Thoughts on the new LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5

July 18, 2018 | 63

For April Fool’s this year when I made a joke about LEGO obtaining the James Bond license, I totally did not expect it to actually come true, but here we are.

LEGO today have officially unveiled 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 and is also available for purchase if you’re a LEGO VIP Member (free to signup), which is quite a remarkable move from LEGO. I cannot recall a launch or a set reveal that you were able to buy immediately, which is pretty neat.

The set which pays homage to one of the most iconic cars in motion picture history sits within the LEGO Creator Expert umbrella, making is cousins with the likes of the T1 Camper Van, Ferrari F40, Volkswagen Beetle, Mini Cooper, and most recently, the London Bus.

Before I get into how ugly I think the LEGO Aston Martin looks, let’s talk about the price. The set weighs in at 1295 pieces, and will cost you US$149.99 in the US and a whopping AU$209.99 in Australia.

Jeepers, unless you’re Goldfinger, this is going to hurt your wallet more than Vesper’s death hurt Daniel Craig.

See below for regional product pages and pricing.

• LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 – US$149.99 [US]
• LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 – AU$209.99 [AUS]
• LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 – GBP£129.99 [UK]
• LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 – CAD$179.99 [CAN]
• LEGO 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5– €149.99 [EU]

When you compare the price of the LEGO Aston Martin to the other Creator Expert cars, you immediately realise that something doesn’t add up – unless you’re bad a math.

The piece-count isn’t too dramatically different from the T1 Camper Van, Volkswagen Beetle or Mini Cooper (about 10 – 20% variance) but man, it’s almost 50% more expensive. T

his begs the question, did the Bond license really cost that much, or does the model and build completely justify the price hike against its contemporaries?

Let’s compare the LEGO Aston Martin DB5 to the real thing. For Bond and car aficionados, the LEGO model immediately comes across as too blocky, jagged and boxy.

I am not a fan of the design at all, and while I was eagerly awaiting to see the final result after all the teasing that LEGO have been doing, I was sorely disappointed.

The Aston Martin DB5’s iconic curves have been completely lost in translation. Sure, LEGO is a blocky medium to start with, but after seeing the terrific way that they’ve shrunk down the Volkswagen Beetle (which let’s face it, has even more curves), Mini Cooper or even T1 Camper Van, I cannot help but feel like they totally missed the mark with the LEGO Aston Martin.

As an adult LEGO collector, I primarily buy sets for display so aesthetics are everything for me, especially if I have to cough up AU$200 for a set.

It’s not that the design is terrible, it just doesn’t look anything like what a DB5 should look like. Boxy shape aside, the rear end of the car just looks plain wrong to me.

Let’s talk about the redeeming factors.

The designer video on Youtube goes into a lot more detail about the set’s design and play features. To LEGO’s credit, they’ve packed in an incredible number of movie-accurate details into the DB5.

James Bond fans will undoubtedly enjoy the Ejector Seat mechanism, which seems to work really well as demonstrated by the video. The fact that they were able to cram this mechanism in is nothing short of impressive.

It’s got all the gadgets that you’d expect from 007’s Aston Martin DB5 including machine guns, and rotating license plates.

Some other neat tricks include wheel scythes, and even a phone in the door.

The interiors also looks pretty sweet and I love what they’ve done with the dashboard and steering wheel.

If you’re into models with plenty of play features and what seems like a unique building experience putting these moving parts together, then this set is for you. I have no doubt that this will be a fascinating and enjoyable build, but man, if only it didn’t look so ugly.

Another huge, glaring omission is of course 007 himself. I found it such a bizarre move to not include a James Bond minifigure in the set, maybe with a custom display stand.

Sure the minifigure wouldn’t be to scale with the car, but it would’ve at least have been a nice touch to include the very first official Bond minifigure, maybe even one based on Sean Connery’s likeness.

The car’s colour scheme could’ve also been improved, using pearl grey elements for the body instead of the regular gray parts which does make it seem fairly boring. Shimmery grey elements would’ve at least helped it stand out and look fairly unique and one-of-a-kind.

All in all, I’m thoroughly disappointed with the design of the LEGO Aston Martin DB5, as well as the horrendous price. It doesn’t feel like a AU$200 set, and even if I factor in a 20% discount, that’s still a hefty price to pay for a Creator Expert model that isn’t an accurate rendition of a DB5.

The set’s design does feel a little rushed, and I think is one of the worst-looking LEGO Creator Expert models in recent history. This almost gives me flashbacks to the LEGO Ideas Delorean, but I can at least excuse that for being a small set.

That said, I’m quite happy that LEGO somehow obtained a license for James Bond, and I do hope this isn’t the last we see of LEGO 007, or even pop culture movie Creator Expert sets. Here’s hoping we get a Delorean, or even KITT from Knight Rider next.

So yeah, that’s my thoughts on the LEGO Aston Martin DB5. If you’re a die-hard Bond fan and want to pick it up, you can purchase it online on LEGO.com right now.

Are you going to add the Aston Martin DB5 to your collection? Let me know what you think of the set, and the design of the DB5 in the comments!

PS: I can’t believe an actual April Fools Joke I made turned out to be true. What are the odds of that?