Thanks for sharing these documents Lord Tow, it's always a pleasure to see your amazing finds, long may it continue -{ -{
Still racking my brains as to where I have seen the first picture of the four girls
Thanks for sharing these documents Lord Tow, it's always a pleasure to see your amazing finds, long may it continue -{ -{
Still racking my brains as to where I have seen the first picture of the four girls
Rack no more Sir Acacia of Avenue, the problem with doing research is you never stop so go to page 36 of 1992's The incredible World of 007 by Lee Pfeiffer & Philip Lisa -{
Thank you Sir Donkatow -{ typical one of the books I had not looked in
Did notice in the Corgi book 'James Bond World of Thunderball and Thunderbirds' on the ifc the picture of Molly Peters is very similar to the picture of the three girls lying down.
I'd hoped to source a unique piece of Bond memorabilia to celebrate Thunderball's 50th Anniversary year and this is quite a find and something rather special, an original United Artists "casting" press kit for the roles of Domino, Fiona, Paula and Patricia. The only complete example this collector has ever seen. It is interesting to note from page 2 that both Claudine Auger and the Luscious Lucianna Paluzzi won their respective roles but at this time in 1965 neither Martine Beswick or Molly Peters were being considered for the roles of Paula and Patricia -{
Yes, very cool stuff ! Wait for my "Thunderball" special vintage 1965 Christmas card which I will not post in summer but in December...
Thank you Sir Donkatow -{ typical one of the books I had not looked in
Did notice in the Corgi book 'James Bond World of Thunderball and Thunderbirds' on the ifc the picture of Molly Peters is very similar to the picture of the three girls lying down.
I think that it might have featured in one of the 007 Magazines produced by Graham Rye and the 007 Fan Club... probably the 30th Anniversary Thunderball Special... I'm in the middle of getting ready to move so things are boxed up and I can't check I'm afraid.
An original 1964 10.25" x 8" press photo of BMT216A taken at Stoke Park Golf & Country Club in Buckinghamshire. Note Sean's style of footwear & the golfers in the background perhaps completely ignorant to the importance of the sleek silver birch sports car parked a stones throw away from them? -{
An original 1964 10.25" x 8" press photo of BMT216A taken at Stoke Park Golf & Country Club in Buckinghamshire. Note Sean's style of footwear & the golfers in the background perhaps completely ignorant to the importance of the sleek silver birch sports car parked a stones throw away from them? -{
Nice picture Donk -{ with regards to the footwear, maybe they are Slazenger golf shoes as worn in the film.
Time for a spot of controversy
Back in 2006 when Casino Royale was on the big screen an image of Bond's screen used hero suppressed P99 was posted on the Yourprops website along with a knowledgable write up. The listing was taken down within a few days but not before the image was posted on the Bondlifestyle website & IMFDB to name but a few. There were denials from the official camps as to its authenticity however 9 years later I think it is safe to reveal that the pistol was utilised in just one scene in the movie & perhaps one of the best when Bond handles his pistol within the cabin of his Aston Martin DBS. This showed someone who knows weapons, partially pulling back the slide which cocks the weapon or in this case ensured a round was in the chamber then pressing a button on the rear of the top slide which decocks the pistol's internal striker making it safe until needed -{
This suppressed P99 pistol is the only one outside of the Bond production company/official armourers and there will most definitely not be another & the reason for this is simple, an armourer innocently used his own pistol on location at Pinewood Studios. All Daniel Craig Bond pistols are the property of the contracted armourers & therefore the Bond production company...except this one -{
071500 fitted with non-firing rubber & aluminium suppressor
Correct weapons procedure taking place in the car park, Pinewood Studios -{
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,526Chief of Staff
