Kelsey and Meredith Try out Our Generations Retro Cruiser
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Target's Our Generation "In the Driver's Seat Retro Cruiser". |
Our Generation released a new vehicle this year for 18”
dolls called the “Retro Cruiser”.
Actually its’ full name is “In the Driver’s Seat Retro Cruiser”…cute.
The car retails for $90 at Target or on
Target.com, however if you wait and watch you can get it for cheaper (Target
just had a 30% off sale and they do that quite often).
This car is not like American Girl Julie’s
car, it is made of cheaper materials and is smaller, but it is also only a
third of the cost of Julie’s car.
Is the
car worth $90, or should you save up for Julie’s car?
When you first get the car there are a few things you have
to do to it to make it play ready.
There
are instructions that come with the car that go over these steps, but here is a
synopsis.
There is a cord to cut so that
the doors open.
There are two more cords
to cut so that the top canopy can come off (these are at the front, attached to
the windshield).
There are two screws
that have to be loosened to get the top off completely.
This is done by flipping the car on its’
side, finding the arrows that point to the screw holes, and unscrewing the
screws with a Philips screwdriver.
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The red circles show the screw holes. |
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You can see the arrows here. |
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The screws have to be loosened, but don't come out. |
The
screws don’t have to come out of the car, just out of the top.
While the car is flipped on it’s side, find
the switch at the front of the car to turn the car on, instead of it being on
test.
This makes it so that the lights,
radio, and sounds work correctly.
Finally, attach the visors to the windshield.
Now the car is ready to go!
There are a lot of really cool things on this car.
Let’s start up front.
The hood opens to a very plastic engine.
It’s nice that the hood opens, but there
could have been a bit more detail on the engine.
Then again, how many times are you going to
be looking under the hood?
And if you
(and your dolls) are looking under the hood a lot…it means the car is breaking
down a lot, and maybe it’s time for a new car.
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The cars engine is a bit under details (especially compared to the AG car), but it's ok. And it's nice that the hood opens. |
In all seriousness though, the lack of detail
in the engine compartment is not a huge problem.
And having your dolls fix the engine, or
check the oil level every once in awhile is neat.
The doors have little chrome door handles that turn to
unlatch the car door.
These work to a
varying degree.
The driver’s side on
this car works great; turn the handle down and wa-la, the door pulls open.
On the passenger side…not as good.
This door handle is kind of like the one on
your first car in high school.
Pull it
three times, push in on the door, and then pull out as you hold the lock
up.
Okay…not that bad.
The handle does not always disengage the
locking mechanism on the door.
It
instead will go past the point of unlocking the door and make a clicking sound
as it moves down.
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The light pink part holds the door closed. It doesn't always disengage real well to let the door open though. |
You can actually turn
the handle all the way around in a circle, making a clicking noise as you go
around…and never get the door to pop open.
So this one you have to pull the handle down until it shows resistance,
then pull the door outward.
The door
will pop open, but not as well as the driver’s side.
Finally, the rear rumble seat has another turning chrome
handle.
This one does not operate the
same way as the door handles do though.
It can be turned either way to undo the latch.
Unfortunately both ways are just as difficult
to disengage the lock.
Luckily, it is
not as tight as the side doors, so even if the lock is not all the way
disengaged, you can pull and the seat will open.
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The light pink latch on the rumble seat is difficult to get to disengage, but even without it fully disengaged, you can still pull the seat down. |
The rumble seat cannot be used for another
doll.
However your favorite pooch would
love to ride back here.
Or your doll’s
groceries or shopping bags.
With no room
in the car for bags…this is the place to put them.
It’s not huge, but it can fit a suitcase.
The roof can be taken off to make the car a
convertible.
Having the roof off is also
the easiest way to get your dolls in the car (more on that later).
The back of the roof slides into a few
notches in back of the seats.
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This is the wear the roof connects to the car. It stays in well, but you won't be able to pick the car up by the roof. |
It then
rests on the windshield.
It kind of
connects, but not really.
You won’t be
able to pick the car up by the roof, but it stays on well enough for playtime.
You don’t have to worry about this car rolling away from
you.
Not only is it heavy, but the wheels
roll very differently than any other car made for 18” dolls.
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The wheels are not attached to an axle, but rather spin around the molded plastic. |
Instead of the wheels being attached to a rod
or wire, the tire moves around a fixed piece of plastic.
This creates friction, which makes it
difficult to push the car.
Not that it
doesn’t move…it just won’t zoom on it’s own.
That’s the outside of the car…now the inside.
There is a lot going on inside!
This car is wide enough to seat two dolls
comfortably in it.
The Our Generation
Jeep is so narrow that the dolls sit on top of each other and cannot put their
arms inside the doors.
Not the case for
the Retro Cruiser.
The dolls fit nicely,
but are difficult to get in without the roof off.
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Kelsey and Meredith fit great inside the Retro Cruiser. No fighting over elbow room. |
If you keep the roof on you must open the
door, slide your doll in with her feet all the way across the car, get her head
inside the door frame, pull her feet over to her side of the foot wells, then
straighten her up.
