Mattel Disney Pixar CARS: The Strange Winding Road Saga of the Dream Halloween Red Ransburg

This is a re-post from TakeFive 1.0 ... The info is still relevant but it's a whole new world of die cast casting so ... but we updated certain parts of our post ...

Om 2007, we were introduced to the fabled RED RANSBURG.

It was included in the CAAF Dream Halloween event of 2007 where this CAR along with the “blue” Ransburg

& 69 other CARS were part of a one-of-a-kind CARS display case as part of the benefit auction.

The winning bid of $13,000 was placed by the CEO of TRU. This case of course included may CARS

released in 2008 but also a few that still has not seen a release – making the set ultra rare on many levels.

Of course, the two rare gems of this display set at that time was the “red” Ransburg & “blue” Ransburg.

Ransburg is a patented electrostat-paint process of allowing chrome colors to “adhere” to metals but you knew that ...

These were the first official non-canon CARS not to be offered to the public.* Non-canon in the sense that

they are not accurate if you use the CARS movie as the basis of all that is holy and sanctioned as righteous.

(Technically, the only non-canon CAR in release was Rollin’ Bowlin’ Mater).

*Surprising, a few weeks later, Disney & Mattel announced the Blu-Ray DVD promotions. Buy a Blu-Ray

DVD, send in $3.79 and receive a “free” Blu (Ransburg) Lightning McQueen. Some grumbled that it was non-

canon but the reception and interest was mostly welcoming and it was a huge success. Ultimately, there

were some fulfillment issues but that’s a minor footnote in the history of Blu Lightning McQueen (as he is

officially called). Blu Lightning McQueen’s production was pegged at 15,000.But the production of Red Ransburg Lightning McQueen is officially ONE – he is THE ONE.

However, from the actual production time of Red Ransburg ONE to its public appearance in October 2007 –

a second Red promo McQueen was unearthed. It was an internal CAR only. Along with other promotional and gift items, it was given out at a brainstorm session attended by Mattel/Disney & Pixar CARS die cast personnel in Fall of 2007. There were 50 given out in a bag along with CARS designed Hawaiian shirts. This is commonly known as the the “Brainstorm Team ’09” Red "Ransburg," but later detailsrevealed it was done using Mattel's own patented electrostat-paint process called "spectraflame" and has an orange tint.

And as time went on, we got more factory unauthorized versions. These are different from customs as the Ransburg process or the Spectrflame process are NOT available to the general public so it required access to the factory where they could do "extra" runs of Lightning McQueen with the red Ransburg process or the red-orange Spectrflame pricess.

So to recap, there is/was ONLY 1 die cast EVER produced officially with the Ransburg process that went along with the custom case and the plaque.

It looked something like this ...

Of course, if you want one for your collection as an unauthorized one, make sure it looks like this in "red metallic" and has no markings on the spoiler.

The BRAINSTORM 50 looks this ... similar white deco but with the CARS TEAM '09 on the spoiler. but in "spectraflame" so more orange red ...

Back in 2007/2008, they were still making both unauthorized factory versions mistakenly in Red Ransburg.

Only the 2nd from the left in the row has the right metallic red and spoiler decals of the Dream Halloween Red Ransburg. The other middle two are not Spectraflame Brainstorm 50 McQueen.

Unauthorized Factory Production Versions.

Back tracking a little, when you are talking about manufacturing a relatively inexpensive item, there have

always been “other” versions that slip from the factory floors & doors … from

EARLY RUN VERSIONS – it takes a while to get everything fully up to speed. In the case of diecast cars (&

CARS), they inject liquidy metal (mostly zinc) into molds and of course, the early ones might need tweaking,

etc, etc … generally they get re-cycled but as they begin to approach final phase stage – some early ones

might get slipped by into a bin somewhere … and prior to the last few years, this was the source of most of

the “unauthorized” ones – people would slip a few by and get them painted later or in some cases, sold as

early prototypes or early production un-finished versions.

REJECTED ONES – Or more likely, the ones that would not meet with the client approval after assembly,

painting & or tampo/water decaling were removed to be destroyed, recycled, etc … but of course, a few

would slip out the back door. Some were in various stages of being finished, some even the wrong color or

missing decals … some had bad wheels or some obvious defect … mostly, they were available loose …

BACK DOOR EARLY VERSIONS – Of course, as old as time, the back door versions that were completed,

packaged and even boxed – what factory hasn’t lost a few things out the back door (okay, I guess maybe a

tank or an F-18 factory ? ).

