Lego has launched its long-rumoured version of James Bond's iconic Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. Styled to look like the definitive Bond car, it's more than just a build-your-own model car. 

We went to Lego's flagship store in Leicester Square, London to see the set and learn how Lego's designers painstakingly planned, researched and engineered the car during 4-5 months of constant revisions.

Click through the gallery above to see all the pics we took of the model.

The car isn't just a lookalike, as there are a lot of the same gadgets and added extras from the films too.  

Perhaps the coolest element is the ejector seat which took around 10-15 revisions just to make sure it fired up and out of the space that opens up in the roof. During development, the designers would film the ejector seat in slow motion to see how it was firing, adjusting the mechanism and design until they got it right. 

Lego Expert James Bond Aston Martin image 2

A part of the car's rear bumper can be pulled to slide away the passenger side portion of the roof, before firing the seat up and out. 

Just like in Goldfinger, there are machine guns that pop out of the headlights when you pull a lever inside the car. There are also rotating registration plates on the front and the back, a bulletproof screen that pops up behind the rear windscreen and you can "activate" the tracker computer on the car's dash inside.

You can open the boot, both doors and the bonnet. The latter of those reveals an engine designed to look just like the straight six engine used in the real DB5. And while the tyre slashers don't automatically pop out of the wheels, you can snap them on and off. Sadly, that was a step too difficult for Lego's design team.  

While the ejector seat was one of the more difficult bits to work on, the front design also proved a challenge with many back-and-forth conversations between Aston Martin and the Lego engineers, before they settled on the final design seen in the model. 

Lego Expert James Bond Aston Martin image 11

In total there are 1,290 pieces in this set and it goes on sale today for £129.99 if you've registered for Lego VIP at the Lego Shop.

Lego didn't tell us how many hours it would take to build, but given the Lego Expert-level detailing, we presume it will be many, many hours. 

Liked this? Read What’s it like to design a Lego set? We talk to a Lego designer!