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A History of Promo Cars
Greetings once again... One of the marketing strategies Mattel has used to sell more Cars is the use of mail-in promos... something along the lines of buy 5, get a free new Car... it's a devious yet brilliant way to move pegwarmers... I have fallen for it (er, taken advantage of it) and in other cases did not and ended up paying more for the new Car... Anyway, off to the promo races...
US Promo Cars
Blu-ray McQueen was the first US promo Car... If you bought a copy of the DVD, you could send off and receive a Blu-ray McQueen in a baggie:
I believe this promo was in effect from mid-October 2007 until 12/31/2007... at the time, I had not started collecting Cars with full gusto; I'd already bought the DVD and was not going to buy another copy of the movie on DVD to get a Car that wasn't in the movie... Silly me... by the time I got my Blu-ray McQueen, I ended up paying $80 for it and got a deal... there were issues with this promo... not everyone who sent off for it got one (they ran out of the 15000 Cars), and some people sent off for 1 and received dozens... today, unless you get one from someone selling off part of a collection, eBay or Amazon is about the only way to get it.
Sidewall Shine
The next US promos were Toys R Us exclusives... Buy 5 Cars, send in $5.00 for shipping and handling, and receive an unreleased new Car... The Sidewall Shine promo Car promotion ran from August 18, 2008 through September 30, 2008...
(Above photo courtesy of Rippers)
Not having a local Toys R Us, I had to drive to the nearest Indianapolis store, 75 miles away, to search the pegs... of the 5 Cars I bought, I already had 4 of them... I sent away for my 1 Sidewall Shine... In the US, you were required to mail in the UPC from the card (or blister), so that meant you had to open the purchased Cars... Some collectors were not happy with that.
Not nearly as many Sidewall Shine promo Cars were sold as Toys R Us expected... The same thing happened with their next promo Car, N2O Cola... as a result, Toys R Us canceled the 3rd and 4th announced US promo Cars: Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint... I know I was able to purchase additional Sidewall Shine and N2O Cola promo Cars on eBay for less than $15 each shipped late in 2009...
Mattel later released Sidewall Shine as a rubber tire racer (Kmart 5) as well as a Lightyear Launcher with plastic tires... there are a few Sidewall Shine promo Cars on eBay today.
N2O Cola
Toys R Us did not waste any time coming out with their next US Promo Car... N2O Cola... This promo began in October 2008 and ended on December 31, 2008... I had decided I wasn't going to spend $30 for a "free promo Car"... and then on December 31, the last day of the promo, GOMATERGO and I made a road trip to Indianapolis... we stopped at Toys R Us, and I bought 15 pegwarmers so I could send off for 3.
I ended up opening 1 of my promo Cars to put in a display case... I traded one to Rippers for a UK Faux Wheel Drive promo Car (our first trade, Paul)... and I was down to just one... When Toys R Us canceled the last 2 promos, these became available on eBay for the $15 shipped price... I also have a Martin Arriola autographed N2O Cola; MrBrownstone won it during a CarsCares auction and we worked out a trade for it... ironically, I sent the autographed one to Jon as part of a package I sent him and he had to send it back to me... don't grocery shop when you're hungry, and don't get Cars packages ready when you're tired...anyway, I digress...
I now have 5 Sidewall Shine and 4 N2O Cola promo Cars (in the individual display cases) that are in sealed baggies... I was hoping to be able to trade them for newer promos when they came out.
N2O Cola has also been released as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and has a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher in 2010.
The Canceled Promos
The 3rd Toys R Us promo Car was supposed to begin March 18, 2009 and was supposed to be Gask-Its... even though there were no fliers up in stores in advance of the start date, we "knew" that the Gask-Its promo was starting that day... I skipped church that Sunday morning to be at TRU when the promo started, because I was going to buy several... even though the promo had not been confirmed... the store manager knew nothing about the promo... it was not listed in the store promotional materials for the month... Still, I purchased 20 Cars (18 repeats) so I'd be ready for the promo....
A few days after the fact, Met posted the news on TakeFiveADay... ToysRUs had canceled the Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint promos... collectors were crushed... if you had not gotten the Speedway of the South set, your hopes of adding these 2 racers to your collection were shattered... I returned half of the Cars I'd purchased to the store... I'd given the others to my grandchildren to open so they could play with them.
