Great Britain & Northern Ireland Finds (Part 1)

[niftynigel]

Is the Cars 2013 collection the swansong?

Although it didn't apply to the UK or Europe as we got into the Cars 2013 groove after the Christmas decorations were well and truly a piece of 2012 history, by this time last year, we knew what Mattel was planning on bringing out in 2013.

Met on T5AD and Arbara on CTT both posted the initial information on the 2013 Themes by now and the first ten or so case contents were also known shortly after.

What does the lack of 2014 information actually mean?

Is the 2013 Themes, a sort of 'Greatest Hits' of Cars and Cars 2 really the swansong?

With Pixar and Disney going their separate ways in their latest spat, it's looks like there won't be another Cars movie. There was very little chance of a Cars 3 even before both sides threw their dummies out their metaphoric prams!

We've had huge collections before, World of Cars and Race O Rama spring to mind. Indeed, there were originally supposed to be 109 singles as part of the Race O Rama series, following on from 69 World of Cars singles.

How can Mattel possibly top the current series? What could they do in 2014 that would be better than the Themes?

A reissue of the whole Speedway of the South?

A reissue of all the Haulers plus all the unreleased ones?

A reissue of all the Deluxe plus all the unreleased ones?

A reissue of all the Double packs plus all the unreleased one?

Full sets of the 11 Cars 2 racers, metallic, rubber tyred, ...

Any other ideas?

[Bombom77]

Simple Nigel.

Finish what they started.

Finish the SOTS in plastic and Rubber tyres.

Finish the Haulers and Pit Crew sets.

Finish the Toon series.

Just finish any of the lines that they didnt.

That would satiate A LOT of people.

Oh and reissue the harder to get stuff, like Frank, Bessie etc.

[foxrfc]

A bit of a look about today mainly looking for planes, two Tesco's and a Sainburys had the standard 2012 stock, another had stock of the Krate Ranson box. Our local Morrisons has basically stopped selling toys. Didn't bother with Asda, as not seen anything in there for ages. My local Disney store has been flooded with a real mix of stock from across 2012 and 2013, although from the last cases only Vern was there.

Did have success however in Toys UK, with a Brent Mustangburger with headset, but they had little else apart from a Maurice W and Franca, neither of which I needed.

[carscrazy]

Had a browse in a sainsburys today, Only had four francesco's and a lightning mcqueen on the shelf. Thought id take one to customer services to ask if they had any others in stock and the lady looked on the computer and said that it was telling her they had one box and a half box. I requested if she could ask a member of staff to see if they could find the boxes. After waiting about 10 mins they came out but sadly they could only find the half box, It had 2 sheriffs, 2 wingo with flames, 1 david, 1 greta, 1 hank, 1 victor and 1 king. I took a sheriff,hank and the king.
They told me a day to go back when a member of staff 'in the know' will be in who will be able to find me the other box, they reassured me that it wont go out in the mean time as they are short staffed and are doing more important jobs first before restocking toys so all being well i should get to see whats in the other box soon

[VANDANCE]

A blast from the past this weekend courtesy of WH Smiths. As I hit the toys at the back of the shop it felt like eyes were following me around the room. Turns out they were - by a bunch of Lenticular Cars hanging on the pegs! And after asking a nice member of staff, another 20 or so Cars were brought out from the stock room. I ended up scoring 2 chase Freds (the smaller version) King and RS LMQ. Not sure where these guys have been hiding for the last few years but it was a nice suprise to see something different on the shelves, even if they are Lenticulars! I enclosed a picture of Lenticular chase Fred VS the big fixed eye version, thanks guys!

lenticFred.jpg

[carscrazy]

Vandance, those are some great finds! Just goes to show that some stores still have the oldies left lying around. I remember not long ago finding Boost and Snot rod sets in Matalan.

