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.

The Village Map Variations

This is the Precious Places Village Map:

I have a few of these and I noticed that while most of them look like this on the inside:

I do have one with the exact same pictures, but all the descriptions are in English and French:

 

However, both the English only and the English/French versions have the same map on the back:

I think it is easy to understand why there are two versions of the map, since Precious Places were sold in Europe and Canada as well as in the USA.  

I still have a few questions about the map though, like why isn't there a new/updated map showing the 1990 sets?  All of my maps show only the sets available in 1989.  Does this mean that sets sold in 1990 didn't come with a map?  Or is there a 1990 map out there that I just haven't seen?  Or did sets sold in 1990 just come with an outdated map?

I'm really not sure if there is any way to get answers to these questions, other than, if you do have a map different from either of mine, I would love to know about it!  Leave me a message in the comments section of this post.  Thanks!

A Little Something About the Dining Room

Until recently, this picture of the Dining Room from the Village Map was about all the information I had regarding this elusive Precious Places set:



But I recently acquired scans of several pages from the 1989 Fisher Price Toyfair Catalog and there was just one more bit of information about the set that I never knew:



In addition to the picture showing a slightly different room arrangement, the catalog has text that says the magnetic "Key makes table leaves go up and down!" This was sort of a surprise to me since I'd always figured the key made the cart move.

While not as amazing as finding the actual set (or even part of it!) I thought it was a fun tidbit that I ought to share with all of you collectors out there.

The Sunshine Country Picnic Swing

I know I've written a lot of my recent posts on the subject of the Pretty Penny Wishing Well, and I still have at least one more post on that topic that I intend to write, but for the time being, I'd like to change direction and talk about another of the rare Precious Places sets: The Sunshine Country Picnic.

Specifically, I want to write about something I've been wondering for some time. What colors were the different pieces of the picnic swing? Now according to ThisOldToy.com (TOT) the Sunshine Country Picnic came with a pink swing seat and a three-piece pink swing frame. Also, they say that the set had no variations.

However, I am pretty well convinced that the swing set DID have variations, and here's why:

This is a picture of the swing from my personal collection:



As you can clearly see, the swing has a white seat (not pink). To be fair, my Sunshine Country Picnic was not a new-in-the-box set, so I guess it is theoretically possible the white seat came from somewhere else, but where? The only other PP set that has a swing is the Twirling Melody Gazebo, but it is well documented that the Gazebo's swing seat was always purple. So I think the most likely option in this case is that the swing seat did come (at least sometimes) as a white part.

To be honest, given that the swing always seemed to appear in eBay auctions with a white seat, for a long time I had actually thought that the listing on TOT was mistaken in saying the swing seat ever came in pink. I thought perhaps that instead, the swing frame was pink and the seat was white with no variations, but then I saw this photo on eBay:



Here you can see that this auction contained several Picnic parts, including the base and key, as well as a pink swing seat and part of a white swing frame.

And although I don't put too much stock in the 'official' photos from the Village Map, it is interesting to note that on the map, the picture shows that same pink seat with white frame:



All of this taken together seems to indicate that the Sunshine Country Picnic swing came with either a white or pink seat and either a white or pink frame. You do tend to find the white seat with the pink frame and vice versa, but I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility that some sets could have been sold with an all pink or all white swing set.

Do any of you have the Sunshine Country Picnic set? If so, please tell me about it. Did you get it new in the box, have it as a child or buy it on eBay? What color is the swing seat and frame that came with your set? I think it'd be great if we all work on figuring out these rare sets together!

Pretty Penny Wishing Well Parts Pictures

I have no idea how I could possibly top my last post, so I'm not even going to try. Just know that I do realize this isn't as fabulous as the County Fair Set pictures, but being as I don't have any more information on those, I'll be continuing my series on the Pretty Penny Wishing Well.

The fantastic website ThisOldToy.com (TOT) has great pictures of many Precious Places pieces, but they don't have pictures of the Wishing Well parts, so I thought I should post them here.

This first one is a picture of the entire contents of my new in the box Wishing Well set:



Here is the base:



Here is the arbor (note that it is the same as the one for the Twirling Melody Gazebo):



This is the fence (note that again, it is the same as the fences from the Gazebo set):



Here is the 2 piece well (roof & base) along with the key and litho sheet (two lithos for the well, one for the key):



These are the three small accessories - the bucket, the ladle and watering can:



In addition to these parts there was also a Village Map, a cardboard filler piece, and the figure Michelle (whose picture I posted here) in the box.

