The Sunshine Country Picnic Key Litho

The website thisoldtoy.com (TOT) has a great collection of Precious Places photos, but is missing some pictures of key lithos, one of them being the Sunshine Country Picnic key litho.

Here is what I believe to be the key litho for the Picnic set:



I'm pretty sure it is the right key since it has a basket on the litho and because I don't know of another set to which it might belong.

Anyone want to confirm or dispute this claim? Please let me know!

New in the Box Magic Key Mansion

So was anyone else watching the new in the box Magic Key Mansion that was for sale on eBay this weekend? Final sale price: $250.99! Wow! I knew it would go for quite a bit since I've never actually seen a new in the box Mansion up for auction, but that was even more than I expected. If the winning bidder is out there reading this, I would love to hear from you. Did you find any surprises? Anything the Precious Places collecting community needs to know about? Let me know!

Ashley's Personality Card

Continuing my series of posts on personality cards not found on thisoldtoy.com, I now give you, Ashley the Model.

Front of Card:



Back of Card:



And here is the text:

Ashley the Model
Meet Ashley! Ashley is very pretty. She's been in fashion shows at the local department stores and had her picture taken for the town newspaper. Ashley wears beautiful clothes and always has a bow in her hair - even on gym days! You always know when she's around because of the sweet perfume she wears. Birthday: December 25 Favorite Outfit: The blue velvet skirt and white satin blouse she wore last Christmas.

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?!

Precious Places TV Commercial Video

Thanks to Stephanie for alerting me to this youtube video of an old Precious Places TV commercial. Just seeing it makes me nostalgic, but also glad that my mom never let me get a perm in the 80s! Enjoy!

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!

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!

Wendy's Personality Card

I noticed that on thisoldtoy.com (TOT) they don't have pictures of all of the personality cards for the Precious Places figures, so I thought I'd do a few posts filling in the gaps. First up, Wendy and Her Ice Cream Cart.

Front of Card:



Back of Card:



Just in case you can't read the print in the picture, here's what Wendy's card says:

Wendy and Her Ice Cream Cart Meet Wendy! Wendy is very popular. She sells ice cream in the Precious Places Village. Wendy sells all kinds of delicious ice cream - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, even cookies and cream! The tinkling of the bell on Wendy's cart is the favorite sound in Precious Places on hot summer days. All the kids come running when they hear the bell. Wendy loves to see all the kids smile as they eat their ice cream. Birthday: November 18 Favorite Ice Cream: Double scoop cone of chocolate ice cream with pink sprinkles! Yum! Copyright 1989 FISHER-PRICE

Pretty Penny Wishing Well Key Litho

The Precious Places parts lists on thisoldtoy.com (TOT) don't have a picture of the key litho for the Pretty Penny Wishing Well. Here is what I believe to be the correct key:



The heart motif on the key clearly matches the lithos on the wishing well itself.



I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, but anyone have any objections?

Gazebo Swans

So here is my next question about the thisoldtoy.com (TOT) Precious Places parts lists: How many swans were originally included in the Twirling Melody Gazebo set?

The reason I'm wondering is because on ebay you always see the set being sold with one swan, never two. However, the TOT parts list for the Twirling Melody Gazebo says the set came with two swans.

Has anyone bought a new in the box Twirling Melody Gazebo recently? Did it come with one swan or two? Or maybe you have the original box. Does it say on the box how many swans are included? Please let me know! Thanks!

Poor "Mom at Work"

Does anyone else feel sorry for "Mom at Work"? Not only is she perpetually stuck vacuuming everything in sight, but she doesn't even get to have different colored accessories like every other Precious Places figure. Rollerskating Sara gets a pink wagon and an aqua wagon, Jenny on her Trike gets to decide between riding her white trike and pink trike. But not Mom at Work... nope, she just pushes around the same pink vacuum all day long. Poor Mom at Work.

Furniture Set Key Lithos

Before I get into a discussion of the furniture set key lithos, here's a little background on the sets themselves: of the eight Precious Places furniture sets, four of them were manufactured for the course of the two years the line was in production. These are the Kitchen, Living Room, Bathroom and Baby's Nursery sets. Two sets were manufactured only in 1989: the Dining Room (but see my earlier post) and the Bedroom. The remaining two sets were manufactured only in 1990: the Canopy Bedroom and the Playroom.

