Great Britain & Northern Ireland Finds (Part 1)

[pirelliboy]

Tesco now have these display stands for the silver racers.
Priced at £6.00
Strange that they are pushing these and not getting the new 2013 singles that we all want.

[MarknotaMack]

See this also today. What are they thinking? Took a picture too and was gonna post it on here. Where are the new cars

[yuffie]

it increasingly appears mattel uk have got stuck with far too much stock of silver racers

[Enzo]

Well I done the rounds in Belfast today and hadn't seen this before...It was in the Disney store, Very nice to I might add: Didn't buy it, cause the scales to big for me but a lovely paint job and great detail too.

We collect and play with DS cars and the metallic Rescue Squad Mater and matte finish Sheriff (both sold as a 'chase' single) was probably pound-for-pound the best 10 quid ever spent there. Definitely the nicest 2-pack. Really hoping they bundle some similar chase pairs in the future, like Flash and Hydro Finn both of which are available as singles.

[Enzo]

Tesco now have these display stands for the silver racers.
Priced at £6.00
Strange that they are pushing these and not getting the new 2013 singles that we all want.

That's a depressing sight alright. Made more so by the Shake & Go plastic horrors underneath. Hopefully it's just a last desperate attempt to clear some stock this month before June 11 when new 2013 (and possibly Planes) stock arrives.

[madjen79]

After getting krate, mama topolino and security finn yesterday-i found these today in TRU

[boogity]

so whats due on 11th june?
once planes comes out, cars will die a death in the uk I reckon

[Bombom77]

Noticed a 2013 7 pack on Smyths website but not available to order and I have checked every store in the UK and they all display the same date..."Coming soon at your selected store, Next available date - July 19th 2013"

Guess that means thats the next date that they are expecting new stock then?

http://www.smythstoys.com/cars-the-m...128073itm.aspx

As for cars dying a death in the UK, I dont think that would be the case but I wouldnt be surprised, given that Planes share the same universe as Cars, that instead of having their own display areas in stores, including Smyths and TRU and less like Asda, Tesco etc, they will likely be displayed side by side with Cars diecasts, thus limiting the Cars stock held.

What disappoints me though is that, take the "Supermarkets" out of the equation, the dedicated toy stores should have an idea of what would sell, what will stand as pegwarmers etc yet the likes of Smyths get around 10000 too many Maters and Finns and a lumbered with unsaleable stock and TRU seem to get the same, repetative stock over and over. Checked my local on Sat and they have had no 2013 stock whatsoever, given that these lines have been available since November 2012.....Poor. Factor in that they had some sort of exclusivity deal (well, the parent store in the US did, assuming that it would fly worldwide, after all, why wouldnt you try and maximise an exclusive deal?) yet I have yet to see any "Exclusively at TRU" in the last 12 months in all of South Wales. Hell, we never even saw the playsets over here, having to import them via eBay or US stores.

All in all, it seems in the grand scheme of things, Mattel UK do not and has not recognised its anus from its elbow and its us poor schmucks that suffer (Officially its the kids that do, but we all know who the real collectors are LOL)

[niftynigel]

Noticed a 2013 7 pack on Smyths website but not available to order and I have checked every store in the UK and they all display the same date..."Coming soon at your selected store, Next available date - July 19th 2013"

Guess that means thats the next date that they are expecting new stock then?

http://www.smythstoys.com/cars-the-m...128073itm.aspx

As for cars dying a death in the UK, I dont think that would be the case but I wouldnt be surprised, given that Planes share the same universe as Cars, that instead of having their own display areas in stores, including Smyths and TRU and less like Asda, Tesco etc, they will likely be displayed side by side with Cars diecasts, thus limiting the Cars stock held.

