What's in those stores....UK

[Lozzi31]

I hope so!! Looking forward to Alex Corvill and Nature Drive!

[niftynigel]

For those collectors outside the UK wondering why there hasn't been much from UK based collectors recently, it's quite simple, here's nothing to report!

The last new case, 994B (similar to cancelled US case 999L) was released about five weeks ago.

There were actually two cases released simultaneously, 994A (in mainland Europe) and 994B (in the UK only). Both cases are similar but Nature Drive McQueen (TBC) (3) and Ichigo (Chase) (1) were in case 994A, but were replaced by Lightning McQueen (3) and an extra Shu Todoroki in lieu of Ichigo in case 994B.

Quite why this was isn't clear. Only Mattel UK and Europe know!

From a UK viewpoint, does this mean that Nature Drive McQueen and Ichigo aren't due to be released in the UK?

Given that the UK has had 72 of the 79 singles released so far, why cut the odd car out now?

Some may point out that J. Curby Gremlin was only released in Europe and not in the UK. I can understand not releasing Super Chase in all territories due the to limited numbers of them, but regular cars, that just doesn't make sense!

The UK missed Cartney Brakin', Fabrizio, Alexander Hugo, Mary Esgocar and Sir Harley Gassup last time around, so it wouldn't be a surprise if we missed a few this time. The Kmart first to market cars, Mildred Byland and Airport Waitress (Chase) are probably good candidates if the UK is to miss any more?

Certainly, it would be a pleasant surprise if the UK got a Silver Rip Clutchgoneski, to complete the set. That would mean that Mattel UK would have to think outside the box (or case)!

[CarsDiecast08]

For those collectors outside the UK wondering why there hasn't been much from UK based collectors recently, it's quite simple, here's nothing to report!

The last new case, 994B (similar to cancelled US case 999L) was released about five weeks ago.

There were actually two cases released simultaneously, 994A (in mainland Europe) and 994B (in the UK only). Both cases are similar but Nature Drive McQueen (TBC) (3) and Ichigo (Chase) (1) were in case 994A, but were replaced by Lightning McQueen (3) and an extra Shu Todoroki in lieu of Ichigo in case 994B.

Quite why this was isn't clear. Only Mattel UK and Europe know!

From a UK viewpoint, does this mean that Nature Drive McQueen and Ichigo aren't due to be released in the UK?

Given that the UK has had 72 of the 79 singles released so far, why cut the odd car out now?

Some may point out that J. Curby Gremlin was only released in Europe and not in the UK. I can understand not releasing Super Chase in all territories due the to limited numbers of them, but regular cars, that just doesn't make sense!

The UK missed Cartney Brakin', Fabrizio, Alexander Hugo, Mary Esgocar and Sir Harley Gassup last time around, so it wouldn't be a surprise if we missed a few this time. The Kmart first to market cars, Mildred Byland and Airport Waitress (Chase) are probably good candidates if the UK is to miss any more?

Certainly, it would be a pleasant surprise if the UK got a Silver Rip Clutchgoneski, to complete the set. That would mean that Mattel UK would have to think outside the box (or case)!

wow, I'm surprised the UK didn't get Sir Harley Gassup cause he's from across the pond in the movie

[niftynigel]

wow, I'm surprised the UK didn't get Sir Harley Gassup cause he's from across the pond in the movie

Mattel and logic don't always go hand in hand! The UK only got 250 Prince Wheeliams and The Queen (Deluxe) on an international card was even rarer! Last year was an Olympic year. Mattel could've sold a shed load of The Queen and Prince Wheeliam with a bit of foresight and imagination. Prince Wheeliam finally arrived in October and The Queen around November! Mattel certainly missed the boat on that pair! Doh!!!

Every series from Race O Rama onwards has been cut short in the UK.

It's not a very well kept secret that Mattel is sitting on 1,000s of Final Lap style Lenticular cases as they were withdrawn from sale as Cars 2 was about to be launched. WH Smith was the last retailer to take a significant delivery of this series and as others have found they do have many cars, sometimes case full in their storerooms!