The Corgi C391 Ford Mustang Mach 1 was released in February 1972 to tie in with the release of the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever at a pocket money shattering 49p. Today boxed examples can be found for anything between £150 up to £350 for pristine ex-shop stock condition. Corgi already had a green Ford Mustang in their range so instead of going to the expense of repackaging they simply slapped an "as featured in the film Diamonds are Forever etc" sticker hap-hazardly on the front of the basic 391 window box. Initially Corgi had only planned to release Bond's known vehicle in the movie, the Moonbuggy, so the Mustang was pretty much an afterthought on Mettoy's part hence the packaging. With sales of 200,000 units the model was withdrawn from Corgi's range just one year later. Amazingly within that year the model could be found with both eight spoke & concave mag style wheels. It would be a brave man (or woman) who'd speculate which is the rarer? -{
An incredibly rare survivor from 1969, an original National Screen Services/United Artists movie theatre white chromo paper gummed 10" roundel for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The only example this collector has seen outside of the pages of the UK Exhibitor's Campaign Book. Originally sent out by NSS/UA to movie theatre managers in packs of 10 for 7/6d, the intention was to wet the gummed surface & stick them inside clear glass windows etc for display purposes so for one to survive unused is quite frankly unheard of! Donkey absolutely loves this -{
Very interesting comments on the C270 and C261 variations ! -{
As you are a specialist of the C270 variations, I have a question :
both my own silver bumper C270 in the bubble package and the only 2 gold-plated C270s I've ever seen (yours and the one sold by QDT this week) have really open side vents (open wing vents) while most of the time the side vent is closed. I've found on the internet a 4th model with the same particularity - see attachment.
Can you comment on this particularity ?
Very interesting comments on the C270 and C261 variations ! -{
As you are a specialist of the C270 variations, I have a question :
both my own silver bumper C270 in the bubble package and the only 2 gold-plated C270s I've ever seen (yours and the one sold by QDT this week) have really open side vents (open wing vents) while most of the time the side vent is closed. I've found on the internet a 4th model with the same particularity - see attachment.
Can you comment on this particularity ?
Many thanks in advance !
Hi Luc, very interesting comment. I've looked at my 3 boxed examples (1968, 1970 & 1973) which all appear the same which is not deep cut. The gold plated 270 which was believed to have been produced between 1973-1976 also appears the same up close. Perhaps it may look different because unlike the production models the plated car does not have a depth of paint in the cut-outs which makes it look deeper than it actually is? There is also the possibility that as with the C261 mould to meet production schedules more than one master mould may have been utilised to produce the castings which may have had a slight variation?
Incidentally, the gold plated C270 post has been updated:http://www.ajb007.co.uk/post/656055/#p656055
I've been hoping I'd be the winning bidder of this piece since Propstore first released their 007 listings for their 23rd September 2015 Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction. A Licence Revoked clapperboard which because of a belief that some may not know what revoked means? was rebranded as Licence to Kill.
Many years ago I had a chance meeting with Pierce Brosnan's prop handler who resides in Mexico. While discussing the fond memories he had of making LTK he dropped a little known fact which was that even though the documented contracted weapons wranglers were Stembridge Gun Rentals, Dalton's PPK pistols on the production were the same pistols he had used on The Living Daylights which had been shipped out from the armourers in the UK and these pistols in turn had originally been Roger's where Roger had also utilised PPK pistols previously used by George and Sean, in fact Brosnan was the first Bond to utilise PPK pistols fresh out of the ULM shipping boxes which had not been utilised previously by other actors as 4 pistols, 2 pairs with sequential serial numbers ending 475,476,589 & 590 were purchased for his personal use on Goldeneye which he also used on Tomorrow Never Dies before upgrading to Walther's new service pistol, the 9mm P99....a circulating PPK pistol with accompanying Stembridge Armoury hire documents accredited to Mr Dalton has the wrong shape slide & the serial number (wrong font, wrong size & wrong slide position) is NOT factory stamped. It should however be pointed out that a Zella-Mehlis slided PPK pistol appears in the LTK titles sequence only...isn't research wonderful?
