Who'd have thought that there would still be a few pieces in production today that were initially developed for Cars movie tie-in sets? Wild.

I haven't watched any of the Cars movies, but I bought a few of the sets, just because I thought the anthropomorphised cars were kind of interesting, and I could do something fun with them in my Lego city (maybe as train cargo or something), but I never did figure out what to do with them.

Francesco looks like he’s actually enjoying himself.
Lightning just looks like he’s um...

Constipated?

All I remember is that the Shell sets released a few years back made great use of the shells introduced in the CARS theme.

Is the Cars thing finally starting to blow over? I know for YEARS my Walmart had a ton of Cars diecast that never seemed to move. I hear many Wallys are getting rid of them completely. I did own a few, but not many. I had Mater (I collect diecast tow trucks) and Sarge (Jeep nut), as well as several wind-up Happy Meal toys from the first film, but that's it.

I always kinda disliked them, as they took up more shelf space than the Matchbox assortment at my Walmart. I always said to myself--"These things don't seem to be moving, and they could use this space to stock some other brand, or more of the others".

@cody6268 said:
"All I remember is that the Shell sets released a few years back made great use of the shells introduced in the CARS theme.

Is the Cars thing finally starting to blow over? I know for YEARS my Walmart had a ton of Cars diecast that never seemed to move. I hear many Wallys are getting rid of them completely. I did own a few, but not many. I had Mater (I collect diecast tow trucks) and Sarge (Jeep nut), as well as several wind-up Happy Meal toys from the first film, but that's it.

I always kinda disliked them, as they took up more shelf space than the Matchbox assortment at my Walmart. I always said to myself--"These things don't seem to be moving, and they could use this space to stock some other brand, or more of the others".

"

And maybe some lego, but likely along the lines of PAW Patrol/PJ Masks/Mickey&Roadster Racers....

From the cinematic masterpiece known as CARS II

I’m sorry but cars 2 has got to be one of the WORST Pixar movies I ever did see. Lego doesn’t have a great record of making sets based on hit movies does it?

Say what you will about the Cars sets, but lots of pieces came printed thanks to the target age group. Of course, that doesn't mean the prints are all that useful, but they are superior to stickers imo.

Unique: None

Rare:
93595 small rim with 8 spindles, gold highlights in white x4
93589 2x4 curved nose with 1x4 base, Francesco mouth print in white x1
93587 3x4 curved front hood with fenders, Piston Cup print in red x1
2431 1x4 tile "powered by Allinol" print in red x1
30367 2x2 dome, Francesco eyes print in red x1

Am I the only one here who likes Cars 2? Sure, it’s been years since I last saw it, but it’s somewhere on my most underrated movies. I’m not comparing it to anything like Citizen Kane, but I liked it.

The sets weren’t that bad as well. The cars were certainly interesting.

@Zordboy :
The best thing I've figured out to do with them is make bigger Pixar Cars cars. So far I've built Todd (the Pizza Planet truck, and the reason I got started on this project), Lightning, Mater, both driving and flying versions of Holley Shiftwell, Rod "Torque" Redline, Grem, and Acer, all in minifig scale (I also Cars-ized Batman and Harley Quinn). For most, that means 6-wide, but it turns out Lightning and Holley have significantly wider bodies, so the only way they looked right was to make them 8-wide. I modelled them after the die-cast versions, which I believe were developed using the original Pixar CGI models, so it was pretty obvious that 6-wide Lightning looked like he'd been on a starvation diet. Mostly I just borrowed the mouth tiles, but Mater also uses the 2x4 tiles from his latest iteration, Lightning has a Rusteze logo on the back, Rod got the license plate sticker from the TRU build event, and Todd got the "YO" tile and license plate from the Toy Story 3 Pizza Planet truck. I think interest is finally starting to wane, but from the time I first displayed Lightning to the time I first displayed Mater (a period of about 5.5 years), one of the most common questions at our many displays was "Where's Mater?" And one of the most common comments (while pointing at Todd) was "It's Mater!"

@cody6268 :
This will come as a shock to you, but at one point Cars was Disney's most profitable franchise, based on the sales of those die-cast cars alone. There were a ton of characters to collect, they only ran about $5 a pop, and they were compatible with any existing Hot Wheels/Matchbox collection. The movies may not have performed as well as others, but the merchandise more than made up for it.

