< Fisher-Price, Not ! 1

Fisher-Price, Not ! 2 > 

More F-P, Not ! >

INTRODUCTION <new

With the rising cost of oil, you know the cost of shipping is also bound to increase.  But nearly all plastic objects will also increase in price; plastic is made from petroleum.

Therefore, do not think that vintage plastic toys are going to go down in value.  All older good quality plastic toys, especially those that were made in the US, Canada, Europe and Hong Kong (when it was a British colony) are definitely worth purchasing. 

Sure you can get plastic dishes, cars and dollhouses made in China for much less than the older Fisher-Price and other quality companies, but they will not retain any value.  They are unlikely to last. You cannot compare the value of a toy made today with one that was made even 15 - 20 years ago -- never mind those clever Fisher-Price toys from the 1960s and 70s, and even the early 80s. 

Prices for vintage Fisher-Price are relatively low this season (2008) despite the fact that many collectors are just sitting on theirs.  That is, fewer are being offered for sale. I suggest you get them while you can still afford them.  If the price seems a little high to you now,  just wait ! (Prices can only go up.)

How to Play With Fisher-Price Toys:  There are two categories of player, Children and Adults. As we know, a whole different kind of experience takes place when those two categores blend together. 

This guide looks at the 3 basic ways for adults to play with Fisher-Price Original Little People Toys.  It is also an attempt to clarify some misconceptions about identification.

Three Ways to "Play"

1.  Most adults collect with a view to trying to replicate an original presentation or playset.   

a. If you have disposable income, you look for sets that are MIB (mint condition in the original box.)

b. If you enjoy the thrill of the chase, then you go to estate sales, thrift stores and check out eBay and other online auction sites. You consult This Old Toy, one of the most authoritative web sites (despite the numerous typos), as well as the collector guide books by Cassity, and by Fox and Murray.  Perhaps you have an old catalog or a clipping of an ad from an old magazine and you use those as guidelines.  You need to know what the color of the chairs are that go with the year of the 952 house you found.

I would not rely entirely on the information in online auction listings.  It's not that Sellers are deliberately misleading, but not every one has the expertise to say with certainty what the correct color of the farmer should be that goes with a playset marked 1977.  (If it is marked 1977, did you know that does not mean it was actually made in 1977?  The date printed on a paper litho / label / "sticker" only shows the date of the first production year.  That model might have been in production for more than 20 years!

What you think of as a complete set of furniture might not be what the producer envisioned. Did you know that not all 4 little captain's chairs (the dining room or kitchen chairs) are supposed to be the same color?  In some playsets, two are supposed to be one color, such as green, and the other pair are supposed to contrast (eg. yellow.)

Also, it's the oldest chairs that have dots on their backs. And a dot means just that -- not a dot inside a triangle.  Similarly, it's the oldest cars that have Fisher-Price embossed on the wheels, and not the other way around. That is, plain wheels means it's a newer car.  

Sometimes you can tell a lot from the type of color.  For instance, that day-glo translucent red was developed later than the opaque red.  And by the way, coral is a shade of red and it can be either translucent or opaque.

But whether you are a la. or a 1b. kind of collector, you will be constantly on the lookout for the rarest items, such as those yellow life-savers that go with the Houseboat, the correct ladder for the Neighborhood treehouse, that yellow or red chalkboard eraser (depending upon whether it's for the schoolhouse, the desk, or the Sesame Street chalkboard,) or the right color swing (depending upon whether it's for the playground at the New School or the Sesame Street Clubhouse.)

These rarer items used to be really HTF (hard to find) but now they're merely expensive.  A pink dragon might once have been a rare item.  Now they're not exactly a dime-a-dozen, but you can likely find one at $20 a pop.

And once you get that rarity, you will never be satisfied because you will always be on the watch for one that is in better condition than the one you have.   

 2.  This category of collector likes to play imaginatively, suiting his or her own memories and taste. For example, he wants the all-in-one blue bathroom for his early 952 house despite the fact that there never was one in the original house.  Perhaps she would like the Play Family to resemble the one she grew up in.  Her dad never wore green and he was certainly not balding.  At least not when she was a little girl.  Since her own hair was black and she wants to be represented in her 952, she'll be on the look out for the Original Little People girl in yellow with the black hair, even though  it was not produced until much later.  

Also in this category of collector is the person who would prefer to have every single different Sesame figure made by Fisher-Price to be used in and around that innovative 1977-1979 Club House #937, and not just the ones that went with it.  

F-P made four different sets of characters based upon that Children's Television Workshop TV show.   According to This Old Toy, after the Club House set, F-P issued #938, "Play Family Sesame Street" (1975-1978), then #939, "Sesame Street Characters" (1976-1979) and finally #940, "More Sesame Street Characters" (1977-1978.) 

