Monday, August 16, 2010

The Magic Key Mansion and the Mysterious Hanging Basket Part 2

In my previous post The Magic Key Mansion and the Mysterious Hanging Basket I wrote about this flower basket from the Bedroom furniture set:


The basket had always confused me because I couldn't find any place to attach it to the Magic Key Mansion bedroom ceiling. However, in the comments section my post, I had two readers who offered their suggestions as to where the basket might go, and I wanted to share those suggestions with you.

My first anonymous reader said this:

I have the Baby Cottage Nursery (it's a 2 story house with little side yard attachments) and there is a hole in the ceiling of the little victorian outcropping upstairs and I'm confident the flower basket was intended for this space, not the Mansion. :)

When I read this, I had to laugh. Of course there is a hole in the ceiling of the Baby's Nursery Cottage, it's where the little mobile goes, but why couldn't you switch it out for something else? I can't believe I never thought of that! And even if you don't want to remove your mobile, you could hang the basket in the turret of the Country Kitchen Cottage. They used the same molds for both townhouses, so there is a hole in the ceiling of that set as well.

Naturally, I had to try it out, and what do you know, the basket fits nicely in the hole and it looks really cute too!



My second anonymous reader had this to say:

I know the hanging basket goes with the Mansion because when I was little I owned the mansion and the hanging basket came with it. I think the basket went on the outside of the house under the roof on the porch. If you look under them there are little spaces to wedge the basket into.

When I read this suggestion, I was very excited. How adorable would the front porch of the mansion look with a basket of flowers hanging from the ceiling? I think we could all agree that the answer is super adorable!

However, after examining both of my Mansions, I was unable to find the little spaces to which the commenter referred. The only slots I could find underneath the porch roof are the slots for attaching the gingerbread trim. Of course, the commenter may have a slightly different Mansion than either of mine. I have noted in several posts that various small things seem to have changed over the brief Precious Places production period, and it certainly is possible that we have just discovered another one.

Also, I wanted to clarify that, according to all of my research, the only furniture the mansion originally came with was the grandfather clock and the piano that is attached to the living room wall. In fact, I have the box for the Magic Key Mansion and it says right on the front "Furniture Sets Sold Separately".


While most people probably did buy the furniture sets to furnish the Mansion rather than the Cottages, it is interesting to note that they were marketed as being for all the PP buildings. To illustrate, here is a picture of the back of the Living Room furniture box:


While I still wish there were a spot to hang the basket in the Mansion bedroom, it is nice to know that there is at least one spot where the basket can easily be hung and look great! And thank you to both of my anonymous commenters for your suggestions!

6 comments:

  1. Some images of the Magic Key Mansion show a hinged cover lifted up over the 3rd floor rooms. Does anyone have a mansion that has this option? In the image there is also something blue hanging on a hook from the ceiling of the bedroom near the ceiling fan. It's not the mystery hanging basket, but maybe that was where it was intended to go. This image also has a blue cellar door instead of white.

    TOT site doesn't list the mystery hanging basket as an item that came with the mansion.

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  2. I have never seen a Mansion with the hinged roof covers for sale on eBay, although there are a whole lot of pictures on boxes and in catalogs that show the covers. I personally think they were part of the prototype that was changed before the set went into production, but that's only a guess on my part.

    In the image you refer to (which you can view in my post "The Magic Key Mansion and the Mysterious Hanging Basket") you can see something that looks like a blue teapot hanging on a white hook in the bedroom. As far as I know the white hook and the blue teapot were never actually parts that came with sets, but you are right that there was somewhere in the bedroom in the prototype Mansion set to hang things. Why didn't they produce it that way? We may never know.

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  3. I just wanted to say, I'm the one who suggested the basket going in the Baby Cottage Nursery - I never had the Country Kitchen Cottage or the mansion, so it had to have come with the Nursery. I can't imagine where else it was supposed to hang, or what else it would have come with!

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  4. Hey Jess,

    Thanks for the comments. The hanging basket is a piece that actually came with the Bedroom Furniture set. (ThisOldToy.com says the basket came with the bedroom set and I have a 'still in the package' bedroom set that came with the basket.) However, as I said in my post, the fact that the basket came with a furniture set doesn't mean that it was only intended for use in the mansion and clearly you're right that the nursery turret works as a great spot for hanging it. Thanks again for the suggestion. I'm glad to finally have somewhere to put my basket!

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  5. I just purchased this from goodwill the thing that is suppose to go where you have the flower pot in the baby cottage is a little mobile with bears on it.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, in the baby cottage, there is a mobile, but the Country Kitchen set used the same molds, but doesn't come with a mobile, so the Country Kitchen is a good place to hang the hanging basket that came with the bedroom furniture set.

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