James Bond's Aston Martin DB5

No collection of Corgis is complete without a Bond Aston. There were a number of them over the years and I think they are still actually in production by Corgi - both in 1:43 Scale, like this one, and the larger 1:36 Scale. Was this the first must-have Christmas toy? At Christmas 1965 if you got one of these, and I did, it meant your parents had worked very hard to find one or had been very lucky! I made the Airfix kit too - at about 1:18 scale it had loads more features including the opening tail lamps with caltraps.

261 First Release

Corgi kept this original version in the range from 1965 to 1969 when it was replaced by a silver car, still in 1:43 scale but with new features added. There are no listed variations to this car, however it is a perennial favourite and good examples in the original box with all the collateral will always get a very good price. The features are: ejector seat, front mount machine guns, rear bullet proof shield. The box should contain a bandit figure (or two) to fire out of the ejector seat, secret instructions in an envelope marked 'Top Secret' and a peel-off self-adhesive fabric 007 badge.

270 Second Release

This is the second release of the Bond Aston with added features and now in the correct silver paint. Revolving number plates and tyre slashers in the hub caps have been added. It is a step forward from the original in terms of features, but is it overkill? I don't think so really. The engineering is good and the finish is fine too. It was released in 1968 and remained in the range in this form up to 1976. Values are always high and seem to depend on the box type as there are few variations to the car and the boxes developed a lot during the production run. Blue/yellow window boxes are favourite.

270 Whizzwheels

The Whizzwheels version was released in 1977 without the rotating number plates and without tyre slashers.  These cars are valued at a much lower rate than the regular wheels cars. It was replaced in 1978 with the larger scale version of the car.