WWOG: Pastry Cart - Part II

In yesterday's WWOG blog, we unpacked all the tiny accessories to the Pastry Cart--and now Grace Thomas is ready to show you her cart!

But first, a closer look at the cart itself.

The cart came well packed in styrofoam supports. I was glad that the cart was all one piece and required no assembly.

The cart is big, but its footprint is quite compact! On the front of the cart I've set the clear baguette case which opens and closes. It sits nicely on the shelf. I also hung the menu board and bell.

The cart is composed of both plastic and metal pieces. The countertops of the cart have a faux-marble effect.

The sign above the cart is cute and features a red heart in the simple scroll design. (Count the hearts!)

Count the hearts! The wheel is plastic, but seems sturdy enough.

The Pastry Cart completely filled with all of the accessories!

View from the front.

The baguettes fit perfectly in their case and the tiered stand is quite fun to load up with treats.

There are several scrolls from which shopping bags can be hung.

Grace is ready to take this cart on the road. 

The cart is quite spectacular. On the plus side, this set packs a lot of visual fun and play into a very small footprint. The cart comes preassembled and ready for play. 

(Edited to add!) As mentioned above, the cart itself is made of both plastic and metal pieces. The best I can figure out, the two main shelves and the silver and black scroll work including the red scroll supporting the La Petit Patisserie sign, are all painted metal. The three wheels and the chassis (the parts connecting the wheels to the bottom shelf) are all plastic. The La Patisserie sign is plastic. Also, note the menu board is plastic, but the bell is painted metal. I believe the cart itself is sturdy in spite of the plastic components. I think the most vulnerable pieces would be the two clear plastic pieces--the tiny half-moon shelf on the leading edge of the cart and the baguette case.

On the down side, while all cart components seem sturdy enough for careful fingers, the paper accessories will crush and become worn quickly if used for much more than display. I wish AG would offer a "paper products" kit with more boxes, bags, and paper currency for the cart to supplement or replace the items as they get worn out. 

Overall, the price tag is quite steep for the Pastry Cart set. If you have the patience, perhaps see if the Pastry Cart goes on sale and then grab it quick. I may need to reserve the right to downgrade this item based on how well it holds up to light play, but my initial grade for the Pastry Cart is a very happy A-.

WWOG: Pastry Cart - Part I

Today on The Wonderful! World of Grace I am sharing my photos from the unboxing the Pastry Cart. I had been staring at the box since January 1st, but did not find the time (and sunlight!) to unpack the cart and all of its tiny accessories until today.

Since this Pastry Cart is a bit larger item, it does not come in the colorful purple American Girl packaging, but the cardboard box is sturdy. I do recommend keeping larger AG boxes and the styrofoam packing materials whenever possible. It means that one can properly store larger items when not on display, and should one wish to sell a large item in the future, the original packing materials will not only help for shipping the item to a new owner, but will also help with the selling price as well.

Removing the smaller interior box and opening it, I can see it is stuffed with plastic wrapped goodies.

All of this was waiting to be unwrapped! I love all the "DO NOT EAT" stickers.

Menu board and bell. The bell and the clapper are metallic and the bell really makes a ringing sound.

The black and white stickers are included to personalize the menu board and the teal and red stickers for the pastry boxes.

A sales pouch with two long pockets for money and other paper goods. I have not figured out exactly how the pouch is supposed to attach around the doll as the straps are rather short. I need to investigate this!

Two baguettes in paper wrappers. The paper wrappers are almost not big enough to accommodate the bread (note the taught crinkles near the bottom of the bags).

Tiered stand with faux-glass cover. While this appears extremely plastic, missing the realism mark, I still like its inclusion.

Pastry time! A tall frosted white cake.

Two giant cupcakes with frosting.

Raspberry torte with frosted sugar and a chocolate torte.

Closeup of the chocolate torte--the mint leaves are nice garnish.

Raspberry tart. Looks almost good enough to eat!

This chocolate tart is also well made and the layers look fantastic.

More stuck together macarons.

The Pastry Cart accessories include a large cake box, a macaron box, two torte boxes, and a single cupcake box with bow.

Closeup of the cupcake box.

A silvery paper cake plate that goes with the tall white cake and two red paper doilies which can be used under the cupcakes.

The accessories also include two paper shopping bags--but I wish there was at least four. Also included is a sales booklet, which I thought was a smart idea.

Who doesn't love paper money? Again, five single dollars is too few for conducting business. The pink business cards are also terrific and are printed on slightly glossy paper.

Whew! All that and I haven't even touched the cart itself! (I will cover the cart in my next blog post.) 

My first thoughts are that all the pieces are well made, a good scale, and there is a nice variety of items. The plastic foods and pieces upon initial inspection look delicious and perfect for play.

My one disappointment from the items covered so far is that AG was rather reserved on the number of paper goods included. For the large price tag of the Pastry Cart set, it seems that it would make sense to include 4 - 6 shopping bags plus a larger set of money currency. 

How about the addition of a small metal cash box with denominations of 1s, 5s, 10s, and 20s? Surely Grace Thomas will need more than five single dollars to run her small business. 

The addition of a cash box and more currency would increase the playability of this set and support AG's message with this GOTY of encouraging young girls as entrepreneurs. AG: show us the (paper) money!

(Tomorrow: Grace's Pastry Cart - Part II)