In these recent dark days, I happened upon a single bright spot early last week. Now I had speculated that this thing may one day be a possibility, and what do you know, here it is!
We’re talking about a bona fide follow-up to the Disney Character Cars, a solid Series 2!
Series 2
- 1 / 6 – Minnie Mouse
- 2 / 6 – Peter Pan
- 3 / 6 – Belle
- 4 / 6 – Pinocchio
- 5 / 6 – Stitch
- 6 / 6 – Sulley
I almost missed ’em. For quite a while since the New Year, my local Walmart has had the same swath of Character Cars and the like, mostly the latest DCU guys, the RealRiders SFV cars, a handful of Jurassic World stuff, and a small assortment of Disney Series 1 Character Cars. Being that Minnie Mouse was at the front my eyes initially passed over it. I had to do a bit of a double take and say to myself, “that’s a bow! Mickey ain’t got no bow!” All told, I spotted 2 Minnies, a Pinocchio, and Belle.
Believe you me, I was frantically searching the store for the missing three. I was checking stores left and right for like 3 days. It just seemed strange to me that there were only 4 cars on the shelf. I mean, yeah, someone coulda beaten me to it, but I go so often and – typically – so early that I don’t want to shrug my shoulders and entertain this possibility just yet. And if there was someone perusing Hot Wheels at such an hour it seems like they woulda gone ahead and gobbled up the entire collection. Now it’s also possible that Walmart stopped stocking midway trough the box. It’s a bit of an unusual circumstance unless the shelves are already saturated, but it does happen from time to time.
Finally I found my missing 3 early Friday morning at the TTC Walmart. Thank goodness.
Based on experience, I would’ve guessed 3 Minnie and 1 of each of the other 5 to a case. However, according to the freshly stocked shelves at Walmart, I saw 2 >Minnie, 2 Pinocchio, and then 1 each of the remaining 4.
Series 1 of the Disney cars are among the most well-designed Character Cars in my opinion, especially as a lot. Yes, I think Mike is kind of a whack choice but that doesn’t take away from the quality of the design. Does Series 2 live up to its predecessor…? I think. There’s a good mix of old and new characters, though I’m quite surprised they’re not reaching into their late 80’s to early 2000’s “Renaissance period,” ‘when so many of their modern day classics came to be: The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocahantas, Aladdin, Mulan, whatever else I missed).
First up is Minnie Mouse who, let’s face it, is basically a copy of Mickey with a big-ass bow and a few white spots. Lazy? Eh, maybe, but then again this is kinda how those male-female pairs were portrayed back in the era they were created. You had some simple anthropomorphic animals with the male presented as fairly neutral and the girl endowed with some very stereotypical gender cues: dresses, bows, high heels, long hair, lipstick, prominent eyelashes, etc. The 2 vehicles match each other quite nicely.
Peter Pan was one of those things that was just a little too old for me. I remember it being on when I was a young child, but my memory of it doesn’t extend much beyond “a really long cartoon.” Regardless, this is an excellent car. It looks like something from Bugatti or Ferrari, extremely aerodynamic and built for speed. I guess this is a homage to Peter Pan’s nimbleness and ability to fly. The feather manifests as a center fin in the rear which I thought was a nice touch, and the two-tone green gives it an expensive, exotic, highly customized appearance.
Coming in at number 3 is Belle, the “beauty” from Beauty and Beast. The roomy car has an old school, classic feel to it with a reserved opulence, a restrained beauty. Maybe it’s just big and yellow like her dress. Seems like the Beast would be a better candidate for a Character Car, but I think they did a good job in conveying her wholesome nature.
Next up is Pinocchio which appropriately looks like a little wooden, toy car. This interpretation is slightly more abstract than some. Several colors are used to represent the puppet’s unique clothing and the infamous nose is built into the elongated hood.
Then there’s the extraterrestrial or lab-grown or whatever Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. These guys are a bit after my time so I don’t know much except that Stitch has his “alien form” and another, more passable “dog form.” Car-wise he’s a short blue coupe, which I guess suits him well enough, and the large ears are worked into the shape of the oversized doors.
Disney revisits Monsters, Inc. for its final entry in Series 2, the big blue Sulley. And that’s probably his biggest selling point, his size. In an almost predictable move, Sulley is turned into a tow-truck of sorts, with a soft blue body speckled with pastel purple spots. His horns double as the exhaust pipes and his tail becomes the towing apparatus. The tow-truck itself is pretty cool too. It’s got a sleek, modern look unlike anything you’d see on the real road.
Overall I’m pleasantly surprised by this second offering from Disney. As with Series 1 it’s clear that a lot of time and care went into making each vehicle unique and none of them seem hastily or lazily conceived. Personally I’d swap out Stitch and Sulley for more “classic” characters but I’ve got zero problem with the cars themselves. Peter Pan wins my vote for overall aesthetics, while I think I’ll give “best translation” over to Belle. Obviously I haven’t kept up with much news since I had no idea these were even coming and I feel kinda silly about that, but hell, it’s cool to be completely surprised right there in the store once in a while. The back of the card even shows us the full roster of both series!
Will Series 3 ever happen? I’d say there’s a good chance. I know Disney’s all about the heroes and princesses and whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the villains tend to look cooler. I’m definitely down for some Jafar, Ursula, or Scar.
Be sure to check back soon after I open ’em all up and give the a closer look! (You can check out my “closer look” by clicking here now!) I can already tell there are a few surprises to be had once I start handling them…
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