Mattel Disney Pixar Diecast CARS 2: Retail Launch Day (+ Contest Survey)
Target seems to have been ready …
The play action track display is nice …
Though the employees who work across from it might yank out the speakers in another 36 hours.
It was nice – though at some Targets, THREE endcaps! (thanks Charlie W!)
Walmart was mostly ready …
After 8 singles, the dude had to take a break – wheww, what a day. Of course, for some of you, I guess it would be a time saver just to drag this cart to the register.
But thanks all for the great pics – I know it’s a new concept walking into stores and buying merchandise on full pegs, shelves and displays.
Though for those who don’t like too much change, some WM’s will not startle you with too much change …
We’ve put together a little survey to take a pulse of how your shopping went and what you think so far.
9 Questions Only – and if you want to enter a contest for a CARS 2 movie poster plus some second prizes, just fill in your email address at the end of the survey. Thanks!
My Kmart had some new CARS 2 merchandise but not much … though better than Nikko’s tale – when he went to his empty Kmart and asked where the CARS 2 CARS were – they told him to hold his horses and to take a raffle ticket.
Whaaa? Is it June 25th already?
“Mike Man-I-Fold” had much more luck at his KM scoring some exclusive Pit Crew Mater with headphones.
Pit Crew Mater with headphones singles only available at KM.
Whee Hoo, I’m open for action!
And you get a cardboard pass …
Something tells me you won’t get into the gates of Pixar or Disney with this …
And the back promises you a gateway to a wonderous website …
I hate to burst your bubble but here’s what the actual page is …
If only there were a website in which you could find out Kmart CARS info like the next Kmart CARS case assortment included Chick, Lightning McQueen, King & Lightning McQueen CARS 2 with rubber tires …if only … 🙂
Mike sent along one more picture in which I’m not going to caption … mainly because I’m a scaredy-cat …
| « Disney Pixar CARS 2 Buying Season: Report In! (Coupon Update) | Mattel Disney Pixar Diecast CARS 2: ChargeUps Charged For Fun » |
17 May 2011
93 Comments
Great review of Cars 2 in-store promotions, brands and displays
Link: http://www.popon.net/Cars2_Promotions_Drive_Into_Retail.asp
CO. Springs
Kmart still has no Car 2 products at all but TRU had 2 Race Team Fillmores so I was sure to snag those. 🙂
I’m not sure if someone has already picked up on this yet but I realized the website on the back of K-mart’s exclusive Pit Crew Mater does work. You just have to type the website in all caps. http://WWW.MATTEL.COM/CARS2
It’s a pretty sweet site!
CAPS or no caps makes no difference. It still doesn’t work when you click your link.
To activate the link you need to add a forward slash at the end, like this: http://www.mattel.com/cars2/
OR, add the word diecast at the end, like this:
http://www.mattel.com/cars2/diecast
And by the way, Mattel needs to fire the person who misspelled Lightning McQueen as “Lightening” McQueen. Lightning is what follows thunder. Lightening is when you illuminate or brighten something.
Somehow we missed getting Professor Z, kind of bumbed..it’s the only one we didn’t find =(
As of mid-Tuesday, our Target had put out NOTHING……not even an end cap display was set up.
I stopped at customer service and asked where the Cars 2 stuff was and got the shrugged shoulders for an answer.
They still had the old Cars display with a single, clearance priced, FL on every other peg.
What a joke, after hoping they’d break the rules and put stuff out early like our WM and TRU did……a day after the “legal” release, Target sits there with nothing out and “yes” to back room DPCI checks.
opening day went to target when they opened. my daughter and i were the only ones there. everything on the shelf we had as far as single. but was completlly stocked.
went to kmart at 9 am. nothing. i asked where it was. they associte saidf i should shop somewhere else and comeback. i said noo. it should be out here. so they brought it out and let me cut boxes. i gor my special edition mater, and redline and left. toys r us after that. got my mettalic lightning.
im a bit upset with target.com. ordered the special sets with maters fan, looks like a minicoper and the set with the other fan. i got a email last night saying i had to wait till june 18. dont hink so. went to walmaert after work. was still stocked full. i picked up a lights and sounds spy mater and left…
will keep searching………. =D
sorry mcqueens fan.
