Help:Vehicle

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A vehicle page is a special type of article devoted to the real-life Mattel re-creation of any given Cars character (or version thereof). These exist in a special namespace and operate rather uniquely from the regular content pages here on the wiki.

Overview

Vehicle pages are part of the larger die-cast project, and are in fact the very basis of its entire infrastructure. They work with the Cargo extension to store template parameters into a site-wide database, which not only can be independently searched, but also accessible by other pages on the wiki as part of their own page output. In short, when you edit a vehicle page, the results immediately effect every type of list page it appears on, including series, castings, etc.

• Philosophy is to be as extensive and useful (optimal time-wise) as possible while staying user-friendly, easy-to-use

Usage

Every vehicle page has two distinct features: The leading infobox to introduce the vehicle itself, and then the Releases section listing every individual issue of that character (documenting an issue-by-issue history of that character's production). Both sections are edited within dedicated templates.

Vehicles are organized by the series they're from. Marketing presentation > raw assortment code

• Motif series (unique defines collection)
• Mainline is considered A-Z cases, note 2011-2012 and 2018-19.
• Loose variants generally separate, carded together. Renewed product code and motif switches (major theme) are counted as separate compared to Neon Racers or Glow Racers label changes, considered same. International packaging is dependent on toy code rule - separate back when it was different, together now that they're the same

Key

• (Definitions here)

To incorporate

• Landing page (List of vehicles)
• Tooltip photos (this does not currently work on lists due to programming limitations)
• Click cell text to go to list/query - cast for all of same, Year/origin/collector number to respective lists.
• Main image, you will always see the basic vehicle (1:55 die-cast) - ones without like Mini Racers and Color Changers should instead use their respective counterpart

Editing

• Form introduction (no VisualEditor)
  • 3 required parameters, there are some additional ones only configurable in source mode (simplicity/situational necessity)
  • Everything else is pre-set i.e. {{series index}} and {{segment index}} (colors, link variables + defaults for assortment, exclusivity)
• Add a vehicle: Special:CreatePage
• Gadgets: Form is default, you can enable/disable either in preferences

Standards etc.

• Extra text should never be placed onto a vehicle page: navigational customs like {{distinguish}} and {{about}} are handled within the infobox (see template documentation)
• Vehicle stats (appearance and colno query Vehicles table instead of Releases)
• |character= should be the base variant i.e. Dinoco Lightning McQueen and Lightning McQueen with Cone should both point back to Lightning McQueen.
• Distinctions, each vehicle has its own page, generally based on name - exceptions typically made for NASCAR etc.
  • Comes down largely to how it impacts the identity of what the model represents
  • Variant considerations
    • Fillmore = no because expression change has remained ever since
    • Posing McQueen = yes because unique one-off model and Mack playset piece, there is official precedent with Road Trip Lightning McQueen etc.
• |sort_name=
  • Sets name for {{poster sort}} (what else?), this becomes the standard MODEL NAME for all releases
  • Can set |sort_name= within a row to change that individual release.
  • |full_name= For collector number list
• Release photo must be accurate to final release
  • Official promos > personal photos
• Key
  • Series is the backbone
  • type definitions plus {{vehicle key}}

Troubleshooting

Here are some common issues you run into, and the process for checking them

• • Releases won't store = Make sure you have {{table end}} at the very bottom
  • Won't sort properly = ensure that the input name matches the RELEASE "sort name", otherwise you need to write the exact page title