With the release of the latest James Bond movie, "Casino Royale" in theaters now, I thought I would review what James Bond Lotus vehicles are available currently- with a bit of searching-from Corgi. To begin with. I found this tidbit of information about Corgi that I thought might be of interest.
Corgi production commenced with the showing of twenty-four model vehicles at the British Industries Fair in early 1956 and ended with the last designs in early 1983. The Corgi range was in direct competition with Dinky toys and owed their great success to the constant introduction of new gimmicks and technical innovations. Corgi reformed as Corgi Toys Ltd. in 1984. In 1989 the company was taken over by Mattel, worldwide toy manufacturing giant (manufacturer of Barbie Dolls), production was moved to Leicester, the Mattel headquarters. Corgi then bought out its new range: Corgi Classics, selling nostalgia cars, vans and trucks from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s; a brilliant innovation that is still running strong today. In 1995 Corgi regained its independence and moved to new premises, proving the legend of Corgi had not died out.
To my knowledge, Corgi was one of the first (if not the first) to have the rights to manufacture the James Bond vehicle line, commencing with the Aston Martin DBS, up to the current DB9 used in Casino Royale. There have been several Lotus Esprits manufactured, the most common being in 1/43 scale, with various degrees of detail. Here's the rundown with part #'s:
The Spy Who Loved Me This was from "The Definitive Bond Collection", produced in 2001. Model #TY95702, and included retractable fins, and firing missiles.
The next variation was from "The Ultimate Bond Collection", Model #TY04510, produced in 2002. Gone was the 007 logo, but the working features remained.
In 2003, Corgi released the Lotus as "The Director's Cut" version, model #TY04904. Again, the car had working gadgets, but the level of detail was greater, including the colored Lotus logo on the front, and various other badgings on the car included. All of the versions mentioned previously were in 1:43 scale.
A few other views of the opened Director's Cut version, to see the enhanced detail:
Fast forward to 2006, and Corgi continues to bless us (or curse us if you are a collector), with another version of the Lotus Esprit S1. This time, the car is in 1:36 scale, no working parts, but the
detail is still there.
