Toy OTD: Fisher-Price Racing Rowboat #730 (1952)

Fisher-Price toys moved into the fifties with a shift from an illustrative look toward a bolder, more graphic approach. While the labeling became simpler, the overall forms involved in a toy's composition became somewhat more complex. The emergence of plastic as a material led to more complicated individual parts as well.

I think Racing Rowboat is another of the transitional toys - the boat artwork is still rather representational, and there's only a few plastic parts. On the other hand, the face is much more stylized than earlier pieces, and the movement - the sailor rows and the boat itself bobs - is much more complicated than a typical pull toy. It's very appealing and takes advantage of contemporary materials and techniques without going, well, overboard. It appears, too, that you could make a variant easily (a fisherman, say) with a simple change of colors and labels. This type of design versatility is clever, and was used from time to time to create additional items for the line.

Packaging for Fisher-Price was still very simple at this point. I wasn't able to find a photo of a Racing Rowboat box, but I gather that most F-P toys were packed in cartons decorated like this one - the toy's identifying text was printed on the end flaps. Graphically it's pretty sharp, and very cost-effective to do (I may do something like this for my upcoming toys, as I won't be able to print up individual box designs).

You'd probably guess that '50s Fisher-Price toys are harder to find and more expensive to buy. There's more than a couple non-auction websites out there that deal with older toys, so you may want to try thefind.com or Google (shopping) before you jump right to eBay. Unfortunately, I can't find one for sale online right now, eBay or otherwise. If you really don't mind digging, put 'fisher price rowboat' in a standard Google search, and see if any sale listings pop up. Search engines don't find everything! But if you're more of a moderate hunter, let the computer's fingers do the walking and set up a new-fangled eBay favorite search. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Fisher-Price Merry Mousewife #662 (1965)

I love old Fisher-Price toys, especially from the days when they were made out of wood. The illustrated paper labels used to decorate them have the charm of children's books, and the movements are always clever and fun!

It's an odd experience to see a toy of a non-licensed character today - while there were plenty of things spun off from Disney, Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera and Walter Lantz characters in the sixties, there was also a sizable category of toys that were (among other things) simply animals, circus performers, or storybook characters.

This is a transition toy for Fisher-Price. The use of plastic has begun, but it's still quite limited and tasteful - the parts are only those with complex or delicate shapes. There's no paint on them, and they're all the same color, but the simplicity of the wheels (notice that they're still wooden) helps to pull everything together.

The paper decorations are nicely integrated into the simple wooden form, and there's a great solution to the choice of movement. The wheels' motion has been transformed into the sweeping function, and it's naturally accompanied by an appealing pre-chip noisemaker.

The packaging isn't complicated - most Fisher-Price toys simply came in mid-weight, decorated cardboard boxes - but the graphics on them are nicely done.

This isn't a terribly rare piece, so your main challenge will be finding one in the condition that will be satisfactory to you. The closer to mint (or perfect condition) that you want it to be, the harder it'll be to find, and the more it'll cost. Getting the toy in its original package compounds the value (and price) still further. There's a couple of auctions on eBay right now, including a nice-looking one for $55.00 + 9.70 shipping. Good luck!

PS - Remember, eBay sellers don't have to tell you everything if they don't want to. Try to find pictures of the complete toy before browsing, so you can make sure nothing's missing or snapped off. Make sure to ask if the movement and noisemaker work before bidding. Have fun!

Toy OTD: Fisher-Price Barky Pull Toy #462 (1960)

Here's another great old-school Fisher-Price toy! This type of toy construction was used a few times to create different characters (see Gran'pa Frog), but each of them is a clever variation on the same overall design.

It's hard to beat the killer combination of richly rendered labels, wooden construction, and the charm of a mechanical ratchet noisemaker. Even with the traditionally styled illustrations, the toy feels very stylized, but very appealing!

This is an older F-P toy, so it's a little more expensive than its later counterparts. I can't find it on eBay or anywhere else online, but some patient hunting should turn one up. I'd expect to pay between fifty and a hundred dollars for one, probably on the higher side. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Fisher-Price #444: Queen Busy/Buzzy Bee (1962-1985)

This isn't one of Fisher-Price's best toys necessarily, but I had one as a kid, so nostalgia demanded that I get a spiffy replacement from eBay!

Queen Busy Bee is nice and simple, with a cute noisemaker and plenty of charm. The designers get a lot of play value out of their simple materials, accenting the spinning wheels and wings with bouncing spring antennae. I wonder if the illustrator knew what the artwork was for - there's wings painted onto the 'thorax', even though the toy has wings as separate parts! It's very cute, regardless.

This toy was made for so long, there's tons and tons of them out there - it'd almost be harder not to own one! Needless to say, there's some variations in the construction, but basically no one version is much more expensive to get than another (well, the '59 model will cost you, but in general it's not a pricey toy). A quick search on eBay revealed thirty-seven different auctions, so this is kind of a fish in a barrel unless you're looking for the box, or want to the toy to be in ultra-mint condition. Have fun!

Toy OTD: Ertl Preschool Dr. Seuss Motionmobiles: Five-Hump Wump (2002)

While not the amazingness that are the Revell Dr. Seuss Zoo models, the Ertl Preschool line has some of the best contemporary Seuss toys! This is my favorite of the new bunch - the sculpt and paint work are decent, but the overall toy design evokes a Seuss drawing quite well! The characters pop up and down, and the offset wheels give a cute movement in the old Fisher-Price tradition.

If you can't afford the '60s Revell toys or the '70s Mattel line, try and find one of these to give your kid's childhood (or your second one) some extra Seuss flavor! There's more info on the Ertl line here, and here. You can bid on a Wump starting at $2.99 + shipping at eBay.ca.

Toy OTD: Fisher-Price #464 - Gran'pa Frog (1958)

I love this era of Fisher-price toys - made with simple wooden shapes, but the paper labelling is well drawn and tastefully rendered in a storybook style. Plastic parts are just starting to creep into the equation, but it's only used for the parts that would be too fragile if they were made of wood. And of course, the noise-maker is totally analog - serrated wheels, offset axles and a paper and wood resonator make an appealing 'croaking' sound when the toy is pulled.

Your best bet to find one of these is either at a toy show, or on eBay (that's where I've scored most of my F-P collection). Make sure to ask a lot of questions before you bid - a lot of people sell 'display pieces' that won't roll or move properly, or have a broken noisemaker. Sometimes the item descriptions don't exactly lie - but they're not always very forthcoming, either.

Here's an auction for a reproduction that's starting at $9.99 + $8.45 postage. I haven't seen this one up close, so I can't say if it's inferior to the original toy. Sometimes I buy repros if the originals are prohibitively expensive - be warned, when you start getting into '50s F-P toys (and older), things get pricey.