Gask-Its was finally released with rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector event and with plastic tires as a Lightyear Launcher in fall 2010... Tach-O-Mint was released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event; we've seen pictures of a Tach-O-Mint Pit Row Race-off launcher from SDCC 2009, but sadly, it's never been released with plastic tires outside of the Speedway of the South set.
UK Promos
Vinyl Toupee
The first UK promo Car was Vinyl Toupee... I believe the promo started in the last 3 months of 2007... it ended on 12/31/2007... I don't have much information on this promo Car - it is the one promo Car that I don't have... I believe Rippers will share a picture and details of this promo.
Thank you, Rippers, for the photos of the Vinyl Toupee promo Cars:
Vinyl Toupee has since been released in the Target Dinoco 400 boxed set, as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and most recently as a Lightyear Launcher... The Vinyl Toupee hauler is a favorite of many collectors.
Faux Wheel Drive
Faux Wheel Drive has been a UK promo Car on multiple occasions... the first time was during the winter of 2008... It was buy 5 and receive a free Faux Wheel Drive... unlike the TRU US promos, you did not have to cut off the UPCs and mail them in... there were stickers with codes attached to the cardbacks and you called in them in or submitted the codes online... codes could only be used once.
You received the following in the mail via Royal Mail delivery:
This one has been autographed by Martin Arriola, who designed many of the early Cars... I donated it to the Cars Cares charity for an auction, and ended up winning it.
Photo courtesy of Rippers:
It was during this promo that I really became a full-fledged Cars-a-holic... I had traded with several excellent UK people, including Rippers, Niler7, and Akumulator1... GOMATERGO and I had also joined an Indianapolis area Cars Collector Club, and since I had UK contacts, I took care of this for the group... and also for friends in Illinois, California, Alaska, and other states... I traded for or purchased 21 Faux Wheel Drive promo Cars... 1 is in a Carney Plastics SA-100 display case... 1 is in a Target 4 pack in a Poor Man's Speedway in the South set (made up of 9 4 pack boxes)... I have 3 left in baggies in 2 padded mailing envelopes.
Faux Wheel Drive was also used as a promo Car in France in late 2009 when they ran out of Gask-Its... it was also released as a promo in Italy in October 2009... it was also repeated as a UK promo Car in September 2009 or 2010 - when it turned out that the mystery promo was indeed a re-release of Faux Wheel Drive, many of us felt we'd been cheated.
Faux Wheel Drive was also released with Rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event - it also was available in a rubber tire 3 pack with Gask-Its and Lightning McQueen right before Kmart 5... the detailed paint job on Faux Wheel Drive makes it one of my favorite Cars racers.
Other UK Promos
I don't have specific dates, but I believe Sidewall Shine was released as a UK promo... there were leftovers from the US promo used in the UK promo.
Here is a poster describing details of the UK Sidewall Shine promo...
(Thank you, Rippers, for the photo)
The Gask-Its Promo (France)
I believe that the dates are between July 2009 and November 2009... but Gask-Its with plastic tires was finally released as a promo Car... in France... This has been the most expensive promo Car in my experience... Buy 4 Cars and receive a Gask-Its promo Car... However, unlike other promo Cars, they would only mail one promo Car to an address... that made it very tough to acquire... One of my friends in Germany was able to get one for me, and a UK friend who has an aunt who has a vacation home in France was able to get one for me... I have an average of $110 in each of my 2 Gask-Its promo Cars...
Here are pictures:
The Gask-Its promo Car was selling on eBay for between $200 and $400 (each)... due to the very limited numbers released so far, it is the most rare of the promo Cars...
Gask-Its has since been released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event (as a single and in the 3 pack with Lightning McQueen and Faux Wheel Drive) and as a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher late in 2010.
Other promo Cars
There have been other promo Cars released in the US and in other countries... Some have been available on mattycollector.com (Barry Diesel, Lightning Storm McQueen, and Tokyo Mater)... Some have been released with movies - after missing out on the Blu-ray McQueen, I did not miss out on the Blu-ray Collector pack with the Ransburg Rescue Squad Mater and Gold McQueen... There was a Best Buy exclusive DVD of Cars that contained 4 Cars... but that sounds like a future article...
Thanks for reading... I'll edit this article to include pictures of the UK Vinyl Toupee promo Car when I have the link.
