MOONRAKER
(Alma Ltd.)
|
Release
Date |
1980 |
Set Configuration:
48 Base cards
1 Card per pack
60 Packs per box
|
During
the early 70’s James Bond seemed to part from the exiting world
of bubble gum cards, it’s unknown if this was due to poor sales
of the “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” card set
or if kids had just moved on to collecting something new. During this
time we had another change of Bond with Roger Moore taking over for
1973s “Live And Let Die”, after the record breaking fee,
at the time, of One Million Dollars for Sean Connery’s return
in 1971s “Diamonds Are Forever”, Connery had donated the
whole thing to charity. EON Productions had also went through changes,
the control of the company that makes Bond had kept Bond from the
cinema screens, but by 1977 he was back and better than before in
“The Spy Who Loved Me”. The end titles announcing the
following, “James Bond will return in “For Your Eyes Only”.
This was until the whole world went crazy for the Georges Lucas blockbuster
“Star Wars”, space movies became the big thing, something
that was only to get bigger when the second Star Wars movie “The
Empire Strikes Back” was announced for 1980. With this fact
in his mind Cubby Broccoli had to change his plans and took James
Bond into space with the release of “Moonraker” in 1979.
"Counter Display Box holding 60 packs"
Special
thanks to Reuben Wakeman for the above pictures.
| |
"Cigarette
Box containing aprox. 10 sweet cigarettes" |
To
coincide with the release of the new James Bond movie there were at
least four different manufactures that released a bubble gum card
set. “Topps-USA”, “Alma Confectionery-UK”,
Phoskitos and FHER from Spain. FHER manufactured the same cards /stickers for AGE in France and VU in the Netherlands. Each of these companies
produced a different type of gum card. They all worked under a license
from EON Productions. Let’s start with the “Alma Confectionary-UK”,
a candy manufacturer located in Kirkaldy, Scotland issued the “MOONRAKER
SWEET CIGARETTES - CHEWING GUM”. In the UK sweet cigarettes
had been on sale since the 50s. The small white stick with a red coloured
tip looked nothing like the grown up cigarette, but the kids of the
time could pretend they were smoking, something that’s frowned
a pone today. Today you can still find them although they are called
candy sticks now. The small sized box contained ten candy cigarettes
and a bubble gum card depicting a full colour still from the James
Bond movie “Moonraker”. The cigarette box was beautiful
designed, depicting artwork of Roger Moore fully dressed in space
suit and armed with a laser gun. If one looks at the cards, the sequence
doesn’t always go with the movie, especially the last four cards
(45-48) these should be somewhere in the middle, also some publicity
shots were randomly added. On the reverse of card 2 and 14, the manufacturer
talks about “Corinne Cluny”, this should be “Corinne
Dufour”. The card size is small compared to the Topps Moonraker
cards, only 6,3cm by 3,4cm. The reverse contained a short text description
of the picture in the front. The retail price for a packet of Sweet
Cigarettes was 6 Pence. Nowadays these cards are extremely hard to
find.
The cigarette box frequently pops-up on eBay. This little item is
always a nice addition to any James Bond memorabilia collection. On
the other hand, the counter display box is almost impossible to find
and you will have to pay a high price to find one.
A full
set was auctioned on eBay on the 21st August 2010 for the stunning
amount of 208,85£. What an investment for 48 little cards!
|
|
|
01
|
02
|
03
|
|
|
|
04
|
05
|
06
|
|
|
|
07
|
08
|
09
|
|
|
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
|
|
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
|
|
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
|
|
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
|
|
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
|
|
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
|
|
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
|
|
|
31
|
32
|
33
|
|
|
|
34
|
35
|
36
|
|
|
|
37
|
38
|
39
|
|
|
|
40
|
41
|
42
|
|
|
|
43
|
44
|
45
|
|
|
|
46
|
47
|
48
|
| Check
List: |
| Base
Cards |
[ ] 01
[ ] 02
[ ] 03
[ ] 04
[ ] 05
[ ] 06
[ ] 07
[ ] 08
[ ] 09
[ ] 10
[ ] 11
[ ] 12
|
[ ] 13
[ ] 14
[ ] 15
[ ] 16
[ ] 17
[ ] 18
[ ] 19
[ ] 20
[ ] 21
[ ] 22
[ ] 23
[ ] 24
|
[ ] 25
[ ] 26
[ ] 27
[ ] 28
[ ] 29
[ ] 30
[ ] 31
[ ] 32
[ ] 33
[ ] 34
[ ] 35
[ ] 36
|
[ ] 37
[ ] 38
[ ] 39
[ ] 40
[ ] 41
[ ] 42
[ ] 43
[ ] 44
[ ] 45
[ ] 46
[ ] 47
[ ] 48
|
PageTop
