Oh, is that buying the Motor Speedway of the South thing today?
Tick, tick, tick …
Are you in or out?
Here’s a song to listen to while you decide.
“CarsMama” notes now all the individual CARS are now available in high res mode at the Club.
Be sure and report in after the zero hour if you decided to buy, how did it go and or if you decided to pass …
Are you hiding from your boss? 🙂
Are you Outlook-booked with no chance for anyone to edit between 8:30 and 1:30 today?
It all went pretty smoothly. I didn’t have my credit card info so I even typed it in and took time to get screen shots – think it was less than 4 minutes. Hope it all went/goes smoothly for you.
9:15 AM (West Coast time) – still available.
From all the comments – so far so good …
9:20 AM … 20 minutes and still available – okay, who’s thinking of buying a 2nd membership?
9:30 AM … Still available. It’s a dog! SELL! SELL! SELL! (just kidding! 🙂 )
9:45 AM … Still available. Well, Mattel certainly was prepped for this so good for that – when they seem to have pre-loaded the page last week presuming a sell-out, I was a little worried but they seem to have gotten all the servers & programming in order so – great.
They ship pretty quickly. This should leave the warehouse in the next few days (from Texas or Wisconsin – if you lived in either states, you also had sales tax) – those that paid extra for 2-day shipping might even get it by Friday. For those who paid priority, if you live closer to the Midwest, you might also get it by Friday … for ground, again, those in the Midwest should get the quickest – maybe Monday? (This is presuming they ship out today or tomorrow).
10:00 AM – an hour and still AVAILABLE. I’m starting to get hungry – do I leave the computer? BTW, in the confirmation email, don’t let this alarm you …
“Your order is being processed and will ship as quickly as possible, pending product availability and credit approval.”
That’s their standard legalese in case they accidentally stack 2-million Speed Racer Barbie’s in front of the CARS pallet. Oh, and be sure and either note your confirmation number or print out that page – just in case you have to follow up for some reason.
10:15 AM – I’m definitely going to pass out from hunger … so let me know if it sells out in the next 20 minutes … here’s a tidbit from John, one of the HWC Club Administrators regarding the set:
“This item came out of a meeting right before the CARS movie was released (like two years ago – there’s a long story maybe I’ll tell you if I see you at the Convention) and we were asked personally by John Lasseter (head guy at Pixar) to make a set that included all of the Piston Cup racers. It’s taken a long time to get it done, but I have to say this is one of the best sets HWC has ever made (even though it’s not even a HW set).”
10:22 AM – maybe we should take this guy’s advice on the HW Forum … “I was in K-Mart today and I purchased the #52 car Leak Less,#64 RPM, and the #28 Notroade. They look just like the cars in the Motor Speeday of the South Set. The Store Magt. said they were putting the rest out later tonight. I only paid $3.49 a car!!!!!! What a big savings and I WILL HAVE THE WHOLE SET FOR LITTLE OF NOTHING!!!!!”
I hate buying a set from the RL Club when I just walk over to K-mart and buy it for little or nothing for almost practically the same thing … or maybe that’s just the hunger …
10:35 AM – Still Available. Sorry to be late with this notice but straight from the HW Shop Website:
“Can I bill my order to an international address?
We can accept international billing; however, we are prohibited from selling to Cuba, Iran, Libya, or Sudan. All orders are in U.S. currency. The ship-to address for the item must be within the U.S., its territories, and Canada only. If you have a friend or family member in the U.S. who can receive shipments for you, enter their shipping address in the ‘ship to’ fields and your billing address in the ‘bill to’ fields. We will ship the item to your friend or family member, who must assume the responsibility of shipping the item on to you.”
10:45 AM – BTW, it should be noted that Mattel is selling 1,000 sets – but presumably based on the Lassister story above, there are additional sets being given away to people at Pixar, Disney & Mattel … that set you saw the unboxing pics of did not seem to be numbered but will re-verify once I or someone gets it. So, it seems the RL versions are numbered but perhaps the “extras” are not …
11:00 AM – two hours and still available … now you can with a clear conscious buy 5-10 … everyone who really, really, really, really wanted one has one … so BUY, BUY, BUY. First person to send me a picture of 10 Motor sets stacked in the living room wins a prize! 🙂 … or the first person who can line up ten Apple CARS 🙂
11:20 AM – 5th eBay set up for auction. I’d buy a second set for $.99 🙂 … here are some conversions for our overseas friends – with the dollar not so high, eBay is a “bargain” if you can’t buy it direct …
1 Dollar to Euro 0.6385
1 Dollar to British Pound 0.5079
1 Dollar to Austrailian Dollar 1.0435
11:28 AM – “Chuck” asks an interesting question – “if you order early, do you get a lower number?”
It will be interesting to see what kind of effort Mattel makes … but if they are already boxed in the typical Mattel cardboard (as we saw in the unboxing photo), there’s no indication on the outside of the box so it will all depend how the shipment was stacked to be wrapped on the pallet – was the factory careful to build the base with higher number boxes so the first ones removed from the top are the low numbers? But there’s no guarantee which pallets get rolled where, maybe they split packing for shipping by geography? So, by chance, everyone in the Midwest gets the first 500 numbers? As we get them in, people can report in and we can see if it’s by region, some order or totally random (I suspect it will be the last).
11:29 or 11:30 AM
SOLD OUT
Hope you got yours!
Mattel – $300,000 in 150-minutes …
Thanks for contributing all your comments and thoughts.
Can’t wait to start the I’VE GOT MINE thread 🙂
And, now the non-numbering number controversy …
TWO A DAY 
I’m in, after much waffling, mainly on the price. It’s too good to pass up!
Me, too, also after much waffling. In for one for certain, debating about a second.
Office door closed and locked, shades drawn, Visa at the ready.
Count down T – 6 minutes…
My set is bought and paid for. Done!
Yep, no problem other than the checkout pages took a little time to load.
Me too! 10:01 MST and mine is bought and paid for! Could not pass up!
My order is in as well. Smooth as silk! Took about 4 minutes.
Wow, got one, easier than I expected! Congrats to everyone else who nailed one. I had them ship it two-day because I can’t wait to see it!!
02.00AM Sydney Time…just got myself “Speedway of the South”..thanks to the coffee which kept me awake till now and i tell ya..It was pumping, but its all worth it! Thanks Met for the encouragement:::WooHooo
Got it!!!
Pice of cake!
Done! Paid for 2 day shipping b/c I just couldn’t wait to get it! I’m off to the spa now with my Mother’s Day gift certificate. Good luck everyone; can’t wait to see what time this thing sells out. Whoever winds up with 1/1000 & 1000/1000 should email a picture here.
With only a thousand, I bet it doesn’t last longer than 20 minutes or so. Going to check ebay to see how many people have up there already. I was scared to death of having to go the eBay route with only a 1000 made. Big relief!
Arranged a US address with my assistant who had friend in Virginia joined RLC. Waited up to midnight and bingo added to cart. All too easy in and done in 3 minutes.
Straight to the pool room when I get it. Now I am going to bed got to be up at 5am (but who cares 5 hours sleep is enough)
I had a countdown timer running, and clicked the buy button the second it came up. Success! The price was brutal, but I didn’t want to be kicking myself later for NOT getting it when I had the chance.
Got mine too! After much debate both ways, I made the plunge. Woo-hoo! No problems getting it. I’m curious to see how long they last. I can relax now. 🙂
First one is listed on eBay. Not mine–I’m keeping it.
Nice work everyone, love to see them going to people on here, as we all have a passion for collecting these things.
Hopefully if they make all these cars, they will never package them the same way. I think we have us a real collectors item here!
Now if we can just all find a Red Ransburg, we’ll be set!
No major problems, I did get kicked back to the main page five times before I could actually place the order but no big deal.
Someone keep track of how quickly it sells out if you can. I actually have work to do today.
I sent Met a little something as well.
Got it woohoo! Had a bit of a scare, my clock broke while we were away this weekend and I didn’t notice until this morning when I woke up and thought it was 10:30. Nearly pooped my pants.
(MET: Er, gee, thanks for that mental image … 🙂 glad it worked out …)
Got mine!!!!!
I FEEL ALIVE!!!!!!!
Sweet, I just got my Confirmation No. via e-mail.
And the first one is up:
And only $85.00 shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Disney-Pixar-Cars-Speedway-of-the-South-complete_W0QQitemZ300225780243QQihZ020QQcategoryZ19224QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I saw that too Larry. Funny.
Met, thanks again, I would have never even known this set was in existence without your article.
Also, nice work with the price estimate and date forcast. You made yourself look brilliant.
(MET: Glad it worked out – and I guess for the prediction, I guess it makes me smart enough to work for Mattel 😉 ).
BOUGHT MINE ORDER WAS DONE ABOUT 3 AFTER. IS THE FIRST ONE SOLD WORTH MORE?
Met,
Thanks for all your help. You have made my son very happy (and me, too!)
Keep up the great work.
And congrats to everyone else who was lucky enough!
Wow. That was easy! 2 Memberships.
2 Purchased. In 4 minutes.
2 x $312.94 = OUCH!
(MET: Remember the old adage, you’re not spending money, you’re saving money … BTW, can you tell I’m in marketing? There’s still time for a third membership! 🙂 )
That auction you referred to, Noel, cannot have been purchased through the RLC channel. This person has it in hand, describing flaws on four of the cars.
congrats all! so happy to be a part of this community..so now that we’ve got this..whats next? :o) ..anyone got a sleeping pill? I was too excited earlier and now I cant sleep..Damn! Sydney 02:28am
(MET: H, glad you got one!)
Some jerk has already listed on on Ebay with a Buy-It-Now price of $450 + $35 shipping.
You can tell who the die hard collectors are by the posts in this thread. Congratulations all, at least the set will only go up in value.
