Mattel Disney Pixar Diecast CARS 2: Super Chase “Flash” Diecast (Update)
This might be our only chance to see the “Super Chase” CAR called “Flash,” named after Swedish racer Jan Flash Nilsson.
The Super Chase CARS will not be packed in every case – which makes sense for Finn McMissile but a new CAR? It’s sure to be a sellout so let’s make very few of them … um, that’ll show them??
As linked in our last post – John Lasseter got the first one and even he said that we’d need to make friends with the stockboys and people who worked in the backroom so John knows. These will pretty much go from the back rooms to eBay. So instead of selling tens of thousands, Mattel will allow a few hundred people to make ALL the profits from this? And oh, yea, annoy 99% of CARS buyers? Well, it is a plan.
If you really want to make a Super Chase for CARS, you “repeat” CARS that only ultra completist collectors would care about:
Unspun Finn McMissile.
Petrov Trunkov in Al Oilski packaging.
Petrov Trunkov in Al Trunkov packaging.
Unspun Petrov Trunkov.
Unspun Trunk Fresh Pitty.
Invisible “Cloaked” Mater.
There’s a Super Chase program that’s perfect for everyone.
Here’s John Lasseter at the presentation – at around 4:05, he explains the “chase” concept and how bribing the stock room guys is the way to go.
John H asks, “Does the Mattel guy in the clip say “only 3000 produced” right after John Lasseter talks about bribing the guys in the stockroom?”
I went back to listen, it actually sounds like he says 2,000? CARS 1 cases were produced in allotments of around 20,000 so this sort of follows Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunts, 1 in every 9-10 cases? So, if 2,000 sounds like what he says, that’s about 10% of the cases would have one … because hey, why produce more when clearly Finn McMissile is the CAR everyone wants …
12 September 2011
53 Comments
He doesnt say 2000 produced, to me it sounds like 2012 they will be released or produced. If this car was only in the swedish film then there must be at least another five versions that are exclusive to the country the film was shown? Do we know what countrys have an exclusive car in there version of Cars2 and what is the car???
(MET: Post coming soon. 🙂 ).
Oh well, at least I have been saving a ton of money over the last few months with hardly anything to look for… I guess I can afford $75 for a Chase car once a quarter. LMAO!
So 75.00 you say and another poster predicted 50.00 will be the going rate of these Super Chase cars on EBay. Of course exactly how many cases contain one will help determine the cost but it should be interesting to see where the price goes with these.
I am wondering if 50.00 to 75.00 will be the actual price. I can see some early ones easily topping 100.00 and then going up or down from there depending on how many sellers find them. I would imagine at least the first one found by true collectors will never reach the market. I am also wondering how many loose back doors ones we will see or will these be more guarded.
You are right. Look at Guido and Luigi. I know there was a point in time when they were going for $100 or so, and they never hit retail stateside. You had to be a distributor (or know one) to get that Chase car (at least the US version). Some could argue that a couple of the Final Lap cases could have been considered “super chase” too. Look at how much a Dexter Hoover with Flag, or a Bessie from the very short run Mega case fetch.
I imagine the first release of this super chase could fetch some serious money; however, there are tons of good members on here that would “share the love” if they ever got lucky enough to find more than one. We’ll just see how it plays out I guess…
Does anyone know if they are doing away with the regular Chase cars and replacing them with the “supers” or if there are still going to be regular chase cars that are not as rare as the supers- like Hotwheels?
Dear Mattel,
Thank you for making it even harder for me to collect your toy line. The idea of making chase cars for me to find sounds like a great idea. I cannot wait until I have to shell out $50+ or more for one of your little Cars for my kids via ebay. Even though I still can’t find those rare ones you have exclusive to Kmart or the one at that silly Disney convention… sweet smelling Mattel do not worry too much it’s okay… since I will just have to pay out my A$$ so my kids can get those cars. Thanks for all the FU n.
I wish I had never watched that video clip.
It’s kinda like finding out how sausage is made.
I’ve been chasing megas and 2 packs forever, might as well call almost everything after the first wave a chase. With the exception of the box sets and metallic cars I really havent seen much since may. Until they give away those finns and holleys i fear that I will never see a new mega (seriously, still not even a kingpin or crew chief here (have I mentioned that before?).
