Little People (2024)

Little People is a toy brand for preschoolers, originally produced by Fisher-Price in the 1960s as the Play Family People. The current product line consists of playsets, mini-sets and accessories, books, CDs, and DVDs focusing on various configurations of five characters named Eddie, Sarah Lynn, Maggie, Michael and Sonya Lee. Also in 2013, Tessa, Mia, Koby and Sofie came out.

The "Little People" name, registered and trademarked by Fisher-Price in 1985, came from Fisher-Price following the lead of consumers who referred to the early Play Family playsets as "those little people".

History[]

Original Little People[]

Little People started in 1950 with the "Looky Fire Truck" and three round-headed fire men (attached permanently to the toy). Following the success of this toy, in 1952 and 1953 Fisher-Price developed the "Super-Jet" and "Racing Rowboat".

Another early Little People precursor, the "Safety School Bus", was introduced in 1959. The set included a school bus together with six independent figures made out of tall skinny pegs of cardboard tubes wrapped in lithographs simulating clothes. The toy gained instant popularity and other sets soon came out.

Little People Play Family[]

In 1960, Fisher-Price introduced two additional toys with removable figures; "Snorky the Fire Engine" and the "Nifty Station Wagon". The Nifty Station Wagon came with two adult figures and one child figure, thus the first "Play Family" was born. Today, Little People are known and sold throughout the world. A Nifty Station Wagon in mint condition, in the box, could command up to $1,000,000 among toy collectors.

Body Style Variations[]

The original Little People went through six major styles of body (base) configurations, and even within each major classification there may be one or more minor style variations. By 1961, the figures were produced with wood; plastic was used for their vehicles and buildings. A few years later, the typical happy face of the traditional Little People debuted in a "straight-body" format. All of the people had a basic cylinder body with the female figures only identifiable by the addition of slanted, oval eyes and eyelashes. By 1965, the Little People consisted of a small cylindrical base and a wider cylinder shape for boys and men and a conical upper shape for the girls. Adult women had a kind of hourglass-shaped upper body. The bottom portions of the bodies were indented slightly (allowing for placement in the corresponding holes in various furniture, cars and other vehicles, in which the figures were able to "sit").

Little People Playsets[]

In 1968, Fisher-Price introduced the first Little People playset, the famous Play Family Barn with barn doors that made a "moo" sound when opened. Also at this time, the figures were made with plastic bodies instead of wood. The Play Family dollhouse was introduced in 1969, with other playsets to following, including a firehouse, an airport and a service station. Eventually, the toys encompassed a wide range of playsets, furniture packs, and accessory packs.

In the mid-1970s, Fisher-Price produced the Sesame Street town, with various Sesame Street stores, a bridge with stop lights and Sesame Street characters such as Bert, Ernie, and the only Little People toys that have been modeled after celebrities -- Loretta Long (Susan), Roscoe Orman (Gordon) and Will Lee (Mr. Hooper). Soon after, the Little People Discovery Airport, a hospital and a school would also be released. Little People characters had by then been also produced with plastic products exclusively.

Chunky Little People[]

In 1988, Marvel Entertainment made an animated series of 5 Little People videos such as Favorite Songs, 3 Favorite Stories, A Visit to the Farm, Jokes Riddles and Rhymes and Christmas Fun, which were released by New World Video. This video series centered around two children named Timmy and Penny and their Baby Sister, their parents, and their dog Lucky and it included the voices of Michael Bell, Meredith Baker, Victor DiMattia, Russi Taylor, Scott Menville, Josh Rodine, Jena Valee and Katie Leigh. In 1991, the Original Little People figures were redesigned for younger children. They were made "chunkier", were more bright and colorful, and were designed so that they could activate motion within the play sets. Most people believe that these figures were developed as a replacement for the original Little People due to the increasing concerns and pressures from parents and consumer-advocacy groups for safer toy designs. A book published in 1986 by Edward Swartz titled Toys That Kill prominently featured a trio of original Little People figures on the cover. After Fisher-Price was bought by Mattel in the 1990s, Little People reappeared on the markets, their figure significantly larger in size from the original Little People characters due to revised toy safety guidelines. These figures are called "chunky" by collectors.

