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Respect the Classics: Promo Cars with Production codes

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  • Respect the Classics: Promo Cars with Production codes




    The following article was originally posted on June 19, 2011... I'm updating it to include information related to production codes of the promo Cars, including pictures...

    Greetings once again...One of the marketing strategies Mattel has used to sell more Cars is the use of mail-in promos... something along the lines of buy 5, get a free new Car... it's a devious yet brilliant way to move pegwarmers... I have fallen for it (er, taken advantage of it) and in other cases did not and ended up paying more for the new Car... Anyway, off to the promo races...

    US Promo Cars


    Blu-ray McQueen was the first US promo Car... If you bought a copy of the DVD, you could send off and receive a Blu-ray McQueen in a baggie:



    I believe this promo was in effect from mid-October 2007 until 12/31/2007... at the time, I had not started collecting Cars with full gusto; I'd already bought the DVD and was not going to buy another copy of the movie on DVD to get a Car that wasn't in the movie... Silly me... by the time I got my Blu-ray McQueen, I ended up paying $80 for it and got a deal... there were issues with this promo... not everyone who sent off for it got one (they ran out of the 15000 Cars), and some people sent off for 1 and received dozens... today, unless you get one from someone selling off part of a collection, eBay or Amazon is about the only way to get it.

    All Blu-Ray McQueen promo Cars have a production code of 2427 EA; that means they were made the 242nd day of 2007, or August 31, 2007.




    Sidewall Shine


    The next US promos were Toys R Us exclusives... Buy 5 Cars, send in $5.00 for shipping and handling, and receive an unreleased new Car... The Sidewall Shine promo Car promotion ran from August 18, 2008 through September 30, 2008...




    (Above photo courtesy of Rippers)

    Not having a local Toys R Us, I had to drive to the nearest Indianapolis store, 75 miles away, to search the pegs... of the 5 Cars I bought, I already had 4 of them... I sent away for my 1 Sidewall Shine... In the US, you were required to mail in the UPC from the card (or blister), so that meant you had to open the purchased Cars... Some collectors were not happy with that.

    Not nearly as many Sidewall Shine promo Cars were sold as Toys R Us expected... The same thing happened with their next promo Car, N2O Cola... as a result, Toys R Us canceled the 3rd and 4th announced US promo Cars: Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint... I know I was able to purchase additional Sidewall Shine and N2O Cola promo Cars on eBay for less than $15 each shipped late in 2009...

    Mattel later released Sidewall Shine as a rubber tire racer (Kmart 5) as well as a Lightyear Launcher with plastic tires... there are a few Sidewall Shine promo Cars on eBay today.

    Sidewall Shine promo Cars were produced on multiple days... One I have opened has a production code of 1418 EA which means it was made on May 20, 2008... Here's the photo:



    Others have reported Sidewall Shine with production codes of 1378EA, 1558EA, and 1588EA... Those dates are May 16, June 3, and June 6, 2008... so it looks like the Sidewall Shine promo Cars were made in a little over 3 weeks time... I'll see if I can add photos.


    N2O Cola


    Toys R Us did not waste any time coming out with their next US Promo Car... N2O Cola... This promo began in October 2008 and ended on December 31, 2008... I had decided I wasn't going to spend $30 for a "free promo Car"... and then on December 31, the last day of the promo, GOMATERGO and I made a road trip to Indianapolis... we stopped at Toys R Us, and I bought 15 pegwarmers so I could send off for 3.



    One I have opened has a production code of 2128 EA; that means it was made on July 30, 2008...


    Other N2O Cola promo Cars reported have a code of 1978 EA; they were made on July 15, 2008... So it looks like perhaps there was a 2 to 3 week period when the EA factory produced the N2O Cola Promo Car.

    I ended up opening 1 of my promo Cars to put in a display case... I traded one to Rippers for a UK Faux Wheel Drive promo Car (our first trade, Paul)... and I was down to just one... When Toys R Us canceled the last 2 promos, these became available on eBay for the $15 shipped price... I also have a Martin Arriola autographed N2O Cola; MrBrownstone won it during a CarsCares auction and we worked out a trade for it... ironically, I sent the autographed one to Jon as part of a package I sent him and he had to send it back to me... don't grocery shop when you're hungry, and don't get Cars packages ready when you're tired...anyway, I digress...

