FROM: Why Did Disney DO That?!? Published As Necessary

McMiss, Finn McMiss

To me, Finn McMiss sounds like a no-talent Irish baseball player. But Lee Beatens isn't rantin' about baseball. He's been spending a lot of time in toy stores lately (yes, the police know), coveting not Finn McMiss but Finn McMissile die-cast cars.

- Lee Beatens, June 26, 2011

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For a long time it had seemed like Pixar could do no wrong. I certainly had been in the forefront of their 'Hoo-Ra-Ra' parade for years. I loved their movies. I loved their style.

And I guess the main reason I loved Pixar so much was because they seemed so different from anything that had come before. A company who gave a damn about their employees? Unheard of. A company who had the world's longest cereal bar? Too cool. Lunatics running the asylum? Get me a job there!

And then Disney bought them.

Mickey, Midas of Merchandising

Now Disney does most things well, but one thing they choose to focus on is something they do REALLY well: merchandising. And usually this is a good thing for all of us. From this focus we get plush Mickeys for our beds, cool fashions for our bodies, and an endless supply of things to spend our money on.

But can such a seemingly good thing be taken too far?

I call your attention to your local toy store. Have you noticed the amount of Cars 2 merchandise? Now, we expect to see oodles of die cast models from the Cars 2 movie like Finn McMissile and the rest of the newcomers. Maybe one or two variations of each would be reasonable.

But Disney merchandising and reasonable isn't synonymous!

Choke on My McMissile(s)

So we have a Finn McMissile standard die cast car. We have a Finn McMissle die cast car with moving eyes. One that talks. A submarine version in two sizes. A bigger version with working 'rockets'. One that drives up walls. Another RC version for the floor. And the list goes on.

And Disney has decided to continue a trend from the original line of Cars merchandise. That being the releasing of an endless line of 'background' cars. Do you remember the little van that drove by on the highway in scene 12 of the original Cars movie? Neither do I, but he's got his own die cast model!

And Cars 2 is going the same way. If a car character has a two second drive-by on camera, you just know she's going to have a die cast model available in double-time.

Come on, Disney, you can milk something a little too much.

But Disney isn't likely to agree, so I'm just going to wait until the release of the discarded oil can from scene 4 of Cars 2 and then rush to be the first on my block to own one.

If I get two, you wanna trade?

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