@Your_Future_President :
I've seen every Pixar feature film except Soul. Hands down the two worst are The Good Dinosaur and Cars _3_ (I still haven't opened my copy of TGD, and I can't even remember if I've bought Cars 3 which might be the only Pixar feature I don't own). Cars 2 felt a bit jarring after the original, but I really came to appreciate it on later viewings, and now prefer it to the other two. It helps if you realize that it's not trying to be in the same genre as the first, even though it appears to be packaged that way.

@TheWackyWookiee said:
"Am I the only one here who likes Cars 2? Sure, it’s been years since I last saw it, but it’s somewhere on my most underrated movies. I’m not comparing it to anything like Citizen Kane, but I liked it.

The sets weren’t that bad as well. The cars were certainly interesting."

I also really liked Cars 2, enough to buy almost all of the wave 1 smaller sets on release. I think I just like Cars as a franchise in general. Cars 3 was trash, though, in my opinion.

@cody6268 said:
"Is the Cars thing finally starting to blow over? I know for YEARS my Walmart had a ton of Cars diecast that never seemed to move. I hear many Wallys are getting rid of them completely. I did own a few, but not many. I had Mater (I collect diecast tow trucks) and Sarge (Jeep nut), as well as several wind-up Happy Meal toys from the first film, but that's it.
"

Arguably the biggest reason Cars lasted as long as it did was because of Pixar's studio head John Lasseter who loved the franchise, it apparently tickled his fancy very well for classic cars and Americana. Hence how we got three films, two spin off films, many short films, etc. Not to mention it was a merchandising juggernaut. Of course John hasn't worked for Pixar since the MeToo movement revealed his casual harassments behavior in the studio office, so with him gone; yeah Cars is dead.

Really the last great monument to Cars is the Radiator Springs area in Disney's California Adventure, even if you aren't a big Cars fan its hard not to love that part of the theme park because it is so well done. Radiator Springs Racers is considered one of the best Disney theme park rides out there. But outside the theme park, I see no future for the franchise.

Um, sorry, but Cars 2 was the best of the 3. Not sorry. The most clever plot, adventurous, funny, and it didn't try to be serious like the others (tried too hard).

@Your_Future_President said:
"I’m sorry but cars 2 has got to be one of the WORST Pixar movies I ever did see. Lego doesn’t have a great record of making sets based on hit movies does it?"

I never understood the hate for Cars 2. It is easily the best of the trilogy, with some of the best visuals Pixar has ever made, a clever plot, super cool action scenes, and an amazing musical score by Michael Giacchino. I have re-watched it dozens of time, and never got bored of it. But for whatever reason I'll never understand, everyone seems to think it is the worst Pixar movie.

Cars 2 is, in my opinion, a misjudged masterpiece.

@Your_Future_President said:
"I’m sorry but cars 2 has got to be one of the WORST Pixar movies I ever did see. Lego doesn’t have a great record of making sets based on hit movies does it?"

At least the more mediocre movies do get some pretty good sets (e.g. Prince of Persia, The Lone Ranger, Tron, etc.)

The Cars franchise was and is just cool. My sons loved it, but at some point you get bored with it. That's what happens. But the films are still lovely, especially the first Cars, which had this lovely little message, showing the big difference between McQueen's star career and the quiet but authentic place of Radiator Springs where he met his best friends. Love it.

Nice set this one. I regret not being around in 2011. (the year my first kid was born)

Huh, I just watched Cars 3 for the first time last weekend. Fitting!

...though from the comments, I get the impression that I'm the only person here who actually liked it. It felt strangely short, I'll admit; but to me it seemed more like a valid sequel to the first movie; 1 and 3 kind of act like bookends to McQueen's story, with his racing career winding up in the first movie and winding down in the third, which makes sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Cars 2 as well, for what it was! But after seeing 3, 2 honestly feels more like "Mater's Tall Tales: The Movie" than a direct progression of Lightning McQueen's story. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation!

That said, I'm not a car person; so I can honestly say that if the Cars franchise hadn't been Pixar, I wouldn't have given it a second thought back in 2006! None of the Cars movies are my most favourites of Pixar's catalogue; but I still enjoy each of them for what they are ^^ My own least favourite Pixars are The Good Dinosaur and Brave, for different reasons, but that's kinda a whole other topic...

Can't really say the Cars Lego sets interest me very far, though. The necessity of making environments big enough for living cars to look at home in but also simple enough for the younger age group makes the sets look more basic than appeals to me. I'm admittedly curious about 8484, but that's about as far as my interest in the theme goes.

WALL-E is the best Pixar IMO.