Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle

       

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Made By:
GreenLight Collectibles
Scale:
1/24
MSRP:
US$24.99
Overview:
Packaging (Design):9/10
Packaging (Durability):9/10
Casting (Body):9/10
Casting (Interior):10/10
Casting (Chassis):9/10
Casting (Engine):N/A
Paint (Exterior):8/10
Paint (Interior):10
Paint (Trim/Graphics):10/10
Overall Panel Fit:10/10
Total Score:9.3/10

 
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GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle
GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle packaging GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle hood detail GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle interior GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle door detail GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle chassis GreenLight Collectibles Cheers U.S. Mail Long-Life Postal Delivery Vehicle rear

 
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Background

Cheers opened its doors to the lives, loves and troubles of close-knit friends at a local neighborhood bar in Boston for eleven seasons on NBC. It welcomed millions of fans t oa place where everybody knew their name and were glad they came. It's the place to share good times and endless laughs with best friends.

 

Packaging

Due to the size of the LLV, it is packaged in an oversized version of the Hollywood box. The general layout is basically the same: large window with the title in the lower left, vehicle across the bottom, logos and age restrictions in the same place, etc. The background uses the same vintage art as the Cheers' title sequence, with the end flaps having a straight woodgrain backdrop and a vintage television set showing a scene from the show: Sam and Coach on one flap; Cliff, Diane, and Norm on the other. The back has the title art, "Everyone's favorite bar" across the top, the above blurb, and another TV set with Coach, Sam, Diane, Cliff, Carla, and Norm. The truck is held in place wih their usual folded plastic tray.

 

Casting/Paint

The Grumman Long-Life Vehicle is a fairly simple vehicle, but that doesn't mean that the replica is just a plain box: GreenLight has captured the myriad angles, rivets, and access panels beautifully, right down to the overlapping plates at the base of the windshield. The main body is diecast, with a rigid plastic rear door. The mirrors are a combination of rigid and flexible plastics, though the flexible parts seem solid enough that they won't sag over time. The headlights and glass are clear, the front, forward side, and four of the rear lights are transparent orange, the rear side and remaining rear lights are transparent red. The wipers and bumpers are rigid black plastic. The grille is properly open, so there's a sense of space behind the slats.

The inside is just as nice as the outside, with all of the appropriate fasteners, tie-downs, and an actual transition between the cab and cargo area. The dashboard has excellent detail work, right down to the fully printed gauges and controls. There's even a tiny "Avoid backing up when possible" warning label across the top of the dash. The dashboad and floor are black plastic, and a silver table and gray seat are mounted in their appropriate locations. Even the chassis is nicely done, with detailed frame rails, front and rear suspension, a fuel tank, and engine with exhaust pipe. The wheels are black-painted steelies with vinyl tires.

Paint is generally good. There is a bit of orange peel in the roof and a small chip on the overhang near the right rear corner, but otherwise nothing really wrong. The stripes are nice and clean, even over rivets and around corners. Alignment is equally good, flawlesssly transitioning from the rear pillars to teh recessed door.The numbers and logos are all cleanly printed and flawlessly aligned. In a totally unnecessary but welcome attention to detail, the gaskets around the small lights have all been picked out in black. The CHMSL is painted dark red, and silver is used to detail the door latches and rear step.

 

Features/Accessories

The rear door swings out and slides into the truck along a set of tracks inside the roof. While the function is simplified, it looks correct in both the open and closed positions. Getting it opened the first time can be tricky, as tolerences are so tight that there's no wiggle room.

 

Accuracy

The overall shape and extensive details all look great, and the stripes and markings look spot-on. While Cliff was generally depicted as making his deliveries on foot, he has mentioned driving several times. An LLV even appeared in season 9, sporting the number 0213864 - making this a proper scren replica. Scaling is a good 1/24 all around.

 

Overall

This was an unexpected treat. My first thoughts upon seeing it listed were it being a super generic tie-in, something to simply use an exiisting license. But GreenLight actually did the work to make it better than it needed to be, going so far as to match it to a truck used in the show. It's just great work all around.

 

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