EVEN MORE Disney (3 More Character Cars!)

These aren’t like new new, but they are kinda recent and are part of Mattel’s latest bizarre scheme of releasing Disney Character Cars. All told I think we have a pretty good spread here: Chip (Beauty and the Beast), Hercules (Hercules), and Robin Hood (Robin Hood).

Chip is easily the most difficult to find of the newbies. A few months back, when Ursula was first released, she came in a case full of other re-releases. After some time, one of those re-releases was replaced by Chip – a format that made more sense with Ursula being the only new one.

As far as design goes, there’s really nothing to complain about. This is the Chip as a vehicle. I’m not even sure that this could be imagined any other way. The chip is preserved (as it should be) and I like that the coffee or tear or whatever is shown. Another interesting feature is the hidden third wheel. The front 2 are super-tiny but certainly there, and where it seems it may have to drag the back half, there’s a small wheel set within the base.

Then there’s Hercules who takes a few cues from the superhero Character Cars, namely the integration of the cape into the vehicle design. It flows back from the cabin to create the trunk area, while the roof is his “hair.” The car itself is fairly large and bulky like the demi-god himself. His swords rest upon the rocker panels, a small detail I always appreciate. A little bit of gold is peppered in via the rims and chassis. Although it could be considered “plain,” Hercules himself isn’t much more than a shirtless guy with a cape, so finer details are sparse. Even so, I think he’s still a quality example of what a Character Car can be. Hopefully this will pave the way for a Hades Character Car sooner rather than later.

Robin Hood – as a fox, mind you – comes to us from an earlier era of Disney and I’m not overtly familiar with the film. But hey, it’s Robin Hood, not too hard, right? Off the bat the color scheme looks accurate. Small details are dotted around like the quiver on the back, his black nose on the hood, and one of my favorites, the tiny sharp teeth in the grille. A separate piece added on to the rear left acts as the feather in his cap. Also of note are the arrows to the rear of the rocker panels. The one thing I can’t figure out is why 3 are rendered in orange yet one is golden. Any insights…? Another strong Character Car in my opinion.

Well ok, with these out of the way and the 3 we already covered that’s 6 new Disney Character Cars. Why not create another full-fledged series like they used to? I’ve got the same question. Instead we’ve got a boxset exclusive, a latecomer that appears to be absent from cases it should’ve been in, 2 more from a case that is popping up virtually everywhere, and 2 more from a case I’ve yet to spot. C’mon now Mattel, I want to buy your stuff, make it easy!

So who’s next? What are some big franchises we’re missing? Pocahantas, the Hunchback, Bambi, and I’m drawin’ a blank.

New DISNEY Character Cars Trickle In

Man I don’t know what is going on around here lately but hardly any of the stores are pulling in any Character Cars. Fortunately I’ve found 2 of the more recent Disney cars at retail – Remy (from Ratatouille) and Dug (from Up). The funny thing is once I spotted them they started popping up everywhere, so I do hold out some hope for the remainder of what I need to find.

Anyway…I’d put both of these guys squarely in the middle of the pack. They’re marginally recognizable and if you’ve seen the movies you can probably pick out the finer details, but the characters themselves simply aren’t as iconic as, say, Ariel or Dumbo. It takes a minute to spot the “rat” in the old-timey milk truck that is Remy. The whole grille-headlights area doubles as a nose and whiskers, with the front license plate area cleverly split in two to look like a rat’s front teeth, but there’s no real indication of eyes anywhere on the front. We do get the chef’s hat and ears (I think) but eyes are what really make a face.

Otherwise we’ve got a slightly off-kilter exhaust pipe which I assume to the be the tail, as well as the “Ratatouille” branding on either door. It’s a nicely detailed silhouette of Remy with his hat and spoon, reminiscent of something hanging in or above a French cafe. It really stands out against the relative blandness of the remaining gray and white color scheme.