I bought a whole case of Lenticulars at the WHS Barnsley branch at Easter 2012. That was interesting explaining to the turnstyle staff at the football ground what I'd got in the case! 24 toy cars! And it was raining! The pie was great and West Ham won 4-0. Happy days!

[Scavenger]

I bought a whole case of Lenticulars at the WHS Barnsley branch at Easter 2012. That was interesting explaining to the turnstyle staff at the football ground what I'd got in the case! 24 toy cars! And it was raining! The pie was great and West Ham won 4-0. Happy days!

Thanks for the laugh this morning Nigel! Must have been quite the interaction between you and the turnstile staff!

[Joshuasmummy]

So WHS is a good place to go for cars then? I hadn't even thought to look in there before actually. As a relatively new collector I'm visiting my local Sainsbury's (x2) Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and The Entertainer Toy Shop and the selection is so poor-never much in them choice wise other than McQueen, Finn, Francesco and Mater...can anyone advise me of better places to look? Toys'r'us is very hit and miss too! Am I missing a valuable piece of info on where to track some down...or at least look?!

[Lozzi31]

Hi joshuasmummy,

It all depends what you are after but I have found Toymaster (franchise of independent toy shops) to be the best for 2013 range of cars... (White packaging) however Smyths are good if you would like certain cars as they have tonnes of the same box of cars.... tescos/toys r us/sainsburys/morrisons usually only have the 2012 stock whenever I check there however sainsburys and morrisons have been reported to get alot of the newest cars but every time I've been there is nothing. I have found some great cars at tescos....

Whsmith sometimes have to odd car but they are usually too expensive and minimal stock levels.

Asda haven't had anything new for absolutely ages, all they ever seem to have is very damaged and old ones of francescos and mcqueens,

The entertainer has been good for some deluxes like the queen but they don't seem to have many singles in at all.

Unfortunately it is a hunt but if you read the UK finds thread below this you can see where others have found items and then use this info to target your search!

I hope this helps.... Sadly starting to search just now is hard as we are in a slow Down of stock at the moment ad no where seems to be getting any new stock in....

We are waiting for the next case of cars to arrive!

[foxrfc]

Well put Lozzi, been out and about this morning and apart from the Toys UK store in Wycombe, did not see any 2013 stock apart from 2 silver cars priced at £6 in Tesco. The Planes situation is no better unless you want 'Dusty' forget about it.

Mattel what has happened to any kind of distribution of cases in the UK?

[madbob]

Mattel what has happened to any kind of distribution of cases in the UK?

Don't expect Mattel to answer this question, they probably only lurk on here 'if that'. I think Nigel talks to them from time to time but I gave up trying to a long time ago. Lozzi is pretty much bang on about where to find, and WH Smiths still have some gold.... found a lenti flo a few weeks back in Totnes!

Sainsbury's has been the best main supermarket in 2013 and some DS stores have seen new 2013 card backs. Found a chase miles this week in a Sainsburys in Reading.

Asda, Argos, Wilko, TRU and even Tescos seem to have given up. It's been the hardest year to find new cars, new ones are rare in the UK. There are about, it's just hard to find them.

Good Luck

[Joshuasmummy]

Agree with everything said here and thanks Lozzi for this info, is it likely that places will be buying more from Mattel ready for Christmas...? I'm trying to establish whether or not the shops will suddenly get better closer to December! Can't believe this country is so poorly stocked with Cars...actually I can, because anything like this and we are always way behind the States!

This morning I got up early and visited two Sainsburys, Toys'r'us, Wilco's, Tesco's, Asda, Morrisons, WHS and The Entertainer Toy Shop here in Peterborough and what did I get...one car! It was Nigel Gearsley and only because he was £2.99 in the sale! Very poor outcome for 9 shops visited!

I've started subscribing to a postage forwarding company in the States so I can buy my Xmas pressie's from over there and have them all shipped over at once together in November/December (much cheaper! Do it every year) and I think I'm going to buy my cars for the next few months in the same way too...means I have to wait for them to get here but at least I know I will actually get some new ones, plus it will be like Christmas for me when they all arrive!

