In 2006 when CARS the diecast line was first released, it was yet another get-rich quick movie marketing scheme as planned by Disney. While a cars-based film certainly provided a much better opportunity to sell some merchandise, it was by no means a sure bet. Nevermind hindsight – all movies outside of Starwars had a short merchandising life – from mega blockbusters like “Lord of the Rings,” to “Spiderman,” there was success but after 6 months, the line was essentially dead … and CARS was moved from November 2005 to June 2006 not only so they could tweak the story a little more, this way, they could have a closer holiday DVD selling season for what seemed like another disposable movie and close the books on this CARS thing on December 31, 2006 … and diecasts? Sure, some interest but kids today want RC cars, right? Who wants non-interactive non self propelled CARS?*

Why did Mattel then (and even today) never even bothered to create even a text checklist for CAR? Just not worth it? – Why spend hours on something only to have to take it down in January of 2007?

*Old time CARS collectors will remember the pullback CARS – surely, people would MUCH, MUCH prefer a crappy plastic heap of plastic because the CAR had some interactivity? Uh, no.

APRIL 2006 to DECEMBER 2006 -CARS ARE ‘Happy Meals-Like’ ERA.

BTW, during this era, collectors had many CARS line to pick from:

Disney Stores 1:64 diecast series
Disney Stores 1:32ish-1:43ish series
Mattel 1:24 plastic series
Mattel Disney Pixar Pullback 1:43ish plastic series
Mattel Disney  & Pixar 1:55 metal diecast series

Real collectors & Kids don’t want cars that are lumps of plastic. Buh-bye to the:
Mattel 1:24 plastic series
Mattel Disney Pixar Pullback 1:43ish plastic series

Real collectors & Kids don’t want a a line where the scale meanders due to poor design & poor quality control (aka: we don’t care so why should you?):
Disney Stores 1:32ish-1:43ish series

Leaving us two:

Disney Stores 1:64 diecast series
Mattel Disney & Pixar 1:55 metal diecast series

(Technically, we can count a third line, the Tomica line from Japan but at the time – around $12 per CAR with shipping, it would never be a major consideration).

So what separates the two? The Disney Store 1:64 line is acceptable. It’s mostly metal and mostly in scale but it’s just generic & random diecast. They were really not much better than the McD’s Happy Meals ones except mostly in metal … decent but not very inspiring.

Just as with marketing and distribution, anyone could sell 5-15 CARS from the film but to sell 150 different ones in 32 months? To get people to still fight in the aisles for them 32 months later? NO amount of marketing can get people to drive all night (or in some cases – drive through two countries and 10 states) to buy anything, let alone toy cars. But CARS does. What is the secret? Not so much a secret.

Quality and variety (of course, they need to be priced right also).

They are simply rolling pieces of art.

Quality, variety and the right pricing = passion = sales.

But of course, this simple equation is often forgotten. Some people think it’s more complicated or they think consumers can be fooled by substituting something else into the equation.

Uh, no. Well, sure, if you want the foundation to collapse, just keep chipping away. “Quality” seems like an easy thing to chip away … “no one will notice.”

Um, ask GM if anyone noticed? Or as Mattel found out with Hot Wheels – noted in a recent Newsweek article. People notice and they respond in that funny way – that ‘we’re not buying this anymore’ funny … okay, not so funny to the seller.

And of course, a key component that you must stack on top of this foundation of quality & variety – convenience or availability or simply called – proper distribution.

And that has been the biggest bane of CARS … after the Happy Meals-Like ERA comes the desert era.

Not the desert art era, the desert era.

JANUARY 2007 to MAY 2007 – “The Hey, This Thing is Still Selling ERA, What do we do? What Do We Do? ERA

The one contingency they never planned for because in today’s world, it’s a rarity and they don’t know what to do. No one plans for the blockbuster success in toys because one never knows when a non-reoccurring phenomenon is coming … or going …

That ‘or going’ is an interesting aspect of the phenomenon because no one can predict when something might stop selling … so the problem is a lot of people working on a project are ready to jump offboard – liked poised on a train, when it slows to go around the bend, off they go … so in December of 2006, a lot of people jumped offboard the CARS thing thinking it would eventually slow to a crawl … so they could claim they saw it coming and got off so they ‘can’t be blamed.’

Of course, In January 2007, the tracks were clear and the CARS train was actually gaining speed.

So, they were forced to back to the drawing board and actually plan on another 6 months … surely by then, things would be dead, right?

JUNE 2007 to AUGUST 2007 – “Wow, these metal CARS really shoot the train forward!” ERA

But 6 months is 6 months. Mattel showed off a bunch of CARS at NY Comic Co/Toy Fair in February and some actually hit the shelves with more to come. It was going to be a great 6 months!

AUGUST 2007 to OCTOBER 2007 – “Who put this giant pile of LEAD on the tracks?” ERA

Dead stop. Sarge. Lead.

OCTOBER 2007 to FEBRUARY 2008 – “Full Speed Ahead” ERA

Most other toy lines, especially one that is less than two years old might’ve just died right there with no real opportunity to come back but not CARS – just a little hiccup – no CARS for months, no new CARS for months, no problem. From the WM8 pallet to the MASSIVE shipments of CASE A, B & C, the shelves were bulging with CARS for 5 months.

MARCH 2008 to MAY 2008 – “New CARS, Bah, Let’s Re-Sell all the old CARS” ERA

Sadly a lot of cases with new CARS were pulled – presumably as a cost savings measure – to be replaced by repeat CARS … but ALL was forgiven on May 2o, 2008.

MAY 20, 2008

Dream Day. CARS Lotto Day … (well, a $299 Lotto ticket). For those who missed it, want to re-live it or want to forget it … here was our live blog … and of course, the crazy runup in price measured in MINUTES & HOURS – crazy fun!

JUNE 2008

Playing with Motor Speedway, what else is going on?

JULY 2008 – “The Pearly Golden AGE of CARS beckons us …” ERA

San Diego Comic Con 2008. Check out this link for the links to all the CARS featured there.

AUGUST 2008 to JANUARY 2009 – “Golden Age of CARS. Tin Age of CARS Distribution” ERA*

Quality. Check. Variety. Check. Design Greatness. Check. Price Increase Increase. Check. Distribution Problems. Check. Retail Shelving Problems. Check. Too Many McQueen’s in the Boxes. Check … Uh oh … wait a minute – back up a bunch …

*October 11, 2008 excepted (aka: Kmart CARS Collector Day).

So, if you have trouble finding CARS, that’s nothing new – from the time the CARS arrived in April 2006, we have maybe 5 months in which there have been no supply problems out of 32 months. Crazy. Kooky but we are persistent b*******.