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From the beginning, Mattel has been releasing boxed sets of Cars that consist of many Cars that have already been released with with an occasional new-to-market or rare Car included... the first box set was the 2006 Factory Sealed set... limited to 500 pieces, this set included the previously released Desert Back singles, Movie Moments, and 2 new carded Cars: Rollin Bowlin Mater and Dirt Track McQueen... Dirt Track McQueen turned out to be a pegwarmer... Rollin Bowlin Mater has turned out to be a more limited item to own.
I don't own a 2006 Factory Set and with the current price starting at $1800 and going up rapidly, I won't be buying one... I have a friend who has one, so I'll see if I can add a photo... (note: permission granted and photos added)...
Rollin Bowlin Mater was later released as a boxed set... when KB Toys was going out of business in the US, these $19.99 games were marked down to $9.99... I had not started to collect Cars by the time the liquidation started, so I didn't take advantage of the sale price... I paid an average of $35 plus shipping for the 2 loose ones that I had, and paid $60 for a sealed set.
Sealed set:
Sealed set with one loose single:
Speedway of the South set
The Speedway of the South set was the next "big" boxed set... it went on sale in May 2007... by the time I factored in the Hot Wheels Red Line Club membership fee, shipping, and the set, I had spent $362.00... my wife was not happy with me spending that much on Cars... 2 weeks later, when the were selling for $800 on eBay, she wanted to know why I had not purchased 2 of them...
To this day I still haven't set up my Speedway of the South set... I have taken them out of the box a few times to take pictures...
Here are a few photos of my genuine Apple racer from the Speedway of the South set:
There was at least one additional very rare Desert Back box set... known as the Super 6, it contained Rollin Bowlin Mater, Sheriff, Sally, Purple Ramone, Doc Hudson, and Wingo... I'll see if I can obtain a photo...
Supercharged series box sets
Continuing with the Supercharged series, Mattel continued to release box sets... Other than picking up the Dinoco 400 set, I did not buy any of these until long after they'd disappeared from store shelves...
Shopkeepers set:
The Shopkeepers set included Green Ramone, Fillmore, Mater, and Sarge... I have this in both International and US versions... I traded with stukatso (Thank you, Daniel) for the international version, and bought the US version for $17 shipped on eBay.
International version:
US version:
Dinoco 400 set and Radiator Springs Gift Pack:
The Dinoco 400 set was a Target exclusive... I believe it originally sold for $29.99 for the set of 7 racers... Vinyl Toupee, No Stall, and Octane Gain were new releases... later on, we'd get No Stall as a launcher and in a racing 3 pack... Octain Gain would later be released as a launcher, Lightyear Launcher, 3 pack with hauler and pitty... Vinyl Toupee would later be released as a Lightyear Launcher - prior to this release it had only been in the Speedway of the South set and as a UK promo Car... I saw these Dinoco 400 sets on clearance at a few Target stores for $17.99 but did not buy any.
The Radiator Springs Gift pack consisted of the very hard to find Lizzie as well as Mater, Sally, Doc Hudson, and Sheriff... I saw this set online at the ToysRUs website for $19.99 and ordered it.... TRU sent me a 5 pack with Sheriff and the 4 Tunerz... Dadgum TRU... Just when I thought I'd never actually get this set, it came up as part of a bundle on a Cars Cares (now Nathan's Playroom) auction... I ended up winning the 4 Supercharged box sets that night.
Tractor Tippin and Courtroom Crew:
The Tractor Tippin boxed set included Mater, McQueen, and a tipped Toot tractor...
The Courtroom Crew set included Sheriff, Sally, and Doc Hudson.
Target 4 packs:
Target released many 4 packs of racers... the first consisted of Revolting with Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks, and the King... other than the Speedway of the South set, this was the first and so far only release of Revolting with plastic tires... the first version included a Lightning McQueen without the Rusteze logo on the rear spoiler... the second version included a Lightning McQueen with the Rusteze logo on the rear spoiler.
I ended up buying several of these in order to get the boxes... The original retail price was $14.99... I ended up making my own 4 packs to create a "Poor Man's Speedway of the South"... I just need to add my backdoor Apple to finish the set of 9 4 packs... the Apple is currently in a display case...
Team sets
Mattel and Target also released several Target exclusive box sets that included a hauler, racer, and pitty... Rusteze, HTB, Dinoco, Leakless, Octane Gain, Nitorade, and Bumper Save sets were released in this format... I have combined Team sets and Team Crew sets (crew chief and 3 pittys) to create super sets...
Here's the Bumper Save Team set before I opened it (thank you, dad2spies):
Here's my unboxed Bumper Save team super set:
Here's my unboxed Nitroade team super set:
I also have an Octane Gain unboxed team super set... I'll add the photo when I find it.
Here are my boxed super sets... Here's a boxed set of the 4 (Rusteze, HTB, Leakless, and Dinoco):
Here's a close up of my Dinoco Team super set, including custom silver tires (tyres) by GotFrank:
In conclusion
Many other boxed sets have been released... in future articles we'll take a look at some of these... Team sets (racer/crew chief/pitty) in both vertical and horizontal styling... Team Crew sets (crew chief and 3 pittys)... Mater's Tall Tales 4 packs... Christmas sets... A Target Speedway 9 pack with 5 repeat racers and 4 new Cars (Timothy Twostroke (McQueen's Fan) and 3 camera Cars: Dash Boardman, Tim Rimmer, and Houser Boon)...
But like many lines in the Cars series, Mattel started sets... got our hopes up... and then, when they didn't sell because of the high price for 1 or 2 new Cars, discontinued the line.
And boxed sets with only 1 or 2 new Cars have continued as the Cars2 items have been released... many of us are no longer collecting them all.
I'll try to add more details about the box sets in the future.
Thanks for reading...
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