Great Britain & Northern Ireland Finds (2014)

[carscrazy]

Great finds

Toymaster was usually £5.99 if I remember correctly would appear they have increased prices again.

Nothing new to mention here.

[pirelliboy]

Not me but someone just found the Geartrude case in Tesco.

[BirchTiger]

Do we know what else is in this new geartrude box?

[Scavenger]

Well here's the US mix, im assuming its the same other than the case letter?

CASE C
1 DISNEY PIXAR GEARTRUDE
2 WORLD OF CARS KING
1 WORLD OF CARS FLO
2 WORLD OF CARS PURPLE RAMONE
1 WORLD OF CARS CARTNEY CARSPER
1 WORLD OF CARS LUIGI AND GUIDO
1 DISNEY PIXAR MEL DORADO
2 WORLD OF CARS SHINY WAX
1 DISNEY PIXAR HARUMI
1 WORLD OF CARS MARLON CLUTCHES MCKAY
2 WORLD OF CARS RACE TEAM MATER WITH HEADSET
1 WORLD OF CARS RAOULE
2 WORLD OF CARS HUDSON HORNET PISTON CUP LIGHTNING MCQUEEN
1 WORLD OF CARS VLADIMIR TRUNKOV
1 DISNEY PIXAR DJ
2 WORLD OF CARS LIGHTNING MCQUEEN PISTON CUP SERIES
2 DISNEY PIXAR MIGUEL CAMINO

Case D
1 Disney Pixar Denise Beam
1 Disney Pixar Todd Pizza Planet Truck
1 Disney Pixar Alexander Hugo With Party Hat
2 World of Cars Lewis Hamilton
1 World of Cars Francesco Bernoulli
1 World of Cars No Stall
1 World of Cars Dexter Hoover With Checker Flag
1 World of Cars Rip Clutchgoneski
2 World of Cars Mater
1 World of Cars DJ
1 World of Cars Wingo with Flames
1 World of Cars Snot Rod with Flames
2 World of Cars Fillmore
1 World of Cars Cora Copper
3 World of Cars Cruisin McQueen
1 World of Cars Acer with Headset
1 World of Cars King
2 World of Cars Hudson Hornet Piston Cup Lightning McQueen

[BirchTiger]

Great, thanks scavenger, 4 cars I need to find from those 2 boxes!

[boogity]

neons down til a fiver in tesco, surprise, surprise

[BirchTiger]

Found the remnants (if not entire) of the geartrude case in tesco, but no geartrude - come on mattel, sort these case assortments out!

[boogity]

found mildred in the tru museum, only 3 months after everyone else, then

[niftynigel]

Found the remnants (if not entire) of the geartrude case in tesco, but no geartrude - come on mattel, sort these case assortments out!

When there is a new car issued for the very first time or even a Chase Car, it doesn't matter how many Mattel put in a case, there are some people who'll just buy the lot. Some may say that they are just helping other collectors but for many it's just a way to make a quick buck on eBay.

Sure, Mattel's distribution could be better, but there's definitely an uneven demand, certainly across the UK. However, it must be said that *some* shortages (and resultant trades) could be avoided if more people had respect for other collectors.

That said, we probably all agree that Mattel should put at least two of each first issue/new car in a case. As Geartrude is not a Chase car, she will be repeated in at least one more case, maybe two or three later in the year.

I've seen a few of the Geartrude cases in Tesco in the (Central) London area. Geartrude (and the other three cars new to 2014 cards) were all gone. I wouldn't have purchased Geartrude in any of the instances. Not because of damaged cardbacks but because Tesco policy in the London area is to put a security sticker on the front of the cardback. I tried to peel one off, but it looked like it was so well stuck on, the card would get torn!

I don't understand the Tesco policy here. Sure, if someone tries to steal the car in it's cardback/blister pack, the alarm will go off. As we've probably all seen, cars get stolen without the packaging!

[VANDANCE]

There was a new deluxe assortment in Tesco today, Ivan was there but at £12.00 I decided to leave him for now. Hopefully in the not to distant future Ivan will be as easy to pick up as Waiter Mater or Emmanuel are today. Really, £12.00 is just too much when competitors are charging much less.

[niftynigel]

Thanks to a tip off, I popped into Wilkinsons after work today. They've had their first new cars in since the 996U case in September 2012. They must like the French as Celine Dephare was in that case!

I picked up a Geartrude and Luigi & Guido at £5.00 each. The store told me that they got just six cars in and the case had been split between four stores.

MarkNotAMack informed me that the latest case is numbered 988S.

What happened to the letter R? Mattel aren't very good at that alphabet thing!

The datestamp is 0794EAA.

[MarknotaMack]

And here is the proof. Geartrude is in case S.
Finally found the case and contents in my fifth tesco visited today.

[boogity]

looks as if finding dirty gerty is going to be a bit difficult
if I come across it , fair enough, but i,m not going out of my way and being held to ransome by that shower ...mattel

[niftynigel]

looks as if finding dirty gerty is going to be a bit difficult
if I come across it , fair enough, but i,m not going out of my way and being held to ransome by that shower ...mattel

I can't comment on the situation regards Mattel in Northern Ireland, but if the previous case (988Q) is anything to go by, Geartrude will be ten a penny before too long and there will be compaints that there are too many of her and she's now a shelf-warmer!

Toymaster, Tesco, Wilkinson and Sainsburys have all had this case now. OK, it's still only a week since it first started to appear, so it's early days. As we've seen it quite often takes two to three weeks for a case to find it's way to most parts. As we know that Mattel produce a similar amount of each case, it's down to local demand that determines the actual distribution and most of that is down to the retailers. Why can two neighbouring supermarkets (of the same brand) have different stock levels when we all know that cars fly off the shelves? Mattel can't be held responsible for the supermarkets inconsistent approach to actually selling the cars to the public!

[niftynigel]

The confirmed contents of the latest UK/International singles case W1938-988S (0794EAA) ...

GEARTRUDE - 1
THE KING No. 43 - 2
FLO - 1
RAMONE (Purple) - 2
CARTNEY CARSPER - 1
LUIGI & GUIDO - 1
MEL DORADO - 1
SHINY WAX No. 82 - 2
HARUMI - 1
MARLON 'CLUTCHES' McKAY - 1
RACE TEAM MATER (with Headset) - 2
RAOULE CaROULE - 1
HUDSON HORNET PISTON CUP LIGHTNING McQUEEN - 2
VLADIMIR TRUNKOV - 1
DJ (with Flames) - 1
LIGHTNING McQUEEN No. 95 - 2
MIGUEL CAMINO - 2