9079 Baby Shop and 9080 Cupcake Café

[Raven]

I intended to buy one of these shops later in the year, but then my self-controlled failed....

And then I couldn't decide whether to purchase the Baby Shop, or the Cupcake Café - so I bought both of them!

9079 Baby Shop

My first thought on opening this was 'Aaargh!  Look at all those stickers!'



Once in place, however, they are very cheerful.



I was longing to see what the back of these shops looked like.  And, though it's not wonderful, it's not too bad:



There are a lot of baby supplies to fit on the shelves.



I imagine that a child would love to have so many things to arrange.  And I'm happy with it all too.



I especially like the new bicycle.  It won't stand up on its own, but balances perfectly with a child sitting astride it.



9080 Cupcake Café

The Cupcake Café doesn't have so many stickers.



There are stickers for the table tops, the bags, and the cake display counter - but I didn't want those ones affixed, because it would limit the use of those items.  So, just these ones:



I like the little stacks of menus/price lists.



And I laughed when I saw what they were.  This is the other side of them:



Envelopes!

It's a nice shop.  Here it is with one item missing:



This is the missing item.



It was missing, because I couldn't think where to put it.

It doesn't fit here:



And it looks silly here:



And no better here:



The new cupcakes are very nice - though for a Cupcake Café, I think there should be more than three of them!  The white ice cream has chocolate sprinkles on, which looks good.  Four of my donuts, though, have the icing on the 'numbers' side (1/3, 2/3, and so on).



I hoped that these sets would be good to use as display or serving areas in a (big!) department store and, yes, I think they will be great for that.  But I actually (and surprisingly) also like them as 'stand-alone' shops, and am going to consider getting the 9078 Large Shop/Department Store too.   

[tahra]

Thanks for the detailed pics!

You are right about the bike - it's gorgeous!

MUST have the orange duckies!!

The color of the "cafe" really puts me off. But cupcakes are needed!

[bonniebeth]

I'm not a fan of the modular/cheap buildings, but so many great accessories! Thanks for the detailed review.

[Tiermann]

I also am not a huge fan of the simple walls like used here, but it is a trend in this sort of toy being used by a number of other toy companies. The big advantage to it I think is that it is less expensive than system x shop walls would be, allowing them to include more accessories for a lower price point. I think that really is the way to go these days. Building sets get way up there in price and I for one would prefer fewer but generic buildings once in a while and more sets like these with plenty of accessories. Unfortunately here in the US they seem to be big on the carry case, so instead of walls like these you get a case to carry it in and fewer accessories because they have spent so much on the plastic for the case.

Thanks for the great photos on these. I will be wanting the cup cake shop for the accessories eventually.

[Raven]

I've just thought of something.  What if someone wanted to buy a dish of ice-cream from the Cupcake Café? 



And then what?  Is he supposed to lean forwards and lick it?  There are no spoons in this set.

I've got lots of ice-cream spoons, so this doesn't matter to me.  But it could be annoying to a child, I think.

[Oliver]

I'm not the biggest fan of the walls, but I can see that they do add to the play-ability factor without putting up the production cost too much. I'd be happy for them to do sets without buildings - like the original 'System X' cafe and bike shop, and some of the early shop sets - and then offer the buildings through Direct Service. For a long time lots of sets had no available building - the school and hospital sets, for example, so I don't think it's a big problem.

[leefert]

This confirms the fact that I want these sets!

[skypurr]

Thank you for a great review Raven - something else to add to my list of wants now 

[Birdie]

Incredibly cute, both of them    I like the look of the walls and stickers as well.
I'm so far behind on my browsing that I actually didn't realize (or forgot) these sets existed. Thanks so much for the review Raven!

I would be quite irritated with the slushy (orange juice?) machine without an actual place to put it, if I were a kid.

And I just realized that for all my complaining about system X and system WHY?!, I got something way worse in return: no building at all.

Never thought I'd say this but: Bring back System WHY?! 

[Mr Raven]

These sets will look great when put in a custom building i think, as in a department store.