Christmas Car-nage

As part of my ongoing efforts to indoctrinate my little boy in the joys of LEGO, I ended up getting him Cars Set 8679 Tokyo International Circuit for Christmas. OK, so he's barely four years old, and it's a rather large set with a recommended age of 7 - 12, but he's a huge fan of the Cars movies and I thought he'd enjoy building and playing with the 8 different cars within. Also, it's a set which lends itself to building in short bursts, which given the attention span of the average 4-year old, I felt was a must....

Predictably, it's been fairly slow going; I'm trying my hardest to sit on my hands and let him find all the parts and do all the building himself, only intervening when he asks me for help. I'm naturally quite impatient, so all this watching and guiding doesn't come easy - I'd rather be doing. When you break down the necessary steps that us AFOLs take for granted, however - identifying the parts needed for the next step of the instructions, using colour and shape matching skills to find the necessary parts amongst all the others, completing any sub-assemblies, and then figuring out how the new parts fit onto the existing build - it's actually pretty impressive that a 4-year old is capable of figuring it out at all, so I keep reminding myself of that.

I've previously written here and here about my unexpected enjoyment of the Cars sets, and at an admittedly early stage of the build, Set 8679 hasn't disappointed so far either. I've been particularly impressed with the LEGO rendition of Shu Todoroki, the Japanese entrant for the World Grand Prix as seen in the Cars 2 movie; you can see a picture of him below (click to enlarge).

Shu's dirty tyres are testament to his zoomability; literally microseconds after Shu was completed he was being zoomed around the room by my son, the rest of the set briefly forgotten, while I looked on enviously....

Compromises will generally have to be made when trying to reproduce most things in LEGO form, particularly at such a small scale, but I think the designers have done an excellent job here; you can see Shu in all his Pixar glory in the video clip below.

If you can't play the plug-in above then click here to access the clip via YouTube.

According to various sources on the 'net, the design of Shu Todoroki is based on the Toyota GT-ONE racer (below; pic from www.autowp.ru) which competed in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1998 and 1999.

It's a shame that Shu only appears in Set 8679, which is the biggest and most expensive set in the theme. Given that 2012 will bring at least 8 more Cars sets including standalone versions of Finn McMissile and Francesco Bernoulli which were previously only available as part of larger sets, LEGO had a second chance to release Shu Todoroki as a standalone set in 2012, but I guess he wasn't iconic enough to merit his own set. Unlike Jeff Gorvette, obviously (!)

Set 8679 also includes a version of Lightning McQueen (pic below).

Having previously bought, enjoyed and reviewed Set 8200 Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen, I was looking forward to comparing and contrasting the two versions. I was expecting different paint jobs, different 'facial expressions' and different rims, which you can see below (Set 8679 on the left, Set 8200 on the right).

What I wasn't expecting was differences in the actual design - the two versions have totally different rear ends (click pic to enlarge).

Give me the version with the fixed rear spoiler (8679) every time...

I'm well aware that some of you don't share my enthusiasm for the Cars theme; for those that like it, however, this set is already looking like a winner, just by virtue of the selection of cars it contains. Tomorrow we'll build the rest of the set....

Before signing off, I'd just like to remind everyone that hasn't yet voted for their favourite set of 2011 to do so ASAP - you'll find the poll at the top of the screen on the right, and you only have 3 more days before voting closes.

Last but definitely not least, I'd like to wish all readers a happy and prosperous New Year, and I'll be back with more of the same in 2012.

Cheers !

Ultimate ?

LEGO have played pretty fast and loose with the "Utimate" tag over the years; we've had Star Wars Ultimate Collector series sets, an Ultimate Collectors Edition Batmobile, an Ultimate Accessory Set and even an Ultimate Jewelry Collection (and no, I'm not kidding....) to name just a few. And as of May 2011 we now have some further additions to the "Ultimate" family - three Ultimate Build Cars 2 sets - Lightning McQueen, Mater and Francesco.

I have to admit that I wasn't sure about the Ultimate Build Lightning McQueen set, really from the very first moment I spied the publicity shots. My eyes were immediately drawn to the high windscreen and angular roofline which just looked wrong to me. The proportions overall just didn't look right. Still, I'd already been proven spectacularly wrong with my first impressions of the Cars theme as a whole - I had to eat a whole bowl of humble pie when I got my hands on Set 8200 Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen and Set 8210 Classic Mater and found I loved them. I therefore wondered whether I would be wrong on the Ultimate Build Lightning set as well, so I splashed the cash, and opened the box....

The chunky box contained 2 poly bags of parts, instructions and a sticker sheet; each poly bag also contained at least 1 smaller poly bag filled with smaller parts. The sticker sheet was really something to behold (click pics to enlarge) :

HOW many stickers....?

A total of 22 stickers were crammed onto the backing sheet. Twenty two ! I have to admit that the prospect of having to neatly apply all that lot was not appealing at all. Still, at least a few of the parts were printed, specifically Lightning's 'eyes' and 'mouth'. Also, despite the prodigious number of stickers, none of them were STAMPs - it's looking like LEGO have really got the message about how much we hate stickers which simultaneously cover multiple pieces. Also, the stickers were helpfully numbered so as to avoid confusion during application

The instruction booklet (above) is unremarkable; perhaps smaller and thicker than I would have expected, but certainly clear, colourful and easy to follow. There's a full parts inventory near the back, various advertisements for other Cars 2 sets and the LEGO club, and a ghastly child shouting "WIN!" on the back cover which seems to have something to do with completing an online survery.