What disappoints me though is that, take the "Supermarkets" out of the equation, the dedicated toy stores should have an idea of what would sell, what will stand as pegwarmers etc yet the likes of Smyths get around 10000 too many Maters and Finns and a lumbered with unsaleable stock and TRU seem to get the same, repetative stock over and over. Checked my local on Sat and they have had no 2013 stock whatsoever, given that these lines have been available since November 2012.....Poor. Factor in that they had some sort of exclusivity deal (well, the parent store in the US did, assuming that it would fly worldwide, after all, why wouldnt you try and maximise an exclusive deal?) yet I have yet to see any "Exclusively at TRU" in the last 12 months in all of South Wales. Hell, we never even saw the playsets over here, having to import them via eBay or US stores.

All in all, it seems in the grand scheme of things, Mattel UK do not and has not recognised its anus from its elbow and its us poor schmucks that suffer (Officially its the kids that do, but we all know who the real collectors are LOL)

All too true!

If there is some crumb of comfort in all this, it's that the next Cars 2013 standard singles cases G onwards haven't reached the US as yet, so all is not lost! Given that four cases turned up in a short space of time in the UK, then it's very possible that the same will happen this time around, in June?

I don't believe that the Planes will affect the Cars sales. If my local Toymaster is right, Planes will be selling for £10 as they are Deluxe sized. Given that Cars singles are less than £5, they are relatively cheap and do sell. There have also been a few deals on Cars singles, with ASDA and Morrisons selling them for £3. Morrisons are still selling them for £4.

Smyths confirmed that they will be selling the seven-car pack in July at £29.99. It was available at Target in the US.

Disney Stores have completely given up on them now.

As for Deluxe and Movie Moments ...

[Enzo]

Disney Stores have completely given up on them now.

You mean in terms of Mattel 1:55 stock Nigel? Or have you info on them ditching their own line as well?

[cac1959]

While it's a nice looking display, I think you are all right... Kmart obviously didn't order as many Silver Series Racers as Mattel made... it's cheaper to make a new cardback than an entire new Car... Retailers are under the impression that since the Piston Cup racers from the first movie were so popular that lightning would strike again with the racers from the second movie... but they fail to realize that 10 of the 11 were released in more than sufficient quantity that we already have them all.

It's interesting to see that the 7 pack in the Smyth's website has the Only at Target symbol on the box... it could be that date is about 6 months after that 7 pack first appeared at Target... I'll have to go back and check the date when I first mine.

[Enzo]

It's interesting to see that the 7 pack in the Smyth's website has the Only at Target symbol on the box... it could be that date is about 6 months after that 7 pack first appeared at Target... I'll have to go back and check the date when I first mine.

Is there a precedent for repackaged Target 'exclusives' ending up over here? Frustrating that we didn't get Mama Bernoulli.

[cac1959]

Is there a precedent for repackaged Target 'exclusives' ending up over here? Frustrating that we didn't get Mama Bernoulli.

Repackaged store exclusives often end up in other countries after a certain period of being "exclusive" runs out.

Target multipacks have ended up in Australia... and in some cases arrived before they arrived at US Target stores.

Final Lap singles were Target exclusives (there are 2 articles in the Articles section) - cases G and H arrived in the UK at the same time or before they arrived in the US.

There was a Target 4 pack with Raoul Caroule and Bruno Motoreau - Raoul's crew chief - Bruno/Raoul was released in the 2013 Movie Moments case A.

The Kmart 5 rubber tire racers arrived in Australia 6 weeks before the Kmart 5 Cars collector event - I traded 20 singles for 20 Kmart 5 Cars to get them 5 weeks early.

Some of the Kmart crew chief 2 packs were found at stores in France at the same time they arrived at Kmart in the US

As the Mama Bernoulli 4 pack has been out about a month, I think it could be available in other countries before Christmas 2013.

[pirelliboy]

Tesco now have these display stands for the silver racers.
Priced at £6.00
Strange that they are pushing these and not getting the new 2013 singles that we all want.

These have now dropped in price to £4.00
They have to shift them somehow

[boogity]

4 quid, i,ll still not be buying them
got the big plastic london bus in tesco, its reduced to 4.99, if memory serves me correctly this was originally 19.99, quite nice reallye
stopped at tru, they actually had quite a respectable range, for once.