Husky / Corgi Juniors by Mettoy #24b Aston Martin DBS (Rockets #913)

Corgi made their very accurate model of the Aston Martin DBS from photographs and measurements of GKX8G, James Bond´s car in the film ´´On Her Majesty´s Secret Service´´. It was first released in 1970 as Rocket #913, which was always solarbrite blue with untinted glazing, orange yellow seats and opening bonnet which was usually black but can be found painted in the body shade on early production.
The superbly detailed engine was mask sprayed silver and the baseplate was plated mazak except for the final run (late 1971) which had white painted baseplates.
All were fitted with 12.5 x 4mm 5 spoke wheels which were plain black plastic only hot foiled on the last half of production which includes all white baseplate versions.

Corgi owning the license for making Bond toy cars had planned to release their own Rocket version of GKX8G (as never issued #929) however for reasons unknown this model was cancelled but the rather dull dark metallic olive brown paint had already been purchased so it was used up on the last minute recoloured addition to the range #937 Cougar which had a colourful yellow spoiler added.

The 1971 issue Corgi Juniors colour promotional flyer features #24, a standard solarbrite blue Rockets Aston DBS with other Corgi official photos showing the new Juniors version in caramel. However the 1971 Juniors release appeared in lime enamel with a black bonnet, mask sprayed silver engine, ivory seats, clear glazing, plated mazak baseplate and 11.5 x4mm 10 slot hot foiled wheels.

There was only one variation of this Juniors issue, the extremely rare and desirable mint green issue which was made in one small run probably very early in the short 2 year life of this casting - unusually for Corgi, this particular shade of mint green has not been found on any other toys in either of their ranges.
This casting was taken out of production early in 1973, perhaps a surprising decision given the very long production life of the real car and its use in high profile TV & film.
All #24 Astons were packaged in the same short picture card Whizzwheels blisterpack and all #913 Astons were packaged in the standard generic Rockets blisterpack.