In 1964, the third James Bond’s movie comes to the movie theatres in Great Britain and many other countries. It was expected to be the great success that it was, and the toy companies, again, tried to exploit the fame of movies and movie stars by selling toys for enthusiastic children who had already seen Goldfinger. This merchandising phenomenon is older than we think: it didn’t start with George Lucas and Star Wars, although he was the one who made it perfect, and became the reference to every other toy line, ever. Corgi has released through the years many different cars and vehicles from the James Bond’s movies, this is probably the most spectacular due to its beauty and moreover, because of its tricks. According to chezbois.com, it is probably the best-selling car by Corgi, with almost 4 millions units (3.974.000) sold. It was very difficult to find during the Christmas in 1965, due to the high popular demand.
I don’t want to spoil the movie, just in the very strange case that you haven’t seen Goldfinger yet, but let’s go directly to the the car… it is approximately 10 cms long, and it’s made of painted gold metal. The base or chassis is also made of metal but the interior is made of plastic. A very important piece of this toy is the small figure included in the box. Without it, the toy misses its whole value, and as you can imagine from its size, it is often missing.
Let’s go to the box. The box is made of carton and has a very reduced size, enough for the car and the instructions. The illustrations show the car with several appealing messages like “Special Agent 007”, “From the James Bond Film Goldfinger” or “Packed with Action”. At one of it sides, there’s a list with all the features of this car, at the other sides, nothing remarkable, but the brand, “made in Great Britain” and the Corgi logo. Inside of the box, there is a stand for the car in which the features are listed again, and two different artwork of the car (with the eyectable seat) are displayed, one at the front, the other at the back. A message in 8 languages reminds the owner of the toy to read the secret instructions, which in this particular car are missing. The last remarkable thing of the package, and its content, is that a sticker was also included. This sticker can be seen at the front of the inlay. It displays the typical 007 logo with the gun. It was intended to be applied at the collar of a shirt to play spies.
Inlay front - Note the sticker at the top of it.
Inlay backIn the next two pictures we can observe the front and rear parts of the car.
And here's a picture of the chassis. Note that there are two buttons at one side while the third one (more difficult to see), is located in the exhaust pipes. These buttons are obviously to activate the special features/tricks. The chassis shows nothing that is worth commenting, it's the classic chassis with the name of the model, the brand and "made in Gt. Britain". It does not specify any number (it's in the box -261-) or scale (1:46).
Now let's go to what's really special in this model: the secret operating features!
-Telescopic Overriders & Retractable Machine Guns: Both must be activated at one time, by pushing the button at the side which is nearer to the front side of the car.
-Rear Bullet Screen: Can be activated by pushing the exhaust pipes.
-James Bond in driver's seat & villian in copilot's seat: The figure of Bond cannot be removed. It is very well painted with a grey suit and black tie. The villain is depicted in another picture above. It wear s blue suit or maybe an overall and has a gun in his hand. When he's sitting he points with the gun to James Bond. Remember that in England they drive on the left.
-Opening Roof & Ejectable Seat: By pushing in the third button, the roof opens and the figure of the enemy is thrown upwards quite violently. Maybe that's why it was so easy to lose the figure.
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FACTS AND FIGURES
- Name: JAMES BOND’S ASTON MARTIN D.B.5 (Ref. 261)
- Scale: 1:46
- Year: 1965 to 1969
- Company: Corgi (Great Britain)
- Size: approx. 10 cm
2 cosas me han fascinado de este modelo, ambas tratándose de un juguete del año 65. Primero el impresionante nivel de detalle, destacando las llantas. Y segundo los "gadgets" incluidos y tan bien camuflados. ¡Una gran adquisición compañero!
ReplyDeletePor cierto, parece que soy el único que comenta por aquí. A ver si más gente se anima ;)
¡Muchas gracias por el mensaje Speedy! Este modelo es un clásico de Corgi. Yo lo tengo desde hace cerca de 15 años, a veces lo veo en ebay, y (si está entero y con caja) se pone por las nubes, porque es un coche muy apreciado.
ReplyDeleteOjalá más gente se anime a dejar comentarios. Siempre tengo bastantes visitas, pero para que alguien deje un comentario, cuesta mucho, más si es un visitante ocasional. Supongo que tú también lo sabrás por tu blog.
Los amigos si suelen comentar más a menudo. Creo que a partir de ahora voy a poner una frase que anime a dejar un comentario al final de cada artículo, a ver si funciona.
...hola, aproximadamente en 1965 -66, uno de mis hermanos ahorro de su mesada y se compro uno de estos automóviles en una popular librería de la zona en que vivia ,Catia, Caracas, Venezuela, que se llamaba "La Nuria ", como eramos muy pequeños para ir a ver la películas, lo unico que pudimos ver fue un "Tráiler " en la TV de un programa especial sobre "El 007"en el cual aparecia la escena en la cual Sean Conery eyecta del automóvil a su copiloto , se defiende de las balas con el cristal blindado y ametralla a el auto enemigo.....como molestabamos demasiado a mi hermano mayor dueño del auto de juguete, nuestra madre decidió comprarnos nuestros propios Autos Aston Martín de Corgi, de los cuales se puede decir que además de perfectamente operativos en cuanto a todas sus funciones, eran muy resistentes al uso y los golpes al que los sometíamos dos niños de cuatro y cinco años... buen juguete.....era como el verdadero Aston Martín del 007.
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