Booster Mortar – from ‘Thunderbirds‘ created by Gerry Anderson
The Booster Mortar tractor is featured in the rescue of the Tele-Relay tower technicians in ‘Edge of Impact’.
This one man vehicle is carried aboard Thunderbird 2 and is one of the smallest vehicles to be carried in the pod. The cannon launches small rescue pack capsules into the air, in this case to reach the top of the control tower. The International Rescue boys must calculate the appropriate angle and velocity and the recue pack smashes through the window. A perfect hit. The pack pops open revealing two low altitude jet packs that the men use to jump from the teetering tower and slow their descent and land them gently on the ground.
This would be best represented in 1/32nd scale – the Airfix car scale - and would come with figures.
I love that the IR boys had lightweight raincoats for this mission. A great scene with the rescue taking place in the pouring rain. It does take place in England afterall. Red, or maybe light grey plastic. This is referred to as the ‘Thunderiser’, but this name is never mentioned in the show and I could never figure out what it means.
This tractor body is the same as on the vehicle International Rescue use in the second rescue in ’Thirty Minutes After Noon’.
This vehicle was constructed in its entirety as a puppet scale prop, and as a miniature. As such it was most likely designed by Reg Hill