LucasFilm and Disney have long had a very symbiotic relationship. It began when Star Tours first hit Disney parks in 1987 and ever since, Disney characters have dressed up as Star Wars characters, Star Wars actors have done events at Disney, Disney sells tons of Star Wars merchandise, you catch the drift. The latest collaboration between the two brands is a little more surprising however.

Star Wars Celebration VI is currently taking place in Orlando, Florida and at The Disney Collectors Panel it was revealed that the characters from Cars would soon be reimagined as Star Wars characters. Mater as Darth Vader. Lightning as Luke Skywalker, and so on. After the jump, check out a bunch of photos of the characters and discuss this financially sound, but creatively crazy idea.

The following information and photos comes from Inside the Magic. Their blog post revealed the following characters will be released as die-cast figures as well as pins. Here are the images.

That’s Lightning McQueen as Luke Skywalker, Mater as Darth Vader, Tractor as a Stormtrooper, Sally as Princess Leia, and Luigi and Guido as C-3PO and R2-D2. A sixth image will be revealed later in the weekend. The availabilty of the toys was only given as “coming soon.”

Both Cars and Star Wars are huge, successful franchises and the idea two combine the two seems like a home run. If I was 10 years old, I’d probably kill someone for these toys. Plus, the matching of characters and actual design is pretty fantastic. They look great.

Step back from the surface though and this is such a blatant, pointless, money grab. Kids and collectors will surely find some enjoyment from this collaboration but, usually, when Disney and Star Wars combined, they stayed relatively separate. (One exceptions being Disney characters sold as Star Wars action figures, but for some reason that worked better for me. It felt like Halloween.) In this case though no one in Star Wars drives a car. No one in Cars flies in space. There’s a huge disconnect there and it feels fake.

Honestly, I see both sides of the argument. Which do you fall on? Do you think this is a cash grab or is it just cool enough to work?