In the beginning there was Cars... many of us saw the first movie in the theater... and bought it on DVD... back in 2006 I wasn't a full-blown Cars-a-holic... I didn't pick up the movie on DVD until my grandson asked me to... and then I only bought one copy, the least expensive one I could find in a local store... little did I know that there were other variations... and as the years went by I started seeing more and more Cars... and getting hooked on more and more Cars... I went from not buying a Blu-Ray version of Cars with a special mail away promo Car (Blu-Ray McQueen) to getting just about every diecast Car I could buy and buying multiples of many of the movie gift packs so I could have one opened for display and one to keep carded in the collection.
In this installment of Respect the Classics, we'll take a look at some of the Cars movie gift packs.
Best Buy Exclusive with Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, Fillmore, and Mater
This is the first of the Cars Gift packs that was released, but the last one I added to my collection... Richmond didn't have a Best Buy when Cars was released... and since I picked up the DVD at a store I didn't know that Best Buy had an exclusive Cars gift pack.
Once I learned from a post from carslover that this Best Buy exclusive existed, I had to find it... even though I had the movie and had each of the 4 Cars... I did win an eBay auction for it.
I like the looks of both the front and the back:
I like the descriptions of the characters... and as part of the marketing plan, the 4 featured Cars were famous actors - Owen Wilson (Lightning McQueen), the late Paul Newman (Doc Hudson), the late George Carlin (Fillmore), and Larry the Cable Guy (Mater)... As you can see from the first picture, the retail price for the gift pack was $39.99.
Ultimate Cars Gift Pack
Up next was the Ultimate Cars Gift Pack... Released in 2009, this gift pack included the Cars movie on both Blu-Ray and DVD as well as 2 exclusive Cars with custom Ransburg paint - Gold Cruisin Lightning McQueen and Rescue Squad Mater... As I now had a PS3 that could play Blu-Ray movies and was completely hooked on Cars, I got this the day it was released... The list price was $39.99 at Meijer... I also went to Walmart at lunch and bought 2 more copies so I could open one... the Blu-Ray also included the Carfinder game.
Once again the back of the gift pack was very nice.
This was also an Amazon Black Friday special... for one hour, it was available for $12.99... we were at my wife's sister's home... they had dial-up Internet access and I was afraid I was going to miss out... when it arrived I saw that it was special indeed...
Upside down Rescue Squad Mater:
I knew Mater was the world's best backwards driver... I didn't know that he could also drive upside down.
This is my favorite of the Cars movie gift packs.
Cars 2 Blu-ray Combo Pack Gift Set (Walmart exclusive)
The Cars 2 movie was released in theaters June 24, 2011... many of us were looking forward to it... a lot... more than a few of us were a little disappointed in it... Part of it was that my grandson had outgrown Cars... we watched the Cars movie over 150 times at home... we watched Cars 2 twice... when the movie was released on video I went to Walmart before work to get the Cars 2 Blu-ray Combo Pack Gift set and I went to Best Buy at lunch to buy the Cars 2 Blu-ray which allowed me to buy a Best Buy radio control McQueen for $16.99... it was an expensive day.
The Walmart exclusive included a Finn McMissile Diecast Car with Ransburg paint... my favorite Finn McMissile diecast... this was supposed to be a Walmart (and Sam's Club) exclusive Finn McMissile... but it turned out that it was included as a bonus with the 2011 D23 Submarine Finn McMissile in August 2011... Later on the Ransburg Finn McMissile was released as a single in the UK at Toys R US...
Here's the back of the Combo pack gift set:
Cars Director's Edition 11-disc set (2011)
In 2011 Disney-Pixar released the 11-disc Director's Edition set... This included Cars on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Copy, Cars 2 on Blu-Ray 3D, Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Copy, and Cars Toon on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Copy... and a Lassetire Car... the same John Lassetire that was in the two-pack with Jeff Gorvette... Even though I had the Lassetire Car and most of the titles, I went ahead and bought it when Amazon had it on sale for $62.99 - I wasn't about to pay the $99 retail price or the $79 sale price in a store... had the John Lassetire been a Ransburg paint version, I would have paid the higher price in the store... I've never opened my Director's Edition copy and don't think I ever will... but I didn't want to not buy it and then regret it... I'd rather regret buying a Cars item than not buying a Cars item.
Here are a few more photos of the box... the best looking side of the box is the bottom, in my opinion.
Will we see any more Cars movie gift packs before the release of Cars 3? I don't think so... we may see more Toons... and there will be more titles in the Planes series... but since Planes was released as a movie only (no gift pack), I don't think they'll release Planes Fire and Rescue as a gift pack... but it wouldn't surprise me to see a boxed set of Planes movies.
Which of the Cars movie Gift packs do you own? Which of the ones you don't own do you think you'll buy?
Thanks for reading... as always, I appreciate your comments.
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