The 2006 FSS only cost $149 and you can’t get one for less than $350-400 and you almost never see tham on eBay anymore. And that set came with cars that anyone can get, none of them are rare except the cards that 2 of them come on and the pretty box with the holographic seals.
The SoS set has 24 or so cars that no one can get right now and who knows if they will release them all in the future. I’ll bet you see auctions for just the box going up today.
I also noticed the eBay auction I posted earlier read that some cars are chipped and have paint missing. How could I pass up chipped cars an $85.00 shipping?
I’m in.
Oh, and that jerk has some balls; he included a link to the photos on THIS blog to help sell his set.
Chuck,
I saw that too. Let the profiteering begin. Did you also notice there are multiple links to 2aday?
He should have used a bigger font though, some people may have trouble reading that screen from 60 feet away.
(MET: Actually, his photo is from the HW site and at least, it’s a link … maybe if someone follows it, they’ll realize the sale is live and on-going … the other auction is weird because it seems to imply you’re only getting the CARS – maybe he’s keeping the case to sell separately? Or how much are official Mattel CARS twist-ties worth?)
9:30 and no problem getting one.
I want one so bad :0(
My wife has threatened to open all of my cars and give them to the kids, thats just if a single card comes through the post. I would be on the street if this thing came through. Well done to all those that managed to get one, or two.
(MET: So, she’s not buying the philosophy that this doesn’t cost money, this saves money?)
Lampit,
We obviously don’t want you out on the street, but would it be such a bad thing if your kids did get to play with them?
We all want a mint set of Cars that will be worth who-knows-how-much one day, but perhaps even cooler is to know that your kids will be one of very few lucky enough to get play with the set. If there’s only a thousand, and most will get locked away, then what better a father could you be than to let your kids get that enjoyment?
That’s what I’m doing. I know I am foregoing a financial opportunity for the future, but I think I’ll earn more happiness being a good Dad. And I’m happy with that.
Believe it or not, it took about 4 hours for the 2006 FSS to sell out at only 500 pcs. They will definitely sell them all today, I figure 7-8 hours max.
The sticker shock is enough to keep most collectors away all by itself. The HWC club fanatics don’t consider them Hot Wheels but I’m sure a lot of them will buy them just to profit, mainly so they can buy more expensive collectable HW cars.
I could not locate the $450 set at 9:55 PDST, so it may have been sold. There is another Buy It Now going for $1,000 plus shipping, I’ve been marking it to follow the bidding. I was to see how quickly they sell. There’s another out of New York with bidding going on with the reserve not met. You may want to set it up on eBay to be alerted to any additional ones.
The beauty of this set is that, in my opinion, the cars can be taken out of the box without detracting from their value.
The main box is sealed, but you don’t need to open this to get to the cars, if my set is anything to go by.
The bags the cars are in are not sealed either.
I still won’t let the kids play with them mind you. 🙂
To be honest this house is full with the kids toys. Dads need toys too. I like to look at them in the boxes.That what makes the ‘Speedway of the South’ set so great, its compact. Thats why I love my Dinoco 400 set. How the hell do display these things in a limited space.
I’m not really thinking of value of them in the future, I am trying to collect one of each car, not that worried which card or set it comes in.
I know where you are coming from Met, even as an accountant I won’t be able to convince the wife
Kieran, UK, that’s exactly my attitude. These are still toys. And as much pleasure as adults (myself included) get out of collecting them, I think my son gets even more joy playing with them. I can’t wait until he opens his Speedway for his birthday next month. 🙂
Last time my wife told me I couldn’t buy something ….. I bought two …… that’s just how I am. She doesnt do that anymore, in return, I also let her buy things she really wants without question, even if I think it’s expensive and pointless.
I think it’s cool if you are letting your kids play with them, my daughter already has 20-30 common ones in her play room. The problem is she smashes them together head on and chips the paint. The SoS set will become part of my movie memorabelia collection and go on display.
(MET: EDIT – Happy day today …)
Oh here we go…
Bidding on a presale of the Speedway from a UK seller is now at over $486 (item 380028698557). And Steve: you couldn’t locate that $450 BIN set because you used Pixar in your search. If you search on Disney Cars Speedway, both it and the new BIN auction at $1,000 are still listed.
(MET: EDIT – Happy day today …)
(MET: EDIT – Happy day today …)
Metro,
Thanks for all the great info. and updates on the SOS set. Your time and effort are greatly appreciated!
And the MET:EDIT…..Love it!
LOL Met. You knew it was just a matter of time. 🙂
I agree this should stay on topic. A lot of collectors are in a good mood, let’s keep it light and friendly.
We will have plenty to gossip and laugh about as the auctions start coming out of the woodwork.
So, if you are one of the first 100 to order, does that mean your set will be numbered 100/1000 or less? Or does Mattel just ship out random numbered sets? Just curious.
Someone bought an “Elvira” set for $365. It was a Best Offer deal. Not much profit. Of course it doesn’t really make much sense to me to be selling them on eBay while you can still buy them on HWC.
11:32 SOLD OUT
It only took two hours?
2.5?
(MET: Yep, just a skoosh …)
Children’s Toy Closet has the SOS set. It is priced at $1,500.00.
What????
Was it signed by Owen Wilson himself?
The whole evening (yes here it is 21.30) I was very doubtful of buying a sos by ebay. From here i couldnt buy one at the Club. But I won’t do it.
The prices are simply too high. From 500 until 1000 dollars, not mentioning the shipping costs. And now 1500 dollars?
The Elvira guy on ebay has already sold 2 sets and there is another one for sale. It is awful to see that some moneymakers have bought the set mutiple times and some great collector fans like me could not.
But more than 500 dollars + 100 for the shipping on the ebay market is not reasonable anymore. So I told myself the story…If I look at the set, there are 36 cars. I already have 12 of them. Another 4 or more are coming (Spare mint, Revolting, Trunk Fresh, Shiny Wax). Why pay 600 dollars for 20 cars that are split seconds in the movie, will probably be sold in another package and are basically all repaints of other cars.
I will sleep well not buying the set.
Regarding the set number you receive, rather than getting set 1 or 1000, I would like to get a set numbered the same as one of the cars in the movie. 43, 86, or 95 would be ideal, but even set 123, 52, 117, 84, or whatever would be cool, I think. Of course, if I get set 639, I won’t be sending it back.
(MET: Mattel did note that the set will be individually numbered – as soon as someone actually gets a real” set, we can see where the number went …).
As another thought, can you imagine if one of those sets shows up on Ebay? I’ll bet set #095 would be truly obscene (as opposed to merely rediculous).
This sold out way quicker than I expected. I will be watching for the huge box to arrive, hopefully by Friday. The last one came in 48 hours with regular shipping.
I got mine with no problems at all, confirmed at 0903 AM PT. Getting it shipped to a friend in the States. I didn’t pay the stupid price that someone will on Ebay!
Can’t wait and the wife approved!
Robert,
If you wait a while, there may be some people willing to sell for $50 over what they paid. I saw 2006 FSS sets going for $199 with Buy it Now the same day they came out, which is only $20-30 more than they cost with shipping.
People swooped on those right away however. Remember, the guy with the lowest Buy it Now price usually sets the tone for the entire first wave of auctions. Those people with the $1000 auctions are simply wasting time.
The prices may go up when they are actually “in hand”. Be patient and wait it out. There is always someone who buys a set and sells it for whatever they can get because they overshot thier budget or realized it was a mistake.
got 1 set , and actually i had the time setting up a new hotwheelscollector account buying a rlc membership, waiting for a mail with activation link, buying a rlc membership and was lucky enough to get a second set
(MET: Nicely done. I was tempted at around 10ish but figured I was too weak from hunger to complete the transaction in time …)
Chuck, there are currently six sets listed. I did not use Pixar in my search and the price was $450. I am assuming it was sold as there are none at $450. I notice one eBayer has four for sale. Anybody want to bet this set shows up later for general distribution or an exclusive with an on line retailer? Mattel may have made $300,000 gross, but, that will not come close to recovering the startup costs of these Cars and the dies for cutting the packaging material. I passed on the stiff price, as I am a casual collector, and when I dump the Cars on my nephews I don’t want to take a big hit. I figure to get them at Wal*Mart for $2.97 in the future. Wanna bet????
Woke at 5am had a spring in my step knowing I got SOS and we are not talking an ABBA remake. I notice that there are 9 auctions on Ebay, three to buy from Ebay shops buy now prices range from $499 to $1500. There are also 7 individual car sales from the SOS.
Personally I don’t care coz I got mine and its not for sale. Its not for future profit but appreciation now and my two boys (aged 3 & 5) can fight over it when I gone. Yes happy days is here right Fonzie.
Have a good night everybody, I’ll have a good day. Now off to work and get my assistant to arrange for her friend to send this little package home to daddy.
From sunny Perth thanks for your work Met. Joined HWC & RLC last year after reading your wondeful site. Keep up the work you help so much. Cant thank you enough
(MET: To all the international buyers who had to stay up way late or wake up way early – glad you got in! Thanks for reading!)
yea i totally got mine. my bf ordered it for me since i was at work! he rox my sox!
Look at the completed items. Five completed as of a few minutes ago. $365, $399, 2 x $499, and $500. One of the $499 completed as I was watching.
Has anyone seen the screamin’ banshee in stores yet? I know he’s going to come out this month.
Got mine.
I was expecting it would sell out quicker, but hey, at least it DID sell out, making my RLC membership worthwhile.
