Little People!

DISCLAIMER: I am running out of pictures stored on my hard drive, and I am lacking time and space to photograph other things I've found at Goodwill (or anywhere else for that matter). So one of the side-effects of this situation is that some of the photographs I have taken and not really taken the time to examine closely, are turning out to be complete crap... but I'm forced to use them anyway for now. Don't pretend like you haven't noticed. Some of the pictures I've featured in just the last few posts have been fuzzy as hell, not to mention from weeks ago. There's nothing I can do about it right now, but I have a strong suspicion that I will be going back to older entries and obsessively replacing photos with newly taken, more in-focus pictures. For now though, expect the worst. 

Now on to the actual post! I'm changing up my usual modus operandi a bit, and I am going to showcase an entire collection of something, even if some of the items have not been bought from Goodwill. Some of them were not bought at all in fact. A couple of the items were given to me in fact. 

What are these mysterious items you may ask? Well here's a hint: 

See the collection after the jump. Do it.

Now.

Vintage Fisher Price Little People! After I showed off the sweet little Weeble in my last post, I felt the vintage little-kids-toys itch, and I just had to scratch it. So here are some pictures of the vintage 80's Little People I have in my collection.

Little People Jump-Rope

I honestly couldn't figure out what the heck this thing was supposed to be a first. I knew it had to be something to do with Little People. The one Little People figure in my current collection that I actually owned as a child is this little girl in the blue dress. All the others I now have are new to me. I used to have a very nice collection of these though, and I never understood how much I loved them as a child and missed them later on until I was holding one in my hand, and wishing I had them all back. They were some really great little sets, so fun and detailed, and the little peg-people design was so simple and generic, that it opened up endless possibilities. I paid .99 cents for this jump-rope toy (figures not included, I'll discuss them below).

Race car and driver

This race-car driver was actually a gift from a friend I went to high school with. A group of us were hanging out in the space above her garage, and I stumbled across some old toys. This was in there. I begged her to let me have it, and she did. I think this is truly one of the coolest little kid toys I have ever owned. I tried to be all cool and educational and look up the dates on all of these items (again, I can't just look at them for a date stamp because they are all packed away right now... I'll be so glad when that's done.) but the production runs on some of these are so varied, and they rereleased some of them at various times, that I can't research them accurately. So just know that most of these toys are from anywhere in the early 80's to 1990. I don't believe there are any younger than 1990. 

BBQ

Now, I'm sure I must have had some version of the farm set... but I honestly can't remember. So now I have this vaguely familiar feeling where I wonder if I didn't have this pig and chicken as a child. But I suspect I had them in different colors. I got these for .50 cents apiece at an antique mall in Ellsworth, ME. 

Peoples

Here are all of the other generic people I have gathered together, including the bully, a construction worker, a grandmother, and a fire-fighter with the weird arms used for climbing the fire-ladders. There's little Girl and Little Boy again too. I got these six figures for .99 cents in a Goodwill grab-bag together.

Clown with a car. But not a clown car.

This clown and his co-opted car... I have no idea where they came from now. The clown MIGHT have been a gift along with the Race Car driver, but I can't remember. He might have been a random yard-sale find... but I honestly can't tell you now. I know he's been around at least as long as Race-car driver, but I know I got the car later on, and I can't remember when or where I got that either. I have always imagined him being the arch-nemesis of the Race Car driver, in a sort of Joker vs. Batman kind of endless battle.

Mini Van 

This mini-van is the oldest toy in my Little People collection. I picked it up at the Belfast ME Goodwill. In fact, it was the same trip that included the faux-pile of books that were really drawers (I refuse to call it a jewelry box) and the first grab-bag I featured on here, that included a Sigma 6 Storm Shadow. Now, I do believe there is a date from the 70's on this van, but I will have to wait and verify that after I dig it out again. I got this groovy little mini-van for .99 cents. I am WISHING that I had thought to take a picture of it with a bunch of Little People riding inside!

Farm House

During that same trip to Belfast, I also picked up this farm house. It was a MESS. It was COVERED in crayon. The entire roof was obscured in a solid layer of green and blue crayon, and a few scribbles were on the sides and doors. I didn't have this blog back then, but if I had, I would have taken a before and after picture. My wife initially could not believe I was picking up this wrecked toy and bringing it home, but I felt bad for it, and I wanted to see if I could clean off the crayon. She was mystified at first, but then made the awesome suggestion of using a magic eraser on it. It took every bit of crayon off. I can not over-state just how much crayon there was on this thing either. I can't make you understand the psychotic amount of time and pressure it would take for a full-grown professional wrestler to completely wear a couple of crayons down to nubs and completely cover this roof the way it was. Some kid REALLY wanted to color this barn. I REALLY wanted it clean. So here it is. I am so happy with the way it turned out... and the door still moos when you open it too! This is a reproduction from the early eighties of the original playset from the sixties. I paid .99 cents for it in the condition it was in. I feel I got a pretty good deal, all said and done.

Fun fact: Fisher Price was bought by Quaker Oats in 1969. I found it funny that the silo from the Farmhouse was vaguely reminiscent of a Quaker oats can. I actually saw one of those silos in Goodwill before I started actively collecting Little People as an adult. I'm kicking myself for not buying it now. Also kicking myself for not picking up: The vintage Little People Floating Marina... aargh!!! and the Play Family Village... AAAARRRGGHHH!!! Those sting. And I saw them both at Goodwill, so I could have picked them up for a couple of dollars apiece.

Anyway. I'll be back soon with some more Goodwill Goodies. Until then, Happy Hunting!