THUNDERBALL
(Somportex)
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Release
Date |
1965 |
Set Configuration:
72 Base cards
2 Cards per pack
72
Packs per box
8 Reprints
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Manufactured
in 1965 by Somportex Ltd. to tie in with the release of the fourth
James Bond movie “Thunderball”. Made in a small factory
situated in London. This third UK set of James Bond bubble gum cards
in quick succession, contained 72 cards. Each counter display box was filled with twelve groups of six pack strips for a total of 72 packs or 144 cards, each pack contained two cards and a piece of chewing gum.
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"Connected strip of 6 packs" |
Most of the cards depicting
stills from the latest James Bond movie “Thunderball”,
except for some publicity shots of the Aston Martin DB5. The cards
are smaller than the ones manufactured in America by the Philadelphia
Chewing Gum Corporation for “Thunderball”, but more on
that later. The lettering on the reverse is printed in blue ink and
describes the picture on the front.
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"Somportex
Thunderball Counter Display Box"
(Special thanks to Thierry Steuve for the above picture) |
The card sequence is a complete mess and doesn’t follow the
movie's sequence in anyway at all. Card number 24 was replaced immediately,
again due to press pressure, this time because they said it showed
a man (James Bond) hitting a woman, but every Bond fan knows that the
picture shown on the card is in fact Colonel Bouvard dressed up as
his own widow, who is fighting for his live with James Bond. In a
later stage, seven other cards where replaced during a reprint. The
reprint was due to the very good sales figures in shops and in the
cinema where the film was being shown. This was also the time of what
can only be called Bond-Mania, were everything connected to Bond,
from magazines to toy cars and beyond was flying off shop shelf’s.
As the first print of cards were printed early, so cards could be
in shops and cinemas when the film was released, it was printed without
later film sequences, as these stills weren’t available at the
time of printing, it was thought the reprint should replace some cards
with the now available pictures from the junkanoo and final underwater
sequences. Although still marked as a 72 card set it pushed the total
to 80 cards including reprints. This reprint also produced a number
of errors or misprinted cards, for example cards number 1 and 3 were
reversed and can both be found titled as “Fast Agent” and “Rockets
On The Road”. These misprints are hard to find and there may
be many not know to this author.
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"Misprint on the reverse of card N° 6" |
The Somportex “Thunderball”
cards are relatively easy to collect. You may find them at movie fairs,
on eBay, etc…For a full set with wrapper you can expect to pay
300€. Personally it took me eight years to get them all, although
I’m still on the look out for misprints. For me, it all started
at a toy fair in Brussels where I purchased 4 cards for the price
of 20 Belgian Francs or 0,50€ per card. A year later I discovered
a bundle with more than one-hundred cards for about 200 Belgian Francs.
For a collector it was my lucky day, but sadly I didn’t get
a complete set, as there were many doubles. To complete the set I
had to trade with other collectors and of course buy through the biggest
source of all, eBay. Sometimes it can be hard slog to find that one
missing card, but the thrill it gives when you do, more than makes
up for the hunt.
"Wrapper, two cards and a piece of gum"
(Special thanks to Thierry Steuve for the above picture)
Wrappers and counter display boxes are very hard to find, in the sixties nobody paid attention to a packaging paper or a hardboard counter display box. What a pity. If you mailed twelve of the above wrappers to Somportex Ltd., then in return they would send you a free “James Bond 007 Secret Agent Identity Card”. The thick laminated Identity Card was 6x4 in size and contained 4 pages; the outer cover was in red colour with black print, the inner white with black print. It was full of all the things a young spy needed to write secret codes. For example, the number or letter replacement. Most of these “Secret Agent Identity Cards” are lost or gone with the wind. This makes them very rare and very expensive, if you can even manage to find one at all. See pictures below. According to the description on the cards reverse side; there was a possibility to order a “Special 007 Holster complete with toy snub nose repeater pistol” at the Somportex Gun Dept. Have you ever seen one of those pistols? Neither have I.
