Most Wanted List Revisited

Last December I published my Precious Places Most Wanted List that detailed the five sets that are rare to the point that I thought they might be non-existent.  Since I wrote that post, I've gotten more information, so I thought it was time to revisit the list.

5) The Pretty Penny Wishing Well - Aqua Well with Pink Roof

 

Current Status: More rare than pink well with aqua roof, but definitely findable
Since writing my first list, two or three aqua wells with pink roofs have turned up on eBay including one that had a pink watering can.  (I still have yet to see a purple ladle though.)

4) Wendy and Her Ice Cream Cart with Aqua Wheels

Photo courtesy of eBay seller kcaparso22

Current Status: The picture says it all, this set is out there!  
Unfortunately my eBay app failed to remind me to bid at the end of this auction, so I missed the chance to actually own this set.  Grrrr..... But it is nice to know that it does indeed exist.

3) The Mother and Baby Pony in Pink 

 

Current Status: Still unsighted.  No further information available.

2) The Dining Room

Current Status: Still unsighted, but...

I've had one particular commenter give me good reason to hope that this set may yet turn up.

Anonymous commenter on 7-7-11 said:

"... about the dinning room set. i remeber my dad taking me to zellers in canada. i had the choice of the dinning room set or the purple bedroom set. i chose the bedroom! however knowing what i know now i woulda chose the dinning set lol!"

This is the first information I've gotten from anyone who remembers seeing the set in a store.  It's a promising sign, don't you think?

1) All the County Fair Sets

Current Status: Still unsighted by me, but...
Had a recent conversation with another collector who told me that about twelve years ago there was a Ferris Wheel prototype set for sale on eBay.  She didn't remember much about it except that it was definitely listed as a prototype (the seller said she got it from a friend who worked for Fisher Price) and that it sold for hundreds of dollars (no surprise there).

I also got information from an anonymous commenter on 8-4-11:
"I got news for those of you interested- I have spent the last hour on the phone with fisher-price and they said the county fair sets WERE sold to the public!! Only for a limited time and they are not sure how many but they ARE out there!! Also none of the precious places sets had more than 26,000 made and there are 4 sets that I have not found on any lists but that fisher price told me exist and were sold but in a smaller amount. They are number 5192 combo scene, 5179 special furniture, 5210 special kit and 6563 sign- that was all the info they had and they said they were promotional items. Also the dining room was also mass produced so those of you looking don't give up!!"

All this gives me just a glimmer of hope that whether prototype or mass-produced set, I may yet find one or (can I dare to dream) two of the County Fair sets to call my own.

(PS. If the winning bidder of the Ferris Wheel prototype set is out there, please contact me!  I'd love to know more about it.  You can reach me here: PreciousPlacesCollector@gmail.com)

The Pretty Penny Wishing Well in Aqua

Turns out it does exist...

This set turned up on eBay recently:

Click Here to visit this eBay auction

I'd just love to add this aqua well with a pink roof to my collection, unfortunately $250 is more than I can afford.

Maybe Santa will be in a really generous mood this Christmas.

I doubt it, but we'll see...

Precious Places Most Wanted List

Here is my top 5 list of Precious Places sets I still need for my collection:

5) The Pretty Penny Wishing Well - Aqua Well with Pink Roof

Okay, so I know it's rather greedy of me, but even though I have a complete Wishing Well set (pink wishing well with aqua roof), I still want the variation with the aqua well and pink roof.  I haven't seen it on eBay recently, but I think I saw it once a long time ago, maybe...  Hopefully it will come up again soon so I can be sure it does truly exist.

4) Wendy and Her Ice Cream Cart with Aqua Wheels

In my attempt to get every Precious Places piece in every color, one particular figure has been the most difficult to find, and that is Wendy and her Ice Cream Cart with aqua wheels.  The particular cart I'm looking for is featured prominently on Wendy's personality card, but does it ever appear on eBay?  No, it does not.  Why not?  This may be one of the great mysteries of the universe.  Hmmmm...

3) The Mother and Baby Pony in Pink 

I've got a complete Mother and Baby Pony set with a white baby pony, but I cannot for the life of me seem to locate the pink baby pony.  She's on the front of the Mother and Baby Pony box and ThisOldToy lists her as a variation, but I haven't seen her.  Have you?

2) The Dining Room 

I agree with ThisOldToy where they say this set is so rare that they've never seen any of the parts to the set.  Where oh where art thou, my elusive Dining Room furniture set?

1) All the County Fair Sets

Now I know these were never put into mass production, but there must have been at least one prototype made of each set since they took pictures of them.  What research I've done indicates that there were probably several prototypes at some point.  Where are the prototypes now and how can I get one?  I haven't been able to make much progress in getting answers to those questions.

If you have any of these sets, please contact me.  I would be more than happy to buy them from you.  And even if you don't want to sell them, please still contact me so that I at least know they exist!!!

The Sunshine Country Picnic Parts Pictures

One of the more rare Precious Places sets is the Sunshine Country Picnic.  Since the website ThisOldToy.com doesn't have pictures of the individual parts I thought I would post them here for everyone.

Here is the base:

Here are a couple shots of the basket and lid:

I've previously posted pictures of these other Sunshine Country Picnic parts (click on the name of the part to view images)

Figure: Jennifer
Swing Set
Key (with Basket Litho)

The Picnic also included a set of pink dishes and a pink pie (the same dishes and pie that came with several other sets).

Finally, here is a picture of the whole set all together:

I do still have a few questions about the set, but I think I'll save those for another post, so in the mean time, enjoy the beauty of this springtime scene, even if the view out your window is a bit more dreary!