If you want a Miss Piggy, Animal, or another of Jim Henson's Muppets, -- or a more recent one such as the pink fairy, Abbycadabby, you will just have to make your own.  Or else, you can be on the look out for those sometimes amazing OOAK (one-of-a-kind) figures available now and then online.

3. The most adventuresome collector is one who would like to realize a particular fantasy or memory. This person would be reinventing the world of Fisher-Price altogether.  He or she is not above altering the world of Fisher-Price by changing the Little People, their dwellings and surroundings; perhaps even changing the cultural and / or historical context. One could do that by trimming, painting, or adding to the house and its occupants.

And why not? These are not sacred objects.  However, they are relatively HTF and are quickly becoming even scarcer.  Before too long, they will REALLY be rare (a term that is over-used, IMConsideredO.)

Some Ethical Considerations

Preservation

Anyone who collects antiques (artefacts from before 1900 -- it used to be 1870) or just vintage items (before 1963 in the toy market), realizes that they have a certain responsibility.

There is a duty to help preserve examples of these clever, esthetically pleasing F-P objects for the enjoyment and study of future generations.  This is especially true in this, the 21st century when conditions are changing more rapidly than ever before and even the very notion of what the word toy means has changed a lot in only 30 years. This is quite unlike any other period in human history.

Therefore, it's my opinion that a category 3. collector should not intentionally alter items that are in excellent or even, rather good condition.  In other words, if you are going to redecorate a #952 house, use one that already has missing pieces and torn paper.  Don't cut off the red or yellow pot (often known mysteriously as a "pan") that the boy has on his head just to turn it into a different type of headdress.  Wait until you find one with the handle already wrecked.  By the way, putting a pot on one's head used to be the usual way for a boy to simulate the helmet of a knight or soldier.  Nowadays, what with all the video games and so on, it might be surprising to see someone do that.

Conservation

Try to find out how best to care for these delightful wood, paper and metal objects. Shield them from direct sunlight and keep them away from heat and humidity.  Do not use strong solvents, especially chlorine bleach, on them for it reacts with the plastic and can remove the shine. Mineral spirits causes transparent plastic to dull / turn yellow.  Do not leave wooden LP to soak in water, as they will swell and even crack.

Also remember to keep the small items away from unsupervised little children.  Those first Little People not only posed a choking hazard, but they got stuck in all the various body cavities -- just to see if they would fit, I suppose. 

Today there is the additional question as to whether these older plastic items ought even to be handled very much at all, and especially by little  children, who could be tempted to put them into their mouths.  

That's because up until some time in the 1980s the formula for making certain flexible kinds of plastic often made use of heavy metals.  Some of that old vinyl is not very stable and the additives have been known to leach to the surface.  

You probably realize that a similar situation exists with regard to older wooden and metal toys. Old paint used to contain metal compounds that we would never think of using in the home today. Heavier metal toys certainly contain lead.  Did you know pewter is made with lead and tin? The batteries that are essential to many of today's toys also contain heavy metals and in concentrated form, so it's always a good idea to wash your hands after handling any of these objects.

Alteration

What's the better option? I have a P/W (plastic above wood -- plastic head, wooden body) yellow boy in the red cap. The peak or bill of the cap was obviously chewed until it was flattened and paper-thin.  Now it's twice its original length.  Do I offer it for sale as is, or do I cut off the bill as neatly as possible?

In lots of places in the world, boys wear caps without a peak.  It's my choice to go for the second option, but I certainly would state the fact in my listing.

Recently I was struggling with whether to remove the somewhat disgusting-looking traces of foam that remains in the little beds.  If there's enough of it, I tend to leave it so a prospective Buyer can see how the beds were intended to look.

I recently bought some beds just to get a good look at the foam mattresses that were clearly shown to be complete in the photos. 

I was very disappointed to find that the dingbat of a Seller had just tossed them into a zip-lock plastic bag along with a bunch of pointy little chairs, so that by the time they got across the continent to me, they were badly marred.  Not only that, but there were weitd little bits of green stuff that I first mistook for a kind of mold all over the inside of the bag. 

I learned first-hand that the foam sloughs off in very tiny particles that are far too easily inhaled.  With only a trace of the stuff remaining, the beds looked quite repulsive indeed. 

Furthermore, it requires a lot of work to remove all traces of it from the bed's interior surface.  That foam seems to have been sprayed onto a clear tape that has an excellent bonding agent on both its surfaces.  I am not sure I want to spend time trying to remove all traces of it ever again!

