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1:55 Scale Die-Cast

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The 1:55 Scale Die-Cast Line is a line of toys based off of the Cars franchise and manufactured by Mattel. Unlike many merchandise lines based off of movies, which usually last about a year or so, this line stayed due to its popularity and the money it made. By now they’ve made numerous characters and character variants as 1:55 scale die-cast vehicles, whether they’re from the movies, shorts, tv series, books or completely made-up for the toy line. Singles nowadays usually retail for $4.99, 2-packs for $7.99 and 11-packs for $49.99.

History[]

The first batch of die-casts were released in 2006 to coincide with the first movie’s release in June of that year. They were mostly just the main characters from the film with some variants of the characters here and there. These cars were either made in China or Thailand as marked on the die-cast’s base.

The line saw instant success. So unlike many movie tie-in merchandise lines, this line continued. By 2007 they started to produce secondary and minor characters, as well as more character variants. By this point, Thailand has stopped producing any characters and all die-casts were now made in China.

By 2008 they started numbering each release in the year, along with introducing Chases, which were die-casts that were only allowed to be produced once and never re-released. The only die-cast to break that rule was Lee Racé with his 2022 re-release. They also introduced a sub-line this year called the Story Tellers, consisting of new characters, character variants and re-releases of characters seen in the World of Cars and Mater Saves Christmas books.

In 2009 they continued to make all sorts of characters from the movie, and started to experiment with giving the characters lenticular eyes to have their eyelids open and close. This year also introduced “Chase Packaging”. While the die-casts themselves weren’t different, the packaging was specially decorated for each character with logos and patterns relating to them. Chase Packagings have never been brought back after 2009.

2010, being the year before Cars 2’s release, introduced the Final Lap collection. It was branded as your last chance to get characters from the first movie before the Cars 2 toy line started. The lenticular die-casts also became a lot more common this year, now with the characters’ eyes looking different directions. Many fans disliked these as the lenticular effect made it look like the cars had more than two eyes at some angles. No new lenticular die-casts were released after 2010. This year also introduced the Cars Toons sub-line. A line of die-casts based off of the Mater’s Tall Tales shorts. A lot of die-casts were unfortunately canceled this year to make way for next year’s toy line based off of Cars 2.

In 2011, to coincide with Cars 2’s releases, the line started exclusively producing characters and variants from the second movie. Right off the bat, they produced characters both major and minor. Some special character variants that were never seen in the movie were released this year, including die-casts with silver and metallic finishes. This year also introduced Super Chases, which were die-casts produced in limited quantities. To this day, no Super Chases have been re-released.

In 2013, Mattel started producing characters from the first movie again, along with the second. This year they’ve introduced multiple series that they use to categorize releases in, and started numbering the releases in each series. They’ve also introduced the Radiator Springs Classic series this year, a line exclusive to Toys R Us and consisting of releases of all kinds of characters from the first movie, loosely following the theme of Radiator Springs. They’ve also released more metallic and silver die-casts both old and new. Some lenticular die-casts were also re-released this year.

2014 saw the return of the Cars Toons line with a lot of re-releases and the new release of Tokyo Mater exclusive to a 3-pack with the same name. That 3-pack would later go on to be one of the rarest and most sought after items in the 1:55 scale die-cast line, and goes for insane prices online. This year also featured releases from the The Radiator Springs 500½ short film, and also introduced the EU (Expanded Universe) lines, which became staples of the die-cast line. The first incarnation of the EU lines was the Transcontinental Race Of Champions (TROC). Which was a league of races hosted by racers that participated in the World Grand Prix, with the exception of Vitaly Petrov. The first collection of TROC die-casts was released this year, being the Neon Racers line.

In 2015, the mobile app Cars Daredevil Garage released, which was a game where you scan in your die-casts (although would usually register the wrong car) and unlock digital versions of them to play with in-game. Later on in the year, the packaging of the die-casts advertised the app, much to the fans’ anger. The final die-casts from The Radiator Springs 500½ short were released this year, and we also got some more releases from the Cars Toons lines. This year’s TROC collections were the Silver Racers, which were re-releases of the silver World Grand Prix Races, and the Ice Racers. This year also featured a 3-pack from the now canceled To Protect and Serve short film.

2016 saw the end of the Cars Daredevil Garage app, the Cars Toons line, and the TROC line with the Carbon Racers and Carnival Cup collections. But also saw the return of die-casts based off of Mater Saves Christmas, no longer classified under the Story Tellers brand, and the start of the Road Trip line, a collection of Radiator Springs townies with extra road trip gear, possibly based off of an early concept for Cars 3.

