"So just what's so unique about it?" you may very well be asking. "It looks just like the recent 50th Anniversary CORGI D.B.5 that you featured on your blog back in March!" you might say. And you're right, it is - but with one significant difference. Allow me to recap.
The original gold coloured Aston Martin D.B.5 from 1965 was, as you know if you read my recent post, adapted from the existing casting for Corgi's D.B.4, and was in 1.46 scale. In 1968, Corgi Toys created brand-new tooling for a more accurate model, which was either in 1.43 or 1.45 scale (The GREAT BOOK Of CORGI confusingly attributes both scales to the new release), around six millimetres longer than its famous predecessor.
The new model had two extra features in addition to the original three. As well as the extending machine guns and over-riders, bulletproof shield, and ejector seat, it also had revolving number plates and rear tyre-slashers. In the '90s, Corgi re-issued a very poor replica of this second model, advertising it in magazines as "The original is back!" It wasn't, and was vastly inferior in ways far too numerous to go into again. (Though you can read all about it here if you're interested.)
Then, recently, they re-issued an improved version of the 1.43/45 scale car - except it was missing the rear tyre-slashers. Guess what though? I had a spare set from the '90s model, so I unscrewed the base of the Anniversary re-issue and swapped the rear wheels and axle with the tyre-slasher ones. Interestingly, the axle I removed was a solid version of the hollow one which had housed the red slashers, so it seems obvious that they were omitted in an attempt to keep costs down.
The result is that I now have a 'unique' 2015 Anniversary edition of the '68 silver birch 1.43/45 scale model that nobody else has - unless they did the same as me that is. My original 1968 car is still tucked away somewhere, but when I dig it out, I'll post a pic of it alongside the one here, so that you can do a side-by-side comparison. Hey, generosity is my middle name.
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