The first doll isn’t
bad…the second one gets a little more difficult.
The new Journey Girls (Mikaella, Kyla, and
Meredith) with the wider sitting stance have to slouch, because there legs
can’t fit in the little foot wells.
The
older Journey Girls do okay.
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It's much easier to get the girls in and out with the roof off. |
With the
roof off you just slide the dolls feet into the foot wells, sit her up
straight, and she is ready to go.
The
passenger is just as easy!
On the center console there are two drink holders and an
armrest that opens to put a few little things in.
The gearshift moves back and forth, so you
have to teach your dolls how to use a stick shift.
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The center console can hold Kelsey and Meredith's drinks as well as store their cell phone (no distracted driving). It also has a great little stick shift that moves back and forth. |
The glove compartment also opens, but nothing
can really fit in it.
Maybe a folded up
map, but nothing else.
Great that it
opens; dumb that it is so small.
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Let me put something in the glove….oh. Maybe not. |
The dashboard is where all the neat gadgets are.
To turn everything on you have to push the
little silver key in on the ignition.
When you do, the car fires up.
The headlights turn on as well as the taillights and the car makes the
sound of an engine turning over and starting.
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Push the key to start the engine. The car comes to life at that point with working turn signals, a horn, and a working radio!!! |
Once the key is pushed in the rest of the electronics work.
Turn the steering wheel to the left or right
and the corresponding turn signal will turn on, with a “click, click, click”
sound.
Push the horn and it honks.
And the radio works!
The radio has four prerecorded songs that you
can listen to by pushing the button on the left with the music note.
By pushing the right note button it changes
the prerecorded song.
The arrow buttons
in the middle turn the volume up or down.
There are two buttons above these four buttons with arrows pointing to
the left and right.
These buttons
control the FM radio that is built into the car.
By pushing them the radio will scan through
the frequencies to find a radio station.
It’s not an awesome receiver, but it can pick up the stronger radio
stations in the area.
It is a neat
little feature.
It would have been
really neat to have a headphone jack so that an iPod or smart phone could be
plugged in to play music.
But…it’s still
cool.
If the car is left alone for
enough time it will turn off on it’s own or you can push the key in again.
That is the overview of the Retro Cruiser.
Your doll is ready to get her purse, hop in
the car, put on her seatbe….wait no seat belt?!
Bummer, no seat belts!
It would be
nice to have seat belts in the car.
It’s
just another reinforcement to kids about how important it is to wear their
seatbelts…and if dolly wears a seat belt, they may be more likely to also.
That’s not the only thing that could improve
the car.
The design of the car is
strange.
Cute, but kind of a weird
looking car.
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What I think the car should look like. Gives it more space for things to go in the car . |
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Different grille. Both are nice though. |
It looks like it was
designed to be about 3 inches longer, but someone decided that it would cost
too much to make it that way.
So they
crushed it a little to make it the size it is.
The longer design would make it so that the top could be just a little
bit taller, which would make it so that the dolls would be able to look out the
front window better.
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Kelsey and Meredith have to slouch to see out the front window. |
It would be nice if
the wheels worked better.
The last thing
is the fit and feel of the whole car.
The handles should work better than they do.
After testing three different cars, all of
them had at least one door that was difficult to open.
All of them had an issue with the rumble
seat.
One of the cars, the roof did not
come off.
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With the optional sun visors on, Kelsey's vision is completely obstructed. Yikes! But cute! |
All that being said, this is a nice car for the price.
The radio is really cool.
The working lights and turn signals are
awesome.
The drink holders, opening
armrest, and even the little, tiny, itsy-bitsy, glove compartment are all nice
additions to the car.
The dolls fit well
in the car.
And over all, the car is
pretty darn cute.
It’s kind of a cross
between a Mini Cooper and an old Hot Rod.
If you can find it on sale, this car is definitely worth getting.
If you have to pay full price, it is still a
great car.
You can buy three and have
your dolls have races for the cost of the American Girl car.
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Kelsey and Meredith are ready to go on their next adventure in their new Retro Cruiser! |
9 comments:
hopefully there are no speed bumps on their journey
wow, this is an awesome car! I love all the details in everything!
Awsome cool Amazing
Great review! Thank you! This is very useful stuff. Your rendorings are pretty much what I was thinking would be improvements as well!
I just wanted to point out, that its a retro car, so thats why it didn't have a thing to connect your phone to cuz back then they didn't have that. Thats also why its small and it has that back seat, all things that were there or popular at the time.
light head light on the journey girl car is out.How do you fix it ?
How do you fix the head light when it goes out
I would like to know also
I would like to know as well about the headlight. We bought a display car from Target and when we got it home the left headlight didn't work. The gave us 5%off for the scratches but then when the headlight doesn't work I ordered one online and we took the first one back. It was nice and new and all packaged up but when my granddaughter began to play with it after about 15 minutes or more the left headlight wouldn't work. Today I call her dad and she tells me the other one doesn't work now. We have checked the batteries and the other features work so?????
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