Lego 8487 Disney's CARS Flo's V8 CAFE Review

[legofan]

Hi people!

I havent been posting for a while but i'm simply over-whelmed by the latest CARS series! I loved it so much, esp this set that particulary caught my eye, the 8487 V8 Flo's Cafe! Without further ado, here is a reivew to show you how much i love CARS!

1. LEGO Set No/Name

Lego 8487 Disney's CARS Flo's V8 Cafe containg 517 pieces

2. Where you got/bought it from

Online.

3. Offical Retail Price

Retail price is $149.90 in Singapore before discounts.

4. No of Minifigs (if any), name them if you know the names

NIL! But there are even better 'figs' than minifigs here; i call them CAR-Ractors! Mainly Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen, Radiator Sprins Tow Mater, Flo, Fillmore, Serge and Sally.

5. List of parts (if possible), especially the interesting or rare parts, please highlight them

Refer below

6. Your "building" experience - which you can do a step by step to show it with photos

Let us begin shall we? I'm just so excited!

Let us take a look at the box:

Front of Box. SO SWEET! The first thing that caught me IMMEDIATELY was Fillmore the minibus! look at those art on it!

Back of box. Showing some more details, and the spring launcher thingy that is so ambiguous in all Racer series sets.

Let's go already!

Yet again another OVER-sized Lego box with the pieces utilising only about 40% of the whole box as a marketing tool...

Pour out all the contents... CRAMPLED instruction book... zzzz...

Lay them out nicely... Basically 4 bags of parts, a instruction booklet and a rather small DSS for the structures. That means, ALL the CARS parts are PRINTED! Now how can you NOT love that?

A shot of the instruction book

Ripping open pack 1 and pouring out the contents... Wait, what are these you see there??

[glow=red,2,300]PRINTED PARTS! HOLY COW! OH MY BUDDHA![/glow] they are just so ssswwweeetttt! Some new parts are also spotted like McQueens and Flo's printed canopy piece, Mater and McQueen front/ rear lights piece, a wedge plate with 2x1 stud space, a 3x2 slope piece etc..

Lets build.... Lightning McQueen!

Base of McQueen

Added the sides...

Almost done. One thing i really have to mention, look at those racer wheels, esp the hubs! Aint they just a beauty? Sweet!

Viola! Lightning McQueen ready to race down the road! Two Orange cones are also included.

Here's a view of McQueens rear. Specially note the beautifully print canopy piece that says: "Lightning McQueen" in small white font!

Now, let's build McQueen's best friend, Tow Mater!

Mater's base..

The Sky/ medium blue 4x2 brick is printed on one side with 'Tow Mater' and 'Radiator Springs'. Simply beautiful details!

MAter's front with his signature one headlamp added...

Towing mechanism that really works! More on that later...

Almost done! Mater uses two types of wheels/ hubs... One thinner in front and the other thicker behind for that tow truck look. Because of this, it is also slightly slanted to the front...

Completed MAter! Very detailed, even to the side mirrors and buck tooth!

A rear shot of Mater. I love that printed tile with hooks and worn off danger paint! The tow really works!

Best of Friends?

The dynamic duo is complete! Now, let's build Flo, owner of the V8 cafe, shall we?

Flo's base. A different building technic...

Front lips added...

Body added. From here, you can actually see Flo is re-modelled after an american cadilac car design! Sleek and long!

Flo uses normal racer white tyres on hubs that suit it's overall light blue colour.. (i love this colour!)

Completed Flo! A stunning beauty!

The rear shot! I love the rear and all the details!

Bag 1 completed with some extra parts.

Let us move on to Bag 2. MY FAVOURITE bag, because it contains Fillmore, the printed minibus, and the prime reason i got this set for!

Pouring out bag 2...

[glow=red,2,300]WHAT? HOLY COW AGAIN! OH MY BUDDHA! [/glow]

Beautiful printed parts! Esp Fillmore's parts! Simply beautiful! Serge even has printed Sergent Rank on his doors! Note also a new 2x4 bracket is formed... And fillmore's beautiful classic wheel hub!

Let's build Fillmore the minibus! My Favourite! Sorry you have to excuse me for my excitement...

Fillmore's base

Fillmore is gonna be TALL...

