Lego 007 Aston Martin DB5: licence to build

SPENDING $209.99 on 1295 small pieces of plastic may sound like madness, especially if you’re going to stand on one of them at night and wake the neighbourhood with your cursing. But follow the included instructions, and you’ll end up with a construction toy masterpiece.

Just two Aston Martin DB5 coupes can claim to be a part of the 1964 feature film Goldfinger. Only one of those was decked out with the hyperbolic spy modifications that immortalised the model, but now Lego is giving anyone the opportunity to build their own smaller, slightly more angular version.

6

Unfortunately some of the Aston’s pretty lines are lost in the conversion from hand-finished steel panels to stacked plastic blocks, with the completed kit leaning more to Bristol 411 than one of Gaydon’s finest, but the reproduction of 007’s gadgets is remarkable.

Yank on its back bumper and the passenger seat will eject an unlucky occupant through the roof. A shove of the gearstick reveals machine guns hidden in the front wings, there’s a flip-up bullet shield for the rear window and the registration plate revolves for a different identity, just as it did in the movie.

6

Other true-to-the-film details include a telephone handset and centrally mounted radar tracker screen, while scythes attached to the authentic wire wheels evoke the scene where Bond mauls a Mustang into submission on a Swiss mountain pass.

Even without the Bond references, the Lego Aston is brilliantly detailed, including three individual carburettors under the bonnet, specially coated parts to imitate the chrome bumpers of the original, and even tiny Aston badges.

6

With Lego looking after the ultimate spy car, adding the appropriate cringe-worthy puns, flawless suits and groan-inducing advances to your version of Moneypenny are entirely up to you.