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Will Mattel Cancel Cases for this Year?

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  • Will Mattel Cancel Cases for this Year?

    As we know case H is just starting to leak out. There are 3 more cases scheduled to be released (J, K, and L) however since the Mattel year ends 9/30 I wanted to see what the board thought about Mattel squeezing through the final 3 cases in the next 90 days. It just doesn't look like it will happen. Do you think they will just cancel some or all of the remaining cases? Or will just roll them over into the new Mattel year starting 10/1? I'm also wondering if 10/1 means another new cardback design.

  • #2
    Great questions and it will be very interesting to find out the answers!

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    • #3
      Well there are still definitely more Cases after J, K, and L since Cars like Midred Bylane, Alex Carvill, Luigi and Guido w/ Shaker and Glasses, Airport Waitress, and Race Official Tom have not gotten in a Case assortment. Also, Case K is the Super Chase Case twin of Case J, so that one will probably not get released in stores.

      My guess is that there will be 4 more Cases left this year to be released in stores (J, L, and the other two).
      As for the cardback, my guess on that is that it will be quite similar to what we saw this year, though with new themes and awesome new releases.

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      • #4
        Good question... it would not surprise me to see combining of cases into a "Super Case" like 2012 case P... but again, I don't know.

        I remember years ago we'd see new cases every 4 weeks, so we still could get 3 to 4 new cases of singles in the 2013 Mattel year.

        It's hard to wait on new Cars when you are a Cars-a-holic!


        I am cac1959... I am a Cars-a-holic... and a proud supporter of Nathan's Playroom

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        • #5
          Originally posted by cac1959 View Post
          Good question... it would not surprise me to see combining of cases into a "Super Case" like 2012 case P... but again, I don't know.

          I remember years ago we'd see new cases every 4 weeks, so we still could get 3 to 4 new cases of singles in the 2013 Mattel year.

          It's hard to wait on new Cars when you are a Cars-a-holic!
          it would be great if they did that

          one case to buy / find instead of 3

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          • #6
            There's no guarantee that they will continue Cars next year. There's only so much recycling they can do, with ever decreasing sales numbers. There's only so many variations of the standard Lightning McQueen that people will buy.

            I think that the themes has been a great idea, but one that could've been even better.

            If I was in charge of the 2013-2015 product and I was looking at around 100-150 cars in series, I'd release something like this ...

            A full set of Speedway of the South series including Apple Car (36 cars).

            A full set of Cars 2 rubber tyre racers (11 cars).

            A full set of Haulers - including any missing or unreleased ones (19 plus 2013 plus ...).

            A full set of Deluxe - including any missing or unreleased ones (26 plus 2013 plus ...).

            A Full set of Doubles and Movie Moments - including any missing or unreleased ones (33 from Cars; 23 from Cars 2; Plus 2013 ...).

            That's enough to get started ... !

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            • #7
              Most of the stores by me are just now showing up with case F at this point and just got around to it in late June - and case F was released early March. Case G never showed up at all by me and I don't know if I'll see case H in retail stores. That's why I'm thinking we won't see all the scheduled cases for this year. Last year stores stopped ordering anything with the V2796 code - which is why as collectors we were all pleasantly surprised to see case P sent to liquidators and then bought by us. The stores don't care or know that case P was the best case of all - they just blocked anything with V2796. That also explains how the case oversize case with Funny Car Mater, Kimura Kaizo, and The Queen got liquidated. I'm just thinking that if some areas of the country are just now showing case F that there is no way Mattel can release all the remaining product scheduled for this year. I hope to see them all but doesn't look good I'm afraid.

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              • #8
                Just a guess but I think we'll see one more "year" of Cars releases, although more limited in scope compared to this year. And then the curtain will fall. The completists won't be happy.

                Cancellations are already par for the course in the UK (as Nigel aptly put it, we're the "dumping ground" for all the crap overstock) and that pattern looks set to continue.

                I hope I'm wrong but it's better to expect disappointment and be pleasantly surprised than the other way round.

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                • #9
                  I definitely hope they don't drop the entire line. Even if they moved to a quarterly release with one case every 3 months that would be fine - just as long as the line survives. I'm hoping Cars become a long term legacy like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.
                  Last edited by PopeMobile; 07-10-2013, 12:33 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by PopeMobile View Post
                    I definitely hope they don't drop the entire line. Even they moved to a quarterly release with one case every 3 months that would be fine - just as long as the line survives. I'm hoping Cars become a long term legacy like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.
                    I'm guessing the terms of the Disney licensing deal will determine how long they continue the line but it wont be long-term or indefinite. Planes 2 and 3 are confirmed remember and maybe the view will be "well we have 2 lines of cars already, so for Disney we'll focus on planes from now on".

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                    • #11
                      mattel cranks out matchbox and hot wheels cars every year
                      why would they stop this line with as many cars as it still sells, over 23 million so far
                      they might cut back on production runs if interest drops
                      as long as new cars are selling I don't see this going away

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by carslover View Post
                        mattel cranks out matchbox and hot wheels cars every year
                        why would they stop this line with as many cars as it still sells, over 23 million so far
                        they might cut back on production runs if interest drops
                        as long as new cars are selling I don't see this going away
                        Big difference is that MB and HW are completely 100% owned by Mattel. Cars are made under license with Disney and are subject to the uncertain nature of licensing agreements. And that's before you factor in the movie tie-in factor and Disney's priorities as I mentioned in my previous post.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Enzo View Post
                          I'm guessing the terms of the Disney licensing deal will determine how long they continue the line but it wont be long-term or indefinite. Planes 2 and 3 are confirmed remember and maybe the view will be "well we have 2 lines of cars already, so for Disney we'll focus on planes from now on".
                          Originally posted by Enzo View Post
                          Big difference is that MB and HW are completely 100% owned by Mattel. Cars are made under license with Disney and are subject to the uncertain nature of licensing agreements. And that's before you factor in the movie tie-in factor and Disney's priorities as I mentioned in my previous post.

                          Star Wars is also licensed under Disney, do you think that will go away too?

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by John in Missouri View Post
                            Star Wars is also licensed under Disney, do you think that will go away too?
                            Lucas sold up to Disney what, just 6 months ago? And that's already a bulletproof 36-year old legacy, the merchandising golden goose that keeps on laying. I don't think Cars is even remotely in the same endurance league.

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                            • #15
                              Another board is reporting that case R is now out at Target - this wasn't even on the scheduled list of releases for this year. I think it's another indication that cases J, K, and L may be canceled. Has anyone seen Mattel ship cases out of order before? I've only been doing this a year and to me it was always in alphabetical order.

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