combined with technical specs and explanation (allegedly by Brains) while the lower half was devoted to Lady Penelope's sixpart puzzle, culminating in a trip to the AP Studios in Slough. This was counterpointed by a cut-away drawing on the right and, on the back page, biographies and full length portraits of two of the 12 most frequent characters.

The elevations and full length pictures originated from so-called 'model sheets' which were issued to promotors for each new series, the cut-aways and biographies were lifted from British Annuals; where applicable, picture & text credits on pages throughout this site indicate such sources.