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Respect the Classics: It's all in the cards

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  • Respect the Classics: It's all in the cards



    We love our Cars... We always have... we always will... we may not like all of every release (too many pegwarmers), but we like new releases... Singles, Deluxe, Movie Moments, Haulers, Launchers, box sets... if it's got enough new releases or if it contains Cars that we're missing, we want to find new Cars... in a store, online, through a friend - we want to find Cars.

    From time to time, Mattel changes the packaging - a transition takes place from one series of Cars to the next... Sometimes we like the transitions, and sometimes we don't... Fixed eyes or lenticulars?... US versions or International versions?... Sometimes it's easy to find new Cars and sometimes it's not... It may depend on where you live and it may depend on who you know... Certain Cars have been released only in certain countries - when that happens, you need to rely on someone else to help you obtain those Cars.

    Sometimes we like to open our Cars, and sometimes we like to keep them carded or unopened... sometimes we open for display and/or we open to play... sometimes we give Cars to our children or grandchildren or to friends... At times I find it just as rewarding to give as to receive... this is especially true if I've seen nothing but pegwarmers and hope that if I help a store clear out old inventory they'll get in something new.

    In this article, we'll take a look at the various series of Cars that have been released from 2006 to the present... an overview of Cars.


    Desert Back Cars


    In the beginning, Mattel released a set of 12 Cars on what is called the Desert Back cardback... these were called the DB12 series because there were 12 Cars shown on the back of the card...



    A little later Mattel released the Desert Back 16 Cars (DB16)... as you see in the above photo, there are 16 Cars shown on the cardback... Cars were selling so Mattel released more Cars... Desert Back Cars were released on US and International cardbacks; I have no International Desert Back Cars but I know friends who do... The main releases were the singles and a set of 4 Movie Moments... in the 2006 Factory Set, Mattel also included a Desert Back Rollin Bowlin Mater single and a Dirt Track McQueen single.

    More details on the Desert Back Cars can be found in the article found at:
    http://www.pixarcarsdiecast.com/foru...sert-Back-Cars


    The Supercharged Cars Series


    The second series (or wave) of Cars was the Supercharged series... Many new Cars were released as singles, in Movie Moments, and in boxed sets... In the above photo, a set of the exclusive Walmart 8 singles is shown... I had not started collecting Cars in earnest when the Walmart 8 were released; I found a few in stores later on but got many from friends or from eBay... I opened many of my Supercharged Cars and did so without taking pictures... today I almost always photograph Cars before tearing the package open... er, carefully opening the package...

    Supercharged Cars were released on US cardbacks as well as on international cardback... I have Supercharged singles and boxed sets on both US and International cardback...

    Here's a photo showing Dale Jr on both Supercharged and World of Cars international cardback:


    I also have Dale Jr on the international Race O Rama cardback as well as on US cardback... How can you tell the Supercharged Dale Jr is on international cardback? You really can't in the above photo... you have to look at the back of the card:



    One of the Supercharged boxed sets I have is the Radiator Springs Shopkeepers set... I have it on both US and International cardback:


    Here's the cardback:


    Two of my other favorite Supercharged boxed sets are the Dinoco 400 set and the Radiator Springs Gift pack:


    I won those in a Cars Cares benefit auction.

    During the Desert Back and Supercharged series, the Cars had a lot more diecast (metal) in them than the do today or had in later series...the difference in weight between a Supercharged Mater and a Final Lap Mater and a Cars2 Race Team Mater is amazing to me... I think I also still have a few Supercharged Movie Moments.


    The World of Cars (WOC) series


    The World of Cars (WOC) series came next... Mattel released more and more Cars in this series, including some of the more obscure characters... During this series I was able to find new Cars at most stores that I visited; I also started purchasing cases from online resellers during the WOC series because I was becoming a full-fledged Cars-a-holic... During the WOC series Mattel started releasing Mega size (now called Deluxe size) Cars... I was buying multiples of singles and Mega Size because I wanted to have them opened for display, opened for play, and to keep many of them carded... I met up with a local collector who saw my introductory post on another board and we've become great friends and trading partners... I also met collectors in many different states and countries during the WOC series... some I met in person and others I met via PMs or e-mails.

    I received many International cardback WOC Cars during this series... Rippers and I were often sending huge packages to each other during the WOC days...

