Exclusive Snipe – What Does It Mean?

Legally, not much of anything. Note, the snipe reads 1 EXCLUSIVE VEHICLE.

And the other snipe ONLY AT TARGET.

So, both are legally true.

Bottom line – they promise …

This box set is only available at Target and contains 1 Exclusive Vehicle.

No where does it promise anything else.

It does NOT promise that this “exclusive” vehicle will never be available elsewhere. All it promises is that this box set right now is only available at Target & contains one exclusive vehicle.

If they really wanted to, they could sell a 6-CAR box set at Walmart with David Hobbscapp and 5 different vehicles but there’s no real reason to go that far but it is within their “legal” rights.

And of course, the definition of exclusive vehicle is a moving term. They could swap out a mouth expression.

But they generally adhere to a general guideline of a year before the vehicle can appear in another packaging.

The confusion comes in because in most cases, they are simply too lazy to re-release that vehicle (this rule applies to nearly every other toy release line also). So, the perception is that some exclusives never re-appear – with CARS, it’s also because it’s easy to repaint a CAR or add accessories, they don’t really have to go back to the well if they don’t want to.

Or in this case, it is probably laziness not to have to come up with a new diecast character to release, let’s just re-packaging something from the Target box sets.

Usually if they break their exclusivity rule, it’s because of “overwhelming popular demand,” and people generally get shouted down who oppose a re-release.

This is why they generally avoid numbers – so unlike other items that say LIMITED 1,000 – even then if they sell out in 5-minutes, they will probably bring it back in some way slightly different than the first release but the bottom line is – will they make more money or upset more people? Whatever is the larger number wins.

In the case of CARS, if it’s been a year, they feel they are in the clear. And you don’t have much legal recourse. They can simply claim you got to enjoy it for a year before the people now and the price of 7 CARS at $30 is not much different than 7 CARS at $3.49 (for singles). You could argue you had to buy 6 repeats but then again, legally, it’s easy to claim you did not have to buy it.

It should be noted that I am not agreeing with Mattel – just pointing out their thinking.

I think in a 7-pack, there should NEVER be more than 2 repeat re-releases. In the case above, I think it should be either ALL re-releases for newbie buyers/new collectors/gift buyers or 5 NEW diecasts or 5 versions of the characters in a box of 7 – as it’s cheaper just to add accessories, or headsets – then even if you re-release all 5 of the “new” diecasts or versions later as singles, no one feels slightly cheated.

Or as Mattel has done with the PLANES 4-packs at Target. You can either buy the 4 pack at essentially the same price or wait for the singles (in most cases, they came out slightly after the 4-packs were available) – perfect for everyone.

So, unless the exclusive has a number attached to it – it means pretty much nothing. And of course, the most extreme example is when they are stuck with leftover “exclusives,” and they sell it to a consolidator, discount it out or offer it up themselves at a large discount. They usually try and wait a few years but again, there’s no much legal recourse. Since they don’t promise you any “investment return,” they are simply selling you a toy at a price you agree is “reasonable,” (in the sense you are willing to pay that price) and any future selling price, place, etc … is their option.

So, it is an exclusive in the sense that at this time, you can only buy this thing wrapped in this shell that looks like this at this store. Later on, it could all change.

Collect them all.