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MI6 reviews the third 1:18th scale James Bond
car from RC2 - James Bond's Aston Martin Vanquish
from the 2002 film "Die Another Day"... |
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RC2 1:18th Aston Martin Vanquish Review
4th May 2005
"Die Another Day" saw James Bond reunited with an Aston
Martin after a three film stint with BMW. The 55 million dollar
delay secured Bond in a Ford owned brand for the next few films.
The first in 2002 saw 007 behind the wheel of a new Aston Martin
- the V12 Vanquish.
Above: The 1:18th scale Aston Martin
Vanquish by RC2 |
Exterior
The metallic gun metal grey finish is flawless across the
metal body. Two plastic components are an off colour - the
rear bumper and front grill bumper surround. This is also
true of the removable roof section that fits tightly.
The chrome fins over the engine vents are well secured.
All the additional detailing has been created out of plastic
with a chrome finish, window seals, wipers, aril and wing
mirrors. Both wing mirrors are made out of a soft malleable
plastic/rubber and detailed on top, including reflective
stickers.
Two intake vents on the bonnet (hood) are punched through
the metal, and they are textured and slide to allow the
machine guns to pop out.
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All four tires are thinner, and the car's ride is higher as in
the film, due to the car being updated for driving on the ice.
The brakes have a lightly stamped Aston Martin logo which adds
a nice touch.
The taillights are clear with lots of characteristic detailing.
This is also true of the headlights, which are made up of clear
plastic and an inlay. The petrol cap is finished in chrome and
inlayed into the metal body. The rear window has radiator lines
and internal brake light. The under carriage of the car has a
floor pan as seen in the film. The tail pipes of the exhaust system
produce from the rear.
Interior
The trunk its finished in a black flat plastic, and a fire
extinguisher can be found modelled into the detailing of the boot.
All four seats are formed out of hard plastic with clean detailing.
Both rear seats have soft seatbelts that have been stretched over
them. Clean modelling and silver detailing can be found on the
inner panels on the doors and along side each of the rear seats.
Ejector seat button is very fiddly to activate. Once the chair
has been fired it launches a centimetre, and when resetting the
chair you must ensure the spring is correctly positioned. Small
gold plaques are on the sills for both doors, the drivers side
also features the hand break. The dashboard has three dials can
which appear to be finely detailed stickers. A silver centre console
has also received detailing in the form of sticker and red paint.
Detailing on the engine is average, with small name badges stamped
in the correct place. Made up of several components , it forms
an accurate representation at this scale. Finished in chrome and
black, you need to open the bonnet (hood) to open
the engine air intakes and pull the machine guns out.
Above: The packaging displays all
of the Vanquish special features. |
Packaging
Clean collector friendly packaging the box has windows on four
faces. A small montage of clips of the car is show on the front
and side faces. The rear face gives pictorial details of the gadgets
and a little information on the car. There are no instructions
explaining how to work any of the gadgets or documentation on
the car and its famous role in "Die Another Day". Even
if included on the Q-CD it would have been a welcome addition.
The car comes taped up and screwed to a hard plastic base. The
plastic base fights snugly into the box and only allows the flaps
to be closed in a securing order. There is no tape seal on the
externals of the box which ensures your don’t damage it
when removing the car.
Gadgets
- Retractable front grille panels to expose rockets and machine
guns -activated by a small switches on the underside of
the car. Once deployed the rockets appear from behind the lower
central grill.
- Sliding intake covers - move these from under the bonnet
(hood) which will allow the,
- Retractable guns that pop through the intake openings -
these little guns fit through the intakes and rotate to give
different angles of fire.
- Passenger ejector seat - remove the roof first, and
activate. Its not powerful enough to launch the chair out of
the roof, however is one of the better feature of the car. Replacing
the chair is fiddly, watch out for the spring.
- Working front steering - with a little effort the stiff
steering wheel can be turned thus moving turn the front tires.
- Independent suspension - all four wheels have a little
springy given in them for the extra level of realism.
Q-Card
With RC2's second attempt at this new business card size CD-ROM,
it features 2 wallpapers, an interactive gallery of stills and
a 360 degree view of the car with images of the cars gadgets.
The quality of the presentation and images are still poor, requiring
a re-think.
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Above: The Vanquish comes with a "Q
Card"
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Overall
RC2’s third 1/18 scale Bond car is impressive, and
the accurate depiction of the car has a good assortment
of extras. The Vanquish is definitely not flawless with
some of the smaller detailing suffering some minor defects.
The plastic roof is poorly fitted, however once in place
it will not fall away like the DB5. Finally, the ejector
seat is fiddly to activate, and is not as powerful enough
to launch out of the car.
If RC2 improve the Q-CD and continue this standard of quality
throughout their Bond range with all extras, it will be
a pleasant change to see the James Bond license being used
to a high standard.
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MI6 Rating
Other Models
Joyride Entertainment (part of the RC2 group) secured the James
Bond license in 2004 and plan to release twelve cars over the
two years. The range will visit a mixture of famous cars from
the 20 film canon. The models are expected to retail at £34.99
in the UK, and $39.99 in the USA (prices may vary). Updated release
dates are estimates and are subject to change. RC2 had a proposed
Bond 21 car for a 2005, but due to the film being moved to 2006
its unclear what will happen. Expect a further six cars to be
announced in the near future.
