Where have all the new Cars gone?

[cac1959]

Chris, has Cruz been made unibody or no?

Cruz Besouro does not appear to be unibody to me.

And I wonder, carslover, if we'll see a corrected Mario cardback with red rims to match the red rims on the Car.

[carslover]

Cruz Besouro does not appear to be unibody to me.

And I wonder, carslover, if we'll see a corrected Mario cardback with red rims to match the red rims on the Car.

I agree with you on cruz

the one I have definitely is not a unibody

and I really doubt that mattel will bother to fix the Mario pic on the back of the card

[p51]

I saw a Sarge made up to look like a covered wagon(?) on ePay yesterday, are those out in stores now?
What the heck is that supposed to be, anyway?

[carslover]

I saw a Sarge made up to look like a covered wagon(?) on ePay yesterday, are those out in stores now?
What the heck is that supposed to be, anyway?

he is not in stores yet

he is from the RS500 1/2 short

he is dressed up like stanley

[Bumper Save]

Cruz Besouro does not appear to be unibody to me.

GOOD I am tired of buying random variants.

[Scotcars]

Hi, Been no lack of product up here in Scotland during December and January, most stores around here turning over 2014 stock quite quickly, TRU excepted who haven't had anything new for months. Have managed to buy all but 3 2014 singles at retail during this period.
The first 2015 case is available in Smyths toys just now and they are all on a 3 for 2 offer at Ł5.49 each.

[EliteThink]

ugly to me...

[cac1959]

Looks like the west coast dock strike is all the west coast ports and not just Los Angeles and Long Beach... a friend from church who works in the auto industry has been impacted by this - no parts coming in to build what they build... estimated back log once they settle the strike is 10 to 12 weeks... and it looks like most cargo ships are too large to go through the Panama Canal... Dadgum...

[Nitroade]

Looks like the west coast dock strike is all the west coast ports and not just Los Angeles and Long Beach... a friend from church who works in the auto industry has been impacted by this - no parts coming in to build what they build... estimated back log once they settle the strike is 10 to 12 weeks... and it looks like most cargo ships are too large to go through the Panama Canal... Dadgum...

Cac do you think our Walmarts / etc get their stock from the west coast? I know Get Me Collectables gets theirs through Texas, which makes more sense than driving them way out to the great lakes.
Also up to 12 weeks means we could be waiting until May to see 2015 singles roll around.

[cac1959]

Good questions, Nitroade... I'm not sure I can fully answer them.

A lot of stores get products in from sources to minimize expenses which helps maximize profits... the are different distribution centers for Walmart and other retailers located throughout the country... Does all Walmart product arrive at the western USA ports? I don't know...

Get Me Collectibles gets their merchandise in through Texas... other retailers may get their merchandise from east or west coast distributors.

One of the online articles I read yesterday mentioned that more ships are leaving China and coming to the eastern US via the Suez Canal at this time... it takes longer for cargo ships to arrive in the eastern US via the Suez Canal and Mediterranean and Atlantic than it does directly from China to the western US... but not if ships coming to the western US can't unload to distribute product... I don't think we'll have to wait until May to see 2015 singles - I think stores will order newer singles cases that will arrive in other ports (either by air or by boat) and arrive in stores before the single cases that we are waiting on... Amazon got in singles merchandise that arrived in San Francisco (I think) probably by plane... shipping by plane costs more than shipping by boat and planes can't carry as much merchandise as the larger ships.

Also, some merchandise could be arriving via smaller ships that are able to navigate through the Panama Canal.

I'm sure I've not completely answered your question... I tried to look at it logically and this shipping issue/work stoppage/strike is not a completely logical issue... it is very emotional... the workers feel that the company may be trying to break the union... I read somewhere that the striking workers are currently making about $50 per hour plus benefits.

I don't know what the issue is... but I want new Cars... the singles case with Tach O Mint has been found in Australia (by Silver Frosty), France, and I also think the UK among other countries... I expected that case and the Kit Revster case to be in US Walmart stores before Christmas... but they weren't.

[PopeMobile]

I think overall what we're seeing is a huge scale back in production on the Cars line due to declining demand. When Cars 3 comes out we'll see it uptick again but right now the latest movie was 4 years ago and for a kid that's an eternity and they've moved on to other things. I knew there was a problem when I couldn't sell cases anymore a year ago. My overseas buyers started slowing down on their purchase orders due to declining demand by them and eventually cutoff altogether. If you look at JMDL Toys and their site you will see they no longer order as many cases and definitely don't have every case anymore - in fact most of what they have is leftover stock from 1-2 years ago that they are trying to move. Another vendor was neu-wheels who sold tons of cases and now no longer sells any Cars cases at all. I myself have gotten out and haven't ordered any new inventory in over 18 months. We gave a bunch to charity and the rest I've discounted and just trying to clear it out. Look on ebay as well - no one sells cases except for one guy - labsrock - but none of his stuff is selling and just sits there. Traver has slowed down as well. So overall I'm not surprised reading this thread nor am I surprised to see that Walmart may drop Cars entirely. The thing has run its course. I love my collection of rare cars and error cars and will always treasure them. Although everything I once classified as mildly rare I've sold off due to re-releases by Mattel and just wanting to get my money back which I have.