    I now have 5 Sidewall Shine and 4 N2O Cola promo Cars (in the individual display cases) that are in sealed baggies... I was hoping to be able to trade them for newer promos when they came out.

    N2O Cola has also been released as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and has a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher in 2010.


    The Canceled Promos


    The 3rd Toys R Us promo Car was supposed to begin March 18, 2009 and was supposed to be Gask-Its... even though there were no fliers up in stores in advance of the start date, we "knew" that the Gask-Its promo was starting that day... I skipped church that Sunday morning to be at TRU when the promo started, because I was going to buy several... even though the promo had not been confirmed... the store manager knew nothing about the promo... it was not listed in the store promotional materials for the month... Still, I purchased 20 Cars (18 repeats) so I'd be ready for the promo....

    A few days after the fact, Met posted the news on TakeFiveADay... ToysRUs had canceled the Gask-Its and Tach-O-Mint promos... collectors were crushed... if you had not gotten the Speedway of the South set, your hopes of adding these 2 racers to your collection were shattered... I returned half of the Cars I'd purchased to the store... I'd given the others to my grandchildren to open so they could play with them.

    Gask-Its was finally released with rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector event and with plastic tires as a Lightyear Launcher in fall 2010... Tach-O-Mint was released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event; we've seen pictures of a Tach-O-Mint Pit Row Race-off launcher from SDCC 2009, but sadly, it's never been released with plastic tires outside of the Speedway of the South set.


    UK Promos


    Vinyl Toupee

    The first UK promo Car was Vinyl Toupee... I believe the promo started in the last 3 months of 2007... it ended on 12/31/2007... At the time I originally wrote this article I didn't have one... I just received one in the mail on March 12, 2012 that I won in an eBay auction... It came with a poster showing a checklist of Supercharged Cars:



    Mine has a production code of 2357 EA which meant is was made on July 22, 2007:


    Others (djjd21 and Rippers) have reported production codes of 1807 EA and 2287 EA (Rippers)... that means they were made June 28 and July 15, 2007.

    Thank you, Rippers, for the photos of your Vinyl Toupee promo Cars:





    According to production codes these were made in an 8 week time period.

    Vinyl Toupee has since been released in the Target Dinoco 400 boxed set, as a rubber tire racer during the Kmart 3 Cars Collector Event, and most recently as a Lightyear Launcher... The Vinyl Toupee hauler is a favorite of many collectors.


    Faux Wheel Drive


    Faux Wheel Drive has been a UK promo Car on multiple occasions... the first time was during the winter of 2008... It was buy 5 and receive a free Faux Wheel Drive... unlike the TRU US promos, you did not have to cut off the UPCs and mail them in... there were stickers with codes attached to the cardbacks and you called in them in or submitted the codes online... codes could only be used once.

    You received the following in the mail via Royal Mail delivery:



    This one has been autographed by Martin Arriola, who designed many of the early Cars... I donated it to the Cars Cares charity for an auction, and ended up winning it.



    Photo courtesy of Rippers:


    It was during this promo that I really became a full-fledged Cars-a-holic... I had traded with several excellent UK people, including Rippers, Niler7, and Akumulator1... GOMATERGO and I had also joined an Indianapolis area Cars Collector Club, and since I had UK contacts, I took care of this for the group... and also for friends in Illinois, California, Alaska, and other states... I traded for or purchased 21 Faux Wheel Drive promo Cars... 1 is in a Carney Plastics SA-100 display case... 1 is in a Target 4 pack in a Poor Man's Speedway in the South set (made up of 9 4 pack boxes)... I have 3 left in baggies in 2 padded mailing envelopes.

    Faux Wheel Drive was also used as a promo Car in France in late 2009 when they ran out of Gask-Its... it was also released as a promo in Italy in October 2009... it was also repeated as a UK promo Car in September 2009 or 2010 - when it turned out that the mystery promo was indeed a re-release of Faux Wheel Drive, many of us felt we'd been cheated.