Skip forward a few years & a project I was on gave me access to areas where I could put previous research to good use. Many questions were asked of those who on paper knew the answers but no one could confirm where Timothy's PPK pistols now resided as after Bond weapons were hired out to numerous productions and on occasion armouries had been known to sell or trade consignments of weapons to other armouries. There was also an issue of the top slides being switched around as some PPK pistols only had serial numbers on the frames.
One such movie armourer had a PPK pistol which he said was a Bond (yeah right) but he could offer no provenance on the piece or make a suggestion of what movie it was utilised on "we only got them in for Bond". What I should point out is this particular pistol had a chromed silver finish...doesn't sound very Bond does it?
A common practice even today is if a producer wants 3 silver pistols & the armourer only has 2 silver and 1 black the black one gets a coat of silver paint & vice versa. Not many go to the expense of purchasing in another pistol of the correct finish in fact the documentation I have uncovered shows that TWINE was the first Bond to purposely buy in a consignment of new P99 pistols in both blank & live fire for Brosnan's usage along with the ten blank fire PAK pistols and two modified "V1" live fire previously utilised on Tomorrow Never Dies.
Now 20-30 years ago instead of silver paint the pistol would have had a quick trip to the local automotive chrome plating works. Incidentally this is what happened in 1973 when Roger's blued Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver required a high shine nickle plated finish which nickle could not achieve for Live & Let Die. Additionally the nickel pistol was quite rare & expensive at the time hence the cheap fix (bet the current owner just choked on his cornflakes!).
Back to the PPK, it was initially hardly recognisable but there was something very familiar about it which I could not put my finger on but long story short, a deal was done, the plating was stripped, the slide, frame & component parts were re-blued & the original brown mottled bakelite grips were refitted & then the penny dropped & it dropped hard courtesy of AJB's very own Danjaq_Off who had previously furnished me with a rarely seen b&w archive plate of Roger's kit on the set of Live & Let Die back in 1973. Certain details viewed under a magnifying glass matched like a finger print. Research then revealed that Roger had used the same PPK pistol on The Man with the Golden Gun & The Spy Who Loved Me before it had been passed onto Timothy. Regrettably the chrome plating process had destroyed any hope of matching irregularities in the blued finish & even some factory proof marks to modern HD screen captures which is how we usually identify undocumented pieces initially put forward as Bond. I'd hoped to be able to also tie the pistol to George but the serial number clearly dictated a manufactured date of 1972-1973. Interestingly while carrying out exhaustive research on this and other pistols I managed to locate George's PPK which was believed to have been lost as there was no documented record of it since 69. The current owner secured it not knowing what he/she had which I have found initially is often the case as it was with 285XXX.
If you look closesly at these images a trace of chrome still remains on the mount where the trigger guard meets the frame as the blue will only act on untreated steel. On the ejection port side both the upper & lower matching serial numbers are still engrained with chrome as there does not appear to be a way of safely removing it without damage to the factory engravings. This is also why the engravings look subdued on the shown side.
With Designing 007 in the planning stages EON were informed that the pistol had been found & photographic evidence was furnished of the pistol on set in 1973 with current day comparison shots in the hope it would be included in the exhibition but even in the planning stages it was evident that real weapons inclusion was big time frowned upon so here it is back in its original 1973-1989 glory seen for the first time in 26 years on AJB007 -{
285XXX reunited with an old friend
285XXX in 1973 spec'
A rarely seen Archive image of Roger's hardware on the set of Live & Let Die. Note the grip irregularities on the PPK
285XXX in 1987 spec' with original silencer
285XXX in 1989 spec'
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,526Chief of Staff
Comments
Still racking my brains as to where I have seen the first picture of the four girls
Rack no more Sir Acacia of Avenue, the problem with doing research is you never stop so go to page 36 of 1992's The incredible World of 007 by Lee Pfeiffer & Philip Lisa -{
Did notice in the Corgi book 'James Bond World of Thunderball and Thunderbirds' on the ifc the picture of Molly Peters is very similar to the picture of the three girls lying down.