I must have missed out on something at TRU it’s pretty bare but I will get that LMQ ransberg special with my 20% off coupon tomorrow. I went to Walmart this afternoon and those 100 car end cap black trays were out in full and so were the pegs, I had to run but when I came back it was all there except I swear I saw Carla but she was gone. But I got everything else in singles, plenty of Fillmores, Professors etc. I don’t think Colorado gets all those advanced cases, BTW where do we find out what is which case?
I work at Kroger’s and we have the Disney Pixar 2 cars,for sale they just came out ,you might call first to make sure,I’m from Ashland Ky.,and there might not be a Krogers in your area
Final report card: Cars 2 on 5/16/2011 street date
Dateline: Southeast NH 5/15/2011 to 5/16/2011
When I arrived at the Salem NH TRU 10AM Sunday, I found a healthy supply of Cars 2
product with a voracious woman ahead of me. The woman grabbed everything she could
like singles. The only singles I needed were from Case A: Grem, Rod, Sarge,
Fillmore, Luigi & Guido. As well as the TRU exclusive Metallic Lightning McQ.
I didn’t really need Holly since I had gotten her on a Lanemate short card. In fact,
I had gotten a ton of Cars 2 product on April 21st, when I found some helpful
Target associates at various stores pull out some singles, deluxes,and movie moments
for me. Later the following week, I got the launchers and Siddley Jet.
Later even more things.
At TRU Sunday I found my full carded Holly as I watched this woman pull things down
for a while and then put them back. I also got my Grem, Metal LMcQ, Fillmore, Sarge.
As I went to pay for my loot, I realized how kinda dicky it was that TRU sold their stuff a day
earlier than the other stores. Since I had been told many times by TRU associates
that the Cars
can’t be sold until the exact street of Monday the 16th, I am glad that I had come one
day early as well. I envisioned people showing up on the 16th to TRU
at opening only to find half
empty shelves. TRU did a poor job of announcing a change in their Cars 2 street date.
BOoo, TRU. BOOO! Hisss!
That was the only Cars 2 that I bought on Sunday. I saw the Ridemakerz starter sets
and were not impressed by the paper rims. You have to pay more to get non paper
in the more
deluxe sets which are quite nice when I found them later. but pricey…bigger too
than expected.
My only other Cars related transaction was returning a Car to CVS:
so basically I got my chase yeti w/snowcones for $2.50, not eight bucks!
After thinking long and hard for the past couple weeks, I developed an action plan
for the 16th
thinking there would be a river of Cars toys to pick up off the ground on Monday.
I got annual leave approved for the day. I had the whole day off.
I thought since there was a street date of the 16th, I should find
a 24 hour Walmart near me to make my first Monday purchases.
Well, the closest one isn’t very close so I decided to call in the afternoon
to find if and what they would have there. The news was not exact about what they might
have if any. So I scuttled my late, late night plan.
I then decided to do a little recon in the wild. So I went to the Walmart
in NH near the border on late Sunday night to see if any pallets had Cars stuff were out.
In the Cars aisle I saw the UPC peg tags for a whole bunch of things,
but especially the MOvie Moments packs.
But there were no pallets. At least they were prepared but there was no inventory.
I got an employee to say they had cases of Cars 2 but could not specify when they would be on the
floor.
I decided to go to this Walmart on Monday morning 7AM, hoping to find full pegs.
My fall back plan would be to brow beat the Wally emps into giving me my rightful Cars 2 share.
I had to use the fall back plan on Monday morn cuz de pegs were empty–just like the night before.
I then busted the manager’s b’s until he brought me out some cases, which he did.
I got the walmart exclusives two packs. and some extra Case B’s singles–no Case A in this lot.
It took a whole hour–should not have taken that long.
I left and went to Kohls which had Case A–yeah–I got my Rods and Luigi and Guido and an extra Grem
I already had the launchers and Petrov Trunkov from Khols–did not want more.
I then went to the Target up the road a few miles. They were just putting out some stuff–far from done.
decided not to wait there
next stop Kmart in Portsmouth—unprepared– no cars–no pegs–no Mater Kmart exclusives.