[Bombom77]

I've often looked at something like that but always thought the cost then the gauntlet that is HMRC too cost prohibitive. If you don't mind me asking, what sort of price are you paying and what, if any, is the duration of the contract?

TIA

[Joshuasmummy]

Don't mind you asking at all! It's not cheap, ultimately it was the cheapest option I could find to use but I don't class it as inexpensive, but I do class it as worthwhile the way I do it. I use a company called My Us (Myus.com) and you get a postage address at their warehouse in Florida. They have a very affordable basic program for $10 start up fee, and no monthly membership fee-however this one doesn't have the best consolidating packaging cost when you forward it on (this is the real stinger), and you only get one week of 'storage' free before you are charged per day to keep your items there. Basically they don't want your stuff hanging around if you're on the basic program. The best way I've found to do it, is to use their premium account which costs $20 start up fee and $7 per month (so about £18 to start up) after that however it still works out cheaper because you get an entire month of storage free before the fee's for storage kick in ($1 a day) and you also get better postage quotes/costs on this plan too. The way I do it is that I open my account around September every year and have it for a couple of months while I do my shopping for Christmas etc and have it all shipped to my storage room their, then once I'm done I send it through over to me here in one big box and then close my account. If I was only buying cars and would ship frequent smaller amounts of goods I would probably think about keeping my account open with them next year but downgrading to the basic plan (and then upgrading at Xmas etc).ted collecting this year so it's not something I've thought about yet. I have to admit that the day the letter comes through the door from Customs, with the tax bill I often need a stiff drink to calm my nerves as it can be expensive based on how much you've bought but in my experience overall I've still saved money, even though at times only a small amount, I've always saved a bit AND had the main bonus of being able to buy things I want but can't buy here...
Hope this helps, if you want to ask me anything else please feel free, happy to help.

[niftynigel]

Hi joshuasmummy,

It all depends what you are after but I have found Toymaster (franchise of independent toy shops) to be the best for 2013 range of cars... (White packaging) however Smyths are good if you would like certain cars as they have tonnes of the same box of cars.... tescos/toys r us/sainsburys/morrisons usually only have the 2012 stock whenever I check there however sainsburys and morrisons have been reported to get alot of the newest cars but every time I've been there is nothing. I have found some great cars at tescos....

Whsmith sometimes have to odd car but they are usually too expensive and minimal stock levels.

Asda haven't had anything new for absolutely ages, all they ever seem to have is very damaged and old ones of francescos and mcqueens,

The entertainer has been good for some deluxes like the queen but they don't seem to have many singles in at all.

Unfortunately it is a hunt but if you read the UK finds thread below this you can see where others have found items and then use this info to target your search!

I hope this helps.... Sadly starting to search just now is hard as we are in a slow Down of stock at the moment ad no where seems to be getting any new stock in....

We are waiting for the next case of cars to arrive!

You've only found Toymaster to be good, when you've travelled some considerable distance, maybe 150 miles round trip to get Cars. From your own admission, your local franchisees aren't that good. That's partly down to local demand.

Smyths only have 58 stores in the UK and Ireland. As a result, they don't have much clout with Mattel, Hasbro etc. They are the only store in Rep. Ireland that I've ever seen Cars. They have 22 stores in the Republic and six in Northern Ireland.

I travel the length and bredth of England and I can tell you that the situation does vary from area to area and indeed from store to store. I have two Sainsburys near me. One Superstore and one Local. To guage the size of the superstore, it has a turnover of about £300 million a year! They've been out of stock of Cars for weeks. They just got a 997V case this week, probably the first case since July! The Sainsburys Local gets a case a week on average! They had 997Q, 997U, 997V and 997Y cases this year along with the Cars 2 996Y case. The stores are just about five miles apart, but why the disparity? If it were the other way around, there may be some logic to it?

Although it's not on my regular routes, there is a Morrison about five miles from me. They also get new cases, about one a week. One other store about eight miles away, a bigger store doesn't even have a toy aisle!

