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View Full Version : Where to find Little People? Which ones to buy?



rolypoly27
08-13-2011, 02:11 AM
I'm trying to find some new toys for my 6mo to grow into as she has outgrown her other infant toys. I wanted to get her some Little People to play with seeing how they are so popular. Are there good deals on them anywhere? Or do I have to wait until Christmas to find them. Which ones do you recommend? There are so many... the school bus, airplane, farm, zoo.... Any other toys I can get her that she will grow into at this age?

WatchingThemGrow
08-13-2011, 07:18 AM
We have (and love) all of them: farm, preschool, a-to-z zoo, waterskiing, nativity, families in the neighborhood, market, little farm, bus, airplane, parking garage, etc. We got the FP laugh and learn home at that age, and it was a huge hit for several years.

lizzywednesday
08-13-2011, 07:51 AM
We have the a-to-z zoo; my mom ordered it directly from Fisher Price because it ended up costing less than the list on Amazon from the affiliate.

We also have a princess castle and minivan that she got from BIL & his family, but DD isn't interested in either one right now - she throws the blocks for the castle all over the place and won't even push the minivan around.

And she got a mini wedding playset from a cousin-in-law at her birthday, but she mostly throws that around, too.

She's more interested in her stacking rings and activity box, quite frankly.

azazela
08-13-2011, 08:04 AM
The farm (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=lpproduct&pid=37354)gets a lot of play at our house. :love-retry: And I second the Laugh and Learn Learning Home (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2341&e=detail&pcat=bulnl&pid=30446) at this age. Great toy!

Canna
08-13-2011, 08:55 AM
I got many of ours at our local Once Upon a Child. In addition to being less expensive, the older sets sometimes have extra pieces with them, both because FP seems to have scaled back the standard pieces in a set over the years, and because people buy little expansion sets which then get packed together at OUAC. If you have a OUAC or similar consignment place near you and check back often you can amass quite a collection!

Ones we like
- The vehicles such as school bus, dump truck, and plane are the ones that my 3 and 6 year-old play with the most right now.
- We also like the farm (particularly bc we have a lot of extra animals), playground set (my 3 y.o. builds playgrounds and puts fences around them.
- We did have the house but now that we have several other houses we sold that one at the preschool garage sale recently. It was okay but not as much of a hit as I thought.
- The castle is cute.
- I loved the Noah's Ark (and saved it) but my kids were never that into it.
- We all love the Thanksgiving Set and Mayflower (which is pretty much the same as the pirate ship but restyled). We only have it out around the holiday.
Oh yeah, forgot the parking garage - bought an older style at a garage sale for $2 and the kids still play with it. It's great.

Seitvonzu
08-13-2011, 10:10 AM
most of what we have are oddments from MIL-- we didn't take EVERYTHING because....well, there was tons and we tried to be selective--
zoo (older version)
zoo train
circus-like train?
ice cream man
school bus
playground

and we took tons of figures-- anyone who would fit with those themes :) she had the house, but we skipped that.

since then we bought the nativity and the airport when they were on deep sale.

i'm always glad we didn't make a huge investment because i feel like my child isn't a huge little people person, but just this morning i came down to check my mail and the airport is spread out on the basement floor ;) she started getting into the stuff pretty early too-- so i could see the longevity of these toys for some kids (it's been over 2 years for her already)

katydid1971
08-13-2011, 12:25 PM
Target, Toys R Us, Walmart etc all carry Little People. My Walmart was marking down some toys last week when I was there, I would look there first. On black Friday there usually is some set marked down at each of these places. I got DD's house then for a good deal. Also Costco usually has a nice set for a good price and their toys are just starting to come in so you might want to watch out there too. I don't think you can go wrong on any of the sets. As your DD gets older she might show more interest in one set or another. My DD is 3 and still plays with hers all the time. DS is 6 and I even catch him playing with them sometime ;)

mskitty
08-14-2011, 12:34 AM
I'm trying to find some new toys for my 6mo to grow into as she has outgrown her other infant toys. I wanted to get her some Little People to play with seeing how they are so popular. Are there good deals on them anywhere? Or do I have to wait until Christmas to find them. Which ones do you recommend? There are so many... the school bus, airplane, farm, zoo.... Any other toys I can get her that she will grow into at this age?

