Fisher-Price History

Where were you in 1959?

Dwight D. Eisenhower was President.

Muhammad Ali won the National Golden Gloves Championship.

A singing group called the Beatles was formed.

A new doll sensation called Barbie was created in California.

But “most importantly”, a toy company called Fisher-Price took some characters previously attached to several toys, introduced the #983 Safety School Bus, and Little People were born!

In 1960, two additional toys with removable figures joined the line. The Snorky Fire Engine, with pivoting wood snorkel lift, included four wood-turned firemen, each of whom could hold the fire hose nozzle. The Nifty Station Wagon, a '57 Chevy look-alike, came with two adult figures and one child figure -- the first Play Family toy. For the first time, both toys also came with a removable animal figure, a dog.

Throughout the next five years, existing, popular themes such as the Snorky Fire Engine and Safety School Bus were redesigned and new items featuring the wooden Little People were introduced. They included the Fisher-Price Choo-Choo, Lacing Shoe, Dump Truckers, and Amusement Park, which today sells for $hundreds$ in the box!

In 1966, the popularity of these little wooden figures grew to the point where several figures were packaged together and sold as a separate SKU for the first time. They were called the “Play Family Variety Pack.”

In 1968, Richard Nixon became President and the first Fisher-Price playset was introduced: the Play Family Farm. The farm theme was chosen because children love animals. And the figure bodies were made of plastic instead of wood. After the huge success of the Farm (which sold out at $9.99 retail), Fisher=Price began developing additional real life playset concepts that children could easily relate to and the Play Family House, Garage, School, Airport, and Circus were born.

In 1975, Gerald Ford was President and for the first time, Little People took on the form of licensed characters -- the popular “Sesame Street Playset.” This sells for over $150 in the box today!

In 1985, Ronald Reagan was President and Play Family Playsets were renamed “The World of Little People.” The name and logo have become registered trademarks of Fisher-Price.

Little People took on a new look in 1991 when they became chunkier, which allowed for more play value and interaction with the playset features. The four lead items of the new line were the same as 20 years earlier -- the Farm, the House, the Garage, and the Airport.

In 1997, Bill Clinton” was President and Little People were redesigned once again and launched at Toy Fair. The new figures had real arms and hands and other charming details like clothing, facial expressions and hair that made them look more like real little people. The product positioning was “Our Little People Help Your Little People Discover the World Around Them.”

In 1999 Fisher-Price took Little People into the new millennium with electronic and battery-operated playsets.

For 40 years Fisher-Price asked real little people “where would you like to go today” by taking them to the grown-up world of over 200 themes including:

School Buses…Circuses…Fire Engines…Trucks…Amusement Parks…Hospitals…Farms…Depots…Houses…Clubhouses…Garages…Railroads…Schools…Ferry Boats…Snow Mobiles…Lumber Yards…Houseboats… Cargo Bases…Campers…Fire Stations…Castles…Cruise Boats…Villages…Marinas…and all sorts of Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

And, over 1 billion Little People figures were sold from 1959 through 1999 -- that’s four for every person in the USA!