It’s no secret that Mattel is in a bit of a rut from a PR standpoint with the collector’s market.  They want to keep producing products for adult collectors, but ever since they laid off Toy Guru and then JD torpedoed everything having to do with MattyCollector.com and then left the company for greener pastures, NO ONE has wanted to step up and deal with the collector’s market or the collector’s press.  All of the PR and marketing folks saw how Scott was treated and NO ONE wants to stick their head up out of the trenches.   So, things just keep plodding along in the pipeline and then are released without any fanfare in random places.  It’s a far cry from the pioneering Mattel that was the first major company to reach out to the collector press back in 2005.  There’s no one hyping their stuff.  They are just making it and hoping people find it.   It is very strange.  There are a few exceptions such as the design team on their WWE line… but that’s the design team and not PR or marketing.   Really it’s just been radio silence from Mattel when it comes to collectibles.

A great example of this is the current crowd funding campaign that Mattel is currently running.

What’s that?  You haven’t heard that Mattel was running a crowd funding campaign? Neither had I and I follow this stuff for a living.

I was contacted by an AFi reader Chris K alerting me to this quiet campaign because he is afraid it won’t fund in time.   The campaign is for an extension of their Disney/Pixar CARS line of Precision Series playsets.  These high-end, adult collector playsets are scaled replicas of the town of Radiator Springs from the movie CARS.  The line has been running for several years, and have been sold on line as well as in the the Mattel Company Stores and up until their closure last year, they were sold in US Toys R Us stores.  For this campign to move forward they need 3000 people to commit to buying this new set, which is not an unreasonable number.  There has to be that many CARS fans out there world wide.   As of this writing they only have 561 pre-orders and they only have 20 days left.

Here is the email I received from Chris K-

Since TRU died, there’s no outlet that will stock an expensive playset like this (and the 7 that have preceded it), so even though this was originally scheduled to be available sometime this year, it appears that there wasn’t enough retail interest to justify production. Hence the pre-order plan that Mattel has started.

They won’t go into production unless 3000 are pre-sold, and with 18 days to go, pre-sell hasn’t hit 500 yet. I think it’s because this drive isn’t widely publicized, so I’m hoping that some high-profile sites like yours might be able to help spread the word.

These Precision playsets are fantastic (I’ve got them all) and would love to see the line continue! There IS crossover between the action figure and car collecting communities!

Let’s see if we can generate some BUZZ here, help spread the word for this home stretch, and push this project’s numbers over the finish line so it can happen!!  See below and spread the word!

https://shop.mattel.com/shop/en-us/ms/docs-ornamental-valley-mechanical-clinic-playset-fpl52

Become a backer of the Doc’s Clinic Campaign and make the next entry in the Disney and Pixar Cars Precision Series a reality! This Radiator Springs set includes premium features, true-to-movie play areas, lights that glow in multiple modes, and an exclusive 1:55 scale die-cast Doc Hudson vehicle.