Surprisingly, it was an easy decision: the Gerry Anderson* web site had just announced the return of their Space: 1999 Eagle** schematic T-shirt to their online catalogue - cost per was a little more than I would normally spend on a T-shirt, but, as per the title, sometimes you have to indulge yourself.
I'm not sure if this qualifies as a limited edition item: they were originally out of stock when I stumbled across the Gerry Anderson site and added myself to their mailing list, but to the best of my knowledge they only had 150 of the shirts printed as restock. Regardless, I'm pleased to add this to my fan wardrobe, and my sincere thanks to Louise at Gerryanderson.com for helping out with my address error. (It's probably a good idea to confirm that you haven't accidentally inverted two of the numbers in your street address before you place your order.)
- Sid
* In case there are people reading this who don't know who Gerry Anderson is, he and his wife Sylvia worked together to create the legendary British Supermarionation children's programs such as Fireball XL-5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, as well as live action series like UFO, Space Precinct, and of course, Space: 1999.
** I always thought that the Eagle transporter was a quite well thought-out option for lunar and vacuum usage. The modular design that allowed for the addition of cargo and passenger modules, first introduced as part of the Thunderbirds series, was a clever idea, and the NASA-influenced combination of main engines and directional thrusters seemed like a practical approach to low and zero-gravity manoeuvring.
That being said, the external view of the cockpit didn't really match up with the interior layout, and there are a few episodes where Eagles are used as planetary landers, which made no sense at all - all of the features that made them such believable vacuum spacecraft would make them about as flight-ready as a thrown brick for atmospheric usage.