By the way, Wal Mart calls the area in front/near toys – The Action Alley Display area … makes linoleum sound pretty exciting, huh? Wal Mart loves them because by maneuvering a pallet from the back room to the floor, removing some poly wrap – it’s a DISPLAY! This is the first one we’ve had […]

So, now that we’ve all digested the Motor Speedway of the South set (um, hopefully not literally, though that Tach-o-Mint looks good enough to eat) and people wonder whether to open, to display or to bash them, it’s time for the Top 10 “rarest” Pixar CARS in reverse order. This does not include variations from […]

The Motor Speedway of the South Piston Cup race set continues to roll like a real life Katamari Damacy – and like the game, now at this level, it is just rollin’ & sucking in people right and left and no matter how you struggle, you are in the big ball and there is no […]

Reader Matt asks about its future value … while there is no definitive answer, here are some things to keep in mind. There’s not a lot of history to gauge, for some collectibles, there are some similar things like you can look at the Speed Racer Barbie and compare it to a “Fast & Furious” […]

As a marketing guy, people’s behaviors, crowd behavior and mobs fascinate me – and of course, the Motor Speedway of the South has turned out to be more fascinating than most – you can go all the way back when the rumors starting percolating, then the unauthorized photo leaks and then of course, the rumors […]

Movie Moments – so, what’s going on? Lots of rumors floating around – retail employees are saying this & that. The new ones disappear in an instant so clearly it’s not disinterest in buying 2-packs … but let’s backtrack a bit … Mattel certainly started off on the right track – the first Movie Moments […]

Gigaom sums up a McKinsey Quarterly feature on Brad Bird’s management style & thoughts at Pixar. Steve Jobs hired him, says Bird, because after three successes (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2) he was worried Pixar might struggle to stay innovative. Jobs told him: “The only thing we’re afraid of is complacency—feeling […]

For those who missed the earlier preview & announcement, Mattel will be selling a special Lightning Storm McQueen at the San Diego Comic Con Starting July 24. For those unfamiliar with Toy Show/Comic Con Exclusives, we covered the basics in our original post. Basically, this will be a special exclusive CAR available just at this […]

After the sale and retrenching quite a bit, Toys R Us is back on the growth track … mostly by opening a Babies R Us with Toys R Us together and/or converting single stores into both (my closest TRU just re-modeled and added a Babies R Us): “Toys “R” Us will open 16 of the […]

Thanks for readers Tim & Sarah, some more photos – not as cute as their kids but it’ll do 🙂 Here are more photos of the differences between Dale Jr. & Motor Speedway of the South Dale Jr. Old one on left, new on right. Different body of course. I’ll compare to mine also when […]