I left to hit TRU in Newington. Some new Cars 2 stuff there but nothing that I had not seen.
I ened up buying Cap America figs.
I then went to another Walmart farther up the road in Newington.
There was nothing there–no cars 2 and no marked pegs/shelves– a total bust there. F is your score.
I decided to got another Walmart and Target in Somersworth. wally was fully Cars stocked as was
Target across the street. I bought the Speedway Charge up sets there.
On the way back home, I went back to Kmart and and found a frantic employee filling in
an end cap of Cars 2 stuff—Yeah the Kmart Mater with headset.
It is mine.
And a Cap america 3 pack.
So final report card reads:
Walmart–mostly unprepared but helped me–C –Newington did not help this score.
Target–unprepared but preparing and had the nicest displays and end caps. had some new stuff
that I wanted. B in total–A for presentation.
Kohls–B+–had Case A and the lowest price for singles at 3.39 with sale price and
my scratch card discount of 15%. good place on Monday. get a kohls charge account
TRU–had highest singles price $4.19 and not a great selection–plus sneaky tactics– C minus to D
nobody got an A
What a report my friend!! 😯
Typical hunting day :), my good woman
Plus I left some details out.
It takes only two days to identify the top 3 pegwarmers for the next 6 months… In 3rd place Francesco Bernoulli, 2nd place ex-equo Race Team Mater and LMQ w/Racing Wheel and our number #1 Finn McMissile… The black pearl goes so far to the single Carla Veloso 2 out fo 168 cars (7 cases of 24)… Good hunting all!
I rearranged the Cars to put each single own it’s on peg like I normally do to clean up the Cars section at WM today. It is also fun to see how many of each remain on the pegs. Finn McMissile was #1 by a longshot. Normally, this is reserved for Lightning McQueen varients. I was surprised that LMQ was not in abundance. Also looks like the launchers are still not popular. At least not at $11.97. 🙂
Here’s my Top Ten List of initial pegwarmers:
#10 Francesco Bernoulli
#9 Holley Shiftwell with Wings
#8 Race Team Sarge
#7 Submarine Finn McMissile
#6 Finn McMissile
#4 Finn McMissile
#4 Finn McMissile
#3 Finn McMissile
#2 Finn McMissile
#1 Finn McMissile
drove 1.5 hours to the Memphis area, wal-marts nothing TRU very little- kmart very little ..Target fully stocked , so they got my money, wasted time and gas ha !
Last night WM didn’t have anything out. Went by this afternoon and they had everything out. Noticed a huge difference in price though so I’ll be taking a few things back to Target and TRU.
Singles pricing:
WM: $3.47
Target: $3.99
TRU: $4.19
Also, it’s nice to have such a huge selection but one thing I’ve noticed at EVERY store with these releases is that so many cards have bent edges, creases, and the plastic seems thinner. It’s been a challenge finding a clean/non-damage cardback. Either the packers rushed these or the unpackers. Anyone else finding it difficult to find non-damaged cards?
they seemed to have little errors like tiny paint marks. there was enough choices to find the best.
I’ve seen enough fresh from the case now to determine that many are damaged before they are unpacked by the store. This was especially the case for Carla Veloso, so when you do finally find her, the card is damaged in some way. Maybe the higher plastic content on the car bodies makes it harder to keep the paint and decal quality high?
I am having a hard time finding the TRU Chaos in London 5 pack and the Target Racing 4 pack (Lightning version). Anyone else having trouble with these?
(MET: I’m guessing London is shipping in a couple days-weeks … and it looks like 3 of the Target racing packs are out – the others are listed as June 16 now which makes sense as the last salvo before the movie is out).
Our stores didnt have those either Monica, I figured must be a later case or something.
Thanks Lorri and Met. You just saved me a ton of time! I was fixing to do a major tour de San Diego to hunt them down.
I went on a Car-run today. I live in a suburb of Cleveland OH. There was absolutely NOTHING out at the Wal-Mart that I went to (why am I not surprised?). Kmart was putting them out while I was there, late this afternoon. Target had everything except the Deluxe Cars and Everett, and TRU had basically everything, there singles were quite picked over, however. Everett is a pricey $40, so I am going to wait until he goes on sale to purchase him. I was able to get everything else I wanted.
