Movie theater tills are ringing around the world as cinema-goers flock to watch No Time To Die. But EON, the production company behind the film, is also in line to make a fortune from Bond merchandise.
One of the many companies that have hitched itself to the Bond bandwagon is German toymaker Playmobil, which has come up with a silver Aston Martin DB5 for children aged ‘5-99’.
Unlike rival Lego’s DB5, which requires construction, and when finished looks like it’s been a five-car accident, the 10.4-inch (265 mm) silver DB5 comes ready built and is a convincing facsimile of the original. With one exception. For some reason, the real-life DB5’s wire wheels have ended up looking like the nasty spoked hubcaps that Detroit fitted to millions of cars between the 1950s and 1980s.
In 1964’s Goldfinger, the knock-off eared spinners at the center of Bond’s car’s wheels magically extend to shred the bodywork of Bond girl Tilly Masterson’s Mustang, which does sport a set of fake wires.
Related: $125k ‘Toy’ Aston Martin DB5 James Bond Edition Fires Smoke, Has Fake Machine Guns Behind Headlights
But if your five-year-old can live with the automotive faux pas, it looks like a fun set. Triple rotating number plates, a retractable bulletproof rear bulkhead, extendable bumper rams, an ejector seat, and machine guns hidden behind the headlights all make their way from the big screen to the living room carpet.
You also get four characters to play with, including supervillain Auric Goldfinger in his golf garb, Oddjob, a random henchman to sacrifice, and, of course, 007, whose bizarre 1970s haircut makes him look more like Gil Gerard from the 1970s Buck Rogers TV show than Sean Connery or Daniel Craig.
The $89.99 (£69.99) Aston Martin DB5 (prod no: 70578) seems to be the extent of Playmobil’s Bond tie-ups, but if you want to make 007’s getaways trickier you could always pick up one of the many police-themed Playmobil sets that, unlike Lego’s offerings, seem to be designed to terrify European kids into never challenging authority figures.
Like this speed trap set.
Or the even scarier expanded speed trap set complete with attack dog and a roll-out spiked stinger to puncture Bond’s tires.
Or the police HQ, which appears to double as a maximum security prison, and even in plastic looks intimidating enough to put even big kids off a life of crime (and quite possibly thoughts of ever moving to Germany, no matter how fast you can go on the autobahn).