Precious Places Village Tour Stop 4: The Best Friends Pet Shop

Continuing on from the Pink Slippers Ballet Studio, our tour of Precious Places Village now leads us to #5155, the Best Friends Pet Shop (also called the Cuddly Friends Pet Shop according to the English and French version of the PP Village Map).

Here is a picture of the set from my personal collection:

 

I believe my set is complete, other than the fact that I do not have the box or instruction sheet.  

This set has a special place in my heart because it was the only PP building that I owned as as child.  I can't tell you how many countless hours I spent making Cuddly Kitty pace the floor and swinging Perchy Parrot on his perch.  I think my favorite part about this set as an adult is the fish in the fish tank that you can make swim around.  All the cute little extra touches like that are what make Precious Places such wonderful toys!

When it comes to collecting, the Pet Shop is not really a hard set to find on eBay.  However, one thing to watch for if you're considering buying this set is that the litho on the cash register does tend to go missing, so check for that before you commit to a purchase.

What about you?  Did you have the Pet Shop when you were a kid?  What's your favorite thing about it?  As always, I'd love to hear anything you have to say, whether it's a question for me to answer or just an observation about the set.  Please leave your input in the comments section of this post.

Instruction Sheet Spot the Difference

Let's play "spot the difference"!  You remember that fun game they always have in kids magazines where two pictures look the same at first, but when you look closer, you realize they are actually quite different.

Ready?!?!

Here's Picture 1 - The Silver Bells Wedding Chapel instruction sheet:

Here's Picture 2 - Another Silver Bells Wedding Chapel instruction sheet:

Photo courtesy of eBay seller azmusicsales

What's the difference!?!?

Okay, there are actually several, but the one that I'm the most interested in has less to do with the Chapel, and more to do with what's out front.

Here's another hint...

A close-up of the first sheet:

And here is a close up of the second instruction sheet:

Do you see what I see?  There are heart-shaped sidewalk connectors pictured on the first set of instructions, but none on the second set!

What does this mean?  Well, nothing for certain, but I think it's further evidence that I was on the right track in my previous post about sidewalk connectors when I said that I didn't think all shop sets originally came with the little heart-shaped buggers.

My current theory (and yes, it is just a theory) is that the sidewalk connectors were in the sets when they were first produced, but then later removed, since they are completely unnecessary for the sidewalk to stay together (and actually make it harder to move figures around on the sidewalk).  This theory might be helped a little by the fact that the eBay auction that contained the second set of instructions (the one not showing the connectors) also included the box which had a clearance price sticker still stuck to it.  It seems most likely that the toy would have been on clearance in 1990 after Fisher-Price discontinued the line.  But again, this is really just speculation on my part, especially since the auction also included a Village Map showing the 1989 sets. 

So as usual, I have nothing certain to say.  You'd think that Fisher-Price would have made the same toy the same way over a brief two year production period, but clearly, that is not the case.

Precious Places Village Tour Stop 3: The Pink Slippers Ballet Studio

As we move on from the Blue Ribbon Pony Stable in our Precious Places Village Tour, we come to set #5153, The Pink Slippers Ballet Studio.

Here is a picture of the set in my personal collection:

As far as I know, my set is complete.  I even have the box and instruction sheet.  (I'm planning on posting pictures of both in a different post at a later time.)

As a child I'm sure I wanted this set (what little girl doesn't dream about being a ballerina?) but as an adult, I think it's the least interesting of all the shops.  It is certainly cute, but it doesn't come with as many accessories or ways to interact with it as the other shop sets.

The Ballet Studio is probably the most common of the Precious Places shops and easiest to find with all its pieces.  However, I have noticed that the mirror is often scratched, even in sets that are otherwise intact, so that might be something to inquire about when purchasing this set online.

What do you think?  Is the Ballet Studio one of your favorite sets?  Did you have it as a child?  Please feel free to leave any questions, comments or further information about this set in the comments section of my post!

Precious Places Village Tour Stop 2: The Blue Ribbon Pony Stable

Continuing on from the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel in our Precious Places Village Tour, we come to set #5152 The Blue Ribbon Pony Stable.

Here is a picture of the set from my personal collection:

To the best of my knowledge, my set is complete, other than the fact that I don't have the box or instruction sheet.

This is the shop I most wanted as a child because I've always loved horses.  I also thought the dutch door was really cool.  It's a nice little detail that I still happen to think is rather cute.

As far as collecting goes, it seems to be the hardest shop to find with all its pieces, although it does make regular appearances on eBay and with a little patience, it is certainly a findable set.