I live out in Hinckley, Oh. The Target in Stongsville was pretty well stocked as was the Toys R Us in Fairlawn but the local Walmarts had nothing up yet.
York PA was a little scattered. West York Target was pretty good yesterday AM, Walmart had launchers, excl. 2-packs (just the same 2 that everyone else found) and singles. TRU was great. Then headed to East York and my sail totally deflated. Nothing in Walmart. Barely anything in Target. Nothing in Kmart. Went back to Kmart today and they had 1 endcap setup. At least I got the exclusive.
Melanie, if you have a chance to cross the river over into Lancaster you will be pleasantly surprised. All the KM, WM, TRU and Targets are fully loaded…and by loaded I mean LOADED. Let me know if you need help I can keep you posted.
email me at j-rineer AT hotmail dot com
I got everything with the exception of Petrov.
BALTIMORE HAS EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
I even got The Queen, Prince Wheeliam, Popemobile, Sgt. Highgear, Okuni, John Lassetire, Lewis Hamilton, Miles Axelrod, Chauncey Fares, Rip Clutchgoneski, Chuki, David Hobbscap and Mama Topolino.
It was a good day… 🙂
was that all at one store . .or some combination?
Oh yeah? In West Virginia, we got Acer and Trunkov with black paint, waiter pitties, Mater with blue disguise, Francesco with bumper stickers, the three pack with the security cars and Mater in Francesco fan disguise, Mater with Maderhossen, Mater in vampire disguise, and the pigeon plane!
In Illinois I found a 40 pack with all those listed plus some randoms, and I found singles like Professor Z without his Monocle, Cruz Besouro, Giuseppe Motorosi, Deluxe Crabby, Deluxe Everett, Deluxe Siddley, Pinion Tanaka, Color Changers of all those above mentioned, Chargers of all those above mentioned, Red and Cream colored Porches, A fan of every Racer, and Launchers of every racer!
My wife just called and said she just found some goodies from Cars 3 at a small Mom & Pop store!
Yes, but I can one-up everyone. I found Shiney Wax Hauler!
touché
Yep, can’t touch that one!
That must be the European spelling – 😛
WHAT STORE DID YOU FIND ALL THOSE AWSOME CARS ???
Which Store(s) did you get all of these cars from? They did not have ANY of these by me in the Cleveland area!
I have a bridge to sell you R US
…in your dreams! I mean it will be a good day, right!? 😉
Which stores did you find these Cars at? There were none of these in the Cleveland, OH area!
Did anyone here besides Fillmore1234 buy any of the new Color Changers? Just wanted to know if they improved the design at all. Wondering if Finn will one day be permanently brown.
Of the first movie, I only got 3 Color Changers. And I was joking on finding all those. what I DID find that day was the 2 Wal-Mart Exclusive 2 Packs, and Everett, which I did not buy.
Cherie, I am from Parma, I will tell you where I found a lot of the cars
I hit 12 Targets, 5 Walmarts, 4 TRU, 6 Kmarts on Monday and
every target was ready, 1 of the 5 Walmarts had the Exclusive 2 Pack and SPy Mater. TRU was set, but very low on an assortment of cars singles. 2 out of 6 Kmarts had the Exclusive Mater.
thereisnofinway@gmail.com
Thanks Rob
Rob, Cherie was asking in reference to the tongue-in-cheek “finds” of The Queen, Prince Wheeliam, Popemobile, Sgt. Highgear, Okuni, John Lassetire, Lewis Hamilton, Miles Axelrod, Chauncey Fares, Rip Clutchgoneski, Chuki, David Hobbscap and Mama Topolino.
Chuki’s in cars 2!? makes sense since they go to japan.
with living in the milwaukee wiscomnsin area, and having david hobbs honda in the area im gonna try and have him sign a few of these cars when i get them. =D
WOW, PLEASE TELL US WHAT STORE DID YOU FIND THOSE & HOW MUCH WAS THAT GAINT PACK ?? THANKYOU !!
Found Chauncey Fares, Wheeliam, and 2 2packs with Rip Clutchgoneski and Lewis Hamilton with their crew chiefs/ I really did……………………..
In my dream.