Fillmore's rear~! Note the nice usage of the 'torchlight' piece as Fillmore's exhaust pipe!

Body of Fillmore filling up... ALL those BEAUTIFUL printed bricks!!

Fillmore's face added...

Almost done... Note Fillmore uses a never-seen-before wheel hub that really resembles a classic VW van wheel hub! Extreme Kudos on that design TLG!

Here's Fillmore! You gonna love him like i do! Let's take a 360 look all around him (or is it a her?)

Left side view... SWEET!

Rear view. SWEET SWEET!

Right side view... SWEET SWEET SWEET!

Front view... SWEET SWEET SWEET SWEET! Love the usage of SNOT technic for Fillmore and the jumper plate for nose!

Wow... That was mind-blowing... Let us carry on with Serge, shall we?

Serge's base. As you can see, it's gonna be alot shorter that the other CARS, maybe because his a jeep?

You gotta love that Sergent Rank PRINTED on his doors! SWEE!

Canopy rear added. Check out that AMERICAN STAR printed tile as his bonnet!

Serge uses normal classic wheels...

Serge is ready for action! FALL IN!

Serge rear view. Note the 'frying pan' piece as the spare tyre so commonly seen on jeeps...

Lastly but not least, let's build McQueen's love, Sally the Sportscar!

Sally's base

Sally uses regular racer wheel hubs in light grey colour...

Completed Sally! Aint she a beauty? No wonder McQueen loves her! Think she was re-modelled after a 'P' brand sportscar... Striking resemblences...

Sally's rear view... Really striking resembles...

Let's take a closer look at that printed rear... Look at that! Even the exhaust pipe and the license plate number is printed in!

Bag 2 completed with only 1 extra part...

Let's get together for a group shot, shall we? 1,2, Cheese!!

The love birds.... Wait up Sally!

Now lets move on to Bag 3 shall we? I'll be short-cutting from here on as there aint much special stuff for the structures, and primilary i think most people buy this set for the Car-Ractors rather than for the structure, right?

Pouring out Bag 3...

Some special pieces to note. A TAN coloured support stand, normally seen in black for monorail and space sets... A new 4x4 yellow plate, but with a 2x2 hole in the middle. Why you ask? More on that later... And new 1x4 slope piece esp good for making classic 4 wide cars...

Here's how the petrol stand looks like...

Here's the roof with the two yellow plates with hole in the middle. Now this is the mystery...

Mystery solved! The 2x2 hole fits beautifully into the 2x2 bricks on the stand, making it easy to remove yet fitting to the structure! Thumbs up for this techinc!

Next we build the wash bay..

Same roof attaching technic used...

Ta-da! Both stands done. I've omitted the stickers, but basically this is a petrol stand and the other is a washing bay... Now for the main Cafe...

Pouring out Bag 4...

Not much special parts here, just that i cant understand why CARS need to drink from cups...And oh yes, if you are wondering what is inside the white cupboard thingy, it is the rubber band used to propel the CARS. Quite common for Racer sets, but rather rare to come in white as they are usually in black...

Here's the base of the CAFE. I like the round corners!

Here's the launcher mechanism...

Fitted into the CAFE...

Now here's something very cute! A BEER/ TEA dispensor thingy! SWEET! Again i dont understand how CARS can drink beer or tea...

Covering the roof...

Almost done here, except for the stickers which should go here:

I've omitted all the stickers, which should make the CAFE prettier..

The competed V8 CAFE! Now you gotta love that sign on the top that says 'V-8' ! Igenious use of parts for the V and the double white life persever for the 8!

Here's a shot of the CAFE with McQueen!

And now, for a test trail of the launcher, i've placed McQueen into the launcher and on the ground...

RAMP the huge disk on the top and....

McQueen flys away! Not too far, but about 1 meter or so... Fillmore should go even lesser as he/ she is (can someone give me some hints on this?) heavier...

Finally, a last parting shot of the good friends in Radiator Springs:

Friends Forever! *Wait, someone's missing... Where's Sherif?

Thanks for reading and hoped you enjoyed this review as much as i had enjoyed making it!

7. Your overall rating based on fun, playable, value for $$$, part, minifigs, etc (on a scale of 0-10 where 10 is SUPER-DUPER-SET!)

