James Bond Toyota 2000GT (Corgi Toys 336)
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James Bond Toyota 2000GT (Corgi Toys 336).jpg) (i)
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Arch Two , Area 23 Corgi Toys (Glenn Butler Collection) |
| Shelf 8 |
A white James Bond Toyota 2000GT open-top convertible car, with "wire" wheels, and an opening boot with four rocket launchers, made by Corgi (model number 336) as a tiein with the 1967 James Bond film "You only Live Twice".
Most of the film takes place in Japan, and the Japanese intelligence agent Aki assigned to work with Bond drives a Toyota 2000GT. Supposedly, the versiosn specially built for the film were unique open-top convertible versions because the 6'2" Sean Connery had trouble fitting into the standard version of the car in a way that looked comfortable on film.
Toyota 2000GT
The limited-edition only-sold-in-Japan 1965 Toyota 2000GT was Japan's first "supercar", designed to hold its own against premium Ferraris and Aston Martins in the luxury sports car market. Built in conjunction with Yamaha who provided most of the engineering, the 200GT was a sleek and "pretty" car like the Jaguar E-type, and Toyota is widely assumed to have agreed to make the car in partnership with Yamaha as a public relations exercise – rather than try to make money from the car itself, the company hoped that the 2000GT supercar would shock western buyers into reappraising their assessment of Toyota as a manufacturer who only made dumpy and perhaps not terribly exciting cars.
The 200GT is now considered one of the world's most collectable classic cars, and an example sold in 2013 for 1.15 million US dollars.
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