We started with a few of the little cars with removable people from a consignment sale. He loved those and played with them ALL the time. They are small enough to pop in the diaper bag and take with you. Unfortunately, the love didn't translate to the bigger sets.

I do highly recommend the Munchkin Mozart Music Cube. We bought this and it still gets played with nearly every single day. It was highly recommended by several people on BBB.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267590

The laugh and learn house is also excellent. It grows with the kids from about 6 months to about 18 months. It finally fell out of favor at my house just before age 2.

Another recommendation for 6+ months is for stacking cups. We have a regular set and a bath set (with drainage holes). Likewise the classic ring stacking towers are good for about that age.

mskitty

crl
08-14-2011, 02:19 AM
DS was not interested in his Little People until much later than 6 months. More like 3 years? Older than most kids I think, but I do think of them as a toddler/preschooler toy rather than a baby toy. DS still plays with them every day and he is now 8! He builds elaborate settings with unit blocks and the FP little people populate whatever he has built.

DD is 16 months and her only interest in the Little People is to put them in her mouth. The 2 year old from across the street plays with them a bit and probably would like them more if we still had the vehicles (got rid of those in one of our many moves because ds no longer used them).

Catherine

ETA. Toys that kids use for a long time and are good for babies too, IMO, include play silks, soft balls, and stacking cups. Board books too, of course. And a few more months and a small number of unit blocks might get some use.

artvandalay
08-14-2011, 08:15 AM
I second checking out Once Upon a Child for toys like this. We have Little People (the farm and a few smaller sets) but my 14 month old is not interested in them yet. I think my boys were closer to 3 before they showed interest in the farm.

What she likes right now: Fisher Price Busy Ball Popper and Fisher Price - I think it's called my first purse or something... It's a pink felt purse that talks and makes music and has a bunch of cute things inside (like pretend mirror, bracelet, money). She's always going into my purse so she likes this toy!

ETA: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2863490&CAWELAID=142666160

But the Busy Ball Popper is the king of all baby toys at this house, I highly recommend it.

Melaine
08-14-2011, 08:18 AM
I would check craigslist (sorry if this was mentioned, didn't read whole thread). I see them all the time on there and I sold my HUGE LP lot there myself. My kids were never super into them, although I loved them and sometimes regret letting go of the collection.

artvandalay
08-14-2011, 08:36 AM
I would check craigslist (sorry if this was mentioned, didn't read whole thread). I see them all the time on there and I sold my HUGE LP lot there myself. My kids were never super into them, although I loved them and sometimes regret letting go of the collection.

My boys were never really into them that much, either. I never understood why. I thought they were so cute. I would have to play with them to get them to play with it, but they would never play with them on their own.

AnnieW625
08-15-2011, 01:37 AM
DD2 got the Noah's Ark set (http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Noahs-Ark/dp/B000F7M8IA/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1313386200&sr=1-1) for her birthday and she loves to play with it. I am still quite partial to the older ones I had as a child, but so far I like the look of the Noah's Ark ones and might try and find some other ones that look as nice, maybe the Nativity Set.

DD2 loves her Fisher Price Block table (I believe this is no longer made so I'd start looking at yard sales, consignment, or thrift stores) I got for $5 from another mommy friend when DD1 was less than a year old. We have Mega Bloks (http://www.amazon.com/Megabloks-80pc-Mega-Bloks-Wheel/dp/B000M8H8Y6/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1313386573&sr=1-1) in it which seem to be a great size for the less than 2 yr. old set.