[Nitroade]

Good questions, Nitroade... I'm not sure I can fully answer them.

A lot of stores get products in from sources to minimize expenses which helps maximize profits... the are different distribution centers for Walmart and other retailers located throughout the country... Does all Walmart product arrive at the western USA ports? I don't know...

Get Me Collectibles gets their merchandise in through Texas... other retailers may get their merchandise from east or west coast distributors.

One of the online articles I read yesterday mentioned that more ships are leaving China and coming to the eastern US via the Suez Canal at this time... it takes longer for cargo ships to arrive in the eastern US via the Suez Canal and Mediterranean and Atlantic than it does directly from China to the western US... but not if ships coming to the western US can't unload to distribute product... I don't think we'll have to wait until May to see 2015 singles - I think stores will order newer singles cases that will arrive in other ports (either by air or by boat) and arrive in stores before the single cases that we are waiting on... Amazon got in singles merchandise that arrived in San Francisco (I think) probably by plane... shipping by plane costs more than shipping by boat and planes can't carry as much merchandise as the larger ships.

Also, some merchandise could be arriving via smaller ships that are able to navigate through the Panama Canal.

I'm sure I've not completely answered your question... I tried to look at it logically and this shipping issue/work stoppage/strike is not a completely logical issue... it is very emotional... the workers feel that the company may be trying to break the union... I read somewhere that the striking workers are currently making about $50 per hour plus benefits.

I don't know what the issue is... but I want new Cars... the singles case with Tach O Mint has been found in Australia (by Silver Frosty), France, and I also think the UK among other countries... I expected that case and the Kit Revster case to be in US Walmart stores before Christmas... but they weren't.

$50 /hr, not too bad, as i'm working minimum wage while in college lol. But yeah, I've only seen two Walmarts with the 2015 mainline singles, and those were in Michigan back in December and after all the new ones were taken. I ended up with the new Snot Rod / Chick and some other would be peg warmers. Since then only Shigeko at Walgreens.

I'm worried we'll get hit with the first 2015 case, and Walmart / Target / etc. will eventually order another case, but the second (and possibly 3rd) cases will not get their chance in the retail market because of the backup with the workers striking. We all know Walmart doesn't care if they have one of each case or 4 of the first case.

In the mean time, it's giving me a great amount of time to work on finishing the older series. :P




I agree PopeMobile. While I can't wait for the 3rd movie, I have that feeling that this one will probably be the last. Only a few more years left for these collections to grow.

[DiZz]

I don't know what the issue is... but I want new Cars... the singles case with Tach O Mint has been found in Australia (by Silver Frosty), France, and I also think the UK among other countries... I expected that case and the Kit Revster case to be in US Walmart stores before Christmas... but they weren't.

We haven't seen the first 2 2015 cases in Europe yet, nor the first Deluxe case with Frank.
I really don't understand Mattels distribution right now.. and it stinks..

There's still a lot of demand for Cars worldwide, they could sell so much more if they would have a proper distribution and case assortiment.

[CarsDiecast08]

If Walmart dropped the cars series all together that would be a huge hit to Mattel, even with sales not doing that well whenever they got the new stuff in it went fast off the pegs. And I'd be super pissed cause WM is my main place to get the cars from at reasonable prices, Toys R Us just rips off customers with their prices, and I'm not paying that price. This strike crap or whatever is going on to slow everything I hope will end soon. Sick of seeing an empty cars section every time I go to Walmart and I'm sure they wouldn't be happy if when they do their spring resets they don't have any product to put out. The "Cars" popularity will pick up when the 3rd movie hits, but I don't really expect Mattel to stop making the cars for a long time. Hotwheels have lasted forever with so many different series and types. Don't see why cars can't :P if they make every single character from all the movies, the collectors will try to get at least one of that character for their collection. I'm not saying they will last, just saying I don't seeing them stopping anytime soon after the 3rd movie comes out.

[cac1959]

The 2 sides in the west coast ports dispute reached a tentative contract agreement Friday evening 2/20/15... the US Secretary of Labor began overseeing the contract talks this past week - negotiations had started in May 2014 and the last contract expired July 1, 2014... here's the link:

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/art...ch-6093531.php

Walmart is going to continue carrying Cars merchandise... our local store got in 2 packs, Toon singles, and more yesterday... there are now 8 pegs for singles and the price is $3.27 - but no new singles yet... I did also see and buy new Track Packs sets at $4.97 each - I may use them for staging photos... there are now pegs for Deluxe Cars - and there have been confirmed reports (with pictures) of the Deluxe case with Frank being found at 2 Walmart stores yesterday.

It may take several weeks for the backlog at the docks to clear up... but I expect there will be overtime opportunities for the workers coming up shortly.