Ok, enough of that. I will look for these just as I have every other. When I hear it is out, I go on the hunt. And if I see one, I will buy it. Then will have to clean my shorts…
I will use the same strategy. When they are released, I will look for them, but if I don’t find them, I won’t lose any sleep over it. These international race cars won’t be in the version of the movie we will have, so I won’t have to listen to my son asking, “Why don’t I have that car yet?” Like when Rip was on the screen the last time we went to see Cars 2. Once the Hot Wheels Treasure Hunters get done searching all the cases before they go out, the Super Chases will be all gone.
What bums me out the most is that the Hot Wheels guys that already scour the stores will be the ones to get these. Not a Cars collector or child that wants to have a complete collection. The lack of new cars and new cars that are supper rare are making me slowly give up. I would think John Lasseter would want these products more readily available to the people that go see his movies- KIDS!
Yawn…Looking for something new and exciting!
Like some others have mentioned, I really don’t see how this SUPER CHASE strategy will bring new collectors or make actual collectors buying more… Since this will be a very low number, Mattel and/or Pixar won’t benefit compare to releasing cars from the prototype they have already done from CARS 1 or simply releasing one of the 900 NEW characters from CARS 2…. Well, first came Cadbury with the mystery “how the caramel get inside the chocolate bar” then come the second biggest mystery… Mattel with “CARS marketing”….
Chase cars helped kill Hot Wheels. When Treasure Hunts first came out there was one Treasure Hunt per 3-4 cases of 72 count cars. Now there is a Treasure Hunt in every case. The prices have tumbled from $25-$35 when first issued $5-$7 for current castings. There was great disturbances in the universe for first coming up with the concept and then for increasing availability. You ‘completists’ will be madder than heck at Mattel and your local stock clerks.
If I find one, it’s yours for $500! 🙂
I hope they at least make a boxed set of these that isn’t ‘chase’ for kids or the average collector out there that might want these.
At the 2:05 mark in the video, you can a hear a little boy cry just after his mommy tells him that the man talking won’t let him have the shiny new toy.
I also laughed out loud when the idiot Mattel Executive had no choice but to agree with the unknowing John Lasseter when he said that Lizzie was the first Chase Car. That kind of reminded me of George W. Bush telling Michael Brown, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”, during FEMA’s handling (read: blundering) of the Hurricane Katrina relief operations.
At the 2:05 mark in the video, you can a hear a little boy cry just after his mommy tells him that the man talking won’t let him have the shiny new toy.
I also laughed out loud when the idiot Mattel Executive shook his head yes, when an unknowing John Lasseter said that Lizzie was the first Chase Car.
Can someone explain why a Chase concept is beneficial to Mattel? I don’t quite understand, as it would be the secondary market (I mean re-sellers) that makes all the money from these, not Mattel. Isn’t Mattel’s primary objective here to make as much profit as possible? If so, then I’d like to see them nix the Chase idea in favor of a Matty scubscription system, much like the He-Man figure subscriptions. That way re-sellers as well as straight-up fans could have access to these, AND Matty would make more $ per item sold.
Maybe the guys on eBay are actually from a secret Mattel retail skunk division. Chase cars drive the prices way above retail, Mattel has warehouses full of them, they’ve simply found a legal way to sell $4 cars for $30. And they can do it without alienating their retail partners. 😉
Hype to get people into the stores more times looking for the chases. Merchants love more traffic into the stores, and you might buy something else while you are there. Though I doubt it works with the hard core Hot Wheels guys. They go in look and leave.
Another thought: is Mattel trying to rejuvenate this Cars 2 line?
Interesting to hear JL talking about how the cases are over packed with Maters and Mcqueens and one new car in a case. He is well aware of how Mattel does business, and it seems to work for them.
Mattel has been in business for a long time.
This reminds me of what collectors thought when we heard about the lenticular line for the first time.
That’s gotta be it! Mattel is trying to get overstocked retailers to buy more cases they don’t want, in return for the prospect of drawing in more customers looking for that elusive “super chase” (and maybe leaving with a couple of cut-price FMMs while they’re at it)!
