Prepro James Bond helicopter

[cOO7rgi]

Last week I received a lot of four SF 75D helicopters which includes one of the prepros that were made in 1985 for a proposed gift set for the film "A View to a Kill" (AVTAK). Two single models were released, the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II and the Renault 11, but the gift set never reached production. It contained the Rolls-Royce and Renault and additionally the 75D helicopter in orange & white with Soviet red star and "06" tampos as well as a black & white 10C Plymouth Gran Fury from the SFPD (later released as a standard model in blue & white).

The helicopters were listed as "LOT 4 MATCHBOX MB75 HELICOPTER", and I found them by chance just 4 1/2 hours before the auction ended. As I have two of these prepros already, I emailed a collector friend from a James Bond forum but with the time already 1 a.m. here (and midnight in England) I figured that he would not see my message in time and so set my alarm for 4 a.m. (luckily this was a public holiday here in Austria), especially since the lot was only $15 at the time. Although in the auction photos (1-3) the orange paint looked faded, and the description "boxes have some wear as they were saved from a fire" also didn't sound very encouraging. After getting up at 4 I checked if I had got a response - not surprisingly there wasn't -, checked if the lot had gone up - no, still just $15 -, and so I decided to bid even though my country wasn't listed (something I won't do normally). And so I secured the lot for just $15.50 plus priority shipping.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOT-4-MATCHBO ... 1574512276

Another AVTAK helicopter had sold just a few weeks before for £137.35! (4th photo - we found that one only after the auction had ended)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matchbox-Supe ... 1506456197


As I have already two helicopters the third one is already on its way to my collector friend to complete his set of AVTAK prepros (which even includes resin samples of the Rolls-Royce and Renault). I am currently working on a recreation of the gift set box and want to display one set of cars inside the box and another in front of it - so I am still looking for another black & white Plymouth ...

[Idris]

You did very well spotting that! (It's a bit late for me so, although I was vaguely aware of an unreleased 007 helicopter, I didn't know any of the details, much less what it actually looked like.)
It's interesting that you have now found three of them. Could it perhaps be that a small batch were produced, only to be sold through normal retail outlets when the gift set idea fell through? Did they all come from the States?

[Idris]

I’ve found a really good thread on another forum which deals with the aborted gift set in some detail.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I’ve found a really good thread on another forum which deals with the aborted gift set in some detail.

I think that's the forum our friend "c007rgi" is a registered member of and contributor.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[cOO7rgi]

Yep, so Ghosty blew my cover ...

It's interesting that you have now found three of them. Could it perhaps be that a small batch were produced, only to be sold through normal retail outlets when the gift set idea fell through? Did they all come from the States?

A Vectis auction of one of the Plymouths mentions that 26 of those were made - I assume that the helicopter was made in the same quantity as the Plymouth although I am not sure if 26 is the correct number. (For a rare Corgi set they give the wrong number so I don't know how reliable their information here is.)

The three helicopters all came from different countries. The first I bought about five years ago as an expensive BIN from Germany and the next one came (somewhat cheaper) from England in 2013. (That's when my interest in the gift set was really raised and I started the thread on the James Bond forum.) And the last one from the USA.

I don't think that the prepros ended up in normal retail outlets. The last I got was in a box without a printed name and number so I guess that this box and helicopter came from Matchbox R&D.

[ritchie]

I have the models comprising the gift set and I've also recreated the outer box, well, just the front of the box actually. After all the graphic layout hard work, I simply printed it onto an A3 paper, folded it to the shape of a box cover and fixing the shape with staples. It covers the inner tray quite well as shown on the second pic below. It's good enough for display so I didn't bother going further.

DSC_1534s.jpg (115.04 KiB) Viewed 855 times

DSC_1535s.jpg (157.97 KiB) Viewed 855 times

Next, I'll need to look for a resin Renault taxi...

DSC_1537s.jpg (91.63 KiB) Viewed 855 times

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Looks very convincing and something you may want to offer to other collectors of these models who don't have the ability do make one but will be prepaired to buy one for a small fee.

Ghosthunter.

[ritchie]

Another version. This one I made it up.

DSC_1638s.jpg (136.95 KiB) Viewed 796 times

[matchboxtom]

That is awesome. I would love to create a replica gift set.

Neat stuff.