Is there a doctor in the house? When we see Dr. Mater from the Rescue Squad Mater Cars Toon, we may wonder the same thing... Mater's Tall Tales are just that... tales that seem to far-fetched to be true... Rescue Squad Mater was one of those.
In this article, we'll take a quick look at the characters featured in Rescue Squad Mater as related to Dr Mater.
Dr. Mater
Dr. Mater was one of 4 characters released in a Rescue Squad Mater 4 pack that also included Burnt Lightning McQueen, Nurse Mia, and Nurse Tia... when this 4 pack first came out, it was $19.99 plus tax... not a bad deal for 4 (basically) new Cars... as is the case with many early Mattel releases, there were too many of these released and many remained on the shelves.
Here's a closeup showing Dr. Mater and Burnt Lightning McQueen... as far as I remember, this Burnt McQueen was different than the single version; the Dr. Mater single was identical to the Dr. Mater in the 4 pack.
Dr. Mater was also released as a single:
There were too many of the Dr. Mater single packed in cases as well... it took several cases, but Mattel finally released Dr. Mater with Mask Up:
If I remember properly, I received Dr. Mater with Mask Up on international cardback before it turned up in the US.
The back of the Rescue Squad Mater 4 pack with Dr. Mater shows several other Cars from the tall tale:
Loose Cars
Here are photos of the opened Cars from the Dr. Mater portion of the short:
Dr. Mater:
Dr. Mater with Mask Up:
Orderly Pittys 1 and 2 - were released as a single with both pittys:
And no, I don't know which is Orderly Pitty 1 and which is Orderly Pitty 2.
Burnt Lightning McQueen single - note the mouth expression is different from the one in the 4 pack:
Nurse GTO: Based on the Pontiac GTO, this is one of my favorite Cars in the series:
Nurse Kori: Kori Turbowitz was a popular single that was part of the Walmart 8 series... Nurse Kori was a huge pegwarmer... I've seen it at Toys R US stores in the last 6 months:
Soaked Lightning McQueen - released as a single... this McQueen appears after the Rescue Squad Mater fire truck has doused the fire:
Here's the Burnt Lightning McQueen single next to the Soaked Lightning McQueen single:
I also have a cool error Car that is Soaked Lightning McQueen without eyes... it's one of the few error Cars that I've found in a store myself (most of my errors have been sent to me by friends).
Here's a picture showing the Rescue Squad Trooper opened - (note: photo to be added):
As I haven't opened the 4 pack, I don't have pictures showing Nurse Mia and Nurse Tia or Burnt Lightning McQueen opened... and I no longer have carded versions of many of the singles.
So to answer the question that I was asked earlier today:
The Dr. Mater single appears to be the same as the Dr. Mater in the 4 pack... the Burnt Lightning McQueen single has a different mouth/expression than the one in the 4 pack.
While I like the Dr. Mater characters in the Rescue Squad Mater Tall Tale, I like the Rescue Squad Mater characters, including the fire truck and Dalmatian Mia and Tia better... and my favorites are the ransburg versions from the gift pack and the SDCC Comic Con version from 2009... but that sounds like another article.
As always, thanks for reading... I appreciate your comments... and if you have photos that you can contribute to the article, please post them in replies to the article.
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