I think this background is important for understanding the key litho situation of the furniture sets. You see, thisoldtoy.com (TOT) has each PP set listed with a description of the key litho. For the Kitchen, Living Room and Bedroom is says that the key "has no litho". However, for the Bathroom, Baby's Nursery and Playroom it says "unknown description of litho". I would like to suggest that the Bathroom and the Baby's Nursery sets should also be listed as "has no litho" and here's why...

I believe that for whatever reason only furniture sets that were put into production in 1990 (Canopy Bedroom & Playroom) have key lithos. I agree with TOT that the Canopy Bedroom key looks like this:



and I would like to propose that the following key is the Playroom key, since the balloon motif matches the litho on the Playroom puppet show:



Other than these two keys, I have seen no other lithos that could possibly belong to the Bathroom or Baby's Nursery furniture sets, so unless I am wrong about the balloon key belonging to the Playroom or if there are lithos out there I've never seen, I will continue to assert that the Bathroom and Baby's Nursery (along with the Kitchen, Living Room and Bedroom) never came with lithos for their respective keys.

Have you ever seen any lithos that you don't know what sets to which they belong? Do you have a key with a litho for any of the furniture sets besides the Canopy Bedroom and Playroom? As always, I would love to hear about it so I can complete my Precious Places collection!

Mother and Baby Sets: Pink vs. White

As I have been working on my collection I have become curious about the mother and baby sets in regards to the variation in the color of the baby/babies that came with each set. I personally have two sets with white babies (Ponies and Puppies) and three sets with pink babies (Puppies, Kittens and Bunnies). In addition to these, I have seen on e-bay Mother and Baby Kitten sets that come with white babies. All of this put together seems to verify the thisoldtoy.com (TOT) listings where they state that the Mother and Baby Kittens and the Mother and Baby Puppies can come with either white or pink babies.

I'm wondering two things. One, why didn't the Mother and Bunnies also come with white babies? It seems like if all the other sets came in two colors (pink and white) the bunnies should too. As far as I know though, the bunny babies only come in pink. TOT says they only come in pink and I've never seen them in white.

The second thing I'm wondering is about the Mother and Pony set. The picture on the Mother and Pony box shows a pink baby and TOT says the set can come with a pink or white baby, but I've never actually seen a pink baby in person or for sale in an e-bay auction. Is it possible the picture on the box shows a pink baby, but the set was never actually produced that way? I think it could be.

What do you think? Should the Mother and Bunnies set have come with white babies just like the others? And have you ever actually seen the pink baby pony other than in the picture on the box? Please let me know!

Sidewalk Connector Hearts

On thisoldtoy.com (TOT) it says that the following sets all came with two heart-shaped sidewalk connectors: The Baby's Nursery Cottage, Best Friends Pet Shop, Blue Ribbon Pony Stable, Country Kitchen Cottage, Pink Slippers Ballet Studio, Silver Bells Wedding Chapel and the Twirling Melody Gazebo.

This is what the heart-shaped sidewalk connectors look like:



I am wondering whether these sidewalk connectors were something that may have been included in the sets when they were first produced, but later removed from production. I'm wondering about this for a few reasons:
1) Most e-bay auctions do not have these pieces. Granted they were small parts and would have been easily lost, but it still seems like there ought to be more of them if there actually were two of them in every building set sold.
2) As a child I had the Best Friends Pet Shop and I don't have any sidewalk connectors from that set. Now I can't be absolutely certain that I didn't lose them as a child, but I definitely don't remember them and I have every other part of the two sets that I owned, even the tiny pieces.
3) The most compelling reason I have for doubting that every Precious Places building set sold actually included two sidewalk connectors is that I have asked two e-bay sellers of "New in the Box" sets whether there were heart-shaped sidewalk connectors in the little plastic bags of parts in their auctions. Both sellers said they couldn't see anything like that in the bags of parts.

Anyone out there bought a "New in the Box" Precious Places building recently? Did it come with sidewalk connectors? I'd love to know if you found them in your set.

Magic Key Mansion Door Frame

In a previous post I discussed what I believe to be errors on ThisOldToy.com (TOT) in regards to the Tip Toe Gymnastics Show. In this post, I will be addressing the question I have about the parts list for the Magic Key Mansion.