Articulated Little People[]

In 1997, the figures underwent a drastic redesign, from simple lathe-turned shapes to sculpted bodies. Little People became much more detailed and smaller in overall size – in fact, closer in size to the original Little People. For the first time, the Little People figures had arms, hands, more detailed clothing, molded hair and facial features.

In 1999, Little People celebrated their 40th birthday with the reintroduction of the first Little People toy ever: Little People School Bus and characters. The play sets include the school bus, circus train, construction vehicles and other play sets. Also introduced to the Little People line in 1999 were electronic sounds and movement. That same year, The Little People characters were given distinct personalities and voices in a Stop Motion animated video and DVD series starting in 1999, with Aaron Neville singing the theme song. The series was initially produced by Danish based Egmont Imagination for the first series of 13 volumes (1998-2002), while the second series of 14 volumes were handled by 2 different studios: Connecticut-based Wreckless Abandon Studios (2004), and Canadian-based Cuppa Coffee Studios (2005).

The first set of 5 episodes was known as Volume 1: ''Big Discoveries''. Interestingly, some VHS copies [presumably from the UK] label the series as "Play Family" instead of "Little People", though the "Little People" name would become the standard later on, as evidenced by DVD releases of the series from 2010 by Abbey Home Media. Interestingly, the French DVD release of Volume 1 uses the "Play Family" master, while the DVD menu and packaging is still under the "Little People" name.

In 2000, another set of 5 episodes were produced for video that were all Christmas themed. This set was known as Volume 2: ''Christmas Discoveries''. This would be the last Little People video to feature designs based on the first video, and by extension, the 1997 toy designs, before the toy line would receive updated toy designs in the next year.

Volume 3: ''Discovering Animals'' followed in 2001, in which the episodes in the set all involved animals such as Eddie trying to jump higher than his frog Freddie (voiced by the late Robert Norman Smith), by using some of Jack and Walter's springs. This would be the first Little People video to introduce new designs of the characters with chunkier proportions, notably larger heads than the first 2 volumes and characters such as Maggie, Sarah Lynn, and Sonya Lee having much larger heads of hair than the first designs. These designs would become the template for the look of the characters in all further stop motion volumes produced afterwards.

In 2002, 50 additional episodes were produced and released on VHS over the course of 2002-early 2004 later ending up on DVD through such companies as Artisan Entertainment [through their Family Home Entertainment Kids division] and Sommerset Entertainment. This new set of episodes revolved around all sorts of things, and led to the videos being ported to international television markets in 5 minute blocks, with some changes for the television airings, such as a shortened version of the theme song with footage from later volumes replacing the now-dated looking 1999 animation, an instrumental version of the "Discovering [BLANK]" intro song being used for the end credits, and the character intros being removed.

The first of these 2002 volumes, Volume 4: ''Discovering Things That Go'' was based around the titular "things that go", such as cars, trucks, boats, construction vehicles, and aircraft. Volume 5: ''Discovering Music'' is written as a 5-episode arc revolving around Smiley the Clown leaving Discovery City for a clown convention, and the main Little People kids tapping into each of their imbedded musical talents, all culminating in a 'Welcome Home Show' performed upon Smiley's return. Volume 6: ''Discovering Seasons'' was a collection of stories which take place during the 4 seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, with the fifth one being about Maggie's dilemma trying to decide which season she enjoys the most, with the help of the other 4 kids. This volume is notable for each episode starting with a short song sung by Aaron Neville about each season, and one more called "The Season of Friendship".

Volume 7: ''Discovering Creativity'' is another 5 episode arc about Discovery City holing a "Creativity Carnival", and the 5 Little Peoples' experiences learning the true meaning of creativity, whether it be through thinking outside of the box, or through happy accidents. The stories of Volume 8: ''Discovering Friendships'' revolved around the different meanings of friendship, examples being random acts of kindness for Smiley the Clown, or cheering up Sarah Lynn when the Carnival closes down, or Eddie being friendly-to-a-fault in donating every part of his bike away to his friends. Volume 9: ''Discovering Storytime'' contains fairly loose, humorous, and semi-modernized renditions of popular fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Ugly Duckling, while the fifth was based on the nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Volume 10: ''Discovering Numbers'' revolved around the Little People applying their knowledge of numbers to their lives in Discovery City, whether it be at a concert in the park, Baker Bob's Bakery, buying Ice Cream, or even at Farmer Jed's farm.