Dug looks marginally more like a dog than than Remy does a rat, but that’s a thin compliment. There’s a face somewhere in the headlightsa-grille area as evidenced by the big brown “nose” at the end of the hood. Otherwise there’s just not much “dogness” to talk about here.

They cant all be winners and that’s ok. Part of the problem is that neither of these guys have any strong physical characteristics that set themselves apart. We’ve still got 3 more that should be coming in the near future, so maybe they’ll be more convincing. Stick around!

Exclusive DISNEY Character Car – Only in Boxset!

Alright, so these Disney cars are floatin’ around all over the place – you got Robin Hood and Hercules in each other’s orbit, Remy and Dug going as a pair more often than not, and the ever more pricey – and elusive – Chip. But there’s another piece you may not have heard of yet; and why not? Because it comes in one of those boxsets that are sometimes released alongside the singles.

I’m not sure if you can find it in stores – had to get mine from Amazon – but if you want to keep your hoard up to date you’ll need the Disney Princess boxset of Character Cars. Included are Ariel, Snow White, Belle, Mulan, and the one worthy of special attention, Jasmine from Aladdin fame. Yeah, it’s a crummy gimmick…it’s like it’s meant for people who don’t follow the whole “Character Car” thing and designed to be passed over by actual collectors.

Several sets have been sold this way, but to my knowledge, only one of them contained an exclusive. It was a Mickey (and friends) themed set that offered up Daisy Duck – and it’s still the only way to get Daisy as far as I know. Back then, the singles were all just lined up in the box. This time though the cars are just in little plastic compartments within the box. This actually irks me a little bit further.

With the older packaging, I can at least sell off the duplicates as “new / mint on card” or whatever and probably recoup the expensive of having to buy 5 cars for 1. I also liked that Daisy had her own packaging aside from the just the box. With the current packaging, if I want to resale, I have to take a huge cut because they’re loose. And once they’re off the card they lose a good deal of value, plus they’re more prone to scratches and nicks. Plus I can’t get Jasmine on her very own card.

At least Jasmine made for a good pick, joining the likes of Aladdin, Genie, and Jafar from Aladdin. The vehicle follows her look fairly well, with the flowy, pastel blue garments, her headpiece, and her long black hair all worked into the design. I like how the wheels are covered by her “dress,” giving the car a floaty, extra delicate and feminine feel.

While I’m not a fan of the sales gimmick at play here, I do applaud the devotion to a Disney Princess set. Girls and women are severely under-represented in the world of “vroom vroom cars are for boyzzz” toys. Not every little girl will gravitate to the next 1:64 scale McLaren P1 or Batmobile, and not every boy will jump at the chance to buy a pink box full of race cars, but I do think Hot Wheels is doing their small part.

(Kinda) New DISNEY Character Cars

Right around Halloween (of 2021) a new batch of Disney Character Cars showed up. It would seem that they’ve abandoned their idea of releasing the cars in different series and now favor peppering in a few new guys with some re-releases. Our 3 newbies this time around are:

• Aladdin (from Aladdin)
• Santa Jack (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)
• Sally (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)

The NBC is a great choice because it can easily straddle the two holidays and feel at home in either.

Aladdin is hereby portrayed as a sleek convertible. It strikes a balance between wealth and youth and I’m sure it can flit around as quick as any magic carpet. The colors sync up to Aladdin’s outfit right down to the red fez. And get this: the steering wheel is on the right!

Santa Jack is about what you’d expect – the Jack Skellington car “dressed up” like Santa. It’s got the same super-skinny hot-rod design with creepy little details, like Jack’s bony fingers forming what would be the exhaust pipes and his sinister smile just barely visible below the windshield.

Third on the list is Sally, some kind of patchwork, Frankenstein-ish doll thing. The patches translate well into car-form. My one complaint would be that there was never any semblance of a face worked into the design so it’s hard to identify it as Sally and not just an extension of her day-to-day “attire.”

Well that’s 3 more Disney characters…how many left to go?