Will be watching E-bay closely…curious to see what type of price these will actually fetch now that all is said and done…
I’ve ordered some of the RLC exclusive cars and the numbering seems to be very random. I ordered the Drag Bus and got 6459/10000. I ordered it as soon as it was available so you can’t tell me that many people ordered it in the seconds before I did. The Chief’s Special is 8480/10000, the Super Van is 7214/10000. I ordered all the cars within 30 minutes of being available. I think the boxes for the sets are open to put the packing slip in but the numbering is in no order when they get shipped out. Do the low numbers go to people who paid the faster shipping b/c they need to be mailed sooner or to whomever ordered early? I don’t think so.
It’ll be neat to see where the numbers go.
Oh and Monica, I nearly peed my pants!
I just told my husband that I bought one and how much it cost and now HE nearly pooped his pants, LOL!
Got mine in less than 5 min. My 3 yr old son has been waiting for these cars for a long time with much anticipation. We decorated our Christmas tree last Dec with ornaments made from little printouts of these race cars. He has stacks of postcard printouts of these cars, and we’ve made collages of these cars. I know all the collectors here will be shocked, but I got this set for my son to play with. Cars (the die cast cars and all the other themed toys, bags, books, etc) has been a pretty chunk of change, but he has learned a lot: he learned to read d0uble digit numbers from looking at pictures of the race cars, and had lots of good memorization practice (he learned all the race car names and all the Cars character names when he was 2 yrs old), learned about months of the year–“Easy Idle isn’t ready yet. It’s coming in June.” However, I’m getting tired of waiting for these cars to come out and hunting them down, that I’m relieved that the race cars are finally here and all in one big set. A little peeved at the price…I feel a bit like I got ripped off, but if my son enjoys the cars as much as he’s been anticipating them, then it’s probably worth it.
(MET: Very nice! Yep, it’s Christmas in May for the 2-year in us all … 🙂 )
Shock horror!
The most exclusive and sought after Disney Cars die cast item ever released sold out in 2 & a half hours.
And they made 1000 of them!
Thats loads when you compare that to the worlds 6.5 billion population alone.
Nice to see Mattel satisfying demand as always.
God I love those guys.
Who else loves Mattel?
Went to the hot wheels site logged in about an hour early, watched the countdown clock, when it got to 5 minutes went to the shop, but no clock there hit refresh numerous times no change, noticed at 9:01 it still did not change to buy so went back out saw the buy button clicked and waited, seemed forever but went into the cart and checkout seemed forever, but was only a few seconds really, used express checkout, and finally confirmation. Nerve wracking. Wish Mattel made it clearer as to the process. Why was the countdown clock only on the hot wheels main page and not in the shop?
Anyway got it, and glad. Really wanted Tach O Mint my favorite. and Faux Wheel Drive.
I really hope that these SOS sets are better detailed cars than the ones that have been for sale lately.
The Tow Cap and Gasprin MM set I have has bad paint and terrible detailing around the windows paint dirty and not smooth. Hopefully the Cars in SOS have had been checked for QC .
Don’t know if the paint supplier has changed, but these lately have not held up like the earlier Thailand DB cars.
Congrats to all who got them. And check your Cars when you get them.
(MET: Um, good luck exchanging them 😉 ).
BMW –
Although I am setting myself up to get shot down by a few (I really don’t care – offer reasonable argument/debate, I will entertain it), I actually highlighted that the speedway set might contain ‘machine’ test cars in a different post, and may never come out. Mattel are managing the Cars product badly, and Disney are now giving them a hard time, so it would not surprise me if the whole thing is wrapped up pretty soon, meaning the SOS is a great set to have as some of the cars in it, might never see the light of day.
Regardless, chances are that a few, if not most of the sets cars will have shoddy paint detail.
Does that matter, probably is a good thing for collectors, even if they release better quality variants in the future. The sets cars are unique!
If Mattel had tens of thousands of them in a warehouse, they would have sold more than 1000 sets online to make more money.
I don’t think they do.
Hardly any new cars have come out this year mainstream commercially.
I wait for the bullets.
Jackdaddy, your arguments make sense, but I just cannot see the Mattel Cars line going kaput. For as inept as Mattel seems to us at times, at the end of the day they are a business and the Cars line is a very good seller. As unhappy as Disney may be, the first thing they would do is try to get Mattel to do better. Changing licensees or enlisting a new vendor to do your own line are huge and expensive processes and I think if they were in the middle of that we might have heard something leaked about it.
Plus, the more I think about it, the more I think that Mattel’s release scheme is pure evil genius. They have all of us on the hook and keep reeling us in time after time. Yes, we occasionally get disgruntled. They have to maintain the delicate balance of keeping us all enthralled with the thrill of the hunt without going too far and making us give up in frustration. I think the P case is the “kiss and make up” case for collectors.
But as I am sure they say at Mattel, there is a sucker, oops collector, born every minute (or turning two every day, hmmm, sound familiar?). So gotta keep churning out those LMQ and Maters, maybe not so many green Ramones (PLEASE, MATTEL, PLEASE!) and now I am seeing so many darn MM Tex/Dinoco LMQ’s that I am even starting to miss those old pegwarmers Sulley/Mike Buzz/Woody.
Well said, Monica! Lets hope and pray that the Case P thing catches on with Mattel.
I passed on the SOS set as well as the 2006 Factory Set for reasons stated at another entry. I do not think Mattel would market 1,000 test cars of each design or casting. I have seen some evidence or wordage that some of these Cars are making their ‘debut.’ That suggests some, if not all of these racers, will see further distribution. In the toy industry, it appears when an offering is stated to be an exclusive it usually is. However, I suspect the packaging for this offering will be the limiting factor and not the actual Cars. In other toys lines that I am familiar with, a retailer has to sign up for a minimum number of units to make it profitable (or at least not lose money) before production is started. I have seen unsold exclusives at liquidators, but, those appear to have been dumped by the retailer when sales lagged.
To produce only 1,000 units defies logic of the toy industry. The start up costs cannot be recovered on 1,000 units. The tooling requires $$$. I suspect these Cars will make it to blister packs. In other offerings by toy manufacturers, they have maintained the integrity of the exclusiveness, while appeasing the masses that did not have the originals, but making subtle changes to the toy. Sometimes the castings have a different date of production stamped on the bottom. If I were Mattel, I would product these Cars with subtle changes to the eyes. We saw that with the McDonald’s cars- three eye placements. In that manner Mattel can maintain the integrity of their $300 product and make more money. The downside for the buyer of the $300 product is the general collector is satisfied with the re-make, which diminishes the potential pool of buyers.
If you check the toy aisle or the kids toy box, you’ll see some lines have faltered and died a quick and silent death. There are other lines that continue to prod along because the toys are decent toys that with stand time. There was a recent article concerning the marketing genius of a Disney bigwig. He went to an event sponsored by Disney and noticed all the little girls were wearing their favorite female character shirts, etc. He realized their was money to be made, and, he started the marketing of the various females into the Princess line. Disney has added more princesses and soon will be adding an African princess. Tinkerbell and her fairy friends is another bit of marketing genius. There are movies coming out, books, clothing, everything. No, Disney is not going to dump the Cars line. It may be tweaked once in awhile, but, it isn’t going to the auto salvage yard.
While I agreed with Steve that we will probably see most of these cars again, if not all of them in some fashion, it did not cost Mattel much in the way of start-up money. Most of these cars already had their castings made – same make & model, different paint jobs. Some bodies did need to be cast, but the overall cost was minimal for this set. I expect we will see some three packs later this year.
There is precedent for Mattel including limited or exclusive cars in a larger set. A few years ago, my son was into World Race/Highway 35, a Hot Wheels movie and car line. Mattel put out a factory set with the 35 World Race cars, all of which were available in various quantities at retailers (sound familiar?), and one single car that was not issued to retailers, Zed 36. It was a repaint of one of the other castings, Sling Shot, but was a distinct car in the movie (eerily similar, isn’t it?). Zed 36 was never released in stores and the 1000 sold in the factory sets are it.
With this SOS set, the speculation is that up to several or many cars may be exclusively available in the set as opposed to just the one in my example, but I wanted to show that it has been done before by Mattel.
Monica, I don’t mean to offend you my dear, but the merchandise for Cars 2 is ages away, the movie is not even finished, and as far as I know they haven’t finished computer generating some of the characters yet! You can’t design toys without a template.
Disney have changed before, and already manufacture loads of Cars merchandise themselves (die cast the most recent!).
Definition of leak is another issue, but nothing will be ‘leaked’ by Disney who own Cars, not Mattel, until a decision has been made final.
The Cars line is not a good seller now, with the SOS being an underwhelming exception. 1000 units of anything is not a success by any means for an international company. Some posters have quoted gross sales in 2.5 hours are staggering, they simply aren’t.
In the UK, the product doesn’t sell anymore, because the people that buy it, have everything and nothing new has hit stores this year, yes, thats right, this year! Its now mid May. Trickle sales basically float the brand, its not a phenomenon in the UK.
Internationally, hardly any new cars have been released commercially, due to this and loads of other issues, I think its slowing down for a reason.
Jackdaddy, I think I may have misunderstood you!
I thought you meant that Disney was going to shift licensees or manufacture themselves for the current Cars 1 line or that the Mattel Cars 1 line was going to be terminated, sooner rather than later.
I could definitely see Disney going elsewhere for Cars 2 diecast licensing.
Yes, Disney has a really creative and terrific diecast line at the parks right now. With diecast versions of lots of Disney characters like Nemo and Bruce, Stitch, the Toy Story characters and lots of Star Wars characters too. They even have a collectors’ case for them.
My only point was that I think Disney would work really hard to finish out the current Mattel contract rather than go the early termination route.
But what do you think about my “evil genius” theory?
One thing more is that it’s clear Mattel does not focus on the International market for this line and I think it’s a given for Disney to go for a different licensee in the EU next time around.
