Cars 3: Mini Vehicles 8-Piece Gift Set (Thinkway Toys)

What's going on everyone?! Tonight I'm taking a look at yet another Cars 3 item that was released clear back in May of last year, something I honestly considered returning to the store for a while (which is why it's taken so long to get this post up). I decided to keep it though, so here's my review of the Toys R Us Exclusive Cars 3 "Mini Vehicles" 8-Piece Gift Set by Thinkway Toys.

OK I know this isn't off to the most positive start, but bear with me (when it comes down to it, I do like these). So I got this set around this time last year as I was initially attracted to the stylized designs of these little Cars 3 characters (you know I love stylized mini figurines). I figured they would look cute on display. And the thing is, they are definitely cute and I do like how they look overall! I don't really have any problem with the figures themselves. It's just that I couldn't believe I actually justified spending $29.99 for eight tiny plastic molded cars, even though I was paying with a Toys R Us gift card that I was given.

If you do the math, that's $3.75 per car (essentially as much as Mattel's larger metal/more detailed diecasts). This set should really be around $9.99 and is not worth more than that. Honestly though, I wouldn't usually mind that price point as much, but here's the thing: I was already collecting (and still collect) all these same characters from Mattel's 1:55 scale diecast line AND Mattel's diecast mini racers collection (which I also almost didn't collect, but I started those first and they're a little cheaper). It was all just adding up to be too much. Regardless though, I did end up keeping this set (as mentioned), but did not move forward with collecting the remainder of the line (which continued as blind bags—more on that below).

The eight characters included here in this set are Lightning McQueen, Jackson Storm, Miss Fritter, Dr. Damage, Smokey, Bobby Swift and Junior Moon (notice though that they got Junior's name wrong on the back of the package; for whatever reason he's listed as "Tucker Moon". Wonder where that came from?). Each car is just a smidge over an inch in size with no moving parts/rolling wheels.

Speaking of the lack of rolling wheels, that was a big negative for a lot of people with these (I've read a lot of reviews and that's the number one complaint I noticed). For me though, I'm totally cool with that aspect. I like that these are more "figurines" than toy cars (which allows them to be a bit more stylized and expressive in the way that they are posed). You just need to know before hand what to expect with these (which I did). I guess I can understand that if people were expecting toy cars that can roll around, that they would be disappointed. For me though, I already have other versions of these characters that roll, so these were a nice change.

Not long after this set came out, the line continued by way of blind bags (as mentioned earlier). In addition to the eight characters found within this 8-Piece set, the blind bags feature 11 more cars you can collect (for a total of 19): Dinoco Cruz Ramirez, Natalie Certain, Chick Hicks, Shannon Spokes, Arvy, Luigi, Louise Nash, Guido, Sally, Ramone and Sheriff. Though I didn't end up grabbing these, you can check them out in the press images below.

Each surprise pack retails for around $2.99, so that would have been another $30 to complete the full line (a total of over $60 for these things if I were to finish getting them all).

All in all, when it comes down to it, I guess my main gripe is just the price of these characters (for what they are). I don't have a problem with little cheap plastic mini figures if they look cool like these, but I just wish they were priced more appropriately. Thinkway Toys is known for their overpriced products though.

To wrap things up, I do like these little guys. And they do look great on display as I pictured! If you're interested, you can find this gift set at Toys R Us still to this day (hurry before they all close). The blind bags can be found there too, as well as at Target and Walmart. So what are your thoughts? I would love to hear what you think about this collection in the comments below. Did you collect them? Which one is your fave?