"RETRO-ACTIVE: ARTICLES FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES"
In 1986, the Imperial Toy Company licensed a line of official James Bond products. However, collectors were bewildered by the choice of items ranging from over-sized, cheapo plastic sunglasses to weapons,watches and communications equipment that were never seen in a 007 movie. The web site Plaid Stallions explains why. It seems Imperial had an existing line of generic action toys and decided to use their license with Eon Productions to simply print stickers and packaging that featured Roger Moore and re-market the stuff as official Bond merchandise. Indeed, it was official but only in the technical sense. Ironically, the enthusiasm for vintage Bond memorabilia has seen some of these less-than-inspiring toys sell for surprisingly high prices. Click here for photos and the full story. (Thanks to Nick Sheffo of the Fulvue Drive-in site for alerting us to this amusing article.)