Fisher Price “Little People” aren’t little anymore
When I was little, I had an impressive collection of Fisher Price Little People, which my brother and I called Peoples. As in, “Wanna play Peoples?” The answer was always yes, even though I was five years older than he was. (I was sort of immature, and he claims that he was wise beyond his years). I had the farm, Daniel had the garage. We had matching houseboats and two entire houses full of furniture. (The houses were kleenex boxes stapled together with contact paper “carpet.”)
So now that Finn is at the age when imaginary play is the key to future intelligence (or so the books say), I thought, “Got to get her some Little People!” Only – gasp! – a google search for Little People showed that Fisher Price destroyed Peoples!
Once upon a time, Little People were little. They expressed just the essence of people: tiny dots for eyes, a helmet of plastic hair, and cylindrical uni-color bodies. Sort of how people would look if architects designed them. The animals – cows, horses, chickens, pigs - were similarly spare. The rest was up to your imagination. But the doors in the barn worked, and the castle had a moat and a drawbridge and a secret room.
The first thing you’ll notice about the new Little People is that they’re not little! Their waistlines have expanded along with the waistlines of the kids who play with them. They wear Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses, carry purses and wear shoes, all pre-molded into their plastic bodies. Their playsets are also rounded and bulging, with cartoony, cutesy colors. The price tags are similarly swollen; $79.99 for the castle! The new versions need batteries; enough said. I’m sure the new Little People playsets are safer than the old versions – although despite being chewed to bits by many children, I never saw any Little People come apart.
Here is the old farmer and the new farmer.
And compare the old airport - The modernist stylings! The hip turquoise color! - to the new version.
So I got on ebay and began a Peoples buying spree! Finn now has the farm, the town, the airport, the park, the marina and the castle. She’s become very attached to one people she calls New-Grandma (a name which distinguishes her from Old-Grandma, the one with the yellow body and white hair in a bun). She plays with the another, a red-haired freckled girl, in the bathtub, and, sticking her finger in the hole on the base announces “She had a poo! I’m changing her nappy.” She washes their hair, then sticks her head into her armpit and says “I love you.” New-Grandma regularly gives rides in her taxicab to the airplane pilot, and all of the peoples like to go head-first down the slide.
I may be overly nostalgic, and I had some good times putting Little People in my own armpits, but if you’re looking for “open play,” where stages are set for any number of adventures and a lot is left to the imagination, those old Fisher Price toys are the best.