One of Corgi�s best, and most famous, toys, was the James Bond�s Aston Martin. Corgi used their existing Aston Martin DB4, first produced in 1964, as the basis for the model and tired to pack in as many features and devices as possible to emulate those in the Aston Martin DB5 used in the 1964 James Bond film, �Goldfinger�.
Among the main features were: a front machine gun, rear bullet-proof shield, an operating ejector seat. Corgi engineers devised a special test rig to operate the ejector seat to ensure that it would function faultlessly. Their rest was success and the toy was launched in November 1965 and was a acclaimed as the �Toy of the Year� by the National Association of Toy Retailers.
In its original three-year production run, the James Bond Aston Martin became one of the most popular toys ever made, with nearly three million sold. Although the car is illustrated in silver on the packaging, the toy was initially painted gold in order to underline its �premium quality� status.
The rarest version of the James Bond Aston Martin is a revised 1968 model which was slightly larger and painted in silver. It also had extra features: rotating number plates and even telescopic tyre slashers. It is worth three times as much as the gold version.
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