"James Bond Secret Agent 007 Identity Card"
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72
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“Rare Colour Cards"
In June 2017 I discovered on eBay some coloured cards. When I contacted the seller, he told me they were issued at the same time. So I wanted a second opinion and contacted Graham Rye, Graham is the editor, designer and publisher of
007 MAGAZINE publications. I received the following answer: "The examples you have attached have been hand-coloured by a child. Somportex only ever released this set in black&white. The cards are *not* genuine!". Below, the coloured cards I discovered on eBay.
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002
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017 |
| Check
List: |
| Base
Cards |
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[ ] 01 Fast Agent
[ ] 02 Grenades In The Water
[ ] 03 Rockets On The Road
[ ] 04 Disco Volante
[ ] 05 Licensed To Kill - Big Fish!
[ ] 06 James Bond - Gentleman
[ ] 07 Frogman Bond - Airborne
[ ] 08 The Transistor Key
[ ] 09 Meet Felix Leiter
[ ] 10 Checking Weapons
[ ] 11 Underwater Camera-Or…?
[ ] 12 Struggle In The Pilot House
[ ] 13 Good Reason For Fear...
[ ] 14 Domino…
[ ] 15 Tread Softly Bond
[ ] 16 Power-Pack
[ ] 17 Running Fight
[ ] 18 Copter To Rescue!
[ ] 19 Tight Spot
[ ] 20 Bond Comes Down To Earth
[ ] 21 Battle Formation
[ ] 22 Underwater Treasure
[ ] 23 Now For Largo
[ ] 24 Thats No Lady!
[ ] 25 Whose Blood For The Surface?
[ ] 26 Coast Guards To The Rescue
[ ] 27 Information The Easy Way
[ ] 28 Intruder
[ ] 29 Monster
[ ] 30 Things Of The Underwater World
[ ] 31 In M’s Office
[ ] 32 The Double-O Conference
[ ] 33 Care For Some Shooting
[ ] 34 Largo With A Gun
[ ] 35 Discovery ? Death ? Or What ?
[ ] 36 The Under Water Power-Pack
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[ ] 37 The Man From Q
[ ] 38 The Swimming Murderers
[ ] 39 The Frogmen In Black
[ ] 40 Ram That Car !
[ ] 41 Recognise This Car?
[ ] 42 Watch Out-You’re Too Close
[ ] 43 Armrests? No - Control Panel
[ ] 44 Under The Seat ….
[ ] 45 In the Door-A radio Telephone
[ ] 46 Smoke-Screen
[ ] 47 The Slasher
[ ] 48 Bombs In The Deep
[ ] 49 The Sub-Aqua Retrievers
[ ] 50 Killers Of The Deep
[ ] 51 James Bond 007
[ ] 52 "Q" Man In A Pineapple Shirt
[ ] 53 This Is The Plan
[ ] 54 James Bond-Playboy
[ ] 55 The Traction Machine
[ ] 56 Flying Solo
[ ] 57 The Underwater Agent
[ ] 58 Just Good Friends
[ ] 59 A Float In The Helicopter
[ ] 60 Underwater Karate
[ ] 61 Prisoner In The Cave
[ ] 62 Zero Hour
[ ] 63 Expect No Mercy
[ ] 64 They Live To Kill...
[ ] 65 Just A Few Seconds
[ ] 66 A Final Word…
[ ] 67 Bond-Frogman
[ ] 68 50 Feet Down
[ ] 69 Surprise Surprise
[ ] 70 Felix
[ ] 71 Portrait Of A Killer
[ ] 72 Bond Zooms Into Action
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| Reprinted
Cards |
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[ ] 01 Rockets on the road
[ ] 03 Fast Agent
[ ] 05 A crew of killers
[ ] 15 Junkanoo
[ ] 19 Spectre’s own frogmen
[ ] 24 Searching through the Junkanoo
[ ] 51 A killer and his companions
[ ] 71 At speed to the sunken bomber
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