Unlike 2011, 2017’s early months continued as usual, picking off from where 2016 ended. But with Cars 3 releasing in June, Mattel had to cancel a bunch of planned releases to focus on Cars 3’s line of toys, including having to cancel a bunch of releases from the Mater Saves Christmas line and the newly introduced Mater and the Easter Buggy line, and canceling the Road Trip line as a whole. Just like with Cars 2, we’ve got a lot of releases of major and minor characters from the movie. The series categorization has been ditched temporarily. The packaging style for this year was infamous for not featuring artwork of each character, which many fans disliked.

In 2018, Thailand has started producing die-casts again, alongside China. This year mostly had re-releases from the past three movies, and most new releases were from Cars 3, now categorized by series again, although, the releases are no longer numbered. Thailand was infamous in 2018 for supposedly producing die-casts with lower quality than China’s, although, their quality has improved since then. This year brought back the EU series with the Fireball Beach Racers and Thomasville Racing Legends series, which featured repaints of Cars 3 Stock-Cars and Next-Gens, and also brought back the Radiator Springs Classic series after its absence in 2017, heavily consisting of releases from the third movie, however, with Toys R Us’ closing in the United States that year, the line was canceled with only a handful of releases after its comeback.

2019 saw the start of the Xtreme Racing Series (XRS), similar to TROC, the XRS was a league of races, this time hosted by The Racing Sports Network (RSN). The lines featured this year were Mud Racing and Drag Racing.

In 2020, China stopped producing die-casts and Thailand took over the mainline, while the sub-lines and multi-packs were made in Vietnam. This year also saw the end of the XRS with the Rocket Racing line, however, another EU line was created to replace it, that being the Radiator Springs Endurance Racers series. This year also introduced the Welcome To Radiator Springs series, a replacement for Radiator Springs Classic, now restricted to only the townies (including Lightning McQueen), and each car came with an accessory and a bumper sticker.

2021 completely ditched the series categorization, now labeling mainline releases “As Seen In Cars”, “As Seen In Cars 2” and “As Seen In Cars 3”, with the exception of the Racing Red series and Golden Lightning McQueen, which were special edition die-casts meant to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the first movie. Mainline releases of die-casts that haven’t appeared in the movies are still categorized that way. Mattel also started labeling new mainline releases with a “New For 2021” logo on the packaging, something they were already doing with Hot Wheels. This year continued the Welcome To Radiator Springs line, but replaced the accessories and bumper stickers with keychains featuring a picture of each character. This year also introduced the NASCAR X Cars crossover line, with redesigns of the main characters, some Next-Gens, and exclusive, unique characters based off of real NASCAR drivers. The Radiator Springs Endurance Racers series was also continued this year. And die-casts from the Mater Saves Christmas book were re-released this year, now made in Vietnam. The line also featured two new releases, a new Ramone paint-job, and the previously canceled, Snowmobile.

2022 got rid of the full blister that holds die-casts to their packaging. They’ve been replaced by a plastic piece shaped like each die-cast. The amount of new releases from Cars and Cars 2 has been increased, and with the release of Cars on the Road in September of that year, they introduced an “As Seen In Cars on the Road” categorization into the mainline. This year had the final three releases of the NASCAR X Cars crossover line, with all-new NASCAR-styled wheels. This year also continued the Radiator Springs Endurance Racers and Welcome To Radiator Springs lines.

Series[]

Mainline series[]

Side series[]

Gallery[]

For this subject's gallery, see 1:55 Scale Die-Cast/Gallery.

Trivia[]

  • The line was originally set to end in 2006, but due to the line's popularity, they decided to continue producing models.
  • Don Crumlin is arguably non-canon. He appeared to be Mattel's version of J. Curby Gremlin when he was released in the London Rescue 12-pack, although he did not appear in London at all.
  • Although a Mama Bernoulli 5-pack has been scheduled since the start of the Porto Corsa line, it still remains un-released or even manufactured.
  • On the international card of Erik Laneley, the picture incorrectly depicts him of a Fiat 500, instead of a Honda Civic like he is. This error was fixed on the US releases and most other international releases, making the error card rare, until he was released in 2017 with the Fiat 500 picture.
  • There were no releases from Mater Private Eye.
  • According to Jay Ward, the creative director for the Cars movies, he names every character that Mattel will be releasing soon.   
  • Only 10+ Bennie Caliper's were made, making it the rarest cancelled car in the line.
  • Cars 2 has had a lot less releases since 2018. Only focusing on the World Grand Prix and background characters from the film. With the exception of the London Chase series in the 2020 line, and the 2022/2023 line re-releasing characters like HHPC Rusteze Lightning McQueen, Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell.
  • Despite the 2009 line series being called Race-O-Rama, it has nothing to do with the game as no original characters nor alternate paint schemes of the characters from the game were released as die-casts.

See also[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Journey of Cars Die-cast Packaging" display at 2011 Petersen Automotive Museum exhibit

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