Bubba
The new Target Story Tellers, Mater’s Cousins and the Motorama Showgirls, have been out for weeks now. If you haven’t seen them yet, be patient. You will soon have the chance to get both sets at once. While they were available individually at first, they are now available in 3 packs, with a 3 pack of Mater’s Cousins and a 3 pack of the Showgirls.
The big news here though, is the appearance of Bubba! Bubba finally makes his debut with the new Story Teller 3 packs. Bubba is so large that he is not in a 3 pack however, but instead he only comes with Brand New Mater.
I don’t know if Bubba is worth $14.99 or not, but he is HUGE!
I like Bubba very much
I found one Bubba/New Mater – and one Motorama Girls at Target today – bought the girls (The Boy has a complicated group of wives, moms and girlfriends when we play – and he always reminds me that we need more girls) and left the other behind. Just don’t need another New Mater. The Boy will want Bubba, I’m sure, so hoping for a single. Still no singles for any of the new ones there – I will be going to another Target in a few days – will see what is available at that one.
why do they keep packaging these new ones with cars we already have??!! obviously it’s to make us buy more junk but it’s stupid and wasteful. i’d rather buy the character cars that made it into the movie and toons frankly. my kid doesn’t know or care about some made for money cousins anyways. buy what is needed not everything that hits the shelf people!
The prices of these things are really getting ridiculous. $15 for Bubba and New Mater. Even if we didn’t already have New Mater, a Mega-size car sells for $7 or so and a regular car sells for about $4. So here we have to pay a $4 premium to get a one car that’s not available in any other package and another most folks already have, or could easily get. Ugh! How about $15 for a crew chief with 3 pitties. Pitties are small. The two orderly pittys or the two Mater the Greater pitties are sold together for $4. So 3 are worth $6. Add a regular car for another $4. These things are not worth more than $10. UGH!!! My son loves these cars and I think they’re great, but the pricing is getting to be exploitatious.
Retail exclusives are always going to be more expensive simply because of lower distribution numbers. Target has far fewer stores than Walmart in this case. A smaller run means a higher cost plan and simple. One good thing about it though. You only have to look at one place for it. Plus I prefer Target over Walmart. So you’re not going to hear me complain about the high prices that much.
Although I completely agree they over charged for Bubba in this case. A 2 pack should not be the same price as a 3 pack even with one Mega size Car in it.
That does explain/justify a slightly higher price. However, when the Rescue Squad Mater 4-packs came out, they were not exclusives and were priced at $24. That’s $6 per car. I didn’t buy them at this price, but they quickly dropped to $14, a reasonable $3.50 per car. Just when I thought they had learned a lesson, Sarge’s Boot Camp hits the shelves at $30. Now, come on. One car that everyone already has (unless they had the leaded version), a resizing of another car and 3 very plain SUV’s. Even when it when on sale for $25, I couldn’t bring myself to buy this one. Maybe for $20. Sorry to rant so much about this, but it needs to be said.
But you could also look at it this way. Technically you are getting 4 new mega size vehicles. At $6 each, that would be $24 for just those 4. Add in the fact that this is an exclusive, and throw in Sarge, that anybody who started collecting after the summer of 2007 would not have in their collection because he has not been released since then, and this is a no brainer.
Now I’m not saying the price tag is not hard to swallow. That is clearly an item meant for diehard collectors who will shell out the money for it. I would think and have heard on here that most parents would not. In fact, there are a ton sitting on the shelves right now.
You have to give Mattel credit because Sarge’s Boot Camp is also an item I never thought would have seen the light of day. I think it is awesome that Mattel even produced it. Not to mention that they are in scale. You wouldn’t want these as singles anyway, except for maybe TJ. So if they were singles and you bought them all eventually, you’d still pay that much for them.
Cars Toys Blog is right. I am a diehard collector; have been all my life. In 1955, in the 3rd grade, I started collecting army unit insignia (crests) got up to over 2,800. Lots of duplicates. 1989 started 1/64 NASCAR, at about 5,000 now and still going. Lots of duplicates (you forget what you have sometimes). 2 years ago “Cars”, 244 different ones and 79 duplicates. Yes I might buy Mater the Greater 4 pack #1 just to get Clean Mater (unless Toys Car Blog tells me it coming as a single in 2010). Nothing I have is for sale on ebay. it will all be given away someday. Yes, the line forms right after the grandsons. But if you visited my house with your child and they liked my Cars I know my duplicates would go down by 4 or 5.
My oldest grandson plays with all his cars (241/75)(he doesn’t get varients) and someday he will need a set thats not a little marked up. But I’m sure he and his brother in 15 to 20 years will say, “Boy Grandma, Grandfather was sure smart to buy all these cars.”
Yes my attic is full of original Star Wars, He-man, and GI Joes (1980 style) that the grandsons still have to discover. Don’t you wish your grandparents had all of your parents toys in the attic to discover. Mine didn’t.
So yes I will pay $14.99 for Bubba because 2 weeks later the money would have been spent at McDonalds or at a pizza joint any way. But 2 weeks later I still have Bubba and will forever.
Collecting is an illness but I don’t want the cure.
I guess I just don’t have the collector’s point of view on this. My son loves these things and it sucks to tell him, “No we can’t get those, the price is just too high,” when I know it’s just an overpricing due to their popularity. I have put a few aside, including all of the originals, but I’ll give those to him when he’s grown. Thanks for the insight. Though I don’t really feel any better about it, it’s nice to know what is fueling this.
Got two Bubba & Brand New Mater packages Saturday at a Target in Toledo, OH. No sign of the new final lap cars Antonio and Dexter Hoover with checkered flag. The three pack of Showgirls sells for $14.99, versus $6.99 ea. Got one of them two. My kids have over 250 different pieces, all out of their packages, for the Cars movie diecast cars, trucks, and aircraft.
just found bubba today at my target also dexter with the chekerd flag
I freqent 3 Targets located on the Gulf Coast – and I have yet to see any of these. No single of Bubba as a Mega size? Many of us don’t need Brand New Mater.
Bubba is ONLY available in the 2 pack with Mater for now, and only at Target. Might be released someday as a single, but it would probably still be as a Story Teller(single), not a Mega Size, as he’s a Story Teller character, NOT a character from CARS.