(MET: The situation is that there are really only two companies capable of signing ‘master contract’ deals – Hasbro & Mattel – and Disney used to be with Hasbro and as I understand it from industry insiders is that Disney wanted a bigger cut and of course, Hasbro has a couple hundred great brands themselves to nurture and hey, sometimes it’s just better to go off for a while so it might’ve been a mutual decision. Of course, Mattel has dozens of long time brands also and if you’re talking diecast cars (of any kind), hard to find many companies with the depth and breadth of diecast experience you’ll find at Mattel … and while the entire CARS situation is not perfect, I think you have to go back to day one and remember the first time you saw the CARS hanging on the pegs – in some ways a minor miracle – Mattel did a great job of capturing each character for $3.49 or less. Maybe now after 100 CARS, we’re a little jaded but take a good long look at your CAR and look at the Disney CARS. You think, they all have experience in molding and creating diecasts, and in theory – how hard can it be to make a cartoon character? … well, Disney has yet to release a McQueen that is proportioned correctly after 2+ years – it’s subtle but it’s the difference between buying a couple CARS for amusement sake and buying 100+ … I do not know how long the master contract is or if it’s up by 2011 and of course, as a collector of Japanese diecasts, I know how being an ocean away makes it frustrating when the “other” side talks as if people can randomly walk into stores and buy things … but here in the US, we really can’t complain too much – most movie toy lines are considered extensive if you get 25 characters … NOT counting the Speedway set, we’ll probably get 25 characters this year! 2 YEARS after the movie is out! In a way, we’re cursed because we can’t stop buying now 🙂 so in some ways, we should be careful of what we wish for 🙂 … and while I cannot predict what’s going to happen with CARS 2 … I can tell you this, if someone else gets the license, they will not continue the 1:55 line … they might scale up or down but it won’t be 1:55 … why? When another company signs a new toy license, they always break with “the old of doing things,” to do “our own thing.” (and of course, otherwise, why buy a 1:55 from X when you already have a Mattel one … so the non-Mattel Lightning McQueen (if there is one in 2012) will be 1:64 or 1:50 just to “be different.” So, again, be careful of what you wish for 🙂 or 😦
Oh and of course, Disney could bring licensing in house on a movie by movie basis but frankly, that’s a lot of overhead non-disclosure hassles/extra work and if given a choice, Disney prefers to hire another company like Mattel or Hasbro to cross the “t’s” and dot the “i’s,” because it’s easier to yell at and fire them than their own employees …)
yo metro a day late but its on its way yup one set tempted for two but i feel so lucky to get one from this offer my guzzling thirst is quenched but i’m getting dried and baked in the desert “where’s the banshee”? i know it’s on it’s way. but looking forward to sdcomiccon hope to get one of those : )
(MET: Glad to hear from you again – hope all is well … Banshee should be coming soon!)
I thought that Monica, and I wasn’t trying to condescend.
I agree with everything you have said Met, but where Mattel have failed, is Internationally (outside the states), which is a bigger consumer market for Disney. Its starting to happen in America now too.
You have a production marketeer (Mattel) arguing with a Brand marketeer (Disney). Both have different agendas-
Mattel want to maximise profits.
Disney want every kid in the world to be able to buy a product they own.
Europeans are going nuts about how badly the Cars situation has become, and blame Mattel for their distribution system during the last year, particularly the last 6 months. Disney are angry because the brand has suffered as a result. People have nothing to buy, this is disenfranchising.
I have said loads before so I am not going to risk boring people, but if Mattel had sent enough of the Cars we wanted in the first place, we wouldn’t have retailers refusing to restock because the stuff they were over consigned BY MATTEL hasn’t sold.
How over ambitious can you get when manufactuing and releasing the amount of buzz.woody movie moments they did? Ramone?
Its a ridiculously irresponsible and short sighted state of affairs, and no ones fault but Mattels! Totally avoidable, but greed took over common sense and has subsequently probably lost Mattel and Disney more than it has made them.
How many people have started collecting this year? How much money has that made Disney and Mattel?
That said, they make lovely little cars, and yes, for the first 18 months it was bliss, I didn’t rant once! AMAZING! HAHA.
I don’t think any American who hasn’t been to Europe recently can begin to understand what the fuss is about.
Even if Disney release lesser standard collectable cars for Cars 2 (die cast or not), one thing you can guarantee – they will make loads of them and release them properly.
I know this post is long, and that people are going to sigh, but I am confident many will read this and be glad they did. It needs to be said, otherwise people get duped into thinking its right to pay 10 times what they should on ebay.
A Mattel Haiku
You have our money
For the Speedway of the South.
Now, back to singles.
Fire those who need it.
Make nice with Walt’s company.
Fix distribution.
We want a Van, or
Richard Clayton Kensington.
Please, no more Ramones!
haha
This one I don’t get.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Disney-Pixar-Cars-Speedway-of-the-South-complete_W0QQitemZ300225780243QQihZ020QQcategoryZ19224QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
36 cars, some with chips, loose w/no box and $485 dollars with $55-85 shipping. For ten dollars more they can have a complete unopened set.
A few sets went for $60 over the original cost + shipping & the RLC fee (337.89) at $399 on eBay but it lools like the prices are slowly creeping up over the $500 mark. The same thing happened to the PS3 in Nov 2006, prices were steady until they actually became “in hand” items. People were paying $4000 for a $599 item.
I also imagine the demand will die down but then pick back up for the holidays, when it gets close to Christmas, people will pay just about anything for something they really want.
(MET: Yea, you’re right – during the holidays – people tend to be willing to pay much more … I would not be surprised to see the set selling for $1k).
I checked eBay this morning and it seems the SOS set has settled at $500 plus shipping. It will be interesting to see the market when other actually receive their set, and, then list.
As to the comments on the supply and demand situation, Mattel and the retailer are not clicking on all cylinders. Toys R Us is the classic case of a retailer with poor distribution problems. Again, being almost redundant here, HAL the computer controls all. Pegs are full of Edsels, so we do not ship the Lexus’. Toys R Us constantly misses the wave for new toy lines. By the time the crest of the wave has passed, the toys have been gobbled up at other retailers. The result: stagnant inventory because demand has been already met elsewhere. That also means, if you could not get it early, Toys R Us will have it in stock three months later. Patience is a virtue.
As to expecting a retailer to met the demands of any collector, there is just so much shelf space to go around. There is just so much inventory dollars to be spent. I was in Wal*Mart this week when the pallets were in the toy aisle, and, egads, Indiana Jones boxes were everywhere. Hulk was everywhere. Speedracer was doubled parked. Narnia was there. NO Cars! Rats! This is the beginning of the blockbuster movie season, so you better expect less shelf space dedicated to other toy lines. Wal*Mart in my area has currently gone the way of Toys R Us-nothing. The overstock of certain cases from Christmas are still on the pegs, but, newer cases trickle in. Now just down the road K-Mart had the somewhat current cases (J). Fred Meyers is decent from the viewpoint of non collector sales, the bread and butter of retail.
Gas in my Radiator Springs is $3.76/gallon less 10 cents if you go to Fred Meyers. With a barrel of oil hitting $137 this morning, which transforms to gas at $5/gallon in six weeks, you may want to let the summer blockbuster season run its course, and, conserve your gas. You may want to get a bunch of five gallon cans at today’s fuel prices, store it away in the shed, and use it two months from now on your Cars’ hunts. I think you may find the general toy market getting sold really fast with high fuel prices. Those checks from Uncle Sam will be gone way before Christmas, and, if the general slowdown continues there will be less discretionary dollars to spend. Retailers will have to place their Christmas orders soon. So will the public go for that one big ticket item (WII/X-Box/etc), or, will the public load up on several smaller items. If you know, Toys R Us in New Jersey may have a job for you!
As to Mattel v. Hasbro, Mattel can take some lessons from Hasbro. Yes, Hasbro has an on line retail arm, and, I do buy from it. It’s hit and miss, because customers are using it. Saves time and gas. Hasbro also has a print catalog that you may want to order. No, I do not own stock in Hasbro! Hasbro has also pulled excessive inventory from retailers shelves or unwritten sales like buy one get one free to move the old stuff before distribution of newer product. Once those cases leave the plant, they’re not going to be messed with unless there is reason for another “Sarge” recall. Unless Mattel offers a discount for backed up cases, collectors are going to suffer. I have met regional reps in the toy aisles from both Mattel and Hasbro, who check on the retail marketing of their respective product lines. It’s not too difficult for them to see what’s going on. The toy rep from Mattel, nice lady, did indicate their main problem is the overnight stocking of inventory and the early morning scalpers. She indicated Mattel has no control over that problem. Target at Tacoma Central stocks at night and the manager could not care less about customer satisfaction. Target at Puyallup South Hill stock during open hours. Wal*Mart South Hill is a waste as the toy stocker runs a booth at an antique mall and he scalps EVERYTHING. Wal*Mart Meridian stocks during the day.
However, with all this said and done, I am not totally dissatisfied with my local retailer. The obvious answer is to offer retailers cases with a higher percentage of new castings in the assortment along with the customary distribution. In that manner collector demand may be satisfied and it will help get the eBayers out of the aisles if they cannot scalp.
I know Mattel reads these blogs, so Mattel, if you want to hire me ask MET for my email address. I’d be more than happy to be a company rep in my area.
I still say patience wins out. Any new hot single car goes for $15-20 for the first few weeks on eBay. They eventually come down to $4-5 per car, which I will gladly pay so I don’t have to go searching stores.
I always try to find someone selling a group of cars I need versus one at a time. Once, I bought 14 cars for $45 + $10 shipping. That a little less than $4 per car or $1 more than they go for in the stores.
So they guy made $15 from me, woo hoo! I’d rather light $100 bills on fire than have to look for all them at ten different stores.
