For those of you with kids you’ve probably seen some of the Disney Car short episodes on the Disney Channel. One of those episodes has the loveable Mater telling Lightning McQueen of a time when he was a fire truck. This year’s exclusive is a 1:55th scale diecast carof Mater as that fire truck. I believe he will also come with the twins Mia and Tia skinned in dalmatian deco.

Rumor has it the set will run about $30 dollars. In comparison, last year’s Lightning Storm McQueen cost $15 dollars and came in an acrylic display case.

For those that haven’t seen the short episodes you can probably find them on YouTube. Oh, and while you’re there check out the short episode where Mater is an Import Drift Racer in Tokyo. It’s hilarious even for adults.

For his birthday party Logan recieved a ton of toy cars as gifts. He’s nuts about cars. He got all kinds of cars… even ones that transform into robots. His favorite car is Lightning McQueen from the Disney Pixar movie Cars.

It’s no surprise that Logan’s favorite booth at Comic Con last year was the Mattel booth. They had a display of every car from the movie. They even had a large “Darth Mater” custom. It was his chance to see some of the more rare diecast cars toys such as the “Apple” Racecar and the Walmart big rig. The pictures below were taken at the booth. These are only a few of the large collection on display.

Darth Mater custom. Not sold in retail. I think it’s one of a kind.

I have yet to see the Apple car in stores. I’ll see if I can get one on ebay.

Here we see Logan trying to find a way to open the case. If you look close enough you can almost see the drool on his face.

Another toy you’d be lucky to find on the shelves. The Cars Walmart Truck, not surprisingly, is sold only at Walmart.

With the 2009 Comic Con just a couple weeks away I’m looking forward to see what Mattel has instore for us this year. I’m sure Logan will be even more excited.

There are a good handful of 2008 San Diego Comic Con exclusives I’m targeting to get this year and at the top of my list is the Disney Pixar Cars Lightning Storm McQueen by Mattel. Mattel and Hasbro are putting out some awesome exclusives this year and this is one I will HAVE TO HAVE.

Ever since my son was born and the movie “Cars” came out I’ve been buying every unique one I see. We even have many of the hard to find ones (the ones that come like one per store case). I just wish my son wouldn’t beat them up so much. They kind of scratch easily which is bad because he crashes them into things like walls and other cars.

Aside from the cars being scratched easily (which probably annoys me more than my kids), I think Mattel did an excellent job on these toys. The are just the right size and the detail on the cars look just like they popped out of the movie. They are the perfect size for my 2 and 5 year old to play with as they fit comfortably in either of their hands.

It is only natural that I fork out the 15 bucks for the Lightning Storm exclusive (The regular cars found in stores cost around 3-4 bucks each). I imagine this will be one of the harder items to get at the con and I expect long lines and rude people in those lines. I think collectors that buy for their kids can get a lot more nastier than those just shopping for themselves. Luckily, I’ve got passes for preview night and I will have a good chance at getting this item.

The rockets attached to the car look like they might break off easily especially after a few hours with Logan. I may need to buy a few.