SDCC 07 - Mattel’s Massive Cars Display
Author: Stephen Gerding
July 31st, 2007
Say what you will about Cars’ place in the Pixar pantheon, but the movie was pretty darn popular, and the kids are eating up the merchandise as fast as Mattel can churn it out. I think this is probably the one and only genuine threat the Hot Wheels and Matchbox manufacturers have ever faced for control of the toy car market, and seeing how fun the upcoming vehicles and playsets look, I can totally understand kids choosing a Cars car over the other two companies’ offerings.
The display on the floor was truly impressive, and while I was never able to quite figure out for certain if they were selling Con exclusive paint jobs or not, I do know that the Cars they were offering for sale at the booth were really popular and were gone early in the day.
Way, way more photos, including Wal-Mart exclusives, playsets and Hippie Mater after the jump.
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7 Responses to “SDCC 07 - Mattel’s Massive Cars Display”
July 31st, 2007 at 6:53 am
I guess Cars toys are like the Bratz of the toy car world
July 31st, 2007 at 6:58 am
I don’t know that that’s a fair comparison - there’s no g-string hotrods or slutty convertible Cars, after all.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:58 am
not YET!! you mean Not YET
July 31st, 2007 at 8:55 am
I’m not seeing that the Bratz comparison. Speaking from a household that has contains over 20 Cars, Mack and the Race Track, my boy and girl have a great attechment to them and do take them everywhere we go. What has me upset is that due to those damn speculators and the moron who decides the number of production runs on each series (since they seem to get smaller and smaller), the Cars that the kids want are never in stock. Hopefully, this will change as it sucks to tell your kid that we can’t buy Tex Dyanco because some asshat is selling it on eBay for $20.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
My comparison was that they took an established toy style
Like Hot Wheels and Barbie) and made it flashier and funnier. I in no way meant to insult the Cars toys or brand.
Also
Hot Wheels is a Mattel brand as well I wonder why they didn’t brand the Cars toys with that.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
See - shows how much I know about anything made and marketed to kids over a year and a half!
My guess is that Disney’s contract insisted they get their own line.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:15 pm
somejerk - I guess that I can kinda see your point. The way I see it is that there are two tacts with Cars. First is that Mattel produced Cars as a movie tie-in which has taken off into a burgeoning die-cast line while Bratz was keying on that tween demo who would go for a hipper albeit sluttier version of Barbie which took off and has spawn a movie. So, they’re not really comparable in that aspect.
The second tact which puts Cars side-by-side with Hot Wheels offers a better comparison but this one is a matter of choice. I liken it to the Animated style of Batman versus the comic book version. People like both or either one and it seems that there is enough room for both. Hell, my son has not only regular Hot Wheels and Cars but also the NASCAR 1:64 scale cars which he plays with all three.
My rather long-winded point is that Cars doesn’t take away from Hot Wheels; they’re more like a companion line.
Now, as far as the branding issue, I’m with Steve. Disney is notoriously hardliners and do not like brand mixing whatsoever.