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!