Mattel Disney Pixar CARS Diecast: The Cartney Carsper of 2014
Of the new releases in 2014, some people wonder why it seems stores keep getting the W Case (early 2014) with just Cartney Carsper as the “new” CAR in the case.
Yea, there’s no rhyme or reason. Logically, they should be shipped new cases as they are released but of course, there’s no real logic to the case packs and distribution situation.
Retailers will usually just place an order for X number of cases, say 10,000 cases over a certain period or a year (for 1,800 Target stores, that’s about 5 cases per store which seems about right for Mattel these days) and sure, logically, they should get shipped new cases as they are released but sometimes Mattel save money on production through economies of scale and overproduce wildly on one case so perhaps they end up shipping 6,000 cases of one case to the retailer. As long as there’s a mix of Lightning’s and Mater’s – retailers don’t really notice or care that much as long as it’s not mostly deadweight …
So, in case you’re wondering, Carney Carsper is the lucky new diecast that got in the wildly overproduced case of 2014.
6 August 2014
15 Comments
Case W with Cora and Cartney Carsper seems to be a Western states over distributed phenomenon.
It showed up in the SW states in early April and I still see these 2 on the pegs now in early August.
What was longer lived here is case A (Lubewig’s case/ Doc Hudson). I found him in early March and keep finding him as of yesterday, so its 5 months later and case A is still being sent to stores in my distribution area.
Much harder for my area is case C with Geartrude. She is just not here!
Yet 200 miles away case C is abundant at Walmarts and Targets.
I’d really like to know is WHAT Happened to CASE B with the SuperChase Fans Luigi and Guido?? I know I have not missed this because every time I found Lubewig I always found the Raoules too. Where is this CASE B?
Did it only go to the on line resellers??
We saw loads of the case(s) with Cartney in Winnipeg, Canada. Walmart got a pile, ToysRus a few, and even my sad, dry Target got a case. Oddly, the ToysRus around here have been right on top of WAY more new releases than I have ever seen before: 500 1/2 and Planes: Fire and Rescue as well as the newest Planes diecasts. Something changed about six months ago. We had still been getting Cars 2 cases marked ‘Don’t Open Until May Whatever Date’ when the movie was first released to theaters. Now, anyone going into the stores here stands a decent chance of actually finding something they might want to buy. Except for the Hot Wheels. Those have been nonexistent here lately.
I have not seen many of this case. Just one at midnight at a Walmart. In fact the most common case in these parts is the the El Equipo Rayo McQueen case and little else since.
Wait Lubewig is easy to find? I’ve seen Cora, Cartney, Alex, and Fiber Fuel but not him…
I don’t understand the economy of scale logic. If they have a set number of case and lets say this total number includes cases a, b, and c. They decide to make 70% of the total case a, while b and c make up 15% each of the total cases produced. While they may save some money on case a through economy of scale, wpuldn’t they lose all those savings on cases b and c?
(MET: I should point it’s as close to logic but not 100% well thought logic … sort of like drunken algebra. 🙂 Yea, if I could figure it out 100%, I would … look, it’s like making harley gassup a CHASE, what’s the point of crafting a giant all metal diecast mold for ONE release?).
So if Cora Copper is on the peg it means I missed Todd, since Cora so far was only released in Case D? I only seen Cartney once here in Southeast Michigan. Lubewig was at a few stores, got lucky finding Geartrude, and I only seen Cora once also. Tokyo Mater peg warming going on here. Target is strictly McQueens from 2013, every Target. Saw the Radiator Springs 500 diecasts once at Walmart, and they were gone fast, with no restock happening yet. I did have some luck at a Toys R Us with a Radiator Springs Classic Costanzo Della Corsa. Milton Calypeer is on a card back of a RSC Dirt Track Mcqueen I picked up
No, because Cora Copper was released with Cartney Carsper in case W 2014. Case D is her second release of 2014. If you see both pegged, you are surely seeing case W. If you see Cora and not Cartney then its probably case D and you missed Todd.
I see it all over the place, and I’m not a big city resident
In Northern Cal, near Sacramento, I’ve seen a steady stream of Cartneys at both Target and WalMaret for the last several months with one exception; I did find Lubewig at Walmart, once and only once. I never dod see Geartrude. Cartney and Cora have been abundant. Prior to that period, the chase car, Lee Race, was relatively common for a chase. Overall, distribution seems quite strange.
Yeah,I’ve never seen this car in my area.I haven’t even seen the Radiator Springs 500 1/2 cars either.I only see a lot of the usual and Lubewig.
How funny.Just ran into the 500 1/2 diecast’s and Lubewig.No Cartney though.
I have seen these new Carney, but now they have Disney Pixar front not World of Cars front and they both have the 2014 in RED on the back with the two different logos on the upper left corner. I have not been able to find all the different Card. Backs that have the two different fronts, but it is hard with only seeing the 2014 on the back to help identify. I have like 20 of the different 2014 Cards. Does anyone have more info on the 2 types of Cards now in 2014 Thebreezz
@thebreezz
I can only give you an answer in respect of UK/Europe/International carded cars although there are some similarities with the US two card designs in the US.
In the UK/Europe, there have been seven cases released so far (six in the UK). Our latest case 988T is similar to the US 998D case.
Of the 72 standard singles touted for release in 2014, 61 have been released (60 in the UK). Of these 60, a total of 43 have been released on a Disney World of Cars (WOC) design. From about the 4th case, Disney Pixar Cars (DPC) logo replaced the Disney World of Cars logo. Many of the cars originally produced with the WOC logo have now been replaced with DPC. This is especially true for cars that were released in the first couple of cases and have only just been repeated in the last couple of cases.
However, in true Mattel (mess-up) style, this isn’t true for all cars. The previous UK case (988S) contained first repeat of Marlon ‘Clutches’ McKay and Luigi/Guido. They were in the very first case and have taken five cases for their first repeat appearance. I was in a store today (Bentalls department store). They had six cases. There were six of each Marlon and Luigi/Guido (one each per case). Three of each were on WOC and three of each were on DPC cards! What a mess! Both variants had the same production date 0774EAA on them. This leads me to think that there are multiple production lines working with different artwork!? If that’s not planned, that’s pretty lousy quality control!
I lost track of how many W cases my Target has received ( I stopped counting at 20, and there’s still a fresh case on the pegs every other day!). Now I’m seeing them at Walmart, Kmart and TRU as well. HORRIBLE! I just want Doc Hudson but Target only got one case of that and my friend got him. 🙁
Overproduced or just overly distributed to big-city markets? I’ve never seen this one at Walmart, Target, and Kmart in my neck of the woods.