What about you?  What do you like about the Stable?  Is it your favorite shop set?  Have you been able to find one for your collection?  Please let me know!  Also, leave me any questions you have about the set in the comments section of this post.

Precious Places Village Tour Stop 1: The Silver Bells Wedding Chapel

I recently got to thinking what a shame it is that I don't have more pictures of complete Precious Places sets on this blog.  I mean, it's great to post pictures of rare parts and to talk about the questions that need to be answered, but most PP sets aren't super rare and don't have anything controversial/unknown about them.  However, that doesn't mean the not-rare non-controversial sets deserve any less attention, because lets face it, a lot of them are super cool!

All this has led me to start a series of posts called the Precious Places Village Tour.  It will simply be a photographic catalog of my PP sets that I am posting so that we can all admire these fantastic sets together.

For the sake of having some structure, I am posting these sets in order of their Fisher Price model numbers, which means that the first stop on the Precious Places Village Tour is #5151 The Silver Bells Wedding Chapel.

Here is a picture of my set:

I believe my set is complete, other than the fact that I don't have the box, instructions and village map.  (I do have a few village maps, but not enough for all my buildings to have their own.)

The thing I love about this set is the stained glass windows in the steeple.  They look so elegant when they are all lit up.  In fact, this feature makes the Wedding Chapel my personal favorite of the four shop sets.

The only thing I don't like about the set is that if you look closely at the bride Mary's face, she doesn't actually look very happy, and shouldn't every bride be happy on their wedding day?!

As far as collecting goes, you shouldn't have much trouble finding a complete Wedding Chapel set to add to your collection.  There is a constant stream of them on eBay and if you keep your eye out, you should be able to get a pretty good deal.

How about you?  What do you like about the Chapel?  Is it your favorite shop set?  Is there anything you would change or add to the set if you were designing toys for Fisher Price?  Please leave your answers in the comments section of this post.

More Key Lithos

In my previous post about key lithos I calculated that there are 28 different Precious Places key lithos. The website ThisOldToy.com has pictures of 21 of those lithos. In addition, I have previously posted pictures of the key lithos for these three sets (click on name of set to view images):

The Sunshine Country Picnic
The Pretty Penny Wishing Well
The Playroom

Just to complete the library of litho pictures, here are the last four:

The Best Friends Pet Shop:

The Pink Slippers Ballet Studio:

The Tip Toe Gymnastics Show:

Skateboarding Andy:

These are the 28 key lithos I know about.  Please let me know if you find a different one!

All About Key Lithos

I just received this question from an anonymous reader, and since it was a topic I was planning on writing a post about anyway, I'm answering the question here, rather than in the comments section of another post.

Here's the question:

Do you have any idea how many keys there are in total? I know I don't have them all but I am confused by the number of blank ones. Some of them I have I know are missing lithos but are there some that really are blank?

To answer your first question, there is one key per Precious Places set: 4 shops, 2 cottages, the Gazebo, the Mansion, 8 furniture sets, 6 outdoor scenes, 9 figures, and 4 mother & baby sets. That makes a total of 35 keys.

However, as far as I can tell, the Dining Room set was never sold to the public, so chances are you'll never get that key, which would make the number of available keys 34.

Of the 34 remaining sets, 28 definitely had key lithos. These are the 4 shops, 2 cottages, the Gazebo, the Canopy Bedroom, the Playroom, the 6 outdoor scenes, the 9 figures and the 4 mother and baby sets. (You can find pictures of some of the key lithos on my blog in other posts and more on ThisOldToy.com.)

That means that the sets that are not known to have had lithos are the remaining 5 furniture sets and the Magic Key Mansion. (To read my post discussing the furniture set lithos, please click here.)

Now why the Mansion wouldn't have a key litho is beyond me. It's the crowning jewel of the Precious Places village, was the most expensive set when it was sold in stores and clearly is the set with the biggest 'wow' factor. However, ThisOldToy has no picture of a litho, I've never seen a litho for it on eBay and both of the Mansions I personally own came to me with a plain pink key... thus I am sadly forced to conclude that the Magic Key Mansion's Magic Key didn't have a litho.

That said, I'm always happy to be wrong about things like this and if anyone has seen a key litho out there for the Magic Key Mansion, I would love to know about it. Please leave me a note in the comments section of this post.

So to summarize: as far as I can tell, there were 34 Precious Places sets (each with one key) that were sold to the public. To the best of my knowledge there are 28 different key lithos available, which means that there were 6 sets that came without a litho for the key. Hope this helps!