Met, thanks for your input on the supplier issues. Very interesting. I know little to nothing about the inner workings of the toy industry. I work in licensing in the biotech/pharma industry, so it’s cool for me to see how the same types of transactions work in other industries.
I totally agree on how well Mattel has captured the characters and I am indeed stoked that they have continued the line to the extent they have. Yes, we should count our blessings.
JD, no worries, I was not offended in the slightest by your post(s).
EM, excellent Haiku!
All:
Yeah! Got mine delivered by UPS today!
(MET: Anyone’s who ready to show us what you’ve got 🙂 either send us a link or shoot them to us at metroxing (at) gmail.com – thanks!).
SoS jut arrived. So did my DLP projector bulb.
$1000 spent on 36 die-cast cars and a light bulb, what a week for wastefulness. I think I’ll celebrate with some overpriced filet mignon and lobster tails.
I forgot to pay the faster shipping but the warehouse is in Wisconsin, and I’m in Chicago, so it makes sense it came faster. I’ll open it later tonight and check each car for flaws.
Good luck everybody!
Got mine today as well!
They (2) were waiting patiently on my front porch, like they were almost saying, “hey, we’re here!”.
I live in Oswego, IL, and was amazed at the fast regular delivery of these wonderful packages.
Congrats to you both and well done.
Steve – the problem over here is we I have only seen 2 new releases – pit crew doc and pit crew fillmore on uk shelves this year.
They were on shelves a week, then gone.
Chuki and Lightning Ramone have never been seen on a shelf.
Pit row launchers are £7.99 here ($16) which is ludicrous, I can order them from America for cheaper with shipping!
Its also a bit of a joke that Mattel and retailers expect us to be ok with going into stores 20 odd times until they finally release new cars. This was what it was like with Fred, ANdretti, Dale and co. when they were released here in November. This was the start of the fiasco, things were alright until these releases.
9.9 times out of ten, I wander in, check the aisle, then leave without buying anything, but hating Mattel a little bit more.
If they didn’t release loads of cars people already had/have with a few we don’t but want, there would be no problem, but they do, and continue to, killing the market as an affordable option.
Case p is better, but its still a bit imperialistic.
Stupid.
The SoS set came just as fast as the 2006 FSS, which I paid extra shipping for. I was hoping to them by Saturday.
Stanley, is to show and one to go (on eBay)? Offsetting the cost by buying a second set is a good idea.
I’m not sure. I know it’s kinda stupid to keep both, but that thought has crossed my mind…..
If I do sell it on Ebay. I think I’ll start it at .99, at least giving everyone a chance.
Hmmmmm…..one for the kids, and one for display. Probably not the dumbest thing I’ve done.
I still can’t believe I actually got them. I’m still on a high from the sale on Tuesday!
Hey Jackdaddy….are you able to find the cars you need through sites like Children’s Toy Closet? If not, maybe we can setup a trade or something.
I’m not sure what it would cost to ship overseas.
Considering the weight and size, I’d figure about $100+ FedEx. We send out big heavy boxes of home theater equipment to our job sites all over the world. Some of the shipping bills are staggering.
I slid out the dual trays that house all the cars to take a quick look. It feels pretty cool to be 1 of 1000 to have the complete set. I still have some outside work to do around here today, so later tonight, I will relax with a huge root beer float, put on Cars in HD and unwrap each one. My daughters could watch that movie every day, my little one loves Mater and the Ghostlight. I think she needs a Screamin Banshee.
The Blu Ray version has the end credits “New Radiator Springs” animation in full screen HD as well. It’s better than looking at those tiny windows in the credits to see what’s going on.
Cool, mine just got here and I spent 15 minutes away from work putting all the cars in the display case. It is very cool. Mattel said these were numbered 1-1000 correct? Anyone know where to find the number?
(MET: Others are asking also? Should be pretty obvious … but if it’s not … uh oh …).
Thanks Stanley, I am always open to discussion with US based buyers, email me at – jackdaddy2008 through ebay.
I am obliged to buy from a seller in the US though who was kind enough to buy and agree to send me an SOS without ripping me off, so if all goes well there, I will buy everything I need from him every 3 months from now on.
I have been busy trying to get through to the right people recently about this, mainly Disney, and am hopeful this will be fixed by Christamas, so hopefully buyers in the Uk will have shelves with stuff we want on them by then again.
There isn’t much I need, but I do have a small list.
Send me an ebay message and if things crumble elsewhere, we can maybe do something?
I am loyal to this one seller at the moment though.
I don’t have been searching for some kind of a number on the case, but can’t find anything. I have the number “8” stamped on my invoice. I don’t know if that means anything, but if it does it would be kind of cool because of the whole Ernhardt thing.
(MET: The stamp on the invoice is the packer stamp – Mr/Mrs. #8 packed your shipment but it’s beginning to look like Mattel forgot the sticker …).
Wow, I have looked everywhere and can’t find a number. That seems like it would be a pretty big error not to number it in some way, especially for collectors. I hope it’s hidden away somewhere… I was really excited to see what number I’d be.
Ooh no number sticker!
Conspiracy brewing!
Nah just kidding, I don’t think they have more of these available or planned.
I just got on the message board on Hotwheels, and others are having the same issue. It does look like a potential conspiracy, lol.
If these show up in Target in the next six months, I’m going to be angry. I thought I was getting something “exclusive.”
(MET: If it does show up at Target, it will be vastly different … it will have a 1.5″ sticker that reads TARGET EXCLUSIVE … I kid …).
Just for the record, that strangely shaped and angular display box is awful. I can’t imagine anyone jamming all those cars in there to show them off. You may see a lot of people selling those by themselves.
I don’t think Mattel ever said they were numbered, just limited to no more than 1000. The 2006 FSS was not numbered either.
(MET: They pretty much came out and said it was numbered, FOUND IT! Added a screenshot to bottom of post).
The box is actually pretty cool. The top is kind of thin plastic, but the bottom is acrylic. I have all the cars in there and I think it looks really nice. It’s going in my office for display.
It looks amazing.
Easily the best die cast disney Cars product yet.
Essential.
Jack were you able to find a number? Is Noel right that they may not be numbered?
I won’t get mine for at least 2 weeks.
Oh yea, you’re in the UK right? Yea, I love it, the little pics you see online don’t do it justice. It is a big set, and displays really nice.
I just went back and checked and it does say each set is indivually numbered on the HWC site. I’ll look for mine later and let you know if I can find anything.
(MET: SCREENSHOT ABOVE at END of post of blurb. I would say if one person couldn’t find the number, I could see where there was an error somewhere but I don’t anyone who received has found the number … I guess Mattel is going to say, they are individually numbered, only we know what that number is 😉 )
I got on the HW message board, and no one has found a number. People are getting angry.
“This is one of the main reasons I purchased this set as did many others. What’s the purpose of having a collectors set if it’s not numbered as we all were told they were going to be???”
(MET: Here’s the HW Forum thread)
What in the world… The SOS set has no numbers boy if that is the case I am sure glad I saved my money on this deal…
Maybe, just maybe HW/RLC will be mailing a nice Certificate of autantication w/No. and signed by John Lasseter? Well Maybe Not. But thats an idea.
Sorry for the typo.
To me, I couldn’t care less that the SoS sets aren’t numbered but I’m sure a lot of people are pissed about it. The Apple car’s “grey” ink is actually semi metallic which is pretty cool. All of the sponsor stickers on it are also the same color whereas every car has the regular ones.
Well jackdaddy, you’ll have a whole new bag of issues with Mattel because they either forgot to number them or mistakenly said they would be invidually numbered on the HWC website.
There are multiple threads going over there, and they posted a 1-800 to some poor old woman named Rosa who works at Mattel who has gotten about 100 calls so far. She told one guy the number was on the inside of the shipping box, another that it was inside the display case etc…
A lot of people cut the plastic bands on the display box just to look inside for the sticker and are double pissed because it’s not mint anymore ….. plus no sticker. The front right corner of the plexiglas base on mine is slightly chipped off.
All the cars look perfect so far.
Totally worth the money!! I thought Jack was going to jump through the window when he saw the UPS man come up the sidewalk carrying that GIANT box. 19.6 pounds of awesome!
Dale Jr is a totally different Car; he’s shorter and wider than the single release.
My set doesn’t have a number on it either. Why do you suppose this is for +14 when each Car is +3?
I just heard my son Ethan chuck a Car down the stairs; let the chips of paint begin!
(MET: “let the chips of paint begin!” I like it!)
I don’t care about the sticker to be honest, the cars in the set and box are rare enough, and if I am right about a few things, I don’t think most of them will come out, unless they are in the sequel and Mattel get to keep the contract.
Then again, the SOS might be released commercially, but I really don’t think they will do that. Even if they did, the paint detail will probably be different.
Mattel obviously own Hot wheels, and they are not going to hurt their own website by abusing recently acquired members through needlessly angering them.
My guess is they already know they have lost the production rights to Cars 2 and have been using this year as a ‘cash in’ on all the crap they can’t sell, which is why –
new releases have been pitiful,
we will mainly see multi packs with a car you want but 2 or 3 you don’t
and also their favorite – cases with cars we now hate but 2 or 3 we love but can’t get without murdering people.
I feel sorry for Rosa.
Are any of the 12 already out apart from Dale Earnhardt different from the ones released as first wave, supercharged and woc noel?
Does it honestly say +14 sarah!
Sensational!
There in could lie the agenda, and highlights how bad production issues might actually be.
Why 14 or over?
These cars are possibly dangerous, watch your kids guys!
Noel, I love the idea of sitting down with a float, putting on the DVD and opening the set with the kids, terrific. I may have to do that next week when mine moseys all the way out here to California.
No numbering? Major bummer. They are going to have to find a way to make it up to us. I vote for GeorgeHP’s idea of a C of A signed by Lasseter.