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!

Pretty Penny Wishing Well Accessory Variations

As promised, I have one more post to write about the Pretty Penny Wishing Well and here it is! On ThisOldToy.com they say that the Wishing Well came with a pink bucket, pink ladle and a purple watering can, with no color variations. And those are indeed the colors of the accessories that came with my new-in-the-box set.

However, I recently noticed this picture on an eBay listing:



Notice there is a purple bucket and a pink watering can in the center of the photo. Since there aren't any other sets that come with a watering can, I think it's pretty safe to assume that these parts were from a Wishing Well set. Thus leading to the conclusion that sometimes the Well came with a purple bucket and pink watering can.

Now, there wasn't a ladle in this auction as far as I could tell from the pictures, but I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to guess that the ladle may also have come in purple as well. I'll have to keep an eye out for one to be sure though.

Alright! I don't think I have anything else to write about the Pretty Penny Wishing Well, so if you have any questions about the set (or if you spot a purple ladle somewhere), please let me know, or I may never write about it again!

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.

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!

Meet Michelle

I thought I should post pictures of Michelle, our lovely figure from the Pretty Penny Wishing Well set, since it is hard to find good images of her out on the world wide web.

So without further ado, here she is:


In true mug shot fashion (sorry Michelle!) here are her left and right sides:

And finally, here is Michelle from behind:

As most of you probably know, Michelle was made from the same mold as Brittany from the Twirling Melody Gazebo. Just for fun I took a picture of the two of them side by side so you can compare.


Don't they look nice together?

The Wishing Well Watering Can

Continuing my series on the Pretty Penny Wishing Well, I wanted to highlight one particular hard-to-find piece: the watering can

In particular I wanted to address the listing on ThisOldToy.com (TOT) where it states that the watering can is a "purple garden watering [pitcher] with a handle and a round white pour spout". As you can see in the above picture, it is indeed a purple watering pitcher with a handle and a round pour spout, but the spout isn't white.

I think the misunderstanding comes from the pictures on the Wishing Well box. In the picture on the box front, it does appear at first glance that the watering can has a white spout:


However, if you look closely, you realize that the white color is merely a result of the light coming from the left of the picture which then reflects off of the flat spout.

In case you still are unconvinced, check out the picture on the back of the box:


Here you can see that the watering can does indeed have a purple spout.

Well, that's all for now, but stay tuned, because I have a few other Wishing Well posts yet to write, plus lots more on other Precious Places sets!

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.

The Pretty Penny Wishing Well Box

Hello everyone, I'm baaaaaaack! I'm sure anyone who ever checks this blog thinks I forgot about it a long time ago, but that is not the case. I have a whole bunch of things that I've been meaning to write about, but first I had to take pictures of some of my PP sets and that's what the hold up was. But now I've taken the pictures and we're ready to go.

On to my post for the day...

Back before the new year began (yes, that was a while ago) I was fortunate enough to acquire a new in the box Pretty Penny Wishing Well. I was particularly anxious to get this set since it is one of the most rare PP sets, so rare in fact that the listing for it on the very thorough website ThisOldToy.com is labeled as "Missing Information or Given Details Have Not Been Confirmed". Well, folks, I'm here to fill in the information and confirm all the details.

In this first post, I'll just be covering information on the box. Here is a pic of the box front:



The front of the box says "Fisher-Price", "Pretty Penny Wishing Well", "Ages 5 and up" and "This package contains small parts which are not intended for children under 3 years."

Here is the top flap of the box:



It says "Precious Places Pretty Penny Wishing Well", "Bring Michelle and the Wishing Well to life with your Precious Key." Notice also that it is labeled as 5186 (its set number) as well as 5185 ASST. which means it was part of the Outdoor Scene Assortment. The price tag on my box indicates that it was originally priced at $6.99, although I suppose the price may have varied some between stores/regions of the country. You can't tell this from the picture, but on the top of the box it says "Welcome to Precious Places, a special collectible village where you control the fun with your own Precious Key."

Here is the bottom of the box:



It says "Proof of Purchase 5186 Pretty Penny Wishing Well", "1988 Fisher-Price, Division of The Quaker Oats Company, East Aurora, NY 14052. Figure made in China. All other components made in Macao. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Package printed in Hong Kong." and finally "Fisher-Price products are made to the company's traditionally high standards of quality, comply to all applicable government safety regulations and conform to the Safety Requirements of ASTM F963."

Sorry, I know that wasn't very interesting. The back of the box is a tad more exciting:



It says "Fisher Price 5186 5185 ASST.", "Precious Places" and then "Welcome to Precious Places, a special collectible village where you control the fun with your own Precious Key. Use your Precious Key to walk Michelle to the Pretty Penny Wishing Well. Can you help her make a wish? Includes Precious Key, Michelle, wishing well scene, arbor, watering can, bucket and ladle."

The labels on the photos say (from top to bottom): "Precious Key moves Michelle around the wishing well." "Includes watering can, bucket and ladle." and "Precious Places Village - Collect all the Precious Places and create your own special village."

The sides of the box don't have any text or photos on them.

Okay, so I know this isn't the most thrilling post of all time, but since the Pretty Penny Wishing Well is such a rare set, I wanted to give all of you collectors out there very complete information. In the next few weeks I'll be writing several Pretty Penny Wishing Well posts in which I will cover what was inside the box (including a little surprise I found) as well as the mistake in the ThisOldToy.com parts list for the set (yes, there is one). Stay tuned for more!

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!

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?!

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?

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.