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Reference > Merchandise: Fancards by Steve

As with most television shows, Neighbours uses fancards for its cast to use to reply to letters from fans requesting autographs. Here's a run-down of the various designs issued over the years.

1985: When the show first began, and was screened on Channel 7, the cards were slightly larger but still contained the basic information - channel and actor name and, of course, the name of the show.

1986 - 1992: After moving to Network Ten, the cards were shrunk down to a more reasonable size, roughly 5 inches by 4 inches. The character name and actor name remained, along with the word Neighbours and the TEN logo. Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, the cards were altered slightly in different ways. Some of the fancards had a blue border, some didn't. The TEN logo changed as time went on and by the early 90s the information '6.30 weeknights on TEN' had been added.

1986: Geoff Paine (Clive Gibbons), Myra De Groot (Eileen Clarke), 1987: Craig McLachlan (Henry Ramsay)

1988: Vivean Gray (Mrs Mangel), 1989: Anne Scott-Pendlebury (Hilary Robinson), Bouncer - the only pet ever to receive a cast card!

1990: Mark Little (Joe Mangel), Sharon Davies (Jessica Muschamp), 1991: Anne Charleston (Madge Bishop)

1992: Maggie Dence (Dorothy Burke), 1993: Dan Falzon (Rick Alessi) with revised font

1994 - 1998: After 9 years of being in black and white, Neighbours started using colour fancards. The first design featured a small white-framed picture of the character with a background of Ramsay Street signs. The writing gave the actor and character names, the word Neighbours (no longer in Brush Script MT) and the circular TEN logo underneath. In 1996, this changed slightly to feature blue flowers as a background on the card.

1994 portrait cards: Kym Valentine (Libby Kennedy) and Ian Rawlings (Philip Martin)

In 1997, the design used clouds as a background. The character name was removed and the pictures became bigger. These cards featured a montage of the word Neighbours in different sizes. They also, for the first time, had information on the back, including the character name, plus the actor's favourite food, colour, hobbies, star sign, hair and eye colour.

1997 portrait cards: Ailsa Piper (Ruth Wilkinson) and card back, featuring actor facts

1999 - 2001: This design was similar to its predecessor, although now the whole card was taken up by a picture of the cast member. The circular TEN logo remained, as did the montage of the word Neighbours. These cards also continued the trend of only having the actor's name. The colour of the background on these cards varied, although towards the end of the run, they all tended to be white. The earlier cards had the TEN catchphrase TURN ME ON on the back, while later this became 'Neighbours 6.30pm weeknights on TEN'.

2000-2001 cards: Andrew Bibby (Lance Wilkinson), Ryan Moloney (Toadfish Rebecchi), Kate Keltie (Michelle Scully)

2002-2007: No longer made of card, the new design was more glossy and flexible. The word Neighbours returned at the top of the card in Brush Script MT along with a large picture of the cast member, taking up most of the fancard. A blue strip (part of the Channel Ten ident graphics) appeared near the bottom with the actor's name underneath. Some of these fancards had the TEN logo at the end of the blue strip, while most had no TEN logo, but the address of the show's official website. When the change in format was taking place, a small number of temporary cards were issued, featuring the revised design, but printed to a larger scale on paper. These cards were simple colour photocopies, rather than actual printed items.

2002 cards: Maggie Millar (Rosie Hoyland) with the TEN logo. Revised designs for Janet Andrewartha (Lyn Scully) and Shane Connor (Joe Scully), with network logo removed and the website URL added

2007-2010: Still made from flexi-card, the fancards received a design makeover in mid-2007. Newer cast members including Sam Clark (Ringo) and Natalie Saleeba (Rosie) were the first to receive this design, before the rest of the actors gradually followed. As with the previous design, the top three quarters of the card was taken up with a photo of the actor, with a thin strip and the actor name in the bottom quarter. This card design also returned to the earlier practice of including the character name. The cards also featured the TEN logo in the top left corner, and the official website address in the bottom right corner, along with 'Neighbours 6.30 weeknights'. On earlier cards, the word Neighbours was in chunky lower case writing, before being changed to feature the new Neighbours logo, which debuted on screen in July 2007.

2007 cards: Adelaide Kane (Lolly Allen) and Caitlin Stasey (Rachel Kinski) with the initial Neighbours logo. Revised design for Dan O'Connor (Ned Parker), with the updated Neighbours logo

2011 onwards: As Neighbours moved from Channel Ten to Eleven at the beginning of 2011, the fancards received another makeover, to fit in with the mint green and purple colours of its new home. The cards contained the usual information, with the actor name, character name and 'Neighbours 6.30 weeknights' all in the same font, the Eleven website address in the bottom left corner and the channel's logo in the top right corner.

2011-2013 cards: A 2011 card for Gemma Pranita (Jade Mitchell), Alin Sumarwata's (Vanessa Villante) 2012 card and Saskia Hampele's (Georgia Brooks) card from 2013

Cast Cards: For general enquiries from fans, and for actors awaiting an individual card of their own, a number of generic cast group cards have been issued over the years at irregular intervals. At present, there is no current cast image being offered, the most recent produced in 2005.

Cast cards: 1988 and 1994 editions

Cast cards: 1993 and 1997 editions

Cast cards: A special 10th Anniversary edition, 1995 and 2000 editions

To obtain current fancards, write to the actor of your choice at: Neighbours, Grundy Television, 21 Goodwood Avenue, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia

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