Greetings once again... One of the marketing strategies Mattel has used to sell more Cars is the use of mail-in promos... something along the lines of buy 5, get a free new Car... it's a devious yet brilliant way to move pegwarmers... I have fallen for it (er, taken advantage of it) and in other cases did not and ended up paying more for the new Car... Anyway, off to the promo races...
US Promo Cars
Blu-ray McQueen was the first US promo Car... If you bought a copy of the DVD, you could send off and receive a Blu-ray McQueen in a baggie:
I believe this promo was in effect from mid-October 2007 until 12/31/2007... at the time, I had not started collecting Cars with full gusto; I'd already bought the DVD and was not going to buy another copy of the movie on DVD to get a Car that wasn't in the movie... Silly me... by the time I got my Blu-ray McQueen, I ended up paying $80 for it and got a deal... there were issues with this promo... not everyone who sent off for it got one (they ran out of the 15000 Cars), and some people sent off for 1 and received dozens... today, unless you get one from someone selling off part of a collection, eBay or Amazon is about the only way to get it.
Sidewall Shine
The next US promos were Toys R Us exclusives... Buy 5 Cars, send in $5.00 for shipping and handling, and receive an unreleased new Car... The Sidewall Shine promo Car promotion ran from August 18, 2008 through September 30, 2008...
(Above photo courtesy of Rippers)
Not having a local Toys R Us, I had to drive to the nearest Indianapolis store, 75 miles away, to search the pegs... of the 5 Cars I bought, I already had 4 of them... I sent away for my 1 Sidewall Shine... In the US, you were required to mail in the UPC from the card (or blister), so that meant you had to open the purchased Cars... Some collectors were not happy with that.
Not nearly as many Sidewall Shine promo Cars were sold as Toys R Us expected... The same thing happened with their next promo Car, N2O Cola... as a result, Toys R Us canceled the 3rd and 4th announced US promo Cars: Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint... I know I was able to purchase additional Sidewall Shine and N2O Cola promo Cars on eBay for less than $15 each shipped late in 2009...
Mattel later released Sidewall Shine as a rubber tire racer (Kmart 5) as well as a Lightyear Launcher with plastic tires... there are a few Sidewall Shine promo Cars on eBay today.
N2O Cola
Toys R Us did not waste any time coming out with their next US Promo Car... N2O Cola... This promo began in October 2008 and ended on December 31, 2008... I had decided I wasn't going to spend $30 for a "free promo Car"... and then on December 31, the last day of the promo, GOMATERGO and I made a road trip to Indianapolis... we stopped at Toys R Us, and I bought 15 pegwarmers so I could send off for 3.
I ended up opening 1 of my promo Cars to put in a display case... I traded one to Rippers for a UK Faux Wheel Drive promo Car (our first trade, Paul)... and I was down to just one... When Toys R Us canceled the last 2 promos, these became available on eBay for the $15 shipped price... I also have a Martin Arriola autographed N2O Cola; MrBrownstone won it during a CarsCares auction and we worked out a trade for it... ironically, I sent the autographed one to Jon as part of a package I sent him and he had to send it back to me... don't grocery shop when you're hungry, and don't get Cars packages ready when you're tired...anyway, I digress...
I now have 5 Sidewall Shine and 4 N2O Cola promo Cars (in the individual display cases) that are in sealed baggies... I was hoping to be able to trade them for newer promos when they came out.
N2O Cola has also been released as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and has a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher in 2010.
The Canceled Promos
The 3rd Toys R Us promo Car was supposed to begin March 18, 2009 and was supposed to be Gask-Its... even though there were no fliers up in stores in advance of the start date, we "knew" that the Gask-Its promo was starting that day... I skipped church that Sunday morning to be at TRU when the promo started, because I was going to buy several... even though the promo had not been confirmed... the store manager knew nothing about the promo... it was not listed in the store promotional materials for the month... Still, I purchased 20 Cars (18 repeats) so I'd be ready for the promo....
A few days after the fact, Met posted the news on TakeFiveADay... ToysRUs had canceled the Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint promos... collectors were crushed... if you had not gotten the Speedway of the South set, your hopes of adding these 2 racers to your collection were shattered... I returned half of the Cars I'd purchased to the store... I'd given the others to my grandchildren to open so they could play with them.