Mattel gets to sell more cases, and retailers get to believe Mattel is helping them to clear out their pegwarmers by drawing in more customers! It’s a win-win situation — unless, of course, you’re a kid. Or a collector. Or, as they will soon figure out when they’re still flogging those leftover Maters after Christmas, a retailer…
Does the Mattel guy in the clip say “only 3000 produced” right after John Lasseter talks about bribing the guys in the stockroom?
Making a race car as a super chase is really stupid. I realize that this is a collector line but it is primarily for kids. And I am here to tell you, kids love race cars. My boy is all about the race cars in the Disney movie. If I have to pay some crazy amount of money to get one of them, he just won’t get it. And that is just a flat out shame.
I’m not sure what to think of this. My first reaction is not good, but I’ll just have to wait and see how this all turns out. No point getting worried about it for now. For the most part there was no shortage of the old Chase cars (not counting Luigi & Guido Chase), and even though there will less Super Chase, I’m really hoping they won’t be as hard to find as predicted.
(MET: As a comparison, there were about 20,000 of each non-lenticular CHASE CAR available in 2008-2009).
Mattel has never been successful at controlling the leakage at its factories. These “super chases” will show up on ebay loose.
Maybe its time to change over to a loose collector, and not worry about finding these in a store.
Met did you get any indication of how limited the production of these are compared to the good ole chase series?
Carrefour stores in France seems to be flush with the Francesco Crew Chief 2 pack, right now. While good ole USA Kmart still can’t get the product out in their stores.
I agree to a point BWM, But I will not go “loose”
I will still take 7 of them for the Utah group should anyone find them
Any idea exactly how rare these will be? If they are, say, 1 in 4 cases, they should not be too rare (at least, when compared to other chase diecast cars). But, if they are 1 in 10, that will be a big issue.
Good, one of the guys at my church is a WM stockroom dude.
i really love that shirt……
Was this car in the movie? What about the Australian “Frosty” racer?
I think I will be able to pass if this car was not in the movie, but it will be hard!
(MET: See link for info on FLASH … yea, presumably the other 4-6 “international” dubbed racers will be the other super chase cars).
An open letter to Mattel:
After paying a lot of extra cash for some of the last 10 or 15 of the Cars(1) diecasts and giving up on some others (Guido & Luigi Chase and a few others), I decided that my pursuit of Cars2 would not follow the “collect ’em all” strategy.
I was initially discouraged by the all the peg warmers (Finn, Holly, McQueeen) left after the initial introduction, some of which, as of early September, remain plentiful in the stores.
Hand in hand with the abundance of peg warmers is the disappointment of missing out on new releases that did not appear since the stores were so glutted with all those left over peg warmers.
Price increases, for whatever reason(s) in today’s economy, are also a discouragement. The most notable, to me, were the “metallic” painted cars which, just for the paint doubled in price.
I was discouraged again to see that 1 or 2 “exclusives” were popping up in sets selling for as much as $30 – $50 dollars; way too much to pay for a bunch of duplicates just to get 1 or 2 exclusives.
I was discouraged again when the supposed KMart exclusive Crew Chief sets were advertised in June, but apparently not available in the U.S, and still nowhere to be seen in Northern California in September.
The addition of so-called “super chase” items at a time when supposed “regular” issues are nowhere to be found is just about the last straw.
Collecting Cars, at one time was fun. It has ceased to be fun and the “hunt” depicted on many of your toys has become overbearing to the point of utter frustration.
I, for one, have decided to go a step beyond not “collecting ’em all”. I will not actively pursue the further acquisition of any Cars2 diecast toys, until I observe some sort af a change in Mattel’s marketing and distribution which would enable collectors of average means to enjoy and afford the hobby. I have read that “Middle Class America” has been vanishing; apparently so has middle class collecting.
Dan
That raise my chance to get a SUPER CHASE by one 🙂
This is what happened to NASCAR die cast-GREED. I also am NOT trying to complete CARS 2- If i see one I dont have I buy it, I refuse to pay for duplicates to get one car. My big question is will Finn McMissle be the Lizzie diecast odf CARS 2?
By the way my Target has not gotten any new cars in about 3 months ! BORING. Oh well I still need bessie, Guido and Luigi chase, the other 3 mega size and a couple of mega size TOONS. Thats enough
I hear ya, although I’m sure you had those characters many times over already- the only thing new being the one cent accessory.