Fun 10 - DEFINATELY Fun. You can play talk with all the CARS and start washing them in the washing bay or filling them up with petrol or sending them off using the launcher...

PLAYABLE 10 - DEFINATELY playable. i can foresee kids play talk with all the CARS and start washing them in the washing bay or filling them up with petrol or sending them off using the launcher...

VALUE FOR $$$ 10 for me - I got this at a steal, but for the US price of USD$59.90 i would say it's a good for value set, esp coming as a Licensed Set. But for the SGD price of SGD$149.90, i would say seriously over-priced...

FINAL VERDICT 10/10 ! - It's a MUST-GET set for me! I just loved ALL the CARS, being printed and everything. The details are just mind-blowing down to the smallest font... Cant say much for the structures but the V8 CAFE portion was rather well done and one can have lotsa fun launching the cars around... Plus, this set has 4 (FOUR) EXCLUSIVE Car-Ractors; Fillmore, Serge, Sally and Flo NOT INCLUDED IN ANY OTHER CAR SETS! This makes this set a must get if you wanna collect ALL the Car-Ractors!

8. Your name as the reviewer.

Sammy Oh

[Darth CJ]

Wow great review! I love Filmore as well! This could be another Must Buy for me!!!

[lightningtiger]

Excellent review 'legofan' and I totally agree top of the Cars2 list this one is.....now to buy one without the wife finding out !

These will sell out once kids find out the cars will launch themselves from the cafe.....that is all the Cars2 vehicles....perhaps even city 4 and 6 wides too !

Now I must the old 60's VW van is to die for.....all that printing.....thank goodness for a small DSS !

Keep on burning rubber everyone !

[TheDarkness]

There really isn't much to the set. Had I not scored it cheaper from B&N then I probably wouldn't get it. Still I am a completist, we got all the Toy Story sets, so why should these be any different :p

Thanks for a great review!

Edited May 29, 2011 by TheDarkness

[Stardusty]

Wow, I would really love to get this set. It ahs so amny beautifull pieces (only cars I like in this set is Tow Mater).

Thank you for great review.

[Dunjohn]

Filmore's a dude, dude....

This is probably the most interesting Cars set for me, given that I have no interest in the theme. It just looks very nice as a display and has a fair raft of characters, and as you say they all look fantastic. Alien Conquest is draining my account right now but I may pick this up if I win the lottery. Your review definitely helped shape that impression, nice work!

[Rumble Strike]

Lovely review, very enthusiastic with some good pictures!

I have tos ay out of all the Cars 2 sets, this would be the one to get for me. I know it's based off Cars rather than the second film. To get so many printed and different coloured pieces just makes it so tempting as a parts pack as well as a top-notch representation of the iconic Cars locale.

[WhiteFang]

Oh my gosh! Nice review. Thank you so much for sharing this review with us. It's truly amazing to see this review in clear perspective. I must admit that those delicious printed parts are very tempting indeed. Furthermore, most of the original Disney Cars main characters are in this set too.

[Ceroknight]

Thank you for the review! it's always nice to ready a review alot of pictures!

[prateek]

Great review! I really love those cars. And the new pieces are amazing!

[Mr. McDuck]

The set is really nice, full of new parts and I just love Mater! Best character in the cartoon!

Thanks for a nice review !

[White Cat]

Great review. This will be the first set of Cars 2 theme I love . I love the design of the coffee shop, it feels sporty.

Thanks legofan.

[Ecclesiastes]

Nice set, but although i'm not going to buy it. I love the printed parts!

[Aanchir]

Anyway, great review of this awesome set! It comes with many excellent characters. The only thing I really greatly regret about this set is that two of its characters are packaged separately in almost exactly the same form-- however, this is the ideal set to get for picking up those characters.

Are you sure you have Flo built correctly? It looks as though the 1x2 cheese wedges and the 1x2 flat tiles should be switched to make her "shark fins" look correct.

Let's take a closer look at that printed rear... Look at that! Even the exhaust pipe and the license plate number is printed in!

Oh, come now. You know it's not polite to take photographs of a lady's rear. Shame on you! XD

Just wanted to clarify about the drink machine-- the whole point of it is a joke. The sticker for it reads "Texas Tea", which in this context sounds like a brand of beverage but is actually a slang term for petroleum. Love the design of the cafe itself, even if it's not a very dense or intricate structure.

