The value of the London Rescue 12-Pack – a Target exclusive – will vary depending on what stage of collector you are.

(Thanks for the great pics, “John H.”)

For someone who is starting out, it’s a fine box set of 12 CARS along with a nice display box.

For someone who is not complete, outside of Lightning McQueen (unibody version), the “repeats” are not necessarily easy to find: Sally, Sheriff, Race Team Fillmore, Vladimir Trunkov and Victor H.

These 6 appear to look like their most recent releases – in the case of Sheriff, one of the few CARS since 2006 with no discernable changes – and until recently with the Radiator Springs Classic re-release, fairly difficult to find. Same with Sally and her recent release in the box set.

For completist collectors, there are definitely “new” additions to the collection.

Don Crumlin comes with different eyes …

And of course, one of the last CARS you’d think would go back in production – not only that, but they upgraded the mold so now Finn is a unibody – much classier looking. He is scheduled as a single for 2013 so presumably at some point, he will be re-released as a single unibody Finn.

Another unibody upgrade is Holley, which I couldn’t see in the background before …

Another nice upgrade. While Holley is not scheduled as a single, I’m presuming she’ll be out in a Movie Moment 2-pack or perhaps in box sets in 2013 … but if you want a unibody Holley early, here ya go.

You Da Bomb Mater is an interesting double variant … the obvious is he’s missing the Team ’95 logo …

Yes, he’s scheduled as a single in 2013 so if you can wait … but upon closer inspection, his bomb is different.

(these photos supplied by Mr. Mark T. – thanks!)

This is the bomb from the TRU 5-pack …

This is the revised bomb in the new Target 12-pack.

They both read 00:02 seconds which is technically not correct for the London scene.

Besides the “netting,” this version of Professor Z is missing his monocle (as people have noted, correct as he lost it in that giant magnet fight scene).

And a “new” version of Ramone which as with all most all Ramone’s is pretty much just a repaint but if that were truly the case, we would’ve stopped collecting about 8 Ramone’s ago …

But all and all a pretty sweet repaint … so, you could grumble it’s 12 out 12 repaints, re-released and re-hashes … or you could say it’s 50% new with nice upgrades to Finn and Holley (and if you haven’t bought a unibody LM yet, that’s 7 to 5) … plus a different Don & Bomb Mater and a correct Professor Z for the scene (and of course, a new Ramone) … and 5-6 CARS to give away to a kid … so look on the bright side of life. 🙂

Or as “Raekwonn” found at his Target – Don’t be this guy who spent countless hours sweating over his plan – he put in a $10 Lights & Sounds Mater, and a hard to find Grem & Miles Axelrod as replacements – but he could not figure out how to replicate the web or did not have an extra Professor Z … or that he totally missed the upgrade to Finn & Holley … dude, we can practically lift the DNA from your sweat on this thing … it’s NOT you, we know as you actually worked diligent to give the kid who’s going to get this with “real value” but wouldn’t your conscious be better off buying this for real and repacking the CARS you don’t want in a generic box and write off $29 on your tax return as a charity donation?

Dude, you will have to sneak back, I can see the white ties on Miles Axelrod – dude, try again!

Besides, now that you have successfully painted the spaghetti strands gray, you gonna buy it again to nab Professor Z and buy a Professor Z online for $15 dollars, snap off its mirror to replace it here? (Also, never mind the $1,400 to clean your granite tops of gray paint). 🙂 Or maybe on the second trip after that, you can saw off the metal fronts of Finn & Holley on these to weld to your diecasts and sand and glue your plastic ones back on these … or hell, why not just carve replacements out of soap? You’re just not thinking big enough. Maybe replace all the tires with Cheerios. Better make 4 more trips to Target, it’s not like gas costs $4 a gallon … oh wait … maybe you should tape your checkbook inside as one of those art metaphor things?

And after all that, it’s $29.99 on Black Friday. 🙂

Thanks for the great pics, John H. and Mr. Mark T. … and while a nice pic, the subject matter is annoying (though not your fault), Raekwonn. Thanks!