Although he is the ‘Golden Boy’ of the racing circuit and a lean, mean, money-making machine for Disney/Pixar, I’m uncertain as to whether we needed an actual Golden Edition version of Lightning McQueen.

Says the man who bought him anyway:

I’ve got several versions of the Piston Cup Champion: Road Trip McQueen, Precision Series McQueen, Mini RC Racer McQueen, and him painted in Dinoco blue and him covered in bushes, dirt, and who knows what else!

So it’s time to just change his famous catchphrase from ‘Ka-Chow!’ to ‘Ka-Ching!’ and get it over with. If there’s a three-second scene in any of the CARS franchise movies where McQueen has any other look, there is a die cast model of it for sale before the credits are finished!

Now don’t get me wrong, McQueen looks good in gold! But some of the iterations don’t look so good. I’ve passed on some of the more outlandish versions… for now. But I am a Completist, so…

I do like this series of Metal models from Mattel for their high level of detail and finish. A good way to check if a die cast car is of good quality is to check the undercarriage. If the plastic molding faithfully reflects the actual underside of a vehicle, then you have a designer who put some work into it!

This version just showed up at my local Wal-Mart a week or so ago. I haven’t seen any other characters from the Cars franchise produced in the Gold Edition line yet. But could a gleaming Tow Mater be far behind?