If I look at the rough sales figures for 2013, Sainsburys is unsurprisingly top of the league. However, they aren't that much ahead of Tesco in terms of total sales. The number of stores does distort the figures. Hamleys are the biggest seller (per store) as they have so few stores. Disney are the second in the per store sales, as they only have about 50 stores left. Sainsburys are third and Toymaster/Tesco/Morrison/Smyths are fairly similar.

This time last year, Tesco put in a very big order, more than Sainsburys have for the whole 2013 so far. When Tesco orders big, it's big. Let's hope Mattel and Tesco are on the same wavelength.

The cases that each store have had are as follows:

Sainsburys (996Y, 997Q, 997U, 997V, 997W, 997Y);
Tesco (996Y, 997P, 997R, 997U, unconfirmed 997Y?); Now had 994B
Morrison (996Y, 997P, 997Q, 997V, 994B);
Toymaster (997Q, 997U, 994B);
Disney (997U Few, 997W, 997Y); Now had 994B
Smyths (997R);
ASDA (997R);
Hamleys (997R, 997V and 994B).

There are others, but the numbers we are talking about are very small.

WH Smith, Wilkinson and Argos haven't had any of the 2013 standard singles.

There are differing reports coming out from Mattel about what is coming, how much and when.

Their customer service (laughs) contact times has been seriously cut back. Generally now only Monday to Thursday 1000-1200 and 1400-1600.

[niftynigel]

By a process of elimination, the case contents for the final two UK and European international markets are likely to look like this ...

Case W1938-994C

ERIK LANELEY - 1
RACE OFFICIAL TOM - 2
EDWIN KRANKS - 1
BRAND NEW MATER - 1
NATURE DRIVE LIGHTNING McQUEEN - 2
MAURICE WHEELKS - 1
VERN - 1
LIGHTNING McQUEEN (with Racing Wheels) - 1
DARRELL CARTRIP (with Headset) - 1
FRANCESCO BERNOULLI - 1
RACE TEAM MATER - 1
PETEY PACER (with Torch) - 1
J. CURBY GREMLIN - 1
LIGHTNING McQUEEN (with Cone) - 2
ALEX CORVILL - 2
DJ (with Flames) - 1
SPUTTER STOP - 1
JONATHAN WRENCHWORTHS - 1
RIP CLUTCHGONESKI - 2

Case W1938-994D

MILDRED BYLANE - 2
BRENT MUSTANGBURGER (with Headphones) - 2
RUKA (CHASE) - 1
VICTOR PAVEONE - 1
NATURE DRIVE LIGHTNING McQUEEN - 3
JEFF GORVETTE - 4
HARUMI - 1
DEXTER HOOVER (with Chequered Flag) - 2
CHICK HICKS - 2
RUSTY RUST-EZE - 1
CACTUS LIGHTNING McQUEEN - 1
CHARLIE CHECKER - 1
MIKE LORENGINE - 1
UNCLE TOPOLINO - 2

By my calculations, there have been 1,600 case 994B into shops so far. The remaining 400 won't last long (about a week). Mattel tell me that the final two cases started to be distributed to stores last weekend, so it's down to stores own distribution when they actually get put out on the shelves. They can literally turn up anywhere, anytime.

As there's 4,000 cases that'll be sufficient for about eight weeks supply. That takes us into mid-November, when hopefully Cars 2014 cases will start to hit the shops for the Christmas market!? It would be great if Mattel could put some Deluxe and Doubles into the mix too!

There are no prizes for being the first to spot any new Cars (apart from the satifaction of taking the little beauties home with you), but if you do spot a new case, as ever please note it's contents, where and when you saw it and add some photos too!

[Enzo]

By my calculations, there have been 1,600 case 994B into shops so far. The remaining 400 won't last long (about a week).

What's that based on? Because I think it's a joke myself. That 994B case made it to a selection of Toymasters in the SE, even fewer Morrisons and now the odd DS apparently. More likely to be the other way round IMO.