In 2012 LEGO released 9 Cars sets across 2 subthemes. The largest Cars set from 2012 was
9486 Oil Rig Escape with a piece count of 422 and a retail price of $49.99. The current estimated value of all these Cars sets from this year is about $1,337.18 which represents a 659% growth.
The LEGO Cars theme was introduced in 2010 for DUPLO and licensed by Disney and contained sets for Cars and Cars 2. In 2011 it was transferred to the LEGO System brand. In 2012 was temporarily discontinued. After the release of Cars 3 the theme was reintroduced in 2017 as a subtheme of Juniors and some of the returning characters' designs had slight changes to comply with the Juniors theme. The sets feature characters and scenes from all 3 of the Disney Pixar's Cars movies.
2012 LEGO Sets
2012 was a very important year for LEGO license themes, namely, the contract with Lucasfilm was renewed to extend Star Wars sets until at least 2022. The LEGO Group also celebrated its 80th anniversary in August of that year. 2012 also marked the year for one of the largest number of new and important themes being released which included The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Super Heroes, Monster Fighters, Friends and LEGO Friends. With the introduction of all these new themes LEGO did discontinue a number of beloved themes in 2012 which included Alien Conquest, Atlantis, Pharaoh's Quest, Kingdoms and Harry Potter which did make a return six-years later, thankfully.