Went by another Wal-Mart in Knoxville, TN today with no luck at finding any new Cars. This store was way worse than the one I went to last night. This one had no new Cars at all. They also did not have the new 4 sided aisle display.
This sucks because I probably won’t be able to make another trip this week. I hate going to all these stores and not finding anything, not to mention the fact that I also hate Wal-Mart.
Rating: Bad
Last night, Sunday, Feb. 17th, I was hunting for Cars at Wal-Mart in Knoxville, TN. They actually had a lot of Cars, but I didn’t find anything new that I didn’t have already. I am not a completist, so I don’t buy everything, but I have almost everything. The only thing new that I didn’t have was Pit Crew Guido. I passed on that one because it’s so similar to the original one from the Movie Moments 2 pack.
There was still some interesting finds there which got my hopes up at first only to be disappointed later. On the shelf, I found several Freds, plus Tongue McQueen and Darrell Cartrip both on the World of Cars cardback which I hadn’t seen yet. I also found Ghostlight Ramone on the World of Cars cardback.
The cool find was the new 4 sided display out in the main aisle in front of the toy section. It had been picked over so I didn’t find any of the latest ones, like Dudley Spare, Charlie Checker, Tow or Not Chuck. I did find Tom Race Official, Pit Crew Guido and Ghostlight Ramone along with some older Cars on the new World of Cars cardback, like Mario Andretti.
In addition, the other sides of the display had the mini Cars 2 packs on one side and the Cars 3 packs on the other side. All the 3 packs were there except for the Dinoco Dream gift pack with Gold Mia & Tia.
So if you need some of the Cars I listed above, get to your local Wal-Mart quick to check for the new display. Hopefully, you’ll get luckier than I did.
Rating: Good
The 2008 New York Toy Fair is just 3 days away, February 17-20. The big question on Cars collectors minds is, what new Cars toys will Mattel have on display? Well, the obvious and easy answer is anything that was shown already that’s not out yet and anything new that has already been announced. This ranges from Piston Cup race cars, Movie Moments 2 packs, more boxed sets and gift packs and retailer exclusives. Really though, Cars collectors should be ready for anything. Here are my predictions, plus how likely I think it is to come true.
The missing Cars from cases E-J (very likely):
Piston Cup Racers (almost certainly):
Other Cars (very likely):
Rest of the Cars announced through June 2008 (likely):
As you can see, I am being pretty ambitious here. How will I do? Stay tuned to find out. Here is what I would be excited to see: Jay Limo, Lightning Storm McQueen, Anime Chuki, the Apple Car, rest of the Hummers (including Sven Hummer) and Marco Super FAV18. What are your predictions and what would you like to see? Leave ‘em in the comments.
The 2008 New York Toy Fair is just 3 days away, February 17-20. The big question on Cars collectors minds is, what new Cars toys will Mattel have on display? Well, the obvious and easy answer is anything that was shown already that’s not out yet and anything new that has already been announced. This ranges from Piston Cup race cars, Movie Moments 2 packs, more boxed sets and gift packs and retailer exclusives. Really though, Cars collectors should be ready for anything. Here are my predictions, plus how likely I think it is to come true.
The missing Cars from cases E-J (very likely):
Piston Cup Racers (almost certainly):
Other Cars (very likely):
Rest of the Cars announced through June 2008 (likely):
As you can see, I am being pretty ambitious here. How will I do? Stay tuned to find out. Here is what I would be excited to see: Jay Limo, Lightning Storm McQueen, Anime Chuki, the Apple Car, rest of the Hummers (including Sven Hummer) and Marco Super FAV18. What are your predictions and what would you like to see? Leave ‘em in the comments.
Movie Moments 2 pack Gasprin and Tow Cap are out now. This means they should be showing up soon at a retailer near you. Gasprin and Tow Cap are Piston Cup racers (see the picture below). They are part of Movie Moments case E. Gasprin and Tow Cap are the only new Cars in case E, but they are 2 per case supposedly, which means they should be easier to find, in theory.
Here is the full assortment of Movie Moments case E.