    One of my favorite releases during the WOC days was the set of original Kmart 1 racers with plastic tires:


    During the tail end of the WOC series Mattel released their first Chase Cars - Chase Lightning McQueen with Bumper Stickers and Chase Fred with Bumper Stickers were the only Chase Cars released in the WOC series:





    Singles, Movie Moments, Mega Size, and Gift Packs - those were all some of the Cars items that came out in the WOC days.



    Here's photo showing some of my international cardback WOC Cars:



    Story Tellers


    Towards the end of the World of Cars era, Mattel released Story Tellers - these were Cars that were part of the expanded Cars universe... maybe not part of the movie, but still Cars... In the US these we available in boxed sets, Christmas singles (TRU exclusive, I believe), and book like carded versions at Target exclusives... Some of these I never found in stores and had to rely on friends. I have a few unopened singles, 1 2 pack, and a few unopened 3 packs.

    Wedding Day Ramone:




    Bubba and Brand New Mater:




    Cousins: Jud, Buford, and Cletus:




    I opened most of the ones that I got... I only got 1 set of the Showstoppers (Sheila, Laverne, and Rhonda) for myself and never took pictures before I opened them... I also made the decision not to get some of them that I already had such as Tractor and Red... The Showstoppers are going for crazy money on eBay these days.

    I thought the packaging looked very nice... but they have a tendency to develop soft corners and edges due to how they are packaged... Many of these include repacks of Cars we already had.

    Boxed sets included the Mater Saves Christmas sets that have been Target or Toys R US exclusives.

    Look for an article on Story Tellers one of these days...


    Race O Rama Series


    The Race O Rama Series came followed the World of Cars series... Not only were more Cars being released for the first time, more Cars were being re-released on yet another cardback... Mattel had figured out a way to separate many of us from more of our money... Singles... Movie Moments... Gift packs in a horizontal boxed format as opposed to the WOC vertical series... Many Chase Cars came out in the ROR series... I was able to find many of them in stores in the county or on trips to Indianapolis or Dayton...

    Here are some ROR 3 packs:


    Here are some of the ROR Chase Cars (US cardback):


    Here is Impound DJ on both US and International cardback:


    This photo shows the cardbacks for both the US and International carded Impound DJ:


    I definitely prefer the back of the International version.

    During the Race O Rama series Mattel released more Deluxe Cars, launchers, haulers, Lightyear Launchers and more...

    Elvis and Frank were 2 of my favorite ROR Mega Size Cars... Here's Frank:



    Final Lap Cars

    (Final Lap Antonio and Muddy McQueen)

    Target exclusive... While I was glad to see new Cars being released, the fact that the closest Target is 50 miles away concerned me... and unlike many products which are stocked the same in all stores, Final Lap Cars were always hit and miss at Target... Some cases I never saw in a store... other cases I saw dozens of... A friend from Alaska sent me several of the Final Lap Case E Cars...

    Another drawback of this product line was that a case of 18 might consist of 8 or 9 new Cars (4 each of 2 or 3 each of 3) and the release of McQueen, Ramone, and Chick on the new cardback... That was a problem... stores sold the new Cars but were stuck with pegwarmers (where have we heard of that before or still?)...

    I never bought all of the pegwarmers for myself.

    Later releases of Final Lap Cars consisted of 12 Cars - 3 sets of 4 new Cars or 4 sets of 3 new Cars... I had pretty good luck finding the last 2 cases of Final Lap Cars... There were 2 cases of Final Lap Cars released in the UK as Target cut back on their orders.

    Look for more information about Final Lap Cars in the future.


    Lenticular singles


    Some like MrBrownstone love lenticulars - Cars that were advertised as "Look, my eyes change"... some of us tolerated lenticular Cars... others hated them... I have very few of these Look my eyes change Cars... I gave most of them away... the Chase Cars are an exception... Many Chase Cars in this series had fixed eyes; as I started collecting Cars with fixed eyes, that was my preference.

    The second wave of lenticular singles featured a Night Skyline cardback:


    The above Chase Guido and Luigi is the only Chase Car that I never got on US cardback... I never saw it in a store... I never bought it on eBay...

    Here's a photo showing a few more of the Night Skyline lenticulars as well as a few Toons:



    Night Skyline Cars
    The Night Skyline series consisted of Deluxe size Cars and various gift packs, launchers, and Lightyear Launchers and Haulers that were available to all retailers; they were not exclusive... Many of the Night Skyline Deluxe size Cars were released exclusively in the UK... While some people don't believe in collecting Cars that are released on International cardback, here are a few you would not have in your collection if it wasn't for the International cardback versions:

    Chuck Choke Cables:


    Brian Parks Motors:


    Stu Bop:


    US stores canceled orders of the Deluxe Cars cases - they were stuck with too many pegwarmers (Semi cabs) and didn't know how to tell between various Deluxe size Cars... stores use the same item number for multiple items; that makes it impossible to accurately track what is selling and what isn't.

