Hornby planned to build on Corgi's core market of adult male collectors in Britain and attract younger and more international customers.
To celebrate the release of the 22nd James Bond film, in November 2008, Hornby launched its 007 Quantum of Solace Scalextric set, appealing to fans both young and old. The new set contained the stunning, Aston Martin DBS V12 Bond car, ahead of the sleek Alfa Romeo 159 in hot pursuit.
In June 2009, having secured the licensing to continue production of the James Bond models, Corgi released two separate series, the 1:36 scale and the ‘fit the box’. Each having their own section in the July - December 2009 catalogue they featured the most popular vehicles from the James Bond films.
The ‘fit the box’ series, each with a size of around 4 inches, comprised a re-release in June 2009 of 10 vehicles in a blister pack for £4.99 and a film canister set containing 8 of the 10 models, first released in 2005, costing in 2009 a penny shy of £40. The addition to the set was the Quantum of Solace Aston Martin DBS, TY96702, which having been retooled from the Casino Royale DBS, did not arrive in shops until the October.
The 1:36 scale complement of 13 models, including the two Aston Martin DB5 variants from Goldfinger CC04306 and Casino Royale CC04309, and 4 James Bond Limited Edition Era sets were also scheduled for release in June. Because the Aston Martin DBS, CC03802, was to receive a completely new and highly detailed interior and seated bond figure, this model did not arrive in stores until early December, but just in time for Christmas!
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| Hornby Scalextric joins the 007 Franchise |
The ‘fit the box’ series, each with a size of around 4 inches, comprised a re-release in June 2009 of 10 vehicles in a blister pack for £4.99 and a film canister set containing 8 of the 10 models, first released in 2005, costing in 2009 a penny shy of £40. The addition to the set was the Quantum of Solace Aston Martin DBS, TY96702, which having been retooled from the Casino Royale DBS, did not arrive in shops until the October.
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| Goldfinger CC04306 |
The 1:36 scale complement of 13 models, including the two Aston Martin DB5 variants from Goldfinger CC04306 and Casino Royale CC04309, and 4 James Bond Limited Edition Era sets were also scheduled for release in June. Because the Aston Martin DBS, CC03802, was to receive a completely new and highly detailed interior and seated bond figure, this model did not arrive in stores until early December, but just in time for Christmas!
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| Casino Royale CC04309 |
The 4 James Bond Limited Edition Era sets first seen in 2005, centred on the popular James Bond actors, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and, most recently and new to this collection, Daniel Craig. Each limited edition set came with 2 cars most representative of the movies in which they starred and with a hefty price tag of £34.99.
In these Era sets, Corgi included a set of 4 miniature movie posters in place of the movie booklets which accompanied the 2005 releases. Oddly, rather than the catalogue picturing the Casino Royale CC04309 version of the DB5 for inclusion in the Daniel Craig set, Corgi paired the Quantum of Solace retooled DBS with the Goldfinger DB5 CC04306 as included with the Sean Connery set; this was however, corrected on release of the actual models.
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| Skyfall CC04310 |
To the delight of fans, Bond drove his Goldfinger DB5 in the 23rd film, Skyfall, released worldwide on 9th November, 2012. This gave Corgi the option of re-releasing its CC04306 model in new packaging under the new part number CC04310. This 50th anniversary Corgi DB5 was supposed to be available for purchase from Corgi in August 2012 ... however, Corgi's supply from China could not keep up with demand and their on-line site was still without stock right through the film and into the peak Christmas buying period. I managed to get my model via a seller on eBay - this was not an unfamiliar issue for Hornby.
Following the DB5's total destruction in Skyfall, all may have believed that this was the last we'd see of Bond's iconic Aston Martin. However, in the 2015 Bond film, Spectre, Q revealed that he was rebuilding the DB5 from the only surviving piece of the original .. the steering wheel! Hornby must have been over the moon with this news, as they dusted off their 1:36 scale tooling to run off yet another batch.
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| Spectre twin pack CC08099 |
In addition to a single boxed model of the new DB10, Hornby released a Spectre twin pack CC08099 with the DB10 accompanied by the 'rebuilt' DB5, retailing for £34.99.
