Is the Cars Market Declining by You?

[PopeMobile]

The last 4 months I have seen quite a pullback on the Cars market. Specifically I have noticed the following:

1) Demand for the superchase cars has plummeted significantly. Hiroaki / Takeshi / Yukio - all have gone down considerably. Trike Feldman, while not in the highest supply doesn't seem to have much demand. Long Ge and Flash are no longer the coveted superchase cars.
2) Kids have moved on from Cars to Planes and the demand for toys switched to Planes as well.
3) There hasn't been a Cars movie out for 2.5 years now - so what was once hot is becoming stale.
4) The newer model cars are not main characters and most people don't remember them in the movie. Hiroaki and Takeshi are the perfect example of blink and you miss them in the movie. I have no idea where Trike Feldman is in the movie.
5) Cars that were rare have been re-released by Mattel in 2013 - I felt this hurt the line.
6) A poor case distribution in 2012 led to to overproduction in 2013. So we went from famine to feast and this flooded the stores with new product. For example, there were 7 cases released within 2 months.


Wanted to see what the rest of the community thought here. Are you seeing/feeling the same thing?

[CarsDiecast08]

I haven't notice the decline, but I would like to get every different character, not the mutiple versions of one car but just that one character. I still need Takeshi and Hiroaki. Trike Feldman I believe appears in the movie where Finn is racing to the tower to stop Acer and Grem, he's arguing with a big yellow truck when Finn races by. (I think).
Even though the new models to me are just as cool as the main characters just cause they're a different character all together no matter how much screen time they got.
Whether Disney & Pixar will make another cars movie.. who knows, maybe.
Mattel in the first place should of never made any car rare, store exclusive, or even just overseas (the super chase racers) I feel everyone should be able to collect them all at the same fair rate.
I won't ever stop collecting and trying to complete the cars collection until I have them all or until Mattel stops. It may take me a lifetime but I don't plan to give up. But I also don't plan to go bankrupt and shell out a lot of money on just one car when I see no difference in the value of a small diecast car that is no different from a 99 cent hotwheels car.

[CarsDiecast08]

Whats a sad thought it kids don't stay interested in one thing forever, they grow up and move on as time, and when that happens and as time goes on the cars could hit the clearance shelves and then vanish off the shelves forever. I really hope that doesn't happen for a long time.

[EliteThink]

I only buy loose cars and largely off of craigslist. those that are too rough I make into customs. Cars will be around for a very long time, Disney made an entire theme park around it. don't stress...

[PopeMobile]

I should also add that another disappointment was in buying Target 7-packs for the exclusive car only to see many of those cars now re-released as singles. As a result I have stopped buying any of the Target multi-packs.

[ksammut]

My father says Mattel won't stop making Cars, because Mattel and Disney/Pixar make a lot of profit from the line.

[Scavenger]

I have noticed a Decline in prices on eBay and have noticed a lot more cars that you would think would sell right off the pegs still hanging on the pegs so I would have to agree that there seems to be a decline at the moment not to say that it's dead or dying but it's certainly not on an upswing at the moment!

[iopl3887]

I feel that there are too many re-releases in 2013. I even predicted a while back in 2012, I bet the stores will be flooded with cars. And there's too many that people already have now. There's 1000000000 Francescos on 1 shelf. And yes, Planes toys are showing up a LOT more than I expected... P.S. Trike was only seen for 1 millisecond when Finn was speeding through the tiny alleys of Italy.

[Raginpage]

I think it is in decline from its heyday, not that I remember or collected in the heyday. But, I also think it will last a long time, and that good variety of cases will help sales. While some old port corsa cases can stay on the pegs with almost literally no sales at all, the 2013 case line actually moves some stock because there is more variety. I think not putting out the number of cases and keeping the variety coming has actually injected some life into cars. From 10/2012-4/2013 I saw very little movement on cars. When those new cases started coming out, cars started flying off the shelves around me. The notion of some of the small tires near me selling 5-6 cases in a month would've been unheard of when I first started collecting, but is a reality now.

[EliteThink]

I feel that there are too many re-releases in 2013. I even predicted a while back in 2012, I bet the stores will be flooded with cars. And there's too many that people already have now. There's 1000000000 Francescos on 1 shelf. And yes, Planes toys are showing up a LOT more than I expected... P.S. Trike was only seen for 1 millisecond when Finn was speeding through the tiny alleys of Italy.

agreed. a year ago I was buying the cars inventory from a retailer for .99 each. Francesco was way over built. Which I like because he is plentiful to customize and looks great in all one color.