Before I delve into my question, I must first commend the author(s) of the TOT list. The Magic Key Mansion came with far more pieces than any other PP set and they have done a beautiful job of cataloging the parts.

That said, I question the TOT Magic Key Mansion parts list on whether part number FPT17146 really exists. TOT says the part is a, "Small white 3-sided decorative door frame that snaps onto the inside front door opening on the FPT17129 mansion walls. The back of the door frame has 4 small raised pegs (2 on each side that snap into the 4 tiny holes around the inside front door opening. Measures 1-3/4" wide, 3" tall, 1/4" thick (including pegs)." Another way to put would be, it is a door frame that goes on the inside wall of the kitchen around the front door and fits into the tiny holes pictured here:



I have a couple of reasons to doubt that it exists. First of all, I have personally bought two Magic Key Mansions on ebay and neither one came with this part. Secondly, I have asked at least a dozen ebay sellers of Magic Key Mansions whether their listing came with that part and I have yet to have a seller tell me their Mansion does have it. Thirdly, TOT does not have a picture of the part, so it doesn't seem they've found it anywhere either.

Why, you might ask, if the piece doesn't exist, would TOT have it on its parts list? I think that perhaps someone saw the holes in the kitchen wall and assumed there ought to be a door frame that fits over them. Makes sense, but I think an equally reasonable explaination would be that those holes are merely the back sides of the the holes for the door frame that does go on the outside of the Mansion front door.

So here's where you get to chime in. Do you have a Magic Key Mansion? If so, does it have a white snap on door frame around the inside of the front door? Please let me know. I'm interested to find out if I am right about this or not. Thanks!

The Precious Places Jingle

The other day I was trying to remember the words to the Precious Places TV commercial jingle. It went something like "In Precious Places everything happens when I use my magic key", but I can't remember if that's exactly right and if there was more to it than that. Anyone remember?

The Tip Toe Gymnastic Show Parts List

If you haven't looked at it yet, you should check out thisoldtoy.com. They have all of the Precious Places sets listed by set and by individual parts. The site should be a huge help to any Precious Places collector.

However, I have found what appear to be a few minor errors. In this post I will address two such mistakes. These particular mistakes are in the "Twirling Toes Gymnastics Show" listing on the This Old Toy (TOT) website. I was fortunate enough to acquire a new in the box, never been played with Tip Toe Gymnastic Show on ebay a while ago and when I opened it, I noticed that the set included the three small white trophy cups pictured below.


The TOT website does not have these trophy cups listed on their parts list for the Tip Toe Gymnastic Show, so I thought that as a collector, you might be interested to know what set the cups belong to if you've ever run across them in your collecting.

The other mistake in the listing is the name itself. The TOT website has the set listed as the "Twirling Toes Gymnastics Show" and it states that the sign that comes with the set has a litho that says, "Twirling Toes Gymnastics Show". However, both the original box and the sign that comes with the set actually say "Tip Toe Gymnastic Show".

In future posts, I will be discussing the other possible errors I have found on the TOT PP listings. In the mean time, let me know if you have any questions about the TOT lists. I'd love to know if I've missed any pieces that I should have in my collection.

The Elusive Dining Room

During my several years searching e-bay and the internet I have never run across any parts of the Dining Room set. On the This Old Toy website they say about the Dining Room, "This one-year-only set is so hard to find that we have never seen the set nor any accessories to this set. We are beginning to wonder whether this set was ever mass produced."

How about you? Have you ever seen any of the pieces of the Dining Room furniture set? Do you have any of the pieces? If so please tell me about it so that I know my search is not in vain. Thanks!

How it all started...

I'm starting this blog to discuss all things Precious Places. When I was a child, there was another girl in my neighborhood who had the entire Fisher Price Precious Places collection. I loved going to her house and looking at them all lined up on her bookshelf. Unfortunately, she liked them to stay all neat and orderly and so never really wanted to play with them, which frustrated me to no end.

A few years ago I was going through some of my childhood things at my parent's house and I ran across the Best Friends Pet Shop and the Mother and Baby Ponies (the only two sets I ever personally owned as a child) and I decided to see if I could track down any sets on e-bay. Low and behold, there they were, just waiting for me to begin my own collection.

What about you? Why did you start collecting Precious Places? Did you have all the sets as a child? I'd love to hear from anyone else who has a love for Precious Places.