Yes, very cool stuff ! Wait for my "Thunderball" special vintage 1965 Christmas card which I will not post in summer but in December...
I think that it might have featured in one of the 007 Magazines produced by Graham Rye and the 007 Fan Club... probably the 30th Anniversary Thunderball Special... I'm in the middle of getting ready to move so things are boxed up and I can't check I'm afraid.
Nice picture Donk -{ with regards to the footwear, maybe they are Slazenger golf shoes as worn in the film.
Back in 2006 when Casino Royale was on the big screen an image of Bond's screen used hero suppressed P99 was posted on the Yourprops website along with a knowledgable write up. The listing was taken down within a few days but not before the image was posted on the Bondlifestyle website & IMFDB to name but a few. There were denials from the official camps as to its authenticity however 9 years later I think it is safe to reveal that the pistol was utilised in just one scene in the movie & perhaps one of the best when Bond handles his pistol within the cabin of his Aston Martin DBS. This showed someone who knows weapons, partially pulling back the slide which cocks the weapon or in this case ensured a round was in the chamber then pressing a button on the rear of the top slide which decocks the pistol's internal striker making it safe until needed -{
This suppressed P99 pistol is the only one outside of the Bond production company/official armourers and there will most definitely not be another & the reason for this is simple, an armourer innocently used his own pistol on location at Pinewood Studios. All Daniel Craig Bond pistols are the property of the contracted armourers & therefore the Bond production company...except this one -{
071500 fitted with non-firing rubber & aluminium suppressor
Correct weapons procedure taking place in the car park, Pinewood Studios -{
Plus your props aren't bad either
Very, very cool B-)
I noticed he decocks it after killing Dryden in the PTS, but didn't know what he was doing until I got my hands on a P99...
Only you could get away with a post that contains the words 'cocks' and 'rubber"
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
And I'm just waiting for you to use those words and....
Thanks for letting us see them -{
Love the window sticker {[]
Excellent as always Sir Donk -{
As you are a specialist of the C270 variations, I have a question :
both my own silver bumper C270 in the bubble package and the only 2 gold-plated C270s I've ever seen (yours and the one sold by QDT this week) have really open side vents (open wing vents) while most of the time the side vent is closed. I've found on the internet a 4th model with the same particularity - see attachment.
Can you comment on this particularity ?
Many thanks in advance !
Hi Luc, very interesting comment. I've looked at my 3 boxed examples (1968, 1970 & 1973) which all appear the same which is not deep cut. The gold plated 270 which was believed to have been produced between 1973-1976 also appears the same up close. Perhaps it may look different because unlike the production models the plated car does not have a depth of paint in the cut-outs which makes it look deeper than it actually is? There is also the possibility that as with the C261 mould to meet production schedules more than one master mould may have been utilised to produce the castings which may have had a slight variation?
Incidentally, the gold plated C270 post has been updated:http://www.ajb007.co.uk/post/656055/#p656055
Many years ago I had a chance meeting with Pierce Brosnan's prop handler who resides in Mexico. While discussing the fond memories he had of making LTK he dropped a little known fact which was that even though the documented contracted weapons wranglers were Stembridge Gun Rentals, Dalton's PPK pistols on the production were the same pistols he had used on The Living Daylights which had been shipped out from the armourers in the UK and these pistols in turn had originally been Roger's where Roger had also utilised PPK pistols previously used by George and Sean, in fact Brosnan was the first Bond to utilise PPK pistols fresh out of the ULM shipping boxes which had not been utilised previously by other actors as 4 pistols, 2 pairs with sequential serial numbers ending 475,476,589 & 590 were purchased for his personal use on Goldeneye which he also used on Tomorrow Never Dies before upgrading to Walther's new service pistol, the 9mm P99....a circulating PPK pistol with accompanying Stembridge Armoury hire documents accredited to Mr Dalton has the wrong shape slide & the serial number (wrong font, wrong size & wrong slide position) is NOT factory stamped. It should however be pointed out that a Zella-Mehlis slided PPK pistol appears in the LTK titles sequence only...isn't research wonderful?
