Mattel Disney Pixar CARS Toons: The Radiator Springs 500½ Road Rally Diecasts – UPDATE!
Coming as diecasts:
Road Rally Lightning McQueen
Shifty Sidewinder 
Idle Threat 
Offroad Mater – Mater looks the weakest of the sculpt – that front tow line is pretty weak looking. 
Blue Grit – I’m not sure if this is correct, a nickname or they changed the name as he clearly has a sticker that reads BLUE BULLDOZER (this is also the plastic pullback version – the diecast should pretty much look like this except for the jack-up pullback mechanism is obviously bigger here), 
Sandy Dunes
Details on the Toon short is HERE.
19 March 2014
18 Comments
These actually look like fun Cars that might get my son interested in the brand again. He hasn’t shown any interest in the last few releases.
Bulldozer is a trademarked name with Caterpillar, and Caterpillar has already sued Disney regarding the use and depiction of a bulldozer in one of the George of the Jungle movies.
I’m pretty sure Blue Grit will be the name.
(MET: Interesting …).
I find it hard to believe Caterpillar can trademark “bulldozer” — since the term predates the Caterpillar company by decades — it was once a tool used to form strap steel into bent shapes. Attribution please?
Once upon a time you could buy a “suburban” from Dodge, Plymouth, DeSoto, Hudson, Nash, Studebaker or Terraplane as well as from Chevrolet, Holden, and GMC. Now its a GM trademark.
(MET: Interesting – did not know everyone released a Suburban).
I’m going off of memory, clearly your computer works so look it up if you are so inclined. I stopped adding citations and references once I finished my degree. 🙂
I did a little digging, and apparently the Caterpillar lawsuit against Disney’s “George of the Jungle” was for an unfavorable representation of an actual Caterpillar _brand_ bulldozer in the film, which I can understand; and NOT the generic use of the term ‘bulldozer’ in the film, since the word itself predates the Caterpillar company by almost 60 to 70 years.
I dug through my automotive histories, and Suburban was always a Chevy term … GM just didn’t initially protect it and did so retroactively in 1988. Since Holden was Chevy of Australia, their use of the term isn’t strictly illegal, either. The same sort of terminology was used for “DeVille” as well, before Cadillac trademarked the term retroactively.
Lincoln should sue Cadillac because Coupe/Sedan DeVille is French for Town Car… or maybe the other way around.
1949 – De Ville
1959 – Town Car
Good one, Topher. I have to remember that!
Looks like its gonna be awesome, I just hope that its more diecast than plastic.
these look great! i agree mater’s winch could use more detailing. i like idle threat’s remote reservoir coilovers with mood springs sticker! nice details! shifty sidewinder looks kind of like a meyers manx. show me baja mach!
I would like to think that Shifty is modeled after the Manx to honor a very innovative auto designer, Bruce Meyers.
I grew up in the 1970s Orange County and dune buggies and Baja Bugs (ala the elusive Easter Buggy) were ubiquitous, most of them just generic clones resulting from a failure of local courts to honor Meyer’s patents.
We didn’t have one but many of my friend’s parents did and it was a common mode of transportation for us to get to the beach.
Wouldn’t it have been nice for Mattel to surprise us with an accompanying Easter Buggy?
Sounds like some good memories!
Love the name “Idle threat”! He even has a Mood springs tank!
Put some bunny ears and a cotton tail on Shifty and get that Easter Buggy out before Easter!
Sweet! I like how one of Mater top lights are out.
You have to admit, Pixar knows how to hook us into these things!
HOLY CRAP! Need/ want ALL of these!
Can’t wait!