In the Thunderbirds television series, it was the secret headquarters of the International Rescue organisation - but as a toy it meant so much more.

Blue Peter Makes a Thunderbirds Tracy Island' on BBC Video". videocollector.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 July 2016 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. Edwardes, Charlotte (22 October 2000). " Thunderbirds Are Gone in Clamour for Classic Toys". telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2020. However, they did. The series was repeated on BBC 2 in the early 90s and a series of toys were created to coincide with the show's new burst of popularity.Jon Abbott of TV Zone magazine criticised the base's layout, questioning why the control centre is located in the lounge when a hidden control room would eliminate the need for "Operation Cover-Up" – the procedure used to rid the lounge of all trace of International Rescue's presence whenever the island receives visitors from the outside world. As part of this operation, wall portraits of the Tracy brothers in their International Rescue uniforms are replaced with alternatives showing them in casual attire. Abbott asks why Jeff Tracy would even need uniformed photographs of his sons, regarding this as one of several aspects that make the Tracy Island lounge a "delightful deranged indulgence". However, he concedes that for child viewers, the existence of these features made Thunderbirds "much more fun to watch than Z-Cars or Dr. Finlay's Casebook". [34]

a b Robertson, Andy (1 May 2015). "Smart Tracy Island Re-imagines Iconic Thunderbirds Toy". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015 . Retrieved 26 February 2020. Robinson, Neil (21 December 2000). " Thunderbirds Have Gone". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014 . Retrieved 16 February 2020. There's also some stuff that you might not necessarily eat. A cheese spread pot is 'required' for no less than two different components of your dream Tracy Island. Willing to take one for the team I switched to a breakfast of bagels topped with Morrisons spreadable cheese until I'd eaten it all over the course of a week. Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London, UK: BBC Books. p.107. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5. In early January 1993, presenter Anthea Turner showed excited children (and no doubt devastated parents) how to make their own Tracy Island out of what she called 'junk'. Using household rubbish like tissue boxes and toilet roll tubes you (or possibly your beleaguered mum) could make your own Tracy Island.Some homemade Tracy Island purists (and I'm sure that's definitely a real thing) will point out some of my items there aren't strictly the ones Blue Peter used 30 years ago. That's true, but in the spirit of Blue Peter I improvised with what I had to hand - as I am sure many people did at the time. This time however I decided it was time to be more efficient. I took the top of another cold coffee cup and stabbed the see through plastic bit out of it with a pair of scissors...not very well. a b " Blue Peter to be shown on CBBC before BBC One". BBC News Online. 16 December 2011. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. McLaughlin, Rob (30 July 2008). "The Top 10 Secret Hideouts". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013 . Retrieved 2 February 2014.

And a lot of children did. And I know this because at the age of four I was one of them. Making Tracy Island was a childhood memory a lot of children my age had. I seem to recall my childhood Blue Peter Tracy Island didn't have tin foil on it. Anecdotal evidence (YouTube comments) suggests it was far from the only one that didn't. Over 50 Years of Toy of the Year". BBC News Online. 11 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018 . Retrieved 2 February 2020. Their base was Tracy Island, a private island somewhere in the South Pacific, from which they operated a fleet of more-or-less plausible vehicles. Elon could learn a thing or two from Jeff. In stepped Blue Peter to save the day with its usual solution: make your own. Thirty years ago today, on January 7, in a 13-minute live segment, the presenter Anthea Turner showed eager viewers how to make Tracy Island using nothing more than cardboard, tin foil, papier mâché, lavatory roll, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, yogurt pots, paint and sandpaper. The Tracy villa, a paragon of midcentury American chic inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, was made from the lid of a cream cheese pot, straws and one-and-a-half Swan Vesta boxes.For kids whose parents didn't manage to buy one and didn't fancy brawling in Woolworths or paying a marked up price on a dodgy pub car park, things looked bleak in the winter of 1992. However, help was at hand from long-running BBC staple Blue Peter.

Lloyd, Robert (16 January 2023). "How a TV trailblazer 'embarrassed' by his work captivated a generation with it". latimes.com . Retrieved 19 October 2023. For the next step we move onto the papier mache section. Anthea gleefully informs viewers that they might have done it at school. I may well have done, but when I was at school it only had one computer - and no pupil was allowed to touch it under any circumstances. So it has been a while. Fordy, Tom (19 December 2015). "10 Toys Dads Should Buy 'For Their Kids' This Christmas". telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 December 2015 . Retrieved 26 February 2020. Tracy Island is the secret headquarters of the International Rescue organisation in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds and its adaptations. In the original series, the heavily camouflaged island is located in the South Pacific Ocean and is home to the Tracy family, scientists Brains and Tin-Tin, and housekeeper Kyrano. The name "Tracy Island" originates in Thunderbirds comic strips and other tie-ins; within the series, the characters simply refer to it as International Rescue's "base".The base of the house is a piece of cardboard from the pizza box from earlier, the main part of the house is a big match box and the roof is the lid from the cheese spread tub that made up part of the control tower. The Tracy Island villa (centre‑left) and swimming pool (bottom‑right) from the original Thunderbirds. Commentators have compared the look of the villa to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. [1] [2] Cumming, Ed (7 January 2023). "How a Blue Peter model became a TV phenomenon". telegraph.co.uk . Retrieved 19 October 2023. In 1992, Tracy Island became a phenomenon in the UK, after Thunderbirds was re-run on BBC2 and generated massive interest in Thunderbird related toys. The Tracy Island playset was top of many Christmas lists but large demand resulted in a shortage that left many parents and children upset.