This could jolly well be the final part of my Lego 2012 Cars 2 reviews, unless I go and open up the final and biggest set of this release, which is the 9486 LEGO Cars Oil Rig Escape. The other 3 Parts to this series of reviews can be found here, here and here.
For this review, I’ll be opening up the 9485 LEGO Cars Ultimate Race Set. This set shows a race in the Cars 2 movie where by Lightning McQueen, Max Schnell and Raoul CaRoule are neck to neck with each other. Also include in this set are 2 plungers that will allow you to launch the cars at high speed and pit them against each other in a race.
This set comes with a tiny bit of stickers. After careful examination, I was very glad that the designs on the cars are still all printed on and these stickers are for the accessories to this set. Comparing with the rest of the sets I’ve review, this set comes with the most number of packages and instruction booklets.
So who are in the set? There are Lightning McQueen in his latest World Grand Prix design, Max Schnell, Raoul CaRoule and his side kick, Pittie. Among them, I only know McQueen. Let’s see who are the rest of the challengers in the race.
Both McQueen and Max had the plungers named after them. Raoul, on the other hand, has his side kick Pittie. For fans of Lightning McQueen, you would have noticed that although he still keeps his Piston Cup logo on his bonnet, he now has a “World Grand Prix” spoiler and new red/black trim rims. The amount of printed details available in the rest of his body works will still “wow” anyone seeing this for the first time.
For the plungers, it works by having a rubber hand at the rear of the movable piece which will help to return the launching device back to the initial state have you hit hard at the top of the plunger to launch and release the car place within the red and white lanes.
So who is Max Schnell? For Pixar Wiki, “Max Schnell started as a humble production sedan from Stuttgart, Germany. An avid amateur racer, Max would practice alone in the back roads of the dense Black Forest—a trek that eventually caught the eye of a racing team owner. Soon Max was on a professional circuit, bearing the #4, and as his horsepower increased, he converted himself to carbon fiber, dropping his weight and getting into prime racing shape. He’s won more races at Motorheimring than any other World Torque Champion League car in history.”
Pretty impressive I would say. His body outfit is mainly grey in color with the Black-Red-Yellow flag of Germany to tell anyone that he is a proud German. There are 2 attachments sticking by the side of Max which I got no idea what they are for or represent. After referencing to the original picture in the Cars 2 movie, I still couldn’t tell what they are for.
Raoul CaRoule is the only one with a pit crew, Pittie, carrying a plate with his name. So who is Raoul? Pixar Wiki says this, “Known as the ‘World’s Greatest Rally Car,’ #6 Raoul ÇaRoule was born in Alsace, France. A restless soul, Raoul joined the famous Cirque du Voiture French circus where he learned Gymkhana – a graceful, drift-filled motorsport that taught him pinpoint timing and an unparalleled ability to navigate tricky courses with ease. He’s the first car to ever win nine consecutive rallies. “
On Raoul’s sides and hood is written GRC, which is an allusion to the WRC, the World Rally Championship. His spoiler is similar to that of Max Schnell except that his is red whereas Max’s is black. If you look carefully enough, you will noticed that Raoul does not have the track tires. Instead he is wearing rally tires which makes him unique from the rest of the racers.
Once again, an interesting set to collect to make yourself one step closer to completing the whole series of Cars in this season of the LEGO Cars releases. One last thing to note, although there has been quite a number of similar Lightning McQueens in the different sets in the last releases, this set is only one in this release that has McQueen. Hence, you should not miss this set for whatever reasons you may have.