Representation

If you have the confidence and skill to replace the ears of an old Snoopy / Lucky / Fido ( the famous Fisher-Price dogs) it's not ethical to present it for sale as if it had never been repaired or altered.  I have come upon a number of old wooden LP (Little People) with cosmetic improvements that were never mentioned in the eBay description. The blue body is a little too shiny and/or the face has a pinkish look, as if it's wearing 1950s Elizabeth Arden makeup.

Sometimes we can see that ink was used to enhance facial features.  But what would be the use of trying to return such an item? How would it be possible to prove, except by expensive testing, whether it was an unscrupulous Seller's doing or not?   I prefer to think that any such enhancement was by a well-intentioned grandparent, whose only motivation was to restore a favorite toy for a child.

When my grand-daughter wanted to play with the two large "baby safe" figures that go with Discovery Cottage, I only had ones with the features worn completely away.  I found that eye pencil is great for temporarily restoring the faces with the added advantage that you can change the expression to fit the game.  The soft crayon pencil stays on for awhile, and can be wiped away easily with no harm to the plastic. 

Whatever Goes Around . . .  

In these days of on-line selling, things can change hands very rapidly. They can also travel very widely.  Items found in a thrift store in Montreal can, in a few days, be put up for sale in New York, then sold and shipped to California.  Next season, someone from East Aurora, NY, might even buy it and so it ends up again where it began. 

An Auction Listing Title is an Advertisement

Just as it's wrong for tv advertisers to deceive prospective customers with false advertising claims, it's just as wrong to deceive readers of online auction listings.  Sure, we can all make a mistake. I certainly do not yet know that much about Fisher-Price toys, but I try my best to present a realistic description of whatever it is that I'm selling.  Especially since, as you may know, I am not that good at taking photographs.

I have noticed that there are basically two very different types of good listings: One has a series of excellent pictures and very little in the way of text; the other kind has few photos, but its strength lies in a very detailed and conscientious description of each item.  It's also informative.  (There is a third, entertaining kind of listing, but it still incorporates any essential information.)

Unfortunately, sometimes the kind with little in the way of detailed description can be severely marred by a misleading heading or title.  The most common example of deception seems due to ignorance of basic facts.  For example, how many Whoops figures do you think could have passed undetected by the quality control people at the East Aurora plant?

The tall red farmer with a white neckerchief that is not in the shape of a triangle is absolutely not a Whoops, nor is a dog with a frilly collar, and certainly neither is a girl in green without freckles.  At the very end of production of the original Fisher-Price plant, don't you think they tried to use up as much of the inventory as possible? If a head was needed to make a baby in a bonnet for the final version of the carded nursery set I would think any old kiddy head would do. Can that sort of  end-of-the-line figure be all that rare?

Anyone dealing in Fisher-Price Little People, vintage or contemporary, has a certain duty to read through the readily available online catalogue of information that is the This Old Toy identification list, at he very least. 

As they said in ancient Rome, caveat emptor (buyer beware,) but sellers should do their part and represent their goods fairly.

The thing is, when an uninformed Seller causes some item to seem rare, then similarly uninformed Buyers can cause the price ("winning bid") to go through the roof.  This dance of deception has the effect of establishing a false value which has consequences down the line for all the rest of us and for quite a long period of time.  That's because the facts will eventually come to light.

For the sake of preserving the honest value of our favorite collectable items, don't you think we should all be more pro-active in tactfully and politely calling attention to a misleading heading?

So let it be known:  There is no astronaut Original LP, no Ninja and no "bizarre solid-colored LP", either.  The guy in the white helmet above a blue body is a motorcyclist.  Those unpainted all-plastic figures are actually "pencil-toppers" -- meant to stick on the eraser of a kid's pencil.  The orange figure with the lower part of his/her face masked is a diver. Some of the green girls do certainly come with freckles.  Not all yellow boys wear caps, and there are some boys who are not yellow who do.  Blonde Moms were sometimes made with purple bodies (due to end-of-production of the queen figures for the famous castle,) as were some yellow-hat clowns.  Also special colours were often used  for the distinctive Little People sets that were released in small display packages.

Firemen do not wear "scarves" -- those are supposed to be their arms and hands so they can grasp a hose.  Those cute little guys that do have arms are likely ones made around the same time by a Hong Kong-based company for their "Li'l Playmates" line. 

And one thing is really for sure:  No wooden woman in blue, with or without glasses but wearing a bonnet, was ever made by Fisher-Price!  (She's the figure from the Hasbro "Playskool" copycat version of the Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe with the red plastic wheels.)  Fisher-Price did, however, make 4 different versions of the white-haired blue Old Woman:  with/without glasses, and with/without a wider-than-usual base.

That's some of what I have learned in my 1-year foray into this mysterious and entertaining land, and I am sure there is a lot more for me yet to discover.

Thanks for getting this far in my little guide, and I hope it has been helpful.