6 Terrible Movie-Inspired Special Edition Cars You Forgot About

Movie-themed special edition cars sometimes crop up where there’s a hint of some extra cash to be mined. Sometimes they’re quite subtle, while others are so obvious they might as well have been painted rainbow colours and parked in deeply conservative small-town America.

The latest one to join the after-party is the suitably odd Hyundai Kona Iron Man Edition, above, which doesn’t have any jets or advanced AI, and probably doesn’t fare too well when shot at. It got us thinking, though, about some of the most disappointing movie special editions ever. From the tenuous to the half-hearted and ultimately to the totally nuts, we’ve rounded up some of our, err, favourites.

Aston Martin DB9 Bond Edition

An Aston Martin is normally a wonderful thing, full of charisma and things to make you fall in love with it. The problem with the Bond Edition is that for anyone to actually notice its status you’d have to tell them. Once you start needing to tell people what it is, the cool evaporates faster than raindrops in Death Valley.

A few 007 badges dotted around the car, sterling sliver wing badges and a few bits from the options list – plus ‘Spectre Silver’ paint – didn’t really differentiate this from any other silver DB9. They just guaranteed that you’d make a depressing anorak of yourself by constantly telling people that it was the Bond Edition.

Citroen 2CV 007 Edition

Speaking of Bond-themed specials, you’d probably still take the DB9 over this one. Off the back of the 1981 Bond title For Your Eyes Only, where Roger Moore’s 007 takes the wheel of a yellow Citroen 2CV to escape bad guys in Peugeot 504s, Citroen really did launch this limited run of copycats.

Finished in the proper yellow, each had diabolically massive 007 graphics and stick-on bullet holes. Taste wasn’t a factor when they brewed this one. That said, it was so horribly uncool that it’s almost certainly going to become cool again one day.

Chevrolet Camaro Transformers Edition

Sticking to the yellow theme we arrive at the ‘Bumblebee’ Chevrolet Camaro. The Rally Yellow paint was correct, but adding a mildly tacky $995 appearance package onto the price of an LT V6 or SS V8 car, just for some graphics, Transformers sill plates and Autobot logo wing badges and centre caps was about as appealing to ordinary car buyers as gout.

The Transformers Edition was a let-down; an empty, fumbling attempt to appeal to fans of the franchise who wouldn’t stop to think about how little they were getting for their money, and how pointless it all was. Until Chevrolet adds a ‘turn into a massive war-robot’ function we’ll just stick to the regular range.

Fiat Panda Kung Fu Panda

Yes, this is a real thing. No, you can’t buy one, unless it’s this exact one. Fiat made it in tandem with the filmmakers behind the chubby martial arts panda-based movies in order to sell it for a pro-panda charity. That’ll be the David Attenborough kind of panda charity, not a helpline for people afflicted by Italian superminis.

The left-hand drive one-off appeared at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, complete with black rings around its eyes, panda-face headrests in a black-and-white interior, and a matching paint job. If you ever see it on the road, do let us know. It’s rare enough to make the endangered monochrome mammal seem ten-a-penny.

The Star Wars money-printing machine rolls on, churning out spin-off after spin-off in the much-loved Star Wars universe. A number of brands have hopped on and off the bandwagon as it crunches along, with Nissan among them. This clumsily-named Rogue SUV was the obvious choice to incorporate some Star Wars branding. Well, it was either this or something to do with the X-Men.

Nissan planned a 5400-car run for North America, so it was hardly exclusive, and all it boasted were some trim accessories, an assortment of logos and a collectible Death Trooper helmet. As good as the latest Rogue might be, the Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition was hard to get excited about.

Jeep Renegade Dawn of Justice Special Edition

Yet another special that can be filed in the ‘underwhelming’ box is the Jeep Renegade Dawn Of Justice Special Edition. One model-exclusive paint option was available, but since it was just a black it was hard to jump for joy.

Some of the Batman v Superman homage’s interior trim accents were supplied in a new finish and it was generally a pretty high-spec version of Jeep’s flyweight, but it never lived up to the epic DC Comics mythology. Sadly, while the film could be enjoyed again and again for a quick fix of superhero-themed baddie-bashing, the novelty of the car didn’t last.