Toy Review: Dr. Abschlepp Wagen / Cars (Mattel)

Now I still can't find out where Todd comes from, but I did watch the "Mater's Tall Tales" (aka "Cars Toons") block on Netflix which is seven different shorts in a 35 minute block and saw that the last one was called "Tokyo Mater" and though a lot of other Cars toys have come from this it is where Kabuto is from.   So my thinking he was in "Cars 2" was kind of right as he was at least in Japan.   This particular version of Mater- I like to call him "Dr. Mater"- comes from the "Cars Toon" known as "(U.F.M.) Unidentified Flying Mater" and in the story Mater meets a UFO who is captured by the government so Mater poses as a scientist-doctor type by wearing this get up to eventually set the UFO free.

It's funny that I had such trouble identifying Kabuto and yet after watching "Mater's Tall Tales" I'm all about wanting toys for the luchadores and matadores but also that as soon as I saw this Mater at Walmart (He is exclusive to there) I knew right where he was from.  Maybe it helped that I watched the "Cars Toons" on Netflix on a Friday night and saw this Mater on a Tuesday-- I don't know.

My son actually really loved this Mater for whatever reason and when I showed him he just carried it around the whole store so it was how we ended up with a second version of Mater.    Strangely enough, we went to Walmart before our trip to Target where we were headed to get the Doc Hudson/Sally + Lightning MCQueen toys which you can read about in another review, so it was kind of like Mater was going to bail them out in the same way he did the UFO in that episode this toy is based upon only we didn't actually bring this toy inside, so, sorry.   Seems like a missed opportunity for a video though, no?

Will I be selective with the variations of Mater I buy in the future?  Possibly, but the fact that we could have just as many different Lightning McQueens as we do Maters is intriguing to me.  I know that they do make a version of Mater from "Tokyo Mater", as I've seen everyone in the initial set that Dragon Lightning McQueen came in except for that Mater, so if I do see that tricked out Mater I would buy him.   And the others I mentioned before as well because if they go with the "Tall Tales" which he is the star of then why not?  Sometimes you don't have time for a "Cars" movie but a half hour or so for the shorts is all right.