Corgi...James Corgi.

 A lot of times I share things that I had as a kid, but then had to reaquire due to growing up related losses. Today, though, I'm sharing an item that has literally been with me since 1969. I present, the Corgi 270 James Bond Astin Martin DB-5!

Your first response upon seeing this little gem might be "Wow, that's in rough shape!" and you would be correct. You see, this car was played with...hard. If I had to chase a bad guy off a cliff- no problem! The DB-5 flew off that cliff without a second thought! Of course, that meant that over the years the paint all chipped off, so at some point I decided to repaint it (even as a kid I was restoring stuff, I guess). That paint looked like a kid had done it (for obvious reasons) so I stripped it off again... with rather poor results.

But here she is! I purchased this car (or, rather, my mother did) from the Corgi display case at the J.C. Penny in North Park mall in Dallas in 1969. I would love to get one of those lighted display cases, but they're pretty rare. Anyway, I had never seen Goldfinger, the movie this car was from, but I knew it had a lot of "Spy Gadgets" on it, and that was good enough for me! Let's take a look, shall we?

Here she is in her banged up glory!

The tire rippers were new on this version. The earlier gold painted (Corgi originally thought silver looked too much like bare metal) car had standard rear wheels.

The bullet proof shield is activated by pressing the exhaust pipes.

That button behind the front wheel activates the machine guns and ramming bumper.

The button behind that one launches the bad guy out of the roof. Interestingly enough, as a kid, I didn't realize English cars were right hsnd drive, so I thought this was an ejection seat that Bond could use to get out of the car before it went over that cliff. Also, notice that the front bumper (which is metal) is broken off on this side. Cliffs can hurt.

Bond...James Bond in the driver's seat...as I later figured out. These figures are not the originals that came with the car. I purchased them a few years back off of eBay. They're reproductions.

Ah, yes, the other feature that the earlier Corgi Astin Marin didn't have- rotating plates.

And the bottom of the car, still insisting that it is "NEW." I suppose it is NEW...er.

So there you have it! This car has been with me through thick and thin for 57 years! I've thought about getting a cleaner example, but it wouldn't have the same meaning this one does. Besides, you've gotta stick by something that you've held on to for that long.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!