Skip forward a few years & a project I was on gave me access to areas where I could put previous research to good use. Many questions were asked of those who on paper knew the answers but no one could confirm where Timothy's PPK pistols now resided as after Bond weapons were hired out to numerous productions and on occasion armouries had been known to sell or trade consignments of weapons to other armouries. There was also an issue of the top slides being switched around as some PPK pistols only had serial numbers on the frames.
One such movie armourer had a PPK pistol which he said was a Bond (yeah right) but he could offer no provenance on the piece or make a suggestion of what movie it was utilised on "we only got them in for Bond". What I should point out is this particular pistol had a chromed silver finish...doesn't sound very Bond does it?
A common practice even today is if a producer wants 3 silver pistols & the armourer only has 2 silver and 1 black the black one gets a coat of silver paint & vice versa. Not many go to the expense of purchasing in another pistol of the correct finish in fact the documentation I have uncovered shows that TWINE was the first Bond to purposely buy in a consignment of new P99 pistols in both blank & live fire for Brosnan's usage along with the ten blank fire PAK pistols and two modified "V1" live fire previously utilised on Tomorrow Never Dies.
Now 20-30 years ago instead of silver paint the pistol would have had a quick trip to the local automotive chrome plating works. Incidentally this is what happened in 1973 when Roger's blued Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver required a high shine nickle plated finish which nickle could not achieve for Live & Let Die. Additionally the nickel pistol was quite rare & expensive at the time hence the cheap fix (bet the current owner just choked on his cornflakes!).
Back to the PPK, it was initially hardly recognisable but there was something very familiar about it which I could not put my finger on but long story short, a deal was done, the plating was stripped, the slide, frame & component parts were re-blued & the original brown mottled bakelite grips were refitted & then the penny dropped & it dropped hard courtesy of AJB's very own Danjaq_Off who had previously furnished me with a rarely seen b&w archive plate of Roger's kit on the set of Live & Let Die back in 1973. Certain details viewed under a magnifying glass matched like a finger print. Research then revealed that Roger had used the same PPK pistol on The Man with the Golden Gun & The Spy Who Loved Me before it had been passed onto Timothy. Regrettably the chrome plating process had destroyed any hope of matching irregularities in the blued finish & even some factory proof marks to modern HD screen captures which is how we usually identify undocumented pieces initially put forward as Bond. I'd hoped to be able to also tie the pistol to George but the serial number clearly dictated a manufactured date of 1972-1973. Interestingly while carrying out exhaustive research on this and other pistols I managed to locate George's PPK which was believed to have been lost as there was no documented record of it since 69. The current owner secured it not knowing what he/she had which I have found initially is often the case as it was with 285XXX.
If you look closesly at these images a trace of chrome still remains on the mount where the trigger guard meets the frame as the blue will only act on untreated steel. On the ejection port side both the upper & lower matching serial numbers are still engrained with chrome as there does not appear to be a way of safely removing it without damage to the factory engravings. This is also why the engravings look subdued on the shown side.
With Designing 007 in the planning stages EON were informed that the pistol had been found & photographic evidence was furnished of the pistol on set in 1973 with current day comparison shots in the hope it would be included in the exhibition but even in the planning stages it was evident that real weapons inclusion was big time frowned upon so here it is back in its original 1973-1989 glory seen for the first time in 26 years on AJB007 -{
285XXX reunited with an old friend
285XXX in 1973 spec'
A rarely seen Archive image of Roger's hardware on the set of Live & Let Die. Note the grip irregularities on the PPK
285XXX in 1987 spec' with original silencer
285XXX in 1989 spec'
Those deserve full pics:
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I'm very happy for you. This is an amazing bit of work!