Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Skateboarding Andy Variation

On thisoldtoy.com (TOT) it lists skateboarding Andy as coming with a blue skateboard with a yellow detachable flag and says that the variation to this is a yellow skateboard. However, it doesn't mention that the yellow variation skateboard comes with a blue detachable flag as pictured below:



I'm sure most collectors have figured this out, but I thought I'd throw up a quick post so if there is anyone reading this blog, you will know I haven't forgotten about it. I've just been busy!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Magic Key Mansion and the Mysterious Hanging Basket

As most of you probably know, this is the flower basket from the Precious Places Bedroom furniture set:



The top of the basket has a sort of two pronged plug that looks like it is intended to attach to something. Question is: what is it supposed to hang from?

If you look inside the bedroom of the Magic Key Mansion, there is no obvious place to attach anything to the ceiling. There is the ceiling fan of course, and I tried to see if you can unscrew the fan and put the basket in its place, but the fan didn't come off easily and I didn't want to force it.

My best guess about this (and it is only a guess) is that the basket was intended to attach somewhere in the Mansion's original design, but before the Mansion actually went into production, that attachment point was removed.

It's pretty clear that the Mansion underwent some changes between the prototype and the actual set that was sold to the public. To illustrate, here is the picture of the Mansion off the back of the Living Room furniture set box:



As you can see from the photo, this mansion has several differences from the Magic Key Mansion that was sold in stores, most notably, the covers for the attic rooms and the center support on the base. If those large things were changed, it is possible that something small, like a place to attach a hanging basket, was also removed.

The other thing to consider in this case is that the Bedroom set was only in production for one year, after which time the Canopy Bedroom replaced it. The Canopy Bedroom has no pieces that look as though they ought to hang from the ceiling, and perhaps part of the reason the Bedroom set was replaced by the Canopy Bedroom was because of the hanging basket that doesn't hang from anything.

Just some guesses and speculation on my part. What do you think? Have you ever figured out what to hang the Bedroom flower basket from? Please leave your ideas in the comments section of this post. Thanks!