Went shopping in a different area today and tried yet another Tesco. They had three Planes boxes on top shelf unopened so i looked in all but no Bravo's Was nothing worth a mention on the Cars front in there. Also went into a Disney store and the shelf was loaded with single Cars but you guessed it .... all the same old Did manage to pick up the Wingo & Dj light up cars in there so wasn't complete waste of time.
Also had a look in couple charity shops and managed to pick up a Cars race track set that shoots the cars round the track for £4.00 had a diecast Sally in the box too. Also Buzz and woody and a rpm crew chief

[VANDANCE]

Vandance, those are some great finds! Just goes to show that some stores still have the oldies left lying around. I remember not long ago finding Boost and Snot rod sets in Matalan.

Went shopping in a different area today and tried yet another Tesco. They had three Planes boxes on top shelf unopened so i looked in all but no Bravo's Was nothing worth a mention on the Cars front in there. Also went into a Disney store and the shelf was loaded with single Cars but you guessed it .... all the same old Did manage to pick up the Wingo & Dj light up cars in there so wasn't complete waste of time.
Also had a look in couple charity shops and managed to pick up a Cars race track set that shoots the cars round the track for £4.00 had a diecast Sally in the box too. Also Buzz and woody and a rpm crew chief

Nice charity shop finds pal, alway pays to look, you never know what you might come away with! I looked in the Disney Store yesterday and there were no Cars singles on offer at all, only the DS 2 packs. They also had a few light up Wingo / DJ sets left. There were a lot of Bravo's in Smyths yesterday, they must of had 4 on the shelf with anonther 8 unopend cases up top, you might want to check there if you have a store nearby? All supermarkets in my area are void of new cars stock at the moment although Morrsion's reportedly had the Mark Wheelson case but nothing in this area has shown up. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have all been empty (bar a few Francesco's) for several weeks now so I am hoping deliveries are not too far away?!!

[carscrazy]

I have a Smyths about 40 min drive so may pop there this afternoon and have a look at what they have. Did your Smyths have much in the way of Cars stock?

[Lozzi31]

Not really. Sorry - Smyths is a little poor lately. They do have this though......photo (6).jpg Think its £24.99 now too....

[Lozzi31]

But found this in the Entertainer in Winchester this week. Thought it was perfect to go with our Radiator Springs playsets as theres no Fillmore's Tent! £15 wasn't too bad....photo (7).jpg

[cac1959]

But found this in the Entertainer in Winchester this week. Thought it was perfect to go with our Radiator Springs playsets as theres no Fillmore's Tent! £15 wasn't too bad....[ATTACH=CONFIG]2890[/ATTACH]

Nice finds, VANDANCE and Lozzi31 - we have many of the GeoTrax Cars sets... my grandchildren have outgrown them, but the will still play with them on occasion.

[VANDANCE]

I have a Smyths about 40 min drive so may pop there this afternoon and have a look at what they have. Did your Smyths have much in the way of Cars stock?

Only 50+ LMQ's on Porta cards, at the great price of £5.49! Those cars will be there for ever! If you have no luck with the Planes PM me and I'll see if I can pick one up tomorrow as I am heading past Smyths in the afternoon.

[StuartW]

Hi Vandance

I notice your location is Bristol. Was the WHSmith in Bristol?

I looked around central Bristol on Monday/Tuesday this week. I didnt see any cars in the WHSmith in Broadmead.
Wilkinsons had 1 car. A hydraulic Ramone
Debenhams had 3 cars (Francesco, Finn)
TK Maxx 2 cars (both Mater)
The Entertainer only had Mater in 1.55 singles and a few dual packs of a 1.55 car and a micro drifter. Also a few oversize Kimuro's

[StuartW]

Also forgot to add:

The Tesco at Yate on Sunday only had Finn, Lightning & Francesco
Tesco Eastville had the remains of a case D
Asda Living Eastville had a few cars which looked like remains of clip strips
Sainsburys Filton had a few but mainly Finn/Francesco/Lightning
B&M store in Fishponds had a Leland Turbo/Finn twin pack (but I already have them) for £3.99

[boogity]

found 3 unopened case r,s on top shelves in tescos, put one lot out in the first shop but didnt in the second
no planes diecasts on the shelves in the second store, did find 2 unopened boxes on the top shelves however!

that was a nice find in whs, just goes to show what a great stockroom system they have, not one single staff member bothered their backsides putting that case out, yet it had been sitting up there since noah was a lad,
whs really are a shower!