What Was Your Favorite Fisher-Price Little People Set?

Without a doubt, the most dominant pre-school toys in the 1960's and 1970's were the original Fisher-Price Little People! Oh those little round people were great! We never cared that they didn't have arms or batteries in them. I spent many afternoons having fun with my play family playsets.

I was fortunate enough to have several sets, but I think my favorite was the Little People Play Family Village #997!

Fisher Price has made many town and village sets over the years for the little people and chunky people but this set was by far the best village that they ever made. It was sold between 1973 and 1977. It came with so many items - 30 in all. There were lots of people, vehicles, furniture, and my absolute favorite - the mail! Every room had a slot in the door were you could help the mailman with his truck deliver the mail to the right places. There were lots of great places for that mail to go too, and most of them are fun places for kids. I'm not sure what my favorite room was.

In one side of the town there was a movie theater, a barber shop, the post office, a rooftop patio for grilling out and a great fire station complete with a movable garage door, hand-crank siren and a nifty under the stairs room (where my fireman lived). The fireman was unique because he was the only person who had arms. That way he could hold onto the ladder of his firetruck when saving people from the 2nd story!

The little people could cross over a little bridge with the stoplight hanging from it to get to the other side of the village. Over there they could go to the dentist, get their car fixed at the garage, go home to the deluxe apartment complete with two roof-top patios (which is great because it never rains in little people village), or visit the police station.

The police station was many people's favorite place because it also had a jail cell with a big door that you could slam shut from above. I always locked up the guy in yellow with a red ball cap and a frown on his face that came with a different set. He must have been a bad guy. Why else would he be frowning?

 

Even in 1974, Fisher-Price was hip with equal rights because the Police Officer was a woman (or a girl) and the the Barber or Dentist was African American. I'm not sure which one he was because they both are wearing white.

Also, check out the classic dog that came with many of the sets. Remember him?

Another item that I forgot to mention was the phone booth with the door that opened and closed. What better way to remember the 70's? How many play sets come with a phone booth today? I used the phone booth with the black dog from another set to play Underdog.

I'm sure you have some memories like that with Fisher-Price Little People. So that leads me to the question in the title of this post. This Village was my favorite Little People play set. What was your favorite Little People set? The Play Family House, Barn or School? The Play Family Castle maybe. Or did you have one of the more rare sets like the Children's Hospital or the Amusement Park? I'd love the hear from you.

If you don't remember the name of your set, or if you are just interested in reading more about the original Fisher-Price Little People, you can find a pretty comprehensive list of sets with some picture examples on ThisOldToy.com. They have more information in one place about Fisher-Price than anywhere else on the net. Check out their list of sets, then come back and comment here about your favorite little people set or memory.

Little People sets are definitely great Toys 2 Remember!

Comments

[kathryn]

so anyway i was skipping down memory lane and your site came up in a search for playskool's familiar places sets (i had the holiday inn). The LP Village was THE BEST. my sister had one too so we could really set up a city :) i had the LP house and school too. i used to play with mine for hours and hours.