Gask-Its was finally released with rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector event and with plastic tires as a Lightyear Launcher in fall 2010... Tach-O-Mint was released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event; we've seen pictures of a Tach-O-Mint Pit Row Race-off launcher from SDCC 2009, but sadly, it's never been released with plastic tires outside of the Speedway of the South set.
UK Promos
Vinyl Toupee
The first UK promo Car was Vinyl Toupee... I believe the promo started in the last 3 months of 2007... it ended on 12/31/2007... I don't have much information on this promo Car - it is the one promo Car that I don't have... I believe Rippers will share a picture and details of this promo.
Thank you, Rippers, for the photos of the Vinyl Toupee promo Cars:
Vinyl Toupee has since been released in the Target Dinoco 400 boxed set, as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and most recently as a Lightyear Launcher... The Vinyl Toupee hauler is a favorite of many collectors.
Faux Wheel Drive
Faux Wheel Drive has been a UK promo Car on multiple occasions... the first time was during the winter of 2008... It was buy 5 and receive a free Faux Wheel Drive... unlike the TRU US promos, you did not have to cut off the UPCs and mail them in... there were stickers with codes attached to the cardbacks and you called in them in or submitted the codes online... codes could only be used once.
You received the following in the mail via Royal Mail delivery:
This one has been autographed by Martin Arriola, who designed many of the early Cars... I donated it to the Cars Cares charity for an auction, and ended up winning it.
Photo courtesy of Rippers:
It was during this promo that I really became a full-fledged Cars-a-holic... I had traded with several excellent UK people, including Rippers, Niler7, and Akumulator1... GOMATERGO and I had also joined an Indianapolis area Cars Collector Club, and since I had UK contacts, I took care of this for the group... and also for friends in Illinois, California, Alaska, and other states... I traded for or purchased 21 Faux Wheel Drive promo Cars... 1 is in a Carney Plastics SA-100 display case... 1 is in a Target 4 pack in a Poor Man's Speedway in the South set (made up of 9 4 pack boxes)... I have 3 left in baggies in 2 padded mailing envelopes.
Faux Wheel Drive was also used as a promo Car in France in late 2009 when they ran out of Gask-Its... it was also released as a promo in Italy in October 2009... it was also repeated as a UK promo Car in September 2009 or 2010 - when it turned out that the mystery promo was indeed a re-release of Faux Wheel Drive, many of us felt we'd been cheated.
Faux Wheel Drive was also released with Rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event - it also was available in a rubber tire 3 pack with Gask-Its and Lightning McQueen right before Kmart 5... the detailed paint job on Faux Wheel Drive makes it one of my favorite Cars racers.
Other UK Promos
I don't have specific dates, but I believe Sidewall Shine was released as a UK promo... there were leftovers from the US promo used in the UK promo.
Here is a poster describing details of the UK Sidewall Shine promo...
(Thank you, Rippers, for the photo)
The Gask-Its Promo (France)
I believe that the dates are between July 2009 and November 2009... but Gask-Its with plastic tires was finally released as a promo Car... in France... This has been the most expensive promo Car in my experience... Buy 4 Cars and receive a Gask-Its promo Car... However, unlike other promo Cars, they would only mail one promo Car to an address... that made it very tough to acquire... One of my friends in Germany was able to get one for me, and a UK friend who has an aunt who has a vacation home in France was able to get one for me... I have an average of $110 in each of my 2 Gask-Its promo Cars...
Here are pictures:
The Gask-Its promo Car was selling on eBay for between $200 and $400 (each)... due to the very limited numbers released so far, it is the most rare of the promo Cars...
Gask-Its has since been released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event (as a single and in the 3 pack with Lightning McQueen and Faux Wheel Drive) and as a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher late in 2010.
Other promo Cars
There have been other promo Cars released in the US and in other countries... Some have been available on mattycollector.com (Barry Diesel, Lightning Storm McQueen, and Tokyo Mater)... Some have been released with movies - after missing out on the Blu-ray McQueen, I did not miss out on the Blu-ray Collector pack with the Ransburg Rescue Squad Mater and Gold McQueen... There was a Best Buy exclusive DVD of Cars that contained 4 Cars... but that sounds like a future article...
Thanks for reading... I'll edit this article to include pictures of the UK Vinyl Toupee promo Car when I have the link.
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