Volume 11: ''Discovering Your Neighborhood'' revolved around the Little People helping out the grown-up workers in Discovery City, such as Police Officer Patrick, Firefighters Joe and Sheryl, Pilot Paula, Jack and Walter, and a new character named Recycler Rick. Volume 12: ''Movie Night at Farmer Jed's'' was the first of 2 "Clipshow" volumes for the series [the other being "Discovering Happy Memories"], with the framing device being a movie screening attended by all of Discovery City, watching film reels [assumedly edited together by Jed himself] of the five Little People kids, showcasing examples of their best traits, which consist of clips from past episodes on past volumes, such as "Maggie Brings the Mail", "Sonya Lee Sings", and "Michael's Magical Night"; of which the latter ends with everybody at the screening, people and animals, falling asleep [except for Michael]. The final volume of the first series, Volume 13: ''How They Became Friends'' tells the story of how the Little People kids first met and formed a friend group, beginning with Eddie and Sarah Lynn together [being twin brother and sister] shortly after initially moving to Discovery City, leading to the additions of Eddie's soon-to-be-mainstay-companion Freddie the Frog, then the thoughtful and helpful Maggie, followed by the initially shy and mysterious Sonya Lee, and finally creative boy wizard Michael, who at first wants his magic abilities to be kept secret, out of the fear of being rejected by his friends. The video, as well as the first series, finally closes with the backstory of Farmer Jed and the construction of the farm for a bunch of homeless, wild farm animals who have invaded Discovery City.

After the first series of 13 videos wrapped up, the series went on production hiatus for two years. During those 2 years, the remaining episodes would be distributed on VHS and TV over the span of 2002, 2003 and 2004, as indicated by the dates given on the slipcover packages.

In 2004 and 2005, Mattel, Wreckless Abandon Studios and Cuppa Coffee Studios resumed production of the series with 14 new volumes, featuring an updated intro and a new voice for the narrator, while the rest of the cast from the previous videos reprised their roles. episodes could be distinguished from the 2 different animation studios by the way they looked and how the characters moved; the Wreckless Abandon videos were characterized by the much more glossy look the characters would have, the character movement being more 'snappy' and even a little choppy, and the colors [especially the blue in the sky] being more saturated. The Cuppa Coffee videos were different in that the Little People puppets now had more of a matte paint finish to them, the movement was more smoothed down and natural-looking, and the colors having a slightly washed-out appearance, mainly in daytime shots. The music also took a more relaxed, slower-paced approach in these later years. Freddie the Frog also got some notable updates, being more expressive in the face than he was in previous volumes, and his voice being slightly different.

Little People A to Z Learning Zoo[]

In 2007, Little People produced the A to Z learning zoo. This production introduced animals to the Little People family. The A to Z learning zoo includes 26 animals that each begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This interactive play mat allows children to learn the alphabet, recognize letters, and learn facts about animals. This was a huge step for the company because now education is infused in their product.Template:Fisher-Price Brands

Home Videos Released[]

• Big Discoveries (1999)
• Christmas Discoveries (2000)
• Discovering Animals (2001)
• Discovering Things That Go! (2002)
• Discovering Music (2003)
• Discovering Seasons (2003)
• Discovering Creativity (2003)
• Discovering Friendship (2003)
• Discovering Storytime (2003)
• Discovering Numbers (2003)
• Discovering Your Neighborhood (2004)
• Movie Night at Farmer Jed's (2004)
• How They Became Friends (2004)
• Discovering More Animals (2004)
• Discovering More About Your Neighborhood (2004)
• Discovering More Things That Go (2004)
• Discovering Shapes and Colors (2004)
• Discovering More Music (2005)
• Discovering More Creativity (2005)
• Discovering Our Environment (2005)
• Discovering the ABC's (2005)
• Discovering Lil' Kingdom Castle (2005)
• Discovering Lil' Kingdom Fair (2005)
• Discovering Our Five Senses (2005)
• Discovering Good Manners (2005)
• Discovering Helping Others (2005)
• Discovering Happy Memories (2006)