Photos courtesy of LEGO
Whether we watched them when they were new or only know the early Bond films as the ones that feature a Scottish guy with a lisp, it’s clear that the gadgets of the early Q division were far less practical, plausible, concealable, and effective than the modern pieces of kit that the most well-known secret agent carries around these days. That being said, a handful of the most recent entries in the series have featured the DB5 with its turn signal-concealed machine guns still in operating condition after all this time.
No matter how sleek and quick and leather-wrapped the new stuff gets, the tire-shredding silver GT capable of creating localized oil spills and also living up to the reputation of the spy behind the wheel will always be the Bondmobile, and this suave weapon on Borrani wire wheels was one of the first to introduce the concept of putting guns and spikes and other henchmen-stopping gear on a sports car. An on-screen icon, the few semi-functional real ones out there (like the one from this year’s concours at Villa d’Este) are expensive and illiquid to the point of a numeric price level being in the millions, give or take a few million. LEGO, like always, has made another fantasy come true, at least to some degree.
This is the company’s latest addition to their Creator line, and it will be available for $149.99 in the US on August 1st. I don’t know much about LEGO’s ranking system, but the box is dark grey and it says it’s for experts, and the build time for the 1,290-piece kit (box says 1,295, LEGO says otherwise) isn’t listed in the press release. Let’s assume it’s a long time. The Porsche GT3 took plenty of time to build, and that car didn’t have anywhere near the toys that this does. If you like cars or engineering or LEGOs of Bond or toys though, the multiple, multiple hours will be worth it for the chance to eject almonds through the roof of your own Q division DB5.
LEGO has included a video with the upcoming release to talk about and show a bit of the spy gear’s functionality in the 1:8 scale car that debuted in 1964’s Goldfinger. Besides a pretty admirable if blocky resemblance on the exterior side of things, the smaller plastic brick version of Connery’s car also shares some of the same pieces under the skin. Namely, machine guns hidden behind the front indicators, the working passenger-side ejector seat perfect for launching thugs/snacks off the cliff/coffee table, a telephone stashed in a secret door compartment, a radar tracker, a shield that protects from gunfire from the rear (by way of the open the sunroof of a black sedan most likely), revolving number plates, and those evil tire and sheetmetal-shredding extendable wheel locking nuts.
This version of the car is finished in the same shade of Silver Birch as the full-scale one, and the open hood reveals a 4.0L straight-six too—though we think it might be just a tad smaller if you were to measure and compare. As sets go, this one is a little pricier than your average birthday present but it’s also a little more complex than your average LEGO. Goes without saying it’s much cooler too. What do you think?
