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.