    Faux Wheel Drive was also released with Rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event - it also was available in a rubber tire 3 pack with Gask-Its and Lightning McQueen right before Kmart 5... the detailed paint job on Faux Wheel Drive makes it one of my favorite Cars racers.

    I have Faux Wheel Drives with production codes of 1278 EA and 1308 EA; that means they were made on May 6 and May 9, 2008:





    Within the last week, we saw many of these advertised on eBay from a UK based seller... the seller had multiple full cases of 200 Faux Wheel Drive promo Cars... several of us have ordered these and some have already received them... Perhaps we'll see other promo Cars come out later; maybe after Sidewall Shine and N2O Cola, Mattel had multiple cases of 200 Promo Cars...


    Other UK Promos


    I don't have specific dates, but Sidewall Shine was released as a UK promo... there were leftovers from the US promo used in the UK promo.

    Here is a poster describing details of the UK Sidewall Shine promo...



    (Thank you, Rippers, for the photo)


    The Gask-Its Promo (France)


    I believe that the dates are between July 2009 and November 2009... but Gask-Its with plastic tires was finally released as a promo Car... in France... This has been the most expensive promo Car in my experience... Buy 4 Cars and receive a Gask-Its promo Car... However, unlike other promo Cars, they would only mail one promo Car to an address... that made it very tough to acquire... One of my friends in Germany was able to get one for me, and a UK friend who has an aunt who has a vacation home in France was able to get one for me... I have an average of $110 in each of my 2 Gask-Its promo Cars...

    Here are pictures:





    Mine have production codes of 0589 EA and 0619 EA, which means they were made on February 27 and March 2, 2009:




    (Note: the blob on the bottom of the Car is poster putty, it's not part of the Car... I use it to keep the Car in place in the display case)

    The Gask-Its promo Car was selling on eBay for between $200 and $400 (each)... due to the very limited numbers released so far, it is the most rare of the promo Cars...

    Gask-Its has since been released on rubber tires during the Kmart 5 Cars Collector Event (as a single and in the 3 pack with Lightning McQueen and Faux Wheel Drive) and as a plastic tire Lightyear Launcher late in 2010.


    Other promo Cars


    There have been other promo Cars released in the US and in other countries... Some have been available on mattycollector.com (Barry Diesel, Lightning Storm McQueen, and Tokyo Mater)... Some have been released with movies - after missing out on the Blu-ray McQueen, I did not miss out on the Blu-ray Collector pack with the Ransburg Rescue Squad Mater and Gold McQueen... There was a Best Buy exclusive DVD of Cars that contained 4 Cars... but that sounds like a future article...

    Perhaps we'll see more of the Gask-Its Promo Cars come out one day; if there were multiple unreleased cases of 200 of Faux Wheel Drive, I would think there might be multiple unreleased cases of Gask-Its, and if they made it, Tach O Mint as well.

    Thanks for reading... Look for more photos about Promo Cars in this and future articles.
    Last edited by cac1959; 03-19-2012, 07:58 PM.


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

  • #2
    I truly love these. I always learn something new, and I love the personal nuggets thrown in. I didn't even know about the cancelled U.S. Gask-its promo. I think this one might've been my favorite....I felt your pain as you bought the 20 cars (18 pegwarmers) just to find out nothing doing...ouch. And thanks again for the great read.

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    • #3
      I do love the promo cars myself. I gave up trying to get them once I sent off for a N20 cola promo and received another sidewall shine. But I suppose the best things come to those who wait. I messaged the guy with all those faux wheel drives and brought 50 off him for a good price, (not through ebay) and he also said if he comes across anything else ie the other promo cars he'll let me know so maybe I can help others on here, didnt really want 200 but 50 is a nice amount for future swaps etc. If anyone on here has a spare promo gask its for swap id be grateful, must be with baggie message me Mark

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      • #4
        Another great article. I never realised there was so many promo cars as these were before we really started getting serious about collecting.

        I do have a promo faux wheel drive in baggie, cost me 75p think its been my best buy to date and one of my fav in our collection.

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        • #5
          Those collector posters look good Chris

          Thanks for the info on the promo cars - I they didn't release the rubber tyre cars I'd certainly be hunting like crazy for these (and they'd certainly be worth more too...)

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