From Middletown, NJ…
Still looking to solve the mystery of single #14 Race Team Fillmore. Couldn’t find it at Target or TRU so I tried KMart. The toy manager brought me out an unopened Case A. No #14! Does anyone know whether it’s out and in what case? I had one response from western state. Fillmore was on the shelf but not sure of case!
Was it? I have not seen it as a single on the pegs yet.
I got him. Wal Mart and TRU and Family Dollar.
Target and Family $(case A) here.
You should be able to find him on one of the endcap trays they are starting to put out in the Walmarts. The ones that hold over a hundred cars.
That’s exactly where I found mine at Wal-Mart. Found three trays on an end-cap and they only had 2 Fillmores. Seems like he’s the rarity right now.
Case A and D
Target’s Cars 2 setup looks amazing!
Friendly toy department manager at Walmart told me she had sold 208 singles as of 3pm Monday. It was her impression that lots had gone to dealers/eBayers.
We visted numerous stores Sunday and Monday and only ever saw two Fillmores; I think that will be one of the rare ones from Cars 2. Professor Z was scarce also.
Best find was the Kmart exclusive Mater. Apparently Mariella had been there earlier in the day and run into the Mattel stocking rep. The rep gave the Kmart clerks quite a piece of her mind over the lack of Cars 2 merchandise. When we arrived a few hours later the shelves were full and all 12 exclusive Maters were on the hooks. The clerks were still shaking.
Thanks Mariella!
Hahaha… 😆 you are welcome John!
Survey done and I REALLY expect the right people looking at the results!!!
Wow, I love those displays. I didn’t see any cool displays like that yesterday; I’ll have to go back out soon to see everything fully set up. It took a lot of explaining at 2 KMarts to find those Pit Crew Maters. One KMArt had a tiny endcap with a random assortment of Cars2 stuff, and no PC MAters anywhere in the store. The other had to discover the pallets of CArs2 diecasts in the stockroom, and then search for the inconspicuous box. The managers were very helpful. Please note that I bought 4 of the 12 in the box, each one for a different kid, and left the others behind. It was cool of them to let me take the box. I felt very fortunate to only have to worry about getting the KMart and Target exclusives yesterday. With all of the helpful tips from you all I was able to find all of the singles at non-big 3 stores over the last few weeks. Now to get some long-awaited sleep. Cheers, everyone!
By the look on that face, someone might of been in trouble after that hunt.
She’s saying, “Mike, you’re gonna have to take all of those back except one. I don’t care if they are an exclusive.”
If you hover your mouse pointer over that photo, it says “gome” — must be a misspelling for “gone”, as in “Mike, if you don’t return all this stuff I’m gone!!”.
ha ha, nice. She just paid the credit card bill when I walked in with the PC Maters.
That face is priceless..haha! 😉
In my area (Lancaster Pa) all the big box stores had everything out today. Great display at Target. Walmart had a different display where all the cars were on what looked like book shelves not pegs so they were all mint packages. Also they weren’t in the toy section but in the summer fun section with the pool stuff???? Kmart had all the stuff but scattered everywhere in the store. (Not sure of their thinking behind this)
One question though…at TRU did anyone pick up the ridemakerz? They look pretty cool and with the discount they are only 14.99. Please let me know if they are worth picking up for my 3 yr old.
And has anyone seen Miles Axelrod or Petrov Trunkov?
Does anyone know if toys r us really sold the sumos online or was it a mistake?i havent seen any siddleys
I spoke with TRU, they get those megas this week, so no mistake.
No mistake, I had placed an order for each 1 of them. They are on back-order & they told me at tru.com they will be shipping them out on MAY 22nd .
Our Wal Mart stores here in Central Ohio re-scheduled the Cars 2 release date for 5/17, saw cases the morning of the 15th but returned to the stock room. The morning of the 16th, saw 1 store had the pegs/shelves reset with 3 sheets of paper copies “Cars 2” “Available” “5/17” taped across the pegs. Other stores did not have the sections reset.
