Great Britain & Northern Ireland Finds (Part 1)

[niftynigel]

lots of clip strips in my tescos.

How on earth can you go from cases f and g to y?

The old 996Y case (and 996W case for that matter) didn't make it to the UK when they were originally circulating in September 2012. They were only released in mainland Europe. I guess the current batch of 996Y cases (and there are a lot of them) are actually European origin. Mattel Europe and UK together probably figure that there is a better chance of selling the product in the UK, as the UK is the biggest toy market in Europe. This is true, but it doesn't help the collectors as the 'new' 997W and 997Y cases are delayed being introduced into the UK.

I have seen two dates on the 996Y case, 2922EAA and 3282EAA. The first one is a slightly later date than the ones originally circulating in Europe. Both 996W and 996Y were supposed to go to Disney Stores UK, but they ordered too many Kmart 8 silver racers. What a fiasco that was! TRU were supposed to have the Kmart 9 racers and decided against it so we only got five!

Mattel have previous on this. Look at all the year old (US style) Deluxe and Double packs that are at Smyths, TRU and elsewhere. All this old stock does sell, so Mattel Europe/UK will believe that dumping old stock in the UK is totally justified.

They have to order a certain amount of stuff to keep the prices down. Quiet clearly there is too much stuff produced for the European market, so the UK is quite a handy dumping ground for Mattel Europe. The prices are cheaper in the UK.

That said, I think they should mix the newer 997W and 997Y cases up with the old ones in the UK. Maybe Mattel thinks that as soon as these hit the shelves they'll sell out? No point introducing the new cases and sell out immediately, then there will be a long wait until the next new cases, 998J/K/L/M (or whatever they might be)?

I think they could do worse than have special cases with Prince Wheeliam, Cartney Brakin, Alexander Hugo, Mary Esgocar, Fabrizio and Sir Harley Gassup in them, so we can complete the international card series.

How about getting all those Final Lap style Lenticular series cases to market? There are 1,000s of them gathering dust in Mattel's warehouse! Are they saving them for a rainy day? We have plenty of rainy days in the UK?

There may well be more Final Lap Deluxe and Doubles in there too?

[madbob]

It seems then that there is a whole load of cases coming through full of nothing new, great job Mattel!

Prince Wheeliam, Cartney Brakin, Fabrizio and Sir Harley Gassup I think all these will never see mainline action in the UK. Looks like just a few Prince Wheeliam's got through to DS and some UK stores got Cartney Brakin. I cannot see Alexander Hugo with Party Hat and Mary Esgocar doing a Acer with Torch appearance.

[Enzo]

An 80% full case of 997Q in a local Toymaster franchise.

Not a case I'm familiar with but nothing exciting just various police cars, piston starters, Sally and Tubbs Pacer, that sort of thing.

[Bombom77]

Police cars and Piston starters you say? Am after some PC racers. What they have?

[Enzo]

Just Nitroade, and a couple different types of those blue/yellow Piston Cup crew, one a car the other a truck. No idea of names sorry.

*edit* Charlie Checker is yellow PC crew car, Tom Tow Truck blue/yellow truck, and the black/white security car.

[Bombom77]

Dad gum! Had visions of shifty drug Et al launchers and axle accelerator then!

Fecking tease Enzo! Lol

[Enzo]

C'mon, I did say 997Q so you should have known

Was really hoping they had the previous case 997P, thoughts of grabbing a Petey, uni-Kabuto and of course, Rip.

[alexlnufc]

Just been into TRU and had a look at the Planes stuff: Singles, Pit Row Gift Sets, Playsets, Micro Drifters and a Micro Drifters launcher amongst the stuff there. Nothing new Cars-wise. As a Micro Drifters collector I picked up these. Planes Drifters.jpg
All but Rochelle & Ripslinger have moving propellers, not sure if it was intended or they're just stuck.

[millimoo]

Not cars but close

Got these 2, loads more but pay day not until Monday

[boogity]

forgot to post this yesterday, found rip in tescos, .....now before you all head off, it was the plastic pull back version, 15 quid I think, still it was nice to see

[Fillmore1234]

forgot to post this yesterday, found rip in tescos, .....now before you all head off, it was the plastic pull back version, 15 quid I think, still it was nice to see

Ripslinger or Rip Clutchgoneski?

[Enzo]

Random Tesco stop on way home tonight, more in faint hope than genuine expectation.

Empty shelves, and then I see it....a sealed box high up "Mattel" and "Cars Diecast".

Nooooo...it can't be! Can it? A letter "Y". The same case that's on shelves in mainland Europe!

Hello Brent with headset, Maurice and Vern...






















....except there's 24 PC cards and the familiar gold/glasses combo of Mel Dorado.

Crap. I saw the letter Y and didn't notice the 996 before it.

[Bombom77]

LMFAO. Gutting mate

[yuffie]

my experience of tesco is they are far and away the worse uk supermarket for cars stock and it appears they won't be getting any better

http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/r...tionery/040264

[KK&PP_Cars]

Hope it's not too much out of topic, but has anybody seen Ru5ty? Tried to send a PM but inbox was full...