EXTRA PRODUCTION – While a client such as Mattel pays for 10,000 of something, they might have a little

left over to crank out another 10 or 50 that they sell elsewhere – depending on how big the object is.

For toys, it was really never that huge of a deal – toys generally are popular in one specific region and since

in the past 30-40 years, most US toys have been manufactured in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and

now China but until the last few years, frankly, there wasn’t much of a ‘back door’ market. Yea, you could

take it to the outdoor markets of Hong Kong and while a Ferrari diecast might garner interest everywhere,

how much could make off a early production Nolan Ryan in Hong Kong? Or even that Ferrari – since HK was

awash in back door versions, maybe you could make a couple extra bucks but it wasn’t much of anything.

Of course, that all changed with eBay. Suddenly, that unpainted Nolan Ryan that was worth $3 dollars in

Hong Kong is worth $200 USD to some guy in Texas … but of course, there was still limited interest &

financial return since while the factory is full of toys, what was actually worth the effort to make money? If you

don’t have the card that says TREASURE HUNT, in a factory with 500 different cars & 12,000 diecasts

overall – good luck picking out the T-Hunt without a cheat sheet. 99% of the diecasts are worth about $1 or

$2 – not exactly a worthwhile return even if you acquire the die cast for free.

Enter Mattel Disney Pixar die cast CARS.

For the first time EVER, every car that rolled off the production was worth anywhere from $10 to $50!You didn’t have to guess which was the Treasure Hunt and unlike a HW Treasure Hunt, where you needed

the car on a card for it to be worthwhile … no such problem with CARS. As long as it was out before it hit the

US market, EVERY car was worth $10 to $50 and as they later discovered, some hundreds more.

Of course, every factory actually has security so there is a limit to what is ultimately available even by the

back door method … because if Mattel orders 20,000 of a CAR, it pays for enough material to make not

many more than that (as mentioned, there is always a 5-10% leeway for early production ones where the

mold is not quite hot enough or the paint is not flowing correctly etc, etc … the normal part of business). But a

factory is not going to idlely stand by while you run off with a couple hundred of the cars since they’re paying

for that material and have to make up any shortfall OR of more importance, who wants to explain to a client

like Mattel why there is a leakage – would you rather make an extra $1,000 or lose the contract to make 100-

million cars?

So, while grabbing 5-10 of each CAR was a nice sideline business … they soon realized they had bigger fish

to fry … first it was this Red Ransburg car in which people were willingly paying from $50 to $800 for! And

later, the Speedway of the South set … that people were willing to pay close to a thousands to get an early

set. When you start waving that kind of money around, people tend to get serious.

Hence, the new term …

“Unauthorized Factory Production.”

It is what is states – that the very factory that produced the AUTHORIZED CARS that Mattel pays for and

approves and then sells to us … is also working a second/secret shift to produce non-Mattel non-authorized

CARS lead by a group of people with more personal interests. They basically cranked up the assembly line to

make their own versions.

So, no more hand painted production rejects, no smash & grab, no three finger deals back at the loading

dock. It’s enough to make your head spin.

Look, I could splinter this off to a long discussion on legality, ethics, yaddi, yaddi, yaddi but I don’t think I’m

going to change anyone’s mind, belief or interest in this whole situation. I’m just going to present the facts

and you decide what you to do. I’m not here to judge you or anyone else. I’m just going to present the facts

and if you’re still interested, you decide what you think it’s worth or NOT worth. You’re an adult – hopefully

and will make the right decision for yourself. In other words, you can wrestle your own conscience. Hope you win. 🤣

So, yes, you're buying a fake but buy the right fake? Good luck!

NOTE - In the subsequent years, we have gotten actual red metallic Lightning McQueen in Ransburg and 10+ years later, other places now offer metallic that resembles Ransburg metallic now ...

NOTE 2: It is presumed the original Dream Halloween Red Ransburg and custom case are lost in time - it was apparently on display at TRU headquarters - TRU declared bankruptcy and everything was either disposed of, donated or sold ... so no one knows ... you might say it's the Holy Grail of CARS ...