The Most Famous Toy

The Most Famous Toy In The World

Part One


Corgi's first foray into TV-related models came as early as 1963 - a Ford Zephyr Police car from the hit BBC TV programme "Z - Cars". After that initial success Corgi produced "The Saint's" Volvo P1800 in the March of 1965. This model was a smash hit and sold over 300,000 units in it's first nine months.

Eager to build upon it's success, Playcraft Toys Ltd - a branch of Mettoy - held discussions with Eon Productions about their James Bond franchise. Up to this point the Bond films had been seen as entertainment for adult audiences only but with the huge success of Goldfinger, Eon wanted to cash-in as quickly as they could.Their next film was to be Thunderball and this film would feature many gadgets and, in their thinking, appeal to a much wider audience. It was during this meeting that Playcraft and Eon decided to produce the Aston Martin DB5 and a legend was born.

The First Corgi DB5 From October 1965 © Corgi

The first Aston Martin DB5 (C 261) was released in the October of 1965 - nearly a full year after Goldfinger premiered and just two short months before the cinematic release of Thunderball. Playcraft were producing an Aston Martin DB4 at the time and withdrew this model so that they could re-tool it for the new model. This re-tooling cost an estimated £45,000, at the time a hefty sum but, in retrospect, peanuts compared to the money raked in for units sold. In an effort to reach that years Christmas market, three designers worked at the same time to create the 28 seperate parts needed to build the diecast DB5. Although they made it in time the first DB5 has a DB4 rear, but this was only spotted by Aston Martin owners and purists alike. They could tell because of the shape of the rear-light clusters and the fact that a DB4 has only the one petrol cap, compared to the DB5's two. This first DB5 was also gold in colour, unlike the films silverbirch livery !

This toy was a sensation ! They sold so many units in 3 months that Playcraft Toys Ltd recieved two awards - UK Toy Of The Year and Best Boys Toy Of 1965. The toy cost 9s 11d at launch - just under 50p in today's money, which was roughly a months pocket money then ! The price was obviously no problem as by 1966 Corgi had sold a massive 2,771,000 DB5's. Along with the model you could also purchase 2 extra bandits (S 679) at a cost of 1s (5p), to eject from the car.

Original Corgi Advertisement © Corgi

In 1968 the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (C 271) was withdrawn from sale, by which time it had sold an astonishing 3,974,000 units.


To be continued.......

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