Gotta have that float Monica. There’s always a steady supply of root beer, vanilla ice cream and Cool Whip around here.
I am trying to upload an avatar.
Has it worked?
Your avatar is there; is that you suited up?
Did you register at wordpress? I haven’t been able to figure out how to add an avatar so maybe that’s what you have to do?
Brilliant, I can’t see it on my posts? Maybe because I am over the water?
Yeah I’m registered now.
Its not me, who do you think it is?
Best answer gets…………. well best answer just gets a laugh?
Whahey!
I can see it now.
Sarah – you have to fiddle about it is easily the worst avator loader I have ever seen.
Open up a new internet search window and search for wordpress.com (not org) so you have a new screen.
You should get a home page or have to log in, my vista setting automatically take to me to home pages, but when I had xp it didn’t.
Click on the ‘dashboard’ link.
Now you would think this is where you do your images, but no, you have to click on your name in the top right of the screen to get to ………
Your profile and personal options.
Crazy.
Just use browse and upload your pic form your computer from there, you will have to crop it, but its easy. I just selected the whole area, did a bit of dragging to the top left, stretched and – voila.
ALL DONE.
I got it! Why didn’t I ever ask about this before?
Can you believe Sarah was already taken?! I picked collectormom; hard to think on the spot.
The first picture I tried for my avatar was too big. It’s our car photoshopped to look like a Cars car. I went with Flo instead.
Thanks jackdaddy!
Sweet Avitar! Time.
I KNOW who this is! It’s the CEO of Mattel! 😉
If you save a picture to your desktop and upload it, you can use the crop box on wordpress to fit it all in.
Just drag the box to the top left of the image with your mouse, then stretch the bottom right corner diagonally down.
You look very young Georgehp, does your mother know you have an internet connection and post messages with strange men who collect toy cars!
I see the first true scalper has torn apart his SoS set and is asking $30.00 for each non-available car, the Apple 84 ig going for $49.00.
I’ve seen custom Apple 84’s go for more than that, he should jack that car’s price up to $100.00.
Called Mattel tonight, nice lady, as I kept getting error on their webpage for order status. She talked me through, alas even though I paid Tx state tax, the shipping is from Wisconsin, not the Texas distribution center, so mine won’t come until the 28th per tracking through UPS, and I leave on vacation the next day!
Wish I had asked about the hologram sticker.
Met, where is the hologram pic, I did not see it even though you referred to it.
Those of you who got it already what states are you in?
(MET: The first unboxing we posted from the UK last week had no numbers and thought maybe that was a “special” one but apparently, that was just a clue that none of them has a number …).
BMW, I’m in San Antonio, TX and got mine today but I paid for expedited shipping. I was surprised too that it wasn’t coming from the TX distribution center. I’ve ordered other items from Hot Wheels and they came from WI too. Maybe Hot Wheels only has stuff come from there and not any other distribution centers? It always takes 8 days for me to get my order too.
Well, I for one have not received my set, but will be very displeased once it has set in that the sets are not individually numbered.
I have posted on the hotwheels forum for the first time, and would recommend that all that purchased this set do so as well.
Essentially, many “Cars” fans purched RLC memberships from Mattel to purchase this set, and bought the set on the premise that what they were buying, because of the individually and limited quantity available, was an “exclusive set.” The reliance on the representations of Mattel created a contract so to speak, and Mattel’s failure to deliver has produced what appears to be a breach of that contract. I would think that with the sheer money involved in this promotion, Mattel will be looking to their legal team to see what to do next. Be prepared to receive an exclusive “Batmobile” for your hardship. I dubbed this whole fiasco on the Mattel forum as “Sarge 2”
BMW, I also paid for expedited shipping. I’m in Salt Lake City.
I have to say, mine is set up and I am really in awe of how great it looks. My wife, who thinks the cars are cool, but isn’t into them like I am is also very impressed with the set.
The number thing ultimately isn’t a huge deal, because I’m thrilled with the product. However, I will say I was pretty excited to see what number I would get. And I feel that they need to follow up on that because that is what they advertised.
Collector Mom, thanks for the explanation.
Really appreciate your reply
Did you set have a number? If not, Texas has a strong consumer protection law, and I fully intend to pursue this avenue if my set is not individually numbered as per advertised. I have sent a complaint to Mattel via email.
Why would I or anyone pay 362.50 dollars for this set with state tax and join this RLC to buy, if the set is not numbered. I would wait for the cars to come out at the 3.29 price not $10.05 a car. As Mattel clearly said there were no exclusives, or they reserved the right to not box themselves in, as per the Administrators comments.
Believe me I did not buy with eyes closed.
Angry, you bet.
Chris,
Congrats to you as well, guess expedited is really fast. Salt Lake and there already!
Chris, since you have it set up, have you looked carefully at the paints and tampos on the Cars?
Can you report what the quality of the cars is?
I use a magnifier to look at the smoothness of the paint.
Pleased to hear you are happy with your set!
It may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me, and I am going to make a lot of noise if Mattel does not right this.
This is taking advantage of consumers, and blatant false advertising and that is exactly what I told them in my email.
BMW – what was the email address you sent to. I also will be following up with Mattel to make an issue of this whole prospect. Essentially, without the exclusive numbers, and without the guarantee of “exclusive cars” in this set, there was absolutely no reason to purchase this set. Just wait until you see the big red box on Target’s shelve next Christmas for $180.00. (sitting next to the Dinoco 400 of course) If it does not have the big red bullseye on the front, then there will be absolutely no way to tell the difference between the two so to speak. The numbering was the only reason I bought this thing, and now I feel like Jackdaddy looking for Chuki and Dudley Spare overseas. Like has been mentioned, can you imagine getting number 1, 8, 95, 1000 or any of the other cars numbers. I think the numbers in and of themselves held the value, and Mattel found a way to mess this thing up……
I guess the point I was making is that the set is really nice, and I’m happy with it. However, it is a pretty big deal. I didn’t get what they told me I would get. If the set doesn’t stay exclusive, I will be especially furious. I also wouldn’t mind an email address to help in overwhelming them a bit.
I have held a large number of the cars up to the light and am thrilled with the quality. I haven’t looked at them through any kind of magnifying glass, but everything is in tact. I don’t have any nicks on them or anything. I’m really pleased with the overall quality.
On another note, some guy on eBay is selling an Apple Car with black rims. The one in the Speedway set comes with white rims. He also has a Red Ransburg. I acutally saw two up on eBay today, and have never seen one before.
The guy said he bought some collection and found them in there. I’m wondering where in the world that black-rimmed Apple Car could have came from, and am interested to try to find out if they may be fakes.
I was curious to know if anyone on here had ever heard of such a thing, and if there would be anyway to verify authenticity. The only thing I can think of is that he bought some Mattel employees collection or something. If the Ransburg is real, it would suggest that.
He’s asking around $500 for the Ransburg. That is the one car I really know that I am missing. I’m half tempted, but who’s to say Mattel doesn’t turn around and mass produce those.
I do ultimately think someday that Ransburg will be my Lex Luthor. It is the holy grail.
(MET: I updated the Red Ransburg post which you might find useful in your decision-making. As for the Apple CAR, it sounds like maybe he is selling off a custom he bought? Nitroade would be the obvious one to repaint – black tires, easy to find (others have black tires but like NO STALL, not so easy to find but who knows?) I’m just guessing. The ones that were sold prior to this official set selling seem to all have gray wheels, you certain the new Speedway set Apple is white?)
Matt and Chris
here is where I sent my email
techsupport@mattelwheels.com
I got the typical automated reply which said I would be hearing from them. I have again replied telling them I expect prompt attention to my complaint.
Glad you both are going to follow up as well. If they do not fix this, the next step will be the state attorney’s general office of consumer complaint. Since Mattel has a distribution center and I paid state tax I think I have a case
___________________________
Essentially, without the exclusive numbers, and without the guarantee of “exclusive cars” in this set, there was absolutely no reason to purchase this set
+++++++++++++++++++++
Matt, using other words, that is exactly what I said and the reason I am complaining to them.
Blatant false advertising.
Maybe Red Line club members are used to this, but not this gal. I don’t spend 362. for an limited numbered set, and not get it.
My guess on the +14 issue is the that the twist ties are the culprit. Oh, by the way, msully is my new wordpress name. Had to go for the avatar. Monica.
Met, all the Apple Cars in SOS are white wheels.
Looked at the one sold in the baggie from the Speedway set. It sold for buy it now at 49.99. White wheels
(MET: I guess it’s probably dim lighting on the ‘unofficial’ ones I looked at from the overseas source (all photos – I don’t have an unofficial one) so in some cases, they look a little gray but in brighter lights, they do look like it’s white – so that looks like the correct color – any other color is more likely a hand-painted custom one – and unless I’m guessing wrong, the Apple CAR does look like the Nitroade-No Stall-Tow Cap body & facial expression … all three with black tires but my guess is Nitroade since he’s easier & cheaper to find).
I’ve used your site for information on Cars for several months and greatly appreciate what you publish. I’ve found it very useful. I joined the HotWheelsCollectors and the RLC in March for simply a chance to buy the Motor Speedway of the South Set. Mine is on its way; I couldn’t justify the extra money just to get it sooner. Having read the comments about the lack of numbers on the set, I am a little concerned.
I logged into my RLC account this morning to look for contact information. For the e-mail address, it lists as the contact:
customerservice@mattelwheels.com
For the phone number, it lists:
1-800-858-0102, Monday-Friday
7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central Time
While I have opened almost every car or set I have purchased so my grandchildren ages 6, 5, and 3 can play with them, I have a second Dinoco 400 set I haven’t opened, a few loose ones I haven’t opened, and I’m not sure I’m going to open the Speedway of the South set just yet. They like playing with them so much that I’ve started to buy individual Cars for them to take home, and I bought my first case on eBay in April to pick up a couple I didn’t have and didn’t seem to be able to find. They all want a Dinoco 400 set for Christmas, so I’ll be getting 3 of those this summer while I still can. I know they’ll want the Speedway of the South set, but they’ll have to settle for looking at mine when they come to visit.