Here is an image of the Gasprin & Tow Cap 2 pack.
So there’s a rumor going around, that a new Cars Wal-Mart exclusive wave may be in the works soon. There are several reasons why this is a strong possibility, and I won’t go into those reasons here. Instead, I’m going to give reasons why another Cars Wal-Mart exclusive wave is a BAD idea.
Reason #1 – Distribution at Wal-Mart is terrible. Last year’s Cars Wal-Mart exclusives were pretty much a disaster. As the first series came in, some stores put them out before they were supposed to and some stores never got any. This resulted in collectors in some areas of the country getting them way before other collectors did causing a false sense of scarcity.
Distribution of the second series was much lower than the first due to the restocking of the first wave. The first wave sold so fast that many stores heavily restocked the first wave about the same time the second wave came in. This led to the pegs being clogged with the first series and no room to put out the newer, second wave. As a result, the second wave was harder to find than the first one, and the first wave can still be found warming the pegs at many Wal-Mart stores today. In addition, there are some places in the US that don’t have a Wal-Mart store or only have one in their area.
Reason #2 – Exclusives help scalpers and hoarders maintain scarcity and drive up prices on the secondary market. When the first series came out, they were snatched up fast and were hard to find at many stores, even after being out for awhile, until they were restocked later. As a result, prices for the first wave initially shot up on the secondary market. The second wave ended up being harder to find than the first, so collectors who couldn’t find them were forced to pay high prices on the secondary market as well if they wanted a complete collection.
Wal-Mart is already a friend to the scalper. Many collectors and scalpers work at Wal-Mart or know someone that works at Wal-Mart. Their connections give them the ability to get new Cars before anyone else has a chance at them. You can argue that there is nothing wrong with this. However, it causes scarcity which drives up prices on the secondary market. This is what makes scalping attractive in the first place. So you can see, Wal-Mart already contributes to this problem enough without having exclusives.
Reason #3 – Exclusives hurt competition. No competition in any market is always bad. Wal-Mart has been under fire for a long time for using their size as a retailer to drive down prices forcing other companies, like smaller businesses, to lower their prices or get out of the market.
Retailers love exclusives because they know if you want them, you have no choice but to come to their store to get them. They use them to get customers to come in for the exclusives and shop for other things as well. This is the only reason Wal-Mart would want to have any kind of exclusive, so don’t go thinking they care about collectors. Exclusives give them an edge over their competitors. Plus, many people don’t like Wal-Mart, so they don’t want to shop there. If you collect Cars, however, you are forced to because of the exclusives.
In spite of the reasons above, the exclusives probably worked out well for Wal-Mart and Mattel. Which makes the chances of it happening again, pretty good. However, I don’t think this is good for collectors and is sure to cause problems for many. There are many moms and dads that buy Cars for their children who don’t have connections and don’t want to or can’t afford to pay high prices on the secondary market. Exclusives especially hurt collectors like these. If you have an opinion on Cars Wal-Mart exclusives, please leave it in the comments below.
Recently, Mattel revised the Cars case assortments for cases E, F, G, H and J. It was noted that several Cars that were originally scheduled to be included in these assortments are now gone and have been replaced by older Cars. As a result, collectors were left wondering what will happen to these missing Cars.
Two a Day speculated that Mattel is planning another Wal-Mart exclusive assortment for 2008. They make a good case, after all we know that Mattel already has the mold for Richard Clayton Kensington. They have already produced one for the charity auction that happened last year. It could be that Mattel is holding these Cars back for release as Wal-Mart exclusives.
So when will we know what the future holds for Cars collectors? Toy Fair is right around the corner, in New York on February 17-20, 2008. I’m guessing we will find out at Toy Fair what Mattel has planned for these missing Cars, as well as the rest of 2008.
Here is the list of Cars that were removed from these upcoming assortments.
Yesterday, I asked the question which Cars are in case F, and quickly got my answer. Today, I have the list of what was originally supposed to be in cases F, G, H and J along with the revised assortments from Mattel. You will notice that Mattel has removed most of the newer Cars from upcoming assortments.