The 4x4 plates with 2x2 cutouts in the center, by the way, aren't new. I believe they've been around since at least 2009.

Again, loved this review. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

[XimenaPaulina]

Thanks for this review legofan! I'm totally lovin' Filmore in this one, and this is a definite must-buy for anyone whose main intention is to collect the original Cars characters. Now I'm just awaiting for a future set where there's Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Red, and Ramone (and probably Lizzie).

[legofan]

Thank you all for all the kind comments and thanks for reading my amateur review!

Filmore's a dude, dude....

This is probably the most interesting Cars set for me, given that I have no interest in the theme. It just looks very nice as a display and has a fair raft of characters, and as you say they all look fantastic. Alien Conquest is draining my account right now but I may pick this up if I win the lottery. Your review definitely helped shape that impression, nice work!

Thanks Dunjohn! Now i know he's a dude... Cause he did look a little... Good luck on that lottery Bro!

Anyway, great review of this awesome set! It comes with many excellent characters. The only thing I really greatly regret about this set is that two of its characters are packaged separately in almost exactly the same form-- however, this is the ideal set to get for picking up those characters.

Are you sure you have Flo built correctly? It looks as though the 1x2 cheese wedges and the 1x2 flat tiles should be switched to make her "shark fins" look correct.

Oh, come now. You know it's not polite to take photographs of a lady's rear. Shame on you! XD

Just wanted to clarify about the drink machine-- the whole point of it is a joke. The sticker for it reads "Texas Tea", which in this context sounds like a brand of beverage but is actually a slang term for petroleum. Love the design of the cafe itself, even if it's not a very dense or intricate structure.

The 4x4 plates with 2x2 cutouts in the center, by the way, aren't new. I believe they've been around since at least 2009.

Again, loved this review. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

Thanks Aanchir! Your infomation has certainly helped me alot! Yap SHARP eyes on that wrong build on Flo and thanks for that correction! So now i know where the term 'Texas Tea' comes from... I was wondering why CARS need cups to drink... Glad you liked the review!

Thanks for this review legofan! I'm totally lovin' Filmore in this one, and this is a definite must-buy for anyone whose main intention is to collect the original Cars characters. Now I'm just awaiting for a future set where there's Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Red, and Ramone (and probably Lizzie).

Thanks KielDaMan for the Front Page! It's a great honour! Yap, i'm seriously waiting for Doc Hudson and esp. Sheriff!

Thanks again all for the kind comments! I'm SO collecting ALL of the CARS series!

[Arigomi]

Thank you for the wonderful review!

One of the surprising things to me is that Sarge is built with an inverted window instead of inverted slope bricks.

[OzVirtualPaul]

Great Review.... I have *cough cough* ordered this set for *cough cough* my nephew from the US, it should be here this week and I *cough cough* I mean he is looking forward to it...

[Strand]

Huge fan of this set, will definitely be picking it up, even though Cars was probably my least loved Pixar movie.

[Delta 38]

Nice review. Though the characters are great, the building itself doesn't seem enough for the price tag, so I'll skip this set.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Delta 38

[drdavewatford]

Nice review - thanks !

For me the main omission is some discussion of the unusual COLOURS in the set. Can you comment on the light blue colour in Filmore and the green in Sarge ? Both look new to me, maybe appearing for the first time in this theme.

D.

[Raphy]

Wonderful review, but I suggest you watch the movie for the details ;)

[Orson Zedd]

Say, what's the color that Flo and Fillmore are? I'm really digging the color, but they're the only bricks I have in that color.

[Aanchir]

Say, what's the color that Flo and Fillmore are? I'm really digging the color, but they're the only bricks I have in that color.

It's 323 Aqua, a new color for this year. On Bricklink, it's called Light Aqua, and so far it has only appeared in Flo, Fillmore, and Guido from the Cars theme. I imagine that it and some of the other new "pastel" colors may make appearances in the girl-oriented theme debuting in 2012.

[Toa_Of_Justice]

Nice review, legofan. Unfortunately, all of your images look like this...

I would recommend using Brickshelf instead of Photobucket.

-Toa Of Justice