Mattel Disney Pixar CARS: The Top 5 Rarest Promotional CARS Diecasts
The Top 5 rarest promotional CARS diecast … there is a surprise on the list. 🙂
#1 is the still the ONLY CARS promotional diecast that has an entire production run of 1. It is the Red Ransburg Lightning McQueen with white tampo decals included with the Dream Halloween auction set won by the then President of TRU.
At #2 Â with a production run of 50 is the Spectraflame “red” Brainstorm 50 given out with a few other items at a Disney-Pixar-Mattel diecast creative brainstorm meeting. While this has been a popular bootleg-counterfeit reproduction, all of them have gotten one major production detail wrong. It’s NOT red ransburg but “red” Spectraflame which is ONLY available at Mattel’s plant. There have been no backdoor production leaks at Mattel’s plants. Spectraflame is like Ransburg but the color is slightly different and owned by Mattel so there have been no leaked-bootleg-counterfeit “spectraflame” Brainstorm 50. (Mattel’s Thailand plant produced the original 12-Desert Card diecasts but when they needed more production and it was no longer done by Hot Wheels, CARS diecast production moved to China). None of the original 50 with accompanying gift bag items have EVER surfaced on eBay.
#3 with a presumed run of probably less than 300 is a CARS 2 diecast given to Pixar employees. I have seen one and have been asked not to reveal it so if you ever run across a mysterious Pixar CARS diecast giveaway (it looks like this in a dark room) … email me and I confirm it for you. 🙂
At #4, 500 is the definite number for the Toy Fair giveaway to special D23 member guests, and the press for the CARS 2 unveiling in 2011. It’s the basic Lightning McQueen with Racing Wheel release but with an acrylic case plus two extra drill holes in a white box. The JL Surfing John Lassitire with surfboard comes in an acrylic case and a comic balloon thank you on the side for the CARS 2 production crew. It’s presumed there are about 500 as there were about 300+ people who worked on the film directly. It’s unknown if John Lasseter/Pixar also sent extras along to the Marketing or Advertising people who worked on/for the film … so it could number slightly lower but 500 is a safe guess.
Yep, we gave away a Toy Fair Lightning McQueen.
At #5 is the special Motorama 10th anniversary CAR. Every year Pixar holds an auto show for employees – and for the 10th anniversary, they gave away a special Lightning McQueen … it’s unknown how many were given away – one for every Pixar employee? About 700 employees at the time though not everyone is at Emeryville – one for guests and family? So about 1,000 seems to be a reasonable guess?
From 2006 to 2012 – these are the only non-general public  promotional CARS diecasts.
Cash out your 401k, collect ’em all. 🙂
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metroxing
1 January 2013
Disney Pixar, Disney Pixar CARS 3, Mattel Disney Pixar Diecast CARS, Mattel Disney Pixar Diecast CARS 3
12 Comments
Darth Mater does not count? I want that one.
i have one of the 10th anniversary cars
would sure like to know what the 1 of 300 cars looks like
i have never seen a john lassetire car for sale
The John Lassitire cars were all over ebay, and I stopped watching them when they hit 1200.00 and up
Is it legit or backdoor?
Not for all the Finn McMissles in the world…although you couldn’t even shop at goodwill for all the Finn McMissles in the world. 😀
Very interesting story. Is there a T5 magazine which collects all of the rare production-run info? If not, I would love to buy a T5 magazine which focuses on the rare manufactured Cars and most well-made and/or creative protos and customs.
(MET: Issue #8 is devoted to the rarest/hardest to find or collectibles of each series … no customs or protos … you can click on the issue for a preview).
Wouldn’t the Apple car also have a run of 1000 or was it made available to employees as well?
The Apple car was only made avaliable to Hot Wheels red line club members (join online I think) and if you paid around £300 you got all the piston cup racers, although like you said only 1000 were made. But as they were avaliable to the general public so to speak, I don’t think you can add them to this list.
Although a good few hundred seem to have made it out the factory backdoor, but they are pretty easy to tell the real ones from backdoor cars.
Maybe the apple cart is not considered a promo because anyone (with an RLC membership) could buy one?
#3. Not fair Met! WE WANNA KNOW!! …..please 🙂
I was wondering where the Gask-Its French Promo fit in on the list from a numbers standpoint… but it was available to the public… as long as you were in France or had access to an address in France that hadn’t been used already due to the limit of 1 per address.
I like the Spectraflame red color…
Thanks for sharing the photos… it’s the only chance most of us will have to see these Cars.
Yea these are bank account breakers for sure