— August 21st, 2007
I posted last week about the Cars recall. One thing I have seen is that some retail stores are completely out of the diecast Cars, including the peg warmers, even though Sarge was the only one that was part of the recall. It made me wonder if the stores are sending all of them back or just pulling all of them off the shelves due to the recall. It could be that either they aren’t aware of the details of the recall, or they are trying to put their customers at ease.
I also wonder if it could be the recall is driving up demand for the Cars and collectors are buying up entire supplies, either because they are being pulled or they think they might become scarce or valuable. Either way, this could potentially cause a shortage of Cars in the US, so you might want to be prepared for that.
Update: Checking on this a little more, it looks like Target and Toys R Us are pulling or refusing to sell all single pack Cars. Wal-Mart is the only one pulling the Sarge as they are supposed to. What I have seen at my local stores seems to confirm this.
— August 15th, 2007
Well, it’s official. New Cars are hitting. How do I know? Bob Cutlass is now showing up on eBay. There are 11 auctions on right now. Some of these are pre-sales, but it looks like some California dealers actually have it in hand. This means Bob will probably be making it across the US to a store near you very soon.
Bob Cutlass is being released as part of the T case assortment of Cars and looks like he is 1 per case. If you are interested, you might want to wait until this fully hits stores before buying on eBay. You might pay a higher price now forone you may find at retail later.
— August 15th, 2007
Mattel announced a massive toy recall last week due to lead based paint that was found in some of the toys it produced. Today they announced that the recall is being expanded and one of the toys from the Cars line is being recalled. Sarge, from the diecast line, is now being included in the recall. They recalling the ones that were produced between May and July 2007. Go to Action Figure Insider for the full press release.
— August 14th, 2007
Apparently, the Cars playset Flo’s V8 Cafe saw limited release in toy stores and became a sought after set for many collectors. Well, Mattel seems to be trying to make most of the Cars line easier to find over time. Mattel is re-releasing the Flo’s V8 Cafe in the Supercharged packaging. Look for it in stores near you now. The rumor is that this might be a Toys R Us exclusive, so you might look there first!
— August 7th, 2007
The guys over at actionfigureinsider.com have connections with Mattel and have a pretty thorough photo gallery of the Cars on display at the San Diego Comic Con. Click on the links below to see them all. There were a few surprises in there for me!
— August 4th, 2007
In addition to all the new Cars announced at San Diego Comic Con, Mattel announced there will be a Wal-Mart exclusive wave of Cars scheduled to be out in October 2007. The wave is planned to consist of the following Cars, some of which were shown at Comic Con.
- Ghostlight Ramone
- T. J. Hummer
- Official Pace Car
- Cactus McQueen
- Lightyear Blimp
- Kori Turbowitz
- Chick’s Crew Chief
- Plane
Here is a link to a photo gallery on Michael Crawford’s web site and on figures.com of the Mattel Cars display at SDCC.
— August 4th, 2007
For collectors out there trying to chase down the hard to find Yeti, you may be in luck. I have been tracking the Yeti on eBay and just recently noticed, it is coming down in price and has become more plentiful.
As of this writing, there are 250 Yeti Cars on eBay whereas a few weeks ago there were less than 100. The average price right now is $10 to $20 and dropping. This is pretty recent because earlier this week the average price was over $30.
My guess is that more Yetis made their way to store shelves this week which has resulted in more being available and the resulting drop in price. So if you are still looking for the Yeti as I am, I think you may be able to find him easier soon.
— August 4th, 2007
A big subset of the Cars making their debut at Comic Con this year was all the new Piston Cup Racers Mattel had on display. I suspect a lot of these are just repaints, so in a way it’s not that surprising. Update: After doing a little research, I learned that most of these are repaints of Nitroade and Leakless, and the majority are repaints of Nitroade.
Here is my list by car number.
- 8 (Dale Jr.)
- 61
- 117
- 35
- 123 (red)
- 123 (orange)
- 70
- 51
- 80
- 84 (Apple Car)
- 78
- 36
- 101
- 63
- 73
- 82
- 92
- 76
- 93
- 79
- 90
- 4
- 33
I just hope Mattel makes these widely available to collectors. Given their bad distribution record in the past, that doesn’t seem likely. Here is a link to a photo gallery on Michael Crawford’s web site and on figures.com of the Mattel Cars display at SDCC.
— August 4th, 2007
Okay, so one of the big toy events of the year just occurred this weekend. In case you don’t know what I am talking about, it was San Diego Comic Con, mecca of all things entertainment related. Well, if you haven’t already heard, Mattel had a very big showing there this year. One of the properties they had on hand was, you guessed it, Cars!
Mattel’s Cars display was overwhelming. They showed so many new Cars there, it looked as though they are doing every character in the movie. Here is a link to a photo gallery on Michael Crawford’s web site and on figures.com of the Mattel Cars display at SDCC.
Here is my best effort of a complete list of what was shown.
- Official Pace Car
- Cactus McQueen
- Kori Turbowitz
- H2 Hummer
- Sarge w/ Gascan
- Crew Chief Doc Hudson
- Dusty
- Darrell Cartrip
- Bob Cutlass
- Flik and P.T. Flea (Bug’s Life)
- Fred
- Mrs. The King
- Mia and Tia
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Mario Andretti
- Dusty
- Dinoco Helicopter
- Organic Fuel Hat Fillmore
This is only what was shown and not what was announced. I put together a separate post on the Piston Cup Cars that were announced.
— August 3rd, 2006
This blog is all about Cars toys from the Disney Pixar movie. This a really hot collectible line right now. Stay tuned for all the coverage. I hope to be able to keep up with all of it!
