Epic Win: Fisher-Price Barn
From Wikipedia:
Founded in 1930 by Herman Fisher, Irving Price and his wife, illustrator and artist Margaret Evans Price and Helen Schelle, the name Fisher-Price was established by combining two of the three founders’ names. Fisher worked previously in manufacturing, selling and advertising games for a company in Churchville, New York. Price had retired from a major variety chain store, and Helen Schelle previously operated Penny Walker Toy Shop in Binghamton, New York. Fisher-Price’s fundamental toy- making principles centered on intrinsic play value, ingenuity, strong construction, good value for the money, and action. Early toys were made of heavy steel parts and ponderosa pine, which resisted splintering and held up well to heavy use. The details and charm were added with colorful lithographic labels. Mrs. Price was the first Art Director and designed push-pull toys for the opening line, based on characters from her childrens’ books.
In 1931, the three founders took 16 of their wooden toys to the American International Toy Fair in New York City and they quickly became a success. The first Fisher-Price toy ever sold was “Dr. Doodle” in 1931. (The same toy, in excellent condition, would be worth a considerable amount in today’s collectables market.) In the early 1950s, Fisher-Price identified plastic as a material that could help the company incorporate longer-lasting decorations and brighter colors into its toys. “Buzzy Bee” was the first Fisher-Price toy to make use of plastic. By the end of the 1950s, Fisher-Price manufactured 39 toys incorporating plastics.
During the 1960s, the Play Family