As we head towards December and the shops are full of Christmas themes, we’re all getting regular reminders that we need to start thinking about Christmas gifts for friends and family.  So, as we’ve done before, we’ll have a look around for ideas for presents suitable for Irwin Allen fans.  We start here with a stocking filler idea for Land of the Giants.  FabGearUSA are selling the Spindrift Patch and Keyring set that first came out with the US DVD box set in 2007.  You can now purchase this item on its own and it is a perfect stocking filler.

The cast of The Poseidon Adventure (Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Eric Shea, and Pamela Sue Martin) will be joining the Land of the Giants cast at the Hollywood Show Vegas on Saturday 19 November 2011. Also attending are Land of the Giants guest stars Celeste Yarnall (The Golden Cage) and Bruce Dern (Wild Journey), plus Voyage Movie star Barbara Eden, Mike Lookinland (The Towering Inferno), Lawrence Montaigne (guest in The Time Tunnel), Felix Silla (stuntman on The Towering Inferno), Barbara Luna (Five Weeks in a Balloon), and Vitina Marcus (The Lost World and Lost in Space).

IANN is running a new Irwin Allen competition. Competition closes on 10th November 2011:

Click here for details on how to enter the Irwin Allen Competition

First Prize: UK DVD for Season Two of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Second Prize: Promotional Time Tunnel T Shirt (size XL)

Third Prize: 8 Irwin Allen movie photos including 2 from Towering Inferno, 2 from The Swarm, 2 from When Time Ran Out, 1 from The Story of Mankind (of Chico Marx) and 1 from The Big Circus

Fourth Prize: Fan produced Giants patch, 2 Giants photos, 1960′s Stefan Arngrim photo, and a Stefan Arngrim postcard from his appearance in Switch

Fifth Prize: British 1998 Lost in Space postcard, Colour 10×8 of Mark and Marta, and 3 small photos

Sixth Prize: Original publicity photo from The Night the Bridge Fell Down and Alice in Wonderland, plus a 10×8 of Desi Arnaz Jr. (star of The Night the Bridge Fell Down)

Several Irwin Allen stars will be appearing at 8-9 October 2011 Hollywood Show. These include Deanna Lund, Lee Meriwether, Francine York, Yvonne Craig, Malachi Throne, Victor Lundin, William Smith (Code Red), Carol Channing (Alice in Wonderland), Eric Shea (The Poseidon Adventure), Frankie Avalon (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, 1961 movie) and Sherry Jackson (Lost in Space, Where Danger Lives). For full details, please visit the Hollywood Show web site.

We hear that the Seattle Science Fiction Hall of Fame is currently undergoing renovation and that none of the Irwin Allen or sci-fi TV/movie exhibits are on show at the moment apart from temporary Battlestar Galactica and Avatar exhibitions.

So don’t make the trip up to Seattle to see the Irwin Allen items at the present time.  Their web site says the renovation work continues until the summer of 2012, and we do not know what will be on show after that. If we hear any further news we will post details on our sites.

TV & Satellite Week are running a special Land of the Giants competition which closes on Friday 19th August 2011 with DVD, T Shirt and Spindrift model kit prizes. Click here for more information.

The British Film Institute (BFI) is holding a special celebration of the 1960′s Irwin Allen science fiction television series on the evening of Tuesday 2nd August 2011. There will be a discussion panel and various clips from all four science fiction series will be shown. The Irwin Allen News Network will be there and will have some goodies to hand out to attendees. There will also be an opportunity to win some unique Irwin Allen related prizes courtesy of Revelation Films.

Tickets cost £5 to £6.50 and can be booked through the BFI website. The event starts at 18.20 and will last for approximately 2 hours and takes place at the BFI Southbank (Theatre NFT 2) in London (under Waterloo Bridge).

Congratulations to everyone who answered the quiz question correctly.  The three winners are as follows:

• First prize: Robin from Parker, Colorado
• Second prize: Gale from Salem, Illinois
• Third prize: Mel from Lancing, West Sussex

We will be running further competitions in the coming weeks on the IANN competition page.

We are running a new competition to win one of three prizes, a Land of the Giants DVD, a Time Tunnel T Shirt or a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea poster. The competition ends on Sunday 10th July. Click here to enter the Irwin Allen Competition.

The latest news on the 15-17 July 2011 Hollywood Show is that the show will have a Poseidon Adventure gathering with Ernest Borgnine, Carol Lynley, Stella Stevens, Pamela Sue Martin, Eric Shea and Ernie Orsatti (Saturday only) in attendance. Also scheduled to attend is veteran television actor Joseph Ruskin who guest starred in several Irwin Allen shows, Stefan Arngrim (Land of the Giants), Julie Adams (star of Code Red), Leif Garrett who starred in the TVM Flood, Peter Mark Richman (Land of the Giantsand Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), and Land of the Giants guest stars Richard Anderson (Six Hours to Live) and Bruce Dern (Wild Journey).   This will be Eric Shea’s first ever appearance at an autograph show.  Note that no celebrities will be there on Friday 15th.