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When you think you've seen it all from Corgi, along comes something on ebay that you've never seen before in all those years of collecting...

This time it was not even some obscure promotional model that was never sold in stores - no, this time it's a regular production item that must have been made in the thousands. And yet I had never seen this packaging before, and I also couldn't find a photo of the same blisterpack design anywhere. So, may I present the Corgi Juniors Extra 1001 James Bond Aston Martin DB6 in its final packaging from 1971/72:


(click photos to enlarge)



Maybe you think you've seen this before - but the usual cards from 1970, although looking similar with the same illustration, are longer. This new version is the same size as the 1979 re-release no. 40:




This was the standard size for Juniors blisterpacks from 1971 onwards so it should not come as a complete surprise that the DB6 was also produced in this packaging - what is surprising is that no example had surfaced before.
Here with a standard Juniors release of 1971, the Aston Martin DBS:






The car itself is also very unusual: It is the only 1001 I had seen with clear instead of blue tinted windows. No - I had seen one before but it is the first where I have noticed the clear windows. Exactly this variation of the 1001 with 10-spoke wheels and clear windows is shown on the card of the later 40 Aston Martin. (I think kerbside has in the meantime shown another one is his "Things I Kept" thread - the one standing on the corner of the Octopussy set.)

I had known before that the 40 card does not show a photo of the 40 but the older 1001 with the large 10-spoke wheels, as the baddie figure and seat are clearly different. (The poor chap had his legs amputated during the redesign.)
I hadn't noticed the clear windows before although I would have assumed that the clear window insert for the 40 was used for that photo example. Now it looks like Corgi just took some 1001 DB6 they had lying around for the 40 card picture.




In good company (still missing a few minor variations).

So many variations . I like Husky models with the painted figures best

This is a real good find. I´ve never seen the short 1001 card before, but ever thought it maybe exist.
Gratulations to that find.
My thought was, when the Batmobile 1002 and the batboat 1003 on short card exist, there is a chance
of finding that one also!! I have the clear window version in my loose lineup, but never seen on card!!
And i have all 4 differnt wheel versions (rocket wheels, black 5spk, chrome 5 spk and chrome 10spk) on the longer
1001 Extra card, and the last series 10spk is real hard to find.
My next thougt was about the 1004 Monkeemobile on short card!?!? Ever seen....?
Perhaps also with 10spk??

Never ending........ but thats the fun!

Thanks for the replies! So, if not even you, Wolfgang, has seen this card before then it must be truly special!

I have never thought that the DB6 was made with the short card, just because I thought that we would have seen it a long time ago if it was. I have seen the short carded Batmobile on the french Corgi-Batmobile website (but not the Batboat) although, unlike the Bond Aston, the Batmobile and Batboat continued to be made throughout the seventies (except for the short period when they were reworked), so they must have been better sellers than all other Extras including the Bond DB6. So more likely to sell out earlier and a new printing of cards (then with the changed size) ordered for the Batmobile but not for the other Extras. But - as the DB6 has now be found I also wonder if the two James Bond bobsleighs shown on the DB6 card back were made with the short card? The Monkeemobile I have never seen on the short card and also never the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Maybe you can post pictures of the Extras in you collection? I have the Manzke books and have seen the pictures you provided - your collection surely deserves its own thread here!

Good luck with finding this DB6 card - now that we know that they exist there must be more than one around!

I could never understand why Corgi did not re-tool the model into DB5, or actually make a new DB5, instead of keep issueing the DB6 casting, any ideas.

Ghosthunter.

The ejector seat was just an afterthought of the DB6 they had in the standard Husky range. I guess it was selling well enough as a DB6 that Corgi didn't think about changing the mould into a DB5.

Yes there is that, but I would have thought the model as a James Bond version had been produced in more varieties and re-issues than the standard model, or is this just a perception of taking notice of the JB version, more than the standard version.

Ghosthunter.