[Tmremote]

Yeah, I would say. A perfect example is when I found the Chuck/Nelson deluxe case in my first Target in about 2 months. I believe Super Chases still have demand simply because of their worth...everyone wants them; I also think 2014 cases will be slightly less overproduced than the 2013 line. 2013 was a year of disappointment because of the unwanted re-releases and it looks like 2014 will be quite the same. It's too much supply and less demand.

Kind of off topic but someone brought it up earlier...

Could this year be demise of Disney Pixar Cars? NO! ARE YOU NUTS?
Kids still love cars. And there will still be cars collectors and ebayers looking to make a buck. No matter what. Mattel would never kill the line; they still make tons of money off of it. Besides, let's say they don't make anything off cars (which will never happen). Let's say they kill the line. They get rid of cars 2 stuff 2 years before cars 3; they'll be less demand for the third movie because the people thought cars was a thing of the past.

[cac1959]

I've been collecting since early 2007... things go in cycles.

There have been times when I've not been able to find any new Cars in stores... there have been times when there have been more Cars in stores than I've been able to afford to buy.

There seemed like a long delay in new product due to the problems with Supercharged Sarge and lead paint.

There was an abrupt cutover from the Race o Rama series to the Final Lap and lenticular Night Skyline series... people didn't want to buy the same Car with different eyes.

I agree that people have moved on... my grandchildren are no longer into Cars... they may play with a few of them when they come visit but they primarily play with Planes... and my now 11 year old grandson who got me hooked on Cars would rather have Hot Wheels than Cars - they don't have eyes (except for a few such as the Angry Birds red bird and green pig).

Many stores still have Cars from May 16, 2011... I can go to Walmart, Kmart, and Meijer stores that still do... The local Kohl's still has pull backs from Christmas 2011 on the pegs... I stopped at a small town Walmart in the county north of us last night and they still have the same singles from 2012 case A that they had a year ago (Holley, Francesco, Finn, McQueen, and 1 Nigel) and 2013 case B Movie Moments and Deluxe Sub Finn McMissile (still at Meijer, quantity 8)... area Big Lots stores got in the case 2012 case with Finn, Mater, McQueen, and Francesco for the Christmas 2013 holiday season...most of those didn't sell at $2.00 each.

While TRU and Target and some Walmart stores may have Mattel reps who come and swap out old inventory with new product, many chains don't and don't have a clue about how to go about asking for help.

CVS is the pharmacy affiliate of the Kroger grocery store chain... in many cases those stores receive 6 Cars from a case of 24 and not an entire case... in other cases those stores don't get new Cars and still have the same 2 Night Skyline lenticular singles (at $8.29 each) that they had over 4 years ago.

I collect Cars because I enjoy it... I'm looking forward to the new releases and re-releases... I may give serious consideration to not buying exclusive boxed sets with 1 new Car (out of 4, 5, or 7) if they are going to be re-released as singles at a late time... we saw that happen in 2013 (with You the Bomb Mater) and there is more of that scheduled in 2014 (Timothy Twostroke, Mama Bernoulli, etc.).

I will still watch Cars once a month or so... I've only watched Cars 2 at home twice... I may watch the Mater's Tall Tales on occasion... I've not opened the Planes Blu-ray gift pack that I got for my birthday back in November... Cars has staying power... there will always be new people wanting to buy the main characters... but Mattel doesn't really care about the long-time collector, just profits.

[RBCars77]

I totally agree. Especially since I was disappointed that Chuck Choke Cables, Todd the Pizza Planet truck, Lizzie, and others are being re-released since I got them when they were originally released and now they won't be rare anymore. On the other hand it is nice for other new collectors to be able to take advantage of the releases and for collectors who weren't able to get the cars when they were released.
I think Mattel shouldn't be releasing so many Super Chases either, there are going to be like 7 Super Chases this year, since they are just trying to get more buyers.
Mattel are also releasing to many back round cars, when they should focus and releasing more of the known cars such as a silver Rip. That's why I think the neons will be a good series since the will appeal to kids while still releasing more known characters then Trike Feldman.

[CarsDiecast08]

I should also add that another disappointment was in buying Target 7-packs for the exclusive car only to see many of those cars now re-released as singles. As a result I have stopped buying any of the Target multi-packs.

I too plan to stop, if they plan to re-release them later on its no use to give them my money now. Like with Ivan coming out this year, I suspect RS Lassetire and Muggsy might re-appear later on.

[CarsDiecast08]

I feel that there are too many re-releases in 2013. I even predicted a while back in 2012, I bet the stores will be flooded with cars. And there's too many that people already have now. There's 1000000000 Francescos on 1 shelf. And yes, Planes toys are showing up a LOT more than I expected... P.S. Trike was only seen for 1 millisecond when Finn was speeding through the tiny alleys of Italy.

ahh I was right about the correct scene