Finally, this is a photo of the complete set all put together:



I have to say that while this set is cute, I was just slightly disappointed that the only thing the key does is move Michelle around. Doesn't it seem like there should be more to it than that? Maybe that's why it was only produced for one year.

The Pretty Penny Wishing Well Parts List

At last, the moment you've all been waiting for (or at least, the moment, I've been so excited to write about)... The complete and verified Pretty Penny Wishing Well parts list.

Before I begin however, I need to be sure and let everyone know that the part numbers and most of the descriptive content for this list has been borrowed from the website ThisOldToy.com. The changes I've made to their list based on what I found in my new-in-the-box set are in red. Here it is:

The Pretty Penny Wishing Well Accessories List:

* FPT6741 - Round yellow base with a ring in the center for the wishing well. There is a litho with fish swimming in water inside the wishing well circle. There is a litho walkway around the circle with pink hearts, yellow dots and blue triangles and flowers on a purple background. The base has a little entrance area with a slit on each side for the accessory lattice-simulated arbor. The opposite side of the base has several little holes for the accessory fence.
*FPT? - Pink wishing well base with a hook in the middle for the accessory water bucket and a hook on both sides for the accessory ladle and two pegs on top to attach the roof.
*FPT? - Aqua scalloped wishing well roof. There are two holes on the underside to attach it to the wishing well base. It has a half-circle shaped litho on either side showing a pink heart in the center with flowers to either side on a purple background.
*FPT6614 - White soft plastic lattice-simulated archway that attaches to 2 holes in the FPT6741 base. The archway has pink flowers and green leaves on it.
*FPT6617 - White soft plastic ornamental railings/fence that fits into holes along the side of the base.
*FPT6743 - Pink watering bucket with a hinged (removable) handle.
*FPT6744 - Pink watering bucket handle.
*FPT6745 - Pink ladle with a curved handle that fits on a hook on the side of the well.
*FPT6746 - Purple garden watering can with a handle and a round (not white) pour spout.
*FPT6748 - Precious places figure - Female (Michelle) wearing a pink dress with yellow trim along the bottom and a yellow flower in the center of her chest. She wears yellow gloves, has blonde hair and has a pink flower in her hair. She is holding a dark pink umbrella (folded up, pointing down across her dress).
*FPT6747 - Aqua key with a magnet on one end and a handle on the other end. The handle is marked "Precious Places" on one side and has a litho showing a pink heart with a circle of flowers on a purple background on the other side.
*Decal sheet with the three lithos to complete the set.
*Map - a 16.5" x 11" fold out "village map" that has full color pictures.


There you go... Now you know just about everything I know about the Pretty Penny Wishing Well. In a future post I will be addressing my remaining questions about the set, as well as posting pictures of the different pieces, so stick around for that! And of course, please let me know if you have any questions about the set that you'd like me to try and answer.

Inside the Pretty Penny Wishing Well Box

Continuing my series of posts about my new in the box Pretty Penny Wishing Well...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got a bit of a surprise when I first took out my never-been-opened Wishing Well set. (Can I just say that it was kind of a thrill to cut the tape on the box flap and know that I was the first person to touch this oh-so-rare set? Silly, I know, but it was fun.) As I pulled out all the little baggies of parts, I noticed in the other end of of the box there was a little u-shaped cardboard piece filling the side. At first I thought it was just to keep the pieces from shifting around too much in the box, but when I pulled out the cardboard, something else fell out too... a village map!

I was surprised to see it because I have two other new in the box smaller sets and neither one of them came with a map. I'd always assumed it was only the buildings that came with a map, which would explain why the maps are more rare than other parts. But now I'm working on a new theory. More about that another time...

My next post, what I personally am most excited to write about, the complete and verified Pretty Penny Wishing Well parts list.

How it Snows in a Perfect World

There is one picture on the Precious Places Village Map that never fails to crack me up:



In all the land of Precious Places it is sunny and warm, except at the Ice Castle Skating Pond. There it never fails to be a perfect 32 degrees, so that Heather can practice her heart-shaped figure eights. But step a few steps beyond the pond, and you'll find Dad at Work mowing the lawn. Now isn't that nice?!