New Cars castings are good for collectors but don't sell

[PopeMobile]

As collectors we love new castings and we chastise Mattel for not offering more of them. However, I have noticed that the new castings quickly lose their appeal after a few months as collectors move on and want the next new casting. Moms and dads buying cars for junior likely pass on the new castings and instead buy the main characters. Bottom line: the main characters sell well, while the new castings don't. Even secondary market sales (ebay and such) are much higher for the main or secondary characters. My evaluation here is based on my personal experience with both buying and selling. Let's take a look at some:

Hot Selling Main Characters --> Doc Hudson, Flo, Snot Rod, Lizzie.
Hot Selling Secondary Characters --> RIP, Lewis Hamilton, Shu Todoroki
New Castings with low demand --> Victor Paveone, Chemist Lee Race, Cora Copper, Cartney Carsper, Magen Carrar, Yokoza (I have 30 Victor Paveones I can't give away - just no interest).

So why do new castings not sell well? Simple - most of the new castings are Cars that have less than 3 seconds of screen time in the movies and are in the background. And in some cases less than 1 second of screen time (i.e. Takeshi and Hiroaki)

For most new castings I couldn't tell you where these cars were in the movie. As a result, junior doesn't identify with those Cars and therefore doesn't know about them and doesn't want them so mom and dad don't buy them. Hence Mattel concentrates on releasing the same cars over and over in each case (i.e. Tow Truck Tom, Brand New Mater, Suki, Cruisin McQueen) cause these sell.

[Fillmore1234]

Pope if you have a bunch of Lee Race Chases you want to get off your hands or something I'd gladly buy a couple to take them off your hands. Never even found one since he was already gone from the very few Case Y's that I have seen in retail.

As for the discussion, the only one of those Cars that I disagree with is Rip Clutchgoneski, who has strangely turned into quite the Pegwarmer around here with all of his Case releases in the past year. There are 4 or 5 of him rotting at my local Kmart and the ones that appear at my Walmart stay for a while but ultimately get sold.
So far I would say Mattel has done everything right for 2014 (except for maybe not putting a few more new Cars in each Case instead of just one or two... and of course waiting 8 months to release the poster) but this post would have been shut down completely back in 2011. There's a reason why Finn McMissile was hardly available last year and hasn't been at all this year.

[RRichie09]

Thanks for the insight popemobile. We all need to keep in mind that these are meant for children and are mostly sold to children. The collector market is not insignificant but I wouldn't be surprised if it only made up 10% of total sales, if not less.

[Raginpage]

Well, it certainly depends on the character. Are any Cars2 characters really good sellers?

I think it's a good point. From a collector's standpoint Id have to say Mattell did a lot right in both 2013 and 2014. Yet, the sales are plummeting. I think it will be interesting to see how Disney and Mattel approach Cars over the next couple of years. I'm not convinced that the whole line will even keep being produced. I'm just not sure the demand is high enough anymore.

[RRichie09]

Well, it certainly depends on the character. Are any Cars2 characters really good sellers?

I think it's a good point. From a collector's standpoint Id have to say Mattell did a lot right in both 2013 and 2014. Yet, the sales are plummeting. I think it will be interesting to see how Disney and Mattel approach Cars over the next couple of years. I'm not convinced that the whole line will even keep being produced. I'm just not sure the demand is high enough anymore.

Well, it's been a while since the last movie was released. I think once Cars 3 comes out you will see another generation of kids buying the toys. Its been 8 years since the first movie came out and the toys are still selling, obviously not as well as the beginning, but things like this are like the tide and the real estate market. I don't think there is any danger of Cars dying out. Think Transformers, even that toyline has had highs and lows; Transformers have been around for 30 years now... man I feel old haha.

[cac1959]

Mattel and retailers have certainly brought a lot of this on themselves.

Many of us would buy 2 of each new Car if we could find them... when there are only 1 each of up to 3 new Cars per case it makes it a challenge.

Casual collectors buy the main characters and after buying a few of them give up... if you or a child doesn't know who a character is you're probably not going to buy it.

Boxed sets with a maximum of one new Car are not good for either collectors or casual collectors... $20 to $40 for a 4 to 7 pack is not an impulse buy... $4 to $5 for one Car is.

[PopeMobile]

I agree that RIP is plentiful in supply these days but he keeps on selling. Prices are way down for him due to oversupply but he's still moving out of my inventory at a rapid pace. Gone are the days I was getting $50 a car for RIP - now's it's $7.50 shipped which allows me to breakeven and just get rid of 'em. Most new castings can be bought on ebay for $5-$6 total shipped which is very fair and saves the collector time driving to find them. But there's nothing I would buy retail in a store now other than Doc Hudson, Lizzie, and Super Chase vehicles cause nothing else has a high sales point anymore. Planes had a LOT to do with the decline in interest for Cars in my opinion. Kids just switch gears to the latest thing out in theatres.

Another pegwarmer would be Mcqueen w/Cone. I have over 100 of him - will dump him in the xmas bins later this fall.

[jcamdenlane]

Holley is a Cars 2 Character that moves very well. It's been a while since a regular Holley single saw a case release.

[Fillmore1234]

Holley is a Cars 2 Character that moves very well. It's been a while since a regular Holley single saw a case release.

And Rod Torque Redline.
And Grem.
And Acer.
And Professor Z.
And Miles Axelrod.
Pretty sure Leland Turbo did well even though he was packaged with Finn McPegwarmer.

I'd actually like to see all of these Cars get normal Single releases again. Especially if Mattel upgrades them to unibody.

[Tmremote]

I agree with jcamdenlane and fillmore...if they want to appeal to the casual collectors as Chris said they need to release those main characters!! We have not seen those cars since the Porto Corsa days!! And they have done pretty good pleasing us, the hardcore collectors, with new cars. If you want to sell cars Mattel, you have to appeal to both audiences.

[Ferris]

I see this a bit differently...of course case assortment is a factor, but when it comes down to a case or two that has been put on a shelf without a restock in a long time, it is usually the main characters that are the few remaining unsold cars on the pegs, not the Victors and Cartneys. I think parents look at the pegs and say to themselves, "We already have 10 different LMQ at home, I think I'll grab this green one I've never seen before."

[CarsDiecast08]

I just buy one of every character that comes out, not all the different types of a particular character though. As for the sales of them, guess it all comes down to who the buy or collector is and their point of view on who to buy and who to leave to be a peg warmer.

[Scavenger]

I really think you need to look at this topic 2 ways...
Popemobiles assessment is spot on as far as ebay/secondary market goes, and to the point Ferris made the secondary/obscure characters do sell well off of the racks eventually.

I saw this trend coming late last year and stopped buying up tons of every new character...I now go for the 2 I need for the collection, Cars for customs, and the rest has to be something like pope said...Doc, Lizzie, Supers and so on!