You should all contact Disney as well, I am sure they are interested to hear your woes.
The +14 due to ties makes sense, but then my sons TMNT toys cam with ties and they were +5?
Possible paint issues?
Sarge anyone?
Also, I dunno if its because I am overseas, but my avator keeps disappearing and reappearing?
It seems every time I log in and out, the pic instantly vanishes until I re-browse and crop it all over again?
Anyone else found this?
Met,
Take a look at the eBay posting below on that Apple. I don’t think this is a custom car. That was also my first thought. I am going to email the person and ask them for more history on where it came from.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Disney-Pixar-Cars-Apple-84-Black-Rims-Piston-Cup-Racer_W0QQitemZ290231421423QQihZ019QQcategoryZ19224QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(MET: It does look like it probably came from the HK couple unauthorized but factory release. It seems to match the other unofficial ones except for wheels – I would ask the guy for a better photo of the side logos and the tail-lights, if they look good, those are pretty hard to custom fake – especially the tail-lights since the Nitroade #28 intrudes on the back tail-light so you would have to paint over those unless you had of course, you had access to the tampo decals like the couple from HK).
My set is coming today (hopefully). I’m trying to figure out a way to tell my son that whatever is in the huge box delivered by the UPS man is not of interest to him. 🙂 I’m planning on giving it to him for his birthday. Although, I think he’ll be content to not play with them and just have the set on display. Unfortunately his birthday isn’t for another 6 months….
Met, wow, awesome article on the Ransburgs. I had not seen that previously. I was totally confused after seeing them on eBay, and now I’m not as confused.
It does make it difficult to know what kind of value to assign the two I currently see on eBay. Is there a dialog about the HK people selling multiple Ransburgs from your article somewhere? I came late to that story and wanted to read up on it.
As far as the black-rimmed Apple car goes… I’m hoping that it slipped out of the factory somehow. That is obviously the most popular car in the SOS set, and so I’m fairly certain Mattel will package that one individually. If we’re lucky, the black wheels will hit the stores, and our gray/white wheels from the SOS set will be more exclusive and difficult to find, kind of like the Ernhardt car. I really love that car in the SOS set. Not to say that I am not very tempted by the black-rimmed Apple car now.
(MET: Part of the confusion that different people bought them from the HK couple and re-sell them with varying degrees of information. Some buyers/bidders have incomplete info and when they hear Red Ransburg, it’s like saying Picasso 🙂 … there are varying degrees of authenticity and provienence. As for the Apple CAR you’re looking at, it’s certainly looks like an unofficial official CAR other than the rims …beyond that, it’s hard to say what it’s ultimate value will be – as you noted, if the CAR gets re-released in a single or multi-pack, this probably won’t be as valuable (though my sense is the black wheels is not part of the official scheme) … it won’t even be as valuable if this were an “error” because it’s no longer mint on card (well, never on card really) … but on the other hand, if the Apple CAR does not get a re-release until 2009, 2010 or maybe even beyond, this release – even unofficial will retain value until then … but again, that’s if that’s your only measure of its worth …).
By the way Jack Daddy… I read all of those Ransburg posts. You made some people mad in that, but I thought your points were spot on.
You at least called into question the authenticity of a car going for 750 pounds. Some people may have automatically assumed that the car was one of the 50.
I do believe, that as collectors of this stuff, we do have a responsibility (at least to each other) to police what is factual on these eBay auctions.
Some of these custom guys are truly talented, and a custom car can look very legit. It would be terrible to get duped out of a grand (or whatever). So anyway, I really appreciated the argument you were making in that post.
Thank you bud.
For me, its a kids toy that has potential future value.
I will/would pay $50 – $100 for the one in question, but $1500?
If I could buy an original one with proof, I would be happy to pay $4000. As met has said, it is the holy grail of Cars, and is the only truly valuable item Disney Cars wise.
I shudder to think that some poor consumer with half the story could have been ripped off like that.
I have no regrets, and am confident justice has been done.
email me through my personal ebay account – jackdaddy2008 if you want me to send you an amusing email.
I just emailed Mattel on the set numbering for the SOS. If any of you hear anything back from them, please post it here, as will I.
Info on the black-rimmed Apple Car:
“This was a factory sample that initially was going to have the black wheels but it was decided that the grey wheels was going to be the actual production run. Usually the samples are destroyed but a few did make it out of the factory. this is what my research has come up with regarding the apple black rims. A rare variation on the regular release.”
Does this sound legit to you guys?
Yes.
Then again, it could be a very good custom!
Who knows.
I stick to official products, but am tempted by a couple of variants – Frank, and a few from sz_hotdogs site, some of them are brilliant.
I love the way the above statement has been worded though –
“Usually the samples are destroyed but a few did make it out of the factory.”
Its made to sound like a great escape was formed like the fish from the fish tank in finding nemo or something! Apple shifted into top gear and zoomed away before the meltdown machine could get him.
LMAO! LOL! HAHA
jackdaddy, it seems like all the avatars come and go; maybe it does have something to do with logging in and out?
By the way you didn’t tell me if I was right about your avatar being the CEO of Mattel; I’m right aren’t I?! What do I win!
msully/monica & carsmama I like your avatars too!
As soon as my fusspots go down for a nap I’ll be sending HW an email too asking for my numbered sticker. Or maybe an exclusive Pizza Planet Car as compensation instead.
It is true, it is he.
You get a big kiss. X
Maybe the evil masters at Mattel are electronically hijacking my account and removing my pic? haha
I am gonna change it to the wee man anyway.
Anyone noticed other variants other than dale on the 12 from the sos, or are they the same?
(MET: Looks like the avatar finally stuck – I can actually see it now).
I was on the HWC message boards and here’s what HWCMark – Administrator had to say about the non-numbering fiasco:
“Everyone is jumping to conclusions here. Let’s not do that.
1st – There’s no need for other members to call the people who purchased this set “whiners” and resort to name calling. It’s a legitimate concern. I’m going to instruct the mods to edit these posts accordingly. Let’s increase the level of maturity here, folks.
2nd – Here’s what we know so far. The sales template that we draft and work off of was correct. It stated that the sets were not numbered. The article was incorrect – and apparently wasn’t caught when reviewed.
3rd – I’m continuing to look into it, and seeing what our options are. It’s a holiday weekend, and most people are out today.”
Then after a lot of people posting their theories, he posted again saying the following:
“There were NOT more than 1000 sets produced.
There will NOT be a second run of these sets.
These sets will NOT be released at retail.
Please stop with the conspiracy theories.
Yes – mailing out the sticker does make perfect sense. However, we need to get sign off before we officially declare that’s the action we’ll be taking.
Again, I ask for your patience.
Enjoy your weekends.”
Just thought you guys might like to know if you didn’t already.
Thanks Carsmama, that’s good info to have.
I have sent my complaint to
customerservice@mattelwheels.com
I hope I get a response
I believe him, I don’t think these will come again.
However, the no numbering thing has opened a window of opportunity to replicas for the future!
“Please stop with the conspiracy theories”
sounds desperate and worn out!
I was online on Tuesday 30 seconds before deadline, and purchased my set within 1.5 minutes
Can’t wait until it comes. Just wish those 2 people in HK could be stopped from making fakes……
Well it’s already happened; about 6 of our new Cars have chips of paint missing on them. Already! It didn’t even take 24 hours. I put them all in the box so my kids can look at them and hopefully not mangle them; at least not right away.
I still don’t understand the +14 thing. Maybe a 14 y/o would not want to play with something he knows his parents spent a boatload of moola on and would just enjoy looking at it. ??
And the set doesn’t have ties; it has clear plastic pieces that insert into the base. It has 2 fingers sticking up that go in between the front wheel well and tire to hold the Car. Some fit better than others so I can see why this is a “self assembly” display. Nothing is really holding the Cars in.
I thought the conspiracy theory comment was pretty funny too.
Chipped cars ….. that sucks. Mine will definitely be for display only. My daughter has 30+ cars to play with already.
I still haven’t had a chance to do anything but slide the trays out and quickly look at them. We were gone all day and went out for pizza and a movie after my girls came home from school (Indiana Jones / Crystal Skull, which was really really good).
Maybe if Mattel could ship us all one of the special Lightning Storm McQueens we would all shut up about the numbering thing…….
I just sent an email off to mattelwheels.com explaining how one of the corners on the display case was cracked off out of the box, I hope they actually respond.
Lorri, I told Mattel I wanted an exclusive Pizza Planet Car but your idea works for me too.
(MET: I believe Pizza Planet Car dude’s name is TODD …).
I got my set last night. The UPS guy had come to my house while I was gone and didn’t leave the package. So I had to wait until 7:00 when he was done delivering to go pick it up at the will call counter. If I wouldn’t have, I would have had to wait until Tuesday!!! 😦 But it was all worth it. It was awesome. Mine was marked 1/1000…J/K. I wish. I had to wait until my son was asleep to bring it in the house and break it open. I didn’t get to put it together or anything because it’s going to be a gift for him and I know he’ll want to do it himself. Anyway, seeing it in front of me made me realize how happy I was to get it. Seeing all the cars in their compartments, wrapped in cellophane was breathtaking. Even my husband was speechless! Hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I did. Now, if I can just find the willpower not to give it to my son for 6 more months!
Lorri & collectormom – I’ll go for either of your ideas….plus a numbered sticker!