Time to start building. Bag one contains the parts for Guido and about half of Lightning McQueen himself. The first task is to construct Guido, who's a member of Lightning's pit crew, and a pleasure it is too. He may only be made up of 28 pieces, but Guido's predominantly Medium Blue and Light Aqua colour scheme is a delight. Light Aqua is a brand new colour, appearing for the first time in the 2011 Cars sets. Very nice, too, and likely to be very rare, so enjoy it while you can. His eyes and mouth are printed - no stickers on Guido, although to be fair he is carrying a flag which is bigger than he is and it does have a huge sticker on it.....

Once Guido is built it's time to embark upon the construction of Lightning himself. The remains of bag 1 form Lightning's chassis, and the contents of bag 2 finish the job. Some interesting parts, including 4 pearl gold rims which partially obscure the white wheel hubs. It would have been lovely to have proper shiny chrome rims, but I wasn't holding my breath and thus wasn't disappointed. You can see the finished build below.

So overall impressions ? Well, I think Lightning looks better 'in the flesh' than in the publicity shots, but reservations about his proportions remain undiminished. I really don't like the roofline which slopes downwards far too steeply for my taste. Also, the front of the roof peeks over the top of the windscreen which just looks plain untidy to me. I suspect it wouldn't be too hard to mod the roof so that it doesn't sit up quite as far, but I haven't attempted to do this yet.

What else ? Well, the stickers are indeed a pain to apply, but you knew I'd say that.... One thing I didn't expect to be doing is complaining about the printed parts, however, but I'm going to have to. My joy at being spared a few extra stickers quickly turned to consternation when I discovered that the printing on the two tiles which form the windscreen and also represent Lightning's eyes doesn't match up very well, as you can probably see in the picture below.

On the plus side, Lightning's solidly built and doesn't fall apart easily, so he's undoubtedly suitable for play - my son certainly thinks so, anyway.... And despite all my complaints, I'm looking at Lightning right now sitting on my desk and I can't help but like him despite his faults; maybe it's just the bright colours or my fondness for the source material that does it, but I certainly don't regret my purchase. And then there's Guido, who for me is probably the highlight of the set - I love the colours, the printed parts, and his cheeky grin.

Cheeky Chappie !

So in summary, Ultimate Build Lightning McQueen is actually a pretty long way from being Ultimate anything very much really.... That having been said, he does have a certain rough charm, and Guido is great. I think the set is expensive at the UK RRP of £25.99, but at the time of writing if you're in the UK then it's heavily discounted at Amazon and you can pick it up 38% off the RRP at £15.99 which is far more reasonable.

Not a must have, then, but not too bad if you can see past the gripes.....

Little and Large

First impressions....

.....are pretty favourable, to be honest. I'm talking about my first brush with sets from the new "Cars" theme.

Given the glut of excellent new sets during the second half of 2011, not least the superb Alien Conquest sets, PotC, Pet Shop and others, I had always intended to pass on the Cars sets. I assumed that they would be dumbed down for a younger audience, and that there'd be an emphasis on play features rather than an interesting building experience and models that would be fun to own and display. So not my cup of tea, basically.

I was forced to re-examine my preconceptions somewhat when the first set images started to appear, however. Yes, it certainly looked like some of the models were going to turn out to be a bit of a "build in your sleep" experience, but there was the promise of at least one new colour and a number of new parts appearing in the sets. Also, and more importantly, the likenesses of many of the prominent "characters" from the Cars movies - Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Luigi, Guido and Sally - looked to have been quite well captured, and the sets in general appeared to possess a vibrancy which was quite appealing to me.

Anyway, the Cars sets have started to appear at retail over the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd dip my toe into the water and order the two cheapest sets - 8200 Lightning McQueen and 8201 Tow Mater - from Amazon. At £4.99 each and free delivery I figured I couldn't go far wrong. The sets arrived barely 48 hours later and I was ready to dive in, with Lightning first in line.

Some of my earlier fears about 'dumbing down' were justified on the basis of some larger custom parts (pic below), but on the plus side, I was impressed that key parts were printed, particularly given that this is such a small, inexpensive set. Compare and contrast with some of the new non-licensed Racers sets (such as this one) which have lots of fiddly stickers and no printed parts despite their identical RRP....

The build was predictably short and sweet - with only 35 pieces I really wasn't expecting anything more - and the final result is surprisingly pleasing. Admittedly this is in part due to the aforementioned custom parts, but even so Lightning looks great from the front and sides. The lovely new red wheels play their part, as do the printed red 2x4 tiles on the sides.

If I have a criticism, it's that the back's a bit messy :

Overall,  have to say I like this set a lot. More than I expected, and if I'm honest, more than I should - I'm somewhat conflicted as the agreeable appearance is partly down to a couple of custom parts which have little to no utility outside the set. Lightning is zoomable (the automotive equivalent of swooshable...), cute, and by recent LEGO standards, surprisingly cheap given that it's a licensed set with so many new and printed parts. A bargain, basically, if you have any interest in the subject material at all. There are quite a few sets at lower price points in this theme, in fact, a welcome development given the licensed nature of the theme, and something which speaks to the intention to target the youngsters with these sets, I guess. On the flipside, completists may wince at the fact that the first wave of sets alone features an amazing 14 sets, or 15 if you include an upcoming promo polybag....

So will I be getting any more of the Cars sets ? Well, in a word, yes - once I've built Tow  Mater I'm looking forward to getting hold of some more of the main characters which are available in the Flo's V8 Cafe and Tokyo Pit Stop sets, and beyond that we'll see.... And even if I hadn't liked the look of these sets much, there's an added complication, namely my young son who is a Cars fanatic and who has already fallen in love with my LEGO Lightning, so I'll find it even harder to resist.....

[Edit.... I just had to come back and add the picture below - enjoy !]