Pit Crew Member Sarge, Richard Clayton Kensington (Security Van), Trunk Fresh Crew Chief, Marco Super FAV-18 (Jet), Dinoco Crew Chief and Octane Gain Crew Chief are now gone from these assortments and have been replaced with older Cars. So which new Cars are in case F? Dudley Spare the Octane Gain Pitty, is the only one.
Below, you will find the new list followed by the old one. In the old list, I have highlighted in red which Cars were new that were supposed to be included and have been replaced.
New Case Assortments:
Case F
Case G
Case H
Case J
Previous Case Assortments:
Case F
Case G
Case H
Case J
Can anyone out there confirm which Cars are in Case F? Case F is just now starting to show up at retailers, and I am seeing several lists of what Cars were supposed to be in it and which Cars are actually showing up.
Now that Mattel changed the assortment for Case E, I believe the list of Cars that we got at the end of last year is no longer accurate. I think that we will still see the same Cars this year just not the same assortments listed there. I wish that Mattel would revise this list so that the retailers, especially those who are pre-selling cases, will have a better idea of what is expected in those cases. It sucks to order cases thinking they will have certain Cars when those have been replaced with repeats.
If you can confirm what Cars are in Case F, please post in the comments below. Thanks.
Update – 2/1/08: No sooner than I ask the question, do I get a response from none other than my other favorite Cars blogger, (besides yours truly of course) metroxing of Two a Day. Here is Two a Day’s post on upcoming Cars assortment changes for 2008 from Mattel. It seems that Mattel is removing a lot of the newer Cars from upcoming assortments. This fits with the pattern we’ve seen recently, and Two a Day makes a good case for another Wal-Mart exclusive assortment of Cars.
Anyway, we now have the next assortments from cases F, G, H, & J (no Box I). In a nutshell, we’ve lost Pit Crew Member Sarge, Richard Clayton Kensington (Security Van), Trunk Fresh Crew Chief, Marco Super FAV-18 (Jet) and Octane Gain Crew Chief. The bad news is they have replaced most of all the “new” in each box with the same old-same old. Since we know that some of these Cars are already in production, due to the charity auction assortment a few months ago, metroxing believes that they are being held back for an upcoming Wal-Mart assortment. It’s up to you to choose whether you believe this or not.
The hits keep coming in the Disney Cars diecast line. The brand new Cars E case that was due out in January is due to ship this week according to retailers. So it should be out soon at a store near you, if it’s not already.
It’s also being reported by Two a Day, in addition to retailers, that the assortment for case E has recently changed. Richard Clayton Kensington (the security van) and Pit Crew Sarge are no longer included in case E, and neither is Tom Race Official. Instead, they are being replaced by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ghostlight Ramone. Here is the original assortment that was scheduled for case E.
Here is the new assortment.
New Cars in this assortment include My Name is Not Chuck (the McQueen and Rust-Eze pit crew member) and Tow, the Race Tow Truck. The good news is that it appears that both of the new Cars are 2 per case, so they should be easier to find. Here are some pictures of the Cars from case E.
blu-ray chase mcqueen exclusive final lap flik flea hank halloween murphy hauler holiday kmart launcher lenticular mater maters tall tales mcqueen mega size mia tia motor speedway of the south Movie Moments n20 cola not chuck nycc piston cup poll sarge sdcc speedway of the south story tellers supercharged target toy fair v8 cafe wal-mart walmart world of cars online
| Item | Bids | Price | Time Left | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Disney Pixar Cars Dinoco 400 | 6 | $10.01 | 17m 30s |
 |
Disney Pixar Cars Mack Transporter | 5 | $6.50 | 29m 54s |
 |
Disney Pixar Cars Gask-its #80 Rubber Tires F866 | 12 | $34.00 | 5h 42m 26s |
 |
Disney Cars Hauler & diecast car lot | 3 | $5.00 | 5h 56m 49s |
 |
DISNEY PIXAR CARS LOT MEGA FRANK | 5 | $13.81 | 8h 20m 51s |
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