(MET: 6 months … um, good luck with that … 🙂 )
Hey Met,
Is there any truth to the rumor that MM’s have been discontinued? I bought up all the ones I was missing today just in case. Actually, I still need a Dinoco Mia / Tia.
(MET: I’ll do a new post so no one will miss it … look for it tonight or tomorrow).
The SoS sets are climbing past the $700+ mark today. I bet those people who pre sold at $399 are kicking themselves.
(MET: They’ll be a two-week panic period and then things will settle down again …).
Is it worth buying one of these sets on Ebay? I see that some of these sets have not been opened.
Just trying to get some opinions here….
They are very very cool. I really like mine a lot. I don’t know that I would pay $700 for one, but if I missed the RLC sale, I may consider $450.
I have mine displayed, and I really do think it’s that neat. A lot of it just depends on your financial situation. If you are into these things, and they keep the set exclusive, I can’t much imagine the price going down.
I guess the best way to put it is that I spent around $360 for mine after membership and shipping, and I don’t regret it.
Sounds like it’s very likely that everyone will get numbered stickers sent out to them for their SOS set (according to HWC Administrator Mark). It’s not official yet, but it’s progress!
I was just on the Hot Wheels Collectors discussion board to see if there was anymore info on what Mattel is doing about the SOS sets not being numbered. This is what Mark, HWC Administer posted:
Guys –
I’m gonna lock this one up. It’s just becoming counter-productive and any official message is getting lost in accusations, conspiracy theories, rumors, predictions and name calling.
Here is what will likely happen – we’ll print up the stickers and send them out to everyone who ordered a set. I’m waiting to hear from my engineer who coordinates all of this stuff. She’s traveling back from the Japan show so it may be a couple of days before I have answer.
Sit tight in the meantime. I’ll pin a thread to the top of the board when the solution’s final.
-Mark
I hope this all gets settled soon because it’s getting ugly over there on the HWC discussion board!
correction: Mark, HWC Administrator
sorry
EH?! Customer service anybody?
Most multi national companies would apologise with no argument to their consumers.
He could word his statement so much better to try and win people over.
Who is this guy? A high school work experience kid?
In my former business field, we used to apologise even when we were right, because we found the very fact a complaint had been made unsatisfactory.
I have said it before, and I will say it again,
Mattel suck!
Uncle Walt must be turning in his grave!
LETS KEEP IT REAL HERE JACK YOUR OK WITH ME I ENJOY READING YOUR WORDS OF OILITIC WISDOM,ITS NOT MATTEL RUMORS AHHH YES RUMORS THE OVERALL PROBLEM WITH IT ALL IS ARE YOU READY—>ANY MACHINE PRODUCING WILL HAVE FAULTS SO IF MATTEL CONTRACTS AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHO TO PRODUCE WHAT DO YOU GET AFTER AWHILE? HMMM MECHANICAL FAILURE AND THE FAILURE IS THE MOLDS ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE SO THIS MY FRIEND IS REAL AS A CHILD MY FONDEST MEMORY OF MATTEL NOT ONLY FOR THE DIECAST CARS BUT FOR THE BEST DAMN ACTION FIGURES I’LL SEE IN THIS LIFETIME,ALSO FOR THE GUY REMARKING ABOUT THE HONG KONG FAKES NO NOT REALLY FAKE BUT THE BEST DARN QUALITY PRODUCED ON THE MARKET AND THATS KEEPING IT REAL
Huh? Whazzat?
Why can’t we just talk about our love for Cars, and not our hatred or theories on Mattel.
I believe the Mark from Mattel is a moderator on the message boards, and not someone who has a pulse on what exactly will happen with the stickers….
Just finished unpacking my set and setting it up – took about 30 – 45 minutes. Looks great!
Good point C. Manifold. I will add at post about CARS, and a quick question for MET.
All right… I got the box today in the mail and it is sitting here in the office staring at me… I started this “hobby” when I bought my then 2 year old his first Lightning McQueen and Mater. At that time, I had no idea what a card back or peg warmer was. I also didn’t know that I would come to detest seeing Buzz and Woody in movie moment packages.
In any event, I have enjoyed “almost” every minute of collecting these CARS. My son has his favorites, the race cars, and plays with them every single day, and knows all of their names. I have collected one of each one to save in package for him to have when he is grown to remember this small part of his youth with his Dad.
The SOS set is the icing on the cake for the whole thing of what collecting and playing with these CARS is for the both of us. However, at the price we paid for this set, it is not something that a now almost 4 year old who loves to re-enact the opening crash scene over and over again, can realistically appreciate or play with…
The question that I have is… Is there another box within a box. I understand that there are no true “factory seals” on this set, but given that I am not going to show him this at this time, and want to preserve it for him for a while, I would like to keep it closed… Any thoughts or ideas MET? I know you have talked about opening the set, and I love the pics… but how bout those who want to preserve it?
Just some thoughts…
(MET: Thanks for the question – new post coming 🙂 )
MEGAHEAT – Love your posts man!
Oilitic (great word, its coming with!).
C. Manifold/Matt – I get what your saying, we all love the little 1.55 die cast replicas, but not because Mattel make them.
I’m not trying to offend or get at you, because I know others have and continue to post like you, which is good, the board has/needs diversity, and as a result looks more credible!
I think it is relevant to talk about the people who make the Cars we love though, especially with what is going on.
If you bought a sandwich somewhere because you had one before, and it was good, you enjoyed it, actually this was the best Sandwich you had ever had, but this time it was rancid, you would complain, and probably not go back there for a Sandwich.
As a consumer you have a choice.
This is were the whole Mattel thing is different, I cannot stop buying the Cars, because it would be detrimental to our already large collection and my son has the whole emotional blackmail thing going on.
However, I cannot get newer Cars for a decent fair price without using ebay.
I accepted 2 months ago that the British retail option was dead, and only very recently, have managed to strike a deal with an American based seller to basically sell me shop floor price with a small commission, I have no problem with this.
Things have only been this way for 6 – 12 months, it wasn’t like it is now until about $4000 into the collection game!
This could have been avoidable had the manufacturer of said toys behaved differently.
They don’t love these little Cars.
2 months ago it was sickening, but now, (mainly due to my posts on this site), I have a few more friends (and enemies), I know more, have helped to generate opinion and have improved my collection. I like to think I have helped some people too?
My comments related to the attitude our friend Mark the administrator. He shouldn’t be responsible for responding to peoples genuine complaints/concerns if he is going to talk to them like naughty school children. The people complaining had just forked out nearly $400 each and had received items as not described!
My point is, I believe that 90% of the time, my comments are related to Cars whether loved or loathed, and in my opinion, your comment –
“Why can’t we just talk about our love for Cars”
doesn’t encourage realism or make an interesting discussion board for general opinion.
Your comment just encourages a fan site.
Is this just a Fan site?
I am a fan, but I also have opinions and likes/dislikes.
Do you really want to go through the hassle we have all went through if you like Cars 2 die cast cars and want to buy them?
If Mattel get the contract, I won’t buy them, unless we walk past them in a shop and Jack wants one.
AS A FAMOUS LITTLE “FIAT” SAID ONCE,and this is great—-“I MUST SCREAM IT TO THE WORLD”,BESIDES I’M THE WORLDS BEST BACKWARDS DRIVER WHATCHIT HERE “CARS LOVERS———> WWWOOOOWWWW WOOO HOOO YES YEAH WHAT A SET I THINK THE KIDS PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE “OF COURSE I REALLY DONT REMEMBER I JUST WOKE UP BUT WHERED THE LUMP COME FROM? JUST KIDDING— BUT WOW LETS ADMIT THESE ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST CHARACTERS EVER PRODUCED BY ANY ONE COMPANY SO NOW ALL JOIN IN LETS SING IT TO THE WORLD 1-THANKYOU MR. JOHN LASSETER (REMEMBER JOE RANFT : ) 2 PIXAR GREAT ART : ) 3 DISNEY,HMMM WHAT WOULD MR. WALT DISNEY THINK RIGHT ABOUT NOW? HMMM….. SOMEONE CALL HENRY FORD GET HIM ON THE PHONE 4MATTEL – WE AS PARENTS LOVE AND HATE YOU SO LETS TOAST “KACHOW”,THANKYOU IT’S ONLY BUSINESS : ) BUT DARN I ,AND MY KIDS LOVE YOUR LINE OF TOYS : ) 5 AND HERE WORDPRESS YOU HAVE MADE ,AND THE OTHER FOLKS HERE MAKE IT HAPPEN 6 EBAY SELLERS THANKS BUT KEEP IT REAL ITS FOR THE KIDS PROFIT BY A SINGLE DIME IS FAIR ENOUGH : ( 7 A SPECIAL SHOUT TO MY PEEPS IN CHINA MAY THE GODS ABOVE RAIN PEACE A THOUSAND X’S 10 ON YOUR COUNTRY FROM ME TO YOU WITH OUT YOUR CRAFTSMANSHIP AND QUALITY WE WOULD NOT BE HERE BLEEPING,BLOGGING,BLURTING WELL FOR THE HUNT OF IT (CARS) I LOVE IT : ) THANKS TO ALL : )
Hey Met, did you get your set yet? What do you think? Did you unpack it and roll around on the floor with all the Cars? 🙂
My son likes to zoom them off the top step to see how far down the stairs they will go; ah kids.
(MET: That’s funny – sounds like fun! I got the set and opened it part way – gotta take some more photos and then figure out where it goes – it’s HUGE! 🙂 ).
Haven’t heard much about the numbering for awhile, but saw on this site that it will come out as a hologram..is this true Met / anyone?
(MET: Last I heard they were mailing them out but I’m not going to bothering thinking about them until I actually have one in hand … though my guess is we’ll see an eBay auction for one first).
Received my halo 97/1000 peal and stick sticker on Friday, 25th July……………….finally