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!

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!

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.