50 Years of Bondage

I've just bought another painting from Solly at SM Artworks who predominantly paints TV and film subjects.  Since it's fifty years since the first Bond film (and next year, it'll be sixty years since the first Bond novel), this painting is called "Legacy" and depicts three of Bond's Aston Martins - the DB5 from "Goldfinger" (and later films), the V8 Vantage Volante from "The Living Daylights", and the DBS V12 from "Casino Royale" (and trashed at the beginning of "Quantum of Solace").

And here it is in the slot room, pushing Starsky & Hutch round the corner of the chimney breast so that it can pair up with "Super Pursuit" (bought two years ago and featuring KITT, Airwolf and the A-Team van) on the other side of the race monitor.

And speaking of Starsky & Hutch, I managed to track down some flashing LED units for Starsky's Ford Gran Torino, and fitted one into the Plymouth Road Runner police car that I had previously wired in a Maplin flashing LED (which worked when static but stayed on when driving round the track).  The official Scalextric part does the trick.

Before the Aston Martin...

I re-read Casino Royale recently and particularly enjoyed the following passage:

Bond's car was his only personal hobby.  One of the last 4 1/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had brought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage during the war.  It was still serviced every year and, in London, a former Bentley mechanic, who worked in a garage near Bond's Chelsea flat, tended it with jealous care.  Bond drove it hard and well and with an almost sensual pleasure.

I knew there was another reason I was attracted to this car!

And for a bit of Bond silliness, here's an almost hypnotic clip of all the "double-oh"s from the movies:

Tilly Masterson's Mustang

I'd already bought a Ferrari to race against Bond's Aston Martin but then found out that Carrera made a model of Tilly Masterson's Ford Mustang that races Bond on the Furka Pass in "Goldfinger".  Rather ungallantly, Bond drives her off the road by shredding her tyres using one of the Aston's built-in gadgets.

So Louise got it for my birthday.

It's a well-done model with Tilly in the driving seat - a nice change to have a female driver in a slot car model - and should be a good match for the Aston Martin.

The name's Bond... James Bond

As a kid, I had a small Matchbox version of the Aston Martin DB5 that Sean Connery used in Goldfinger, with a working ejector seat.  That's long gone now but Scalextric have just released a slot car version and Louise got it me for Christmas.

This is a nicely detailed model; I particularly like the wire wheels and spinners.  But it also has some of the gadgets that Q described to Bond in the film (classic line: "I never joke about my work, 007"). The car has working front and rear lights but the sidelights at the front have machine guns protruding from them (non-functioning!).  Operated by the boot catch is a bullet proof shield that pops up.

And operated by a lever on the side of the car, is the working ejector seat.  The set comes with a bollard that clips to the edge of the Scalextric track so the ejector seat is triggered as the car drives past.  The passenger flies out but I haven't lost him yet!

All this in a smart presentation box.  This is the 1st of three.  The other two are representations of the DB5s in GoldenEye and Casino Royale.  I suspect that those will just have different number plates and no gadgets, so the Goldfinger model is the one to get.