    Here's Bessie:


    I got 3 Bessie from UK friends... it looked like this Car was not going to be released in the US... Then I heard that they'd been found at Burlington Coat Factory - I went to check out a few of those stores and did find a few... I think I may still have one Bessie on US cardback - there is one at the flea market for $85 plus tax (I guess I should have bought it when it was $28.00).

    So when I'd make a trip to Dayton or Indianapolis, I'd stop at Target, Toys R US, Walmart, Kmart, and other stores such as Burlington Coat Factory, Kohl's, and more... secondary retailers were getting in new products that the 4 largest retailers would not.


    In Conclusion

    I bought some Cars on International Cardback because that's how they were first released (or only released) or because I really liked the Car... I collected US Chase Cars and decided I wanted to have Chase Cars on International cards... Some Cars I didn't have carded so if I could buy it carded on a new cardback I did.

    Here's the Tow Cap and Gasprin Movie Moments on World of Cars, Race O Rama, and Night Skyline cardback:



    Did you know that Tow Cap is Reboque Cap?


    Neither did I until I took out this Movie Moments this evening to photograph... I tended to buy racers in as many formats as I could... And if they release additional Piston Cup racers as singles, I'll buy them even though I already have them in various formats.

    I also bought multiples of the Lightning McQueen/Kori Turbowitz international carded Movie Moments as I had trouble finding the Walmart 8 Kori single:



    The second series of Cars2 Cars are now starting to come out... as the first series has been out unofficially over a year (a few retailers put them out for sale before the May 16, 2011 US release date), we are anxiously awaiting new products.

    The first series of Cars2 Cars were on the Porto Corsa (Italy) card... a few Cars2 items have been released on the Big Bentley (London) card... Movie Moments have made a big change in appearance from:



    to:


    I'm ready to find new Cars in stores or online... and I think many of you are too.

    We'll look at the various series of Cars in more depth in future articles and other posts.

    As always, thanks for reading... I appreciate your comments and your feedback...

    Chris
    Last edited by cac1959; 04-23-2012, 12:03 PM.


    I am cac1959... I am a Cars-a-holic... and a proud supporter of Nathan's Playroom

  • #2
    Another great article, very informative!
    To be honest we've never took much notice about what cards ours are on due to most of them being opened/displayed.

    It will be interesting to see how cars 2 progresses, will it be such a extensive range like the original cars.

    Comment


    • #3
      Another great article. The biggest one yet maybe?

      Comment


      • #4
        a superb article,many thanks for the efforts and some truly amazing rarities in your pics.
        i have another suggestion as to another couple of cardbacks if i may and that would be the tru movie doubles cardbacks with the pull tabs and the storytellers (book style).

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for the comments... I'll get out my camera and take pictures of a Story Tellers single and 2 or 3 packs.

          If anyone can add a picture of a TRU Movie Doubles with pull tab I'd be glad to add it to the article... I never bought any of those.

          I have added a section on Story Tellers.
          Last edited by cac1959; 04-21-2012, 06:56 PM.


          I am cac1959... I am a Cars-a-holic... and a proud supporter of Nathan's Playroom

          Comment


          • #6
            There are some truly geat cars here, this page has everything that got me interested in cars to begin with. Awesome Chris...

            Comment


            • #7
              Great info Chris. This really explains to new collectors (and those who caught the tail end of Cars 1) how the card system worked

              Comment


              • #8
                These cars look awesome!




                http://carstoys.wikia.com <--My wiki

                http://flickr.com/carstoys/ <--My Flickr

                Comment


                • #9
                  My radiator springs ramone has a big scratch on it from the factory.




                  http://carstoys.wikia.com <--My wiki

                  http://flickr.com/carstoys/ <--My Flickr

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Greta article cac! I never understood why Mattel changed cardbacks on us... Of course the main reason is profit but I like how each one was very different in their own way. It never made collecting dull for me.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I'm happy that I am an opener and not a mint in package type of collector because I'd be in way over my head

                      Good article and very informative

                      keep up the great work

                      Transformers for Trade
                      Feedback: pixarcarsdiecast.com; cybertron.ca; tfw2005.com; ebay.ca

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