In recent years, licensing deals with the likes of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and others have helped Lego stay relevant, and the block-making company's latest product taps into another world-famous franchise: James Bond. The spy's classic Aston Martin DB5 is now available to buy in Lego form.
While not as huge (or as expensive) as some of the Star Wars kits we've seen from Lego, there's an impressive amount of attention to detail here – the car features rotating number plates on the front, just like the real vehicle did in the 1964 Bond flick Goldfinger. If your Lego car needs to escape the cops, this should help.
According to Lego, the Creator Expert pack has been designed to "provide a challenging and rewarding building experience" for fans of the building blocks and the movies. Other authentic touches include an ejector seat (which works), a radar tracker piece, a hidden telephone, a bulletproof shield, and front-facing machine guns.
All those customizations will be familiar to Bond aficionados, and Lego has even included the rear tire scythes fitted to the original car for cutting down enemy agents on the road. Open up the bonnet and you'll find a Lego-ized version of the DB5's six-cylinder engine as well.
The kit has been built to a scale of 1:8, and when finished is 3 inches (10 cm) high and 13 inches (34 cm) long. In total, the set includes 1,295 pieces, so it should take you a while to put together – and would make a distinctive display piece wherever you put it.
The Lego DB5 isn't quite on the level of the 3,599-piece Bugatti Chiron model that was launched earlier this year, but it's getting there.
In honor of the launch, Lego is also running a VIP promotion giving entrants a chance to win a trip to the 007 Elements experience in Sölden, Austria: A cinematic installation atop one of the mountains featured in the 2015 Bond movie Spectre. You can find details online.
Taking its place alongside kits lifted from Jurassic World, Ghostbusters and many others, the new set retails for US$149.99 direct from the Lego website, but for the time being is only available to members of the Lego VIP loyalty program. As yet Lego hasn't said when the set is going to go on general sale.
Product page: Lego James Bond Aston Martin DB5
