and thanks to a tip off from hunter down in palmy, i went to the warehouse and picked up two new 4pks of dc minis. out of 8 engines, only 2 are repeats. they were in a box on the overhead shelf, so i had to ask one of the staff to get it down for me.
my 5 cases are officially full, with the 3 tootsie minis sitting on top due to no more space. going to have to track down some cheaper ones somewhere.