Comment response FAIL. Going to my room without supper.
I’m with The Met on these. Did Lassiter really say that about having to game the system to get one of these? I too am glad this is a non-canon vehicle I can live without.
Just more motivation for me to start making customs.
(MET: Added video clip, at about 3:50 John Lasseter explains the best way to find Chase CARS).
Thanks a lot, Mattel… NOT!
It’s going to be cheaper to walk away from collecting Cars than it is to buy yet another Carney Plastics display case and the Cars to fill it… Mattel has managed to turn me from excited about Cars to becoming apathetic about Cars…
I’ll still buy the Director’s Cut… and a set of the Kmart 7 rubber tire racers… but I find myself getting closer to being done collecting… keeping what I’ve got but not looking for or buying anything new.
neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool paint job. So long as Jr. doesn’t see it, we won’t need it, and won’t need to waste precious time chasing it. I sincerely hope the rest of the Super Chase Cars are also non-essential characters that we can pass on.
NICE, but where do we start looking for these cars?? (WHAT STORE ) & WHEN ???
(MET: Maybe as early as the end of October? There should be a new card design).
Given all the pegwarmers still hanging around every store I walk into — that have been there since May — I doubt I’ll ever see anything new, much less any of these “Super Chase” CARS.
Why not make these a DS exclusive? I mean, did we really need two separate lines of diecasts in two different scales? Who cares if the only way to get an Ape or a Union Jack Ramone is at the DS, when they’re incompatible with the CARS you already have? But if I could buy a Mattel exclusive like “Flash” or even Chase Guido and Luigi, that would be worth the trip! It might have even been enough to keep the DS closest to me in business…
Ah, well, if Mattel manages to avoid killing ALL interest in the Kmart events with the October offerings, maybe these wll be released with rubber tires at some future event, just like Faux Wheel Drive.
Ill be honest. Im excited and hope I have a chance at one. What a rare piece and find if you can. Imagine the feeling if you find one. SWEET VICTORY! !
Thank you Mattel…I am getting more and more disappointed with Cars-collecting…
Why cant they just produce them for the “regular” customers?
Same with Nike and the NikeMag-shoes… I think there are enough people waiting
for items like these…
What is wrong with the big companies?
At first I thought you were writing a thank you letter from Jimmy Fallon. 🙂
Is that something that he does on his show? That is funny.
I am writing my posts from Germany; so I dont know his show.
And thats why I am so disappointed with stuff that is impossible
to get over here… we will never see the Crewchief-sets here or the
Maters-Secret-Mission-2packs.
But I am glad that I have “T5-help” getting things. But that will
be impossible with super-chase-cars or even Nike-shoes that
I am waiting for over 20years to come out…
It is so expensive to get items over eBay…
Yes, he writes silly Thank You notes during his TV show.
I’m making this one up, but he will write something like,
Dear Hot Dog Bun Company,
Thank you for putting 10 buns in the package when there are only 8 hot dogs in their package. Now I can add 2 more buns to my growing collection.
OK, so I am not as funny as Jimmy Fallon, but I tried. 🙂
(MET: The Hot Dog – Bun thing is because they used to sell HD’s by the pound and buns by the baker’s bread pans design … but now it’s even more confounding as HD’s come in packs of 6 to 80 … and Costco bread packages? Lost count …).
I am not happy about this Super Chase thing. Way to stick to loyal collectors. These are going to be an absolute hassle to try and find.
They will also drive completists crazy. The competion will be fierce to get these. Not to mention they will probably sell for big money on EBay.
This system of only 1 per certain cases is going to less to some bad things. Like store workers taking them, people fighting over opening sealed cases and races to the pegs etc. Definitely not a good plan.
I think its fun to look for a super chase. I let you know if I ever find one. Do we know when to start looking?
I don’t have the time or the patience to look for a super chase Car. I still can’t find the Carla KM 2pack!
I finally found a Kmart that had those, but all that was left was 6 packs of Lightning & Fillmore — PASS!!!
Yup, here too
Finally, a Chase Car I’m not excited about!
As opposed to such exciting releases like Mater with oil can, McQueen with Rust-eze, and Fred with (out) a fallen bumper? (:
Yeah, but at least those were characters I loved and cared about.