TRU had 1 each; case B singles, case A deluxe, case A 2-packs, and lots of launchers and Ridemakerz. 4 to 5 each of exclusive 5 packs. Target had the same cases, lots of exclusive 4 and 7 packs and alot more product in general than TRU. Wal Mart had 5 singles A cases on the pallets early a.m. 5/16, spoke with the 1 stock person for the toy dept., he went and talked to the mgr. who gave permission to open a couple cases, got Holley – Guido/Luigi – Grem – Sarge and Rod. He stated that the Columbus stores have been experiencing low amounts of employment applicants for the stores.
Heading out to a couple of WM supercenter stores today (saw a big box on a pallet marked Cars 2 end cap display – 110 toys), hopefully they will have the section and end-cap set up. Then to Kmart stores to see if I can find Pit Crew Mater.
10-12 Pit Crew Mater (w/ Headphones) at the I-75 exit 38 (Franklin, OH)
Wal-Mart last night (5/16).
Who wants ANOTHER MATER !? Ugh…
Is there any reason that in EVERY Cars 2 set up at my Target there were no single…
Holley Shiftwell
Guido/Luigi
Grem
Sarge
Fillmore
Rod Torque Redline
at all?
Everywhere they had singles, those six were not there…and it made me mad. Other than that, they had some sweet set ups…I was in heaven, I think.
Then your Target did not get any Case A or C singles. Just Case B. Look around your Target a little closer. My Target only had Case B singles too, but they also had shortcard releases. If they haven’t already been picked over, you might be able to find Holley and Rod on shortcards.
I found this also at my Target but the reason for this is it is not the case that contained these: Holley Shiftwell
Guido/Luigi
Grem
Sarge
Fillmore
Rod Torque Redline
I happened to find these at Walmart except Fillmore. He is totally gone and no where to be found. 🙁
Try Kohls
Toys R Us in the area were pretty well set up. One store better than the other as it is going through a big renovation right now (woodbridge, nj)
Targets seem to have dropped the ball. Usually around here on major reset dates like this, they are totally on the ball. Not yesterday. 3 stores, all signed and set up, but no product out yet. In all stores I went to, they were in process of opening the cases. I was at all locations after 10am.
Kmart- 2 stores. No product. the first only had a Cars 2 R/C Finn. The other only had a Cars 2 book display. Staff was less than helpful in figuring out what was going on. A few “checked” the back for me. All that was found in 1 location was a case of singles. Very surprising.
I’m located in NJ.
In L.A., Ca. Targets where on top of the Cars 2 and so was TRU but the Kmart I went didnt even know about the Cars 2 and Walmart well its always been a flop for me. Got everything but Kmart and Walmart exclusives. Thanks alot guys lol
Wal-Mart in Detroit Lakes MN update: after a dismal yesterday (see my comments on yesterday’s post), I was in the store after something else and decided to stop by again, for…well you know, in case I saw something else!! I small endcap display with the two-packs but not a single to be found???? I just brought 4 yesterday and so where did they all go? I KNOW they didn’t sell out of them. Wierd, just plain wierd.
Has any body seen or bought the double decker bus carrying case ?
So were the Wal-Mart “exclusive” 2 packs of ProfessorZ/RedGrim and HolleyShifwell/YellowAcer NOT released yesterday ??
I physically was the person to “open ALL the cases” at 2 different Wal-Mart stores yesterday (NO I don’t work there…) and I did NOT see them.
Randy Simmons – Springboro, OH
I think those are coming out a little later.
Awesome. Thank you.
Of course whenever they get them, they won’t bother putting those OUT until all the ones they got yesterday (and haven’t put out yet) get SOLD first…
Ugh…
One of my Wal-Marts had a TON of these first 2 out, so that could be a while!
GOT EVERYTHING BOUGHT BASICALLY IN 2 DAYS….LOVED IT
Love the raffle ticket comment — is that for real???
Also love the line about the Wal-Mart Associate taking a break after stocking 8 singles.
By the way, my Target had 3 endcaps like that too.
I’m doing the survey now, thanks Met!
Last night when I asked the people working at my Kmart where the exclusive Kmart Mater with the headphones was, they told me they were going to have a big Cars 2 promotion today and Mater would be put out then. I wonder if they will put the Kmart Day 6 cars out too. I guess I’ll find out tonight when I go there again after work.
That would be awesome!!
It was a good Cars Day.