The Designer Who Loved Fame

[drifand]

Growing up in the 1970s, I have many memorable cinema moments, with two of the greatest being Star Wars (1977) and 007 The Spy Who Loved Me (1976). If you had the fortune of seeing TSWLM on the big screen, the opening parachute ski jump, and later, the transformation of the sleek Lotus Esprit into a submarine were unforgettable.

It would be many years later that I would learn more about the ‘wedge car’ era, led by Italian designers like Giorgetto Giugiaro, who came up with the styling of the Esprit.

Searching for a ‘good’ representation of the Lotus in 1/64 scale turned out to be quite a challenge. There was the Hot Wheels 007 edition of course, but when I got a hold of it, it was a disappointment on many levels: The sculpt was anything but crisp, made worse by the thick coat of white paint; and the black pinstripe that hugged the wheel arches was misaligned. Sad.

I ended up with a smaller 1/72 version made by Kyosho as part of a 007 movie vehicles collection. Despite its smaller size, it was a faithful reproduction of the Esprit’s crisp lines, and the row of square holes on the hood was inked in. Heck, it even had the rear license plate flipped down to expose the cement shooting pipes!

As for the matching pen? I couldn’t find an equally sleek faceted design, but turning back to the movie, I found a different point of inspiration: the villain’s underwater lair.

Ken Adam had designed ‘Atlantis’ with a domed top with distinctive circular cutouts. With the benefit of hindsight and lots of exposure to the works of Luigi Colani, I could see a resemblance to his iconic UFO pendant lamp from 1971.

Of course, there’s no proof that Ken Adam was inspired by Colani, but the timeline certainly makes it possible. And so I picked the Pelikan No. 1 in black and white, sometimes called the ‘Combi’ to go with Giugiaro’s Esprit.

Colani was kind of infamous for loving the limelight and incessant self-promotion. He was fond of including his signature or at least his name in products that he designed, and the Pelikan No. 1 immortalized him on every pen. I think he was a pioneer in designing pens with oversized clips that made it ideal for printing logos as corporate gifts.

Have you watched The Spy Who Loved Me? Who’s your favorite Bond?

[cytherian]

I love it – great post, Kelvin!

I also remember so vividly the Lotus Esprit mini-sub in The Spy Who Loved Me. Like any young kid into cars, you can’t help but love Ferrari. Italian automotive design appeal like no other. Cars that look fast just sitting still. But for me, the Lotus Esprit grabbed me hard. I dreamed of having it some day, or the Porsche 911. 1976 was just 1 year shy of Star Wars. SFX was still pretty primitive. But the production company actually converted a real Lotus Esprit S1 into the “mini sub,” at least terms of wheel retraction, fin extension, navigational engine props, and various gadgets like periscope (all at a cost of $100k USD). Lotus supplied 2 full sized cars, plus 7 body shells that were used for various shots.

A rather infamous billionaire bought the original full sized Lotus Esprit S1 mini sub at auction for $1 million.

I’d seen those Colani pens before in one of your earlier postings, but the white with black accents version looks really sharp here.

As for favorite Bond… well, I was definitely more of a Sean Connery fan, myself. I never liked Roger Moore. He was just too dull in facial expressions and not very fluid in body motions. Pierce Brosnan was more appealing to me than Moore, but then when Daniel Craig came along… wow. Stunning performance. He was more of a brute than classy intellectual, and I kind of feel like it was a good change.

Well, Craig is retired from doing James Bond. There’s supposed to be someone else to be picked next. And of course, there’s some controversy… about the type of person. I think Ian Fleming was pretty clear on who is James Bond. That should never change. Other people can be spy-action heroes in some other framework. But frankly, in my opinion, I think it should be finished at this point. They’ve done nearly every conceivable angle for Bond’s high stress situations. And they’ve gotten so ridiculous at times. I don’t really know where they can go from here and still create a decent movie worthwhile of the franchise.

[drifand]

I think ‘the first Bond I saw’ usually sets the benchmark for any fan. TSWLM not only had the Esprit, the signature theme was also up-tempo’d to the 'Bond ‘77’ disco version. When my dad rented VHS copies of Goldfinger and other Connery era films, I was already hooked on Moore’s take on things. By the time Brosnan came around, I thought the SFX had gone a bit overboard. Like you said, they’d topped themselves so much over the years they couldn’t come back down to earth. Until Craig – he was like an updated Connery - more brutal, no joking or quips. Much needed change of pace.

[nimrodd]

Last May, my wife and I went to Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry had a Science of 007 exhibit. They had just about all of the cars from the movies plus a lot more.
The Lotus on exhibit was in the submarine version.

[drifand]

Wow! As a kid, I DID wonder how the missile went through the back windows… but I didn’t dwell too long on that! I actually had the Corgi diecast at one time but it didn’t survive one of the big moves when our family changed addresses

[nimrodd]

I just looked it up, and the exhibit is going through April 6, if you are in the Chicago area.

[cytherian]

Well, I just fell down an interesting rabbit hole. I had looked up on YouTube to see if there were any video clips of the Esprit mini sub, when I came across this one of a guy building up one as a kit in a large scale, 1:8. The model kit is by Agora. It’s his last video in a series of build sections.

Build the James Bond 007 The Spy Who Loved Me Lotus Esprit 1:8 Scale - Pack 12 - Stages 93-100

I was a little confused by the title. “Pack 12.” Twelve packs of kit parts? Or is that his clever way of grouping his video content? Well… it’s actually all part of the Agora subscription. You see, you buy this model and then they send it to you in separate boxes, one at a time. Each one is a “pack.” I’d never heard of this before. Why would they do this? Well, 1:8 scale is quite large and the protective packing for the parts means the sum total of the whole thing would be huge. And the assembly is rather involved, thus the subscription helps you stay focused on the essentials in the right order.

The next big question is… how much does this cost? When I first started watching this installment, seeing the amazing detail, including lights, movable headlights, motorized propellers… even a remote control for many functions… I knew it was going to be expensive, but yikes. It’s $2,235 USD. Yeah, that’s pretty eye popping. I mean, I remember hearing many years ago about large 1:8 diecast car models from Italy that are fully hand assembled for many legendary iconic Italian cars, costing over $1k USD or more, with a nominal discount if you buy it unassembled as a kit. And it seemed rather eccentric and not like they had lots of sales. But I guess things have changed, with some people having rather seriously elaborate play-money on hand for something like this.

Anyway, all that aside, the kit is seriously amazing. What a phenomenal finished product. My only gripe is… they go this far in detail and the headlights don’t have their own servos? Manually operated? And the fins at the back aren’t motorized either with the opportunity to “steer” the sub by remote control. At this price point, seems like quite an oversight.

[nimrodd]

@cytherian

I was a little confused by the title. “Pack 12.” Twelve packs of kit parts? Or is that his clever way of grouping his video content? Well… it’s actually all part of the Agora subscription. You see, you buy this model and then they send it to you in separate boxes, one at a time. Each one is a “pack.” I’d never heard of this before. Why would they do this? Well, 1:8 scale is quite large and the protective packing for the parts means the sum total of the whole thing would be huge. And the assembly is rather involved, thus the subscription helps you stay focused on the essentials in the right order.

Adam Savage has posted builds of his Ghostbusters Ecto-One, that was done this way.

Adam Savage’s Tested

[ulfesharpe]

Craig def. the best Bond in what seems to be the end of the franchise. Better that way, I believe.

[ulfesharpe]

As to the Colani, I think it’s a nice pen. Still relatively fresh, in my opinion, although it certainly points to a certain epoch (an epoch when you’d use pens in a pocket in your shirt).

IMHO, Pelikan created a huge problem for themselves with that pocket clip that looks like a freakin Pelikan. But every time they went around it, something nice occurred because they are indeed great pen manufacturers.

[drifand]

For My Obsession Only! The Lotus Turbo Esprit was the 1981 follow up to everyone’s favorite submersible sports car, featuring a slightly more angular profile (if that was possible) mostly due to the redesigned spoilers and fenders.

Most unfortunately, the white Turbo Esprit met with an untimely demise when its explosive anti-burglar system was activated just 18 minutes into For Your Eyes Only. So we never get to see any of its gimmicks at all! Perhaps this was for the better as the film was a deliberate pull back from the over-the-top action in the previous adventure of Moonraker.

Later in the film, 007 is provided with a replacement Esprit in bronze-orange, and equipped with nothing more than a pair of skis on a roof rack. Really, that’s it? Lol. Still a beautiful car, and I think the fame from TSWLM probably allowed it to coast on for years.

For this pinnacle of urbane style and performance, I picked the recently released Zebra DelGuard Lx in Fog White and Dusk Orange… a costume change in the same spirit, with none of the self destructiveness.

[drifand]

The Spectre of What Could’ve Been
Bond villains don’t seem to have any iconic vehicles by name? But for me, the Bell Ranger helicopter and Decepticon-like motorcycle and sidecar in TSWLM come pretty close. Or rather, it was their distinctive black and yellow livery - the almost universal code for CAUTION DANGER AHEAD

So when I spied this Hot Wheels Premium De Tomaso Pantera GTS (circa 1972, so it was in the same era as TSWLM, yay!) in yellow and black, it triggered something in me. After snapping it up, I looked through my drawers and finally picked up the dart-like Zebra Sacco 300.

Sacco was a strange Zebra sub-brand that seemed to focus on innovative materials (at least that’s what they say). In this case, Sacco 300 was supposed to use a new kind of material in the black grip section. By the time this example reached my hands in the mid 2010s, any ‘specialness’ was long gone. Perhaps it was an early form of ‘soft touch’ or rubberized coating? If so, it is just as well that it had… evaporated… like an unwanted vodka martini that had been stirred instead of shaken.

[DarkwingDuck]

This pencil intrigues me every time I see it. Yosshy seems to keep some for sale and I have yet to be able to commit all because of the rubber grip. I really like your post on it today. Thank you.

[amjacobs7]

[metal_punching_grip]

Looks like a baby chair to me

[drifand]

Here’s an interesting video on Colani and his impact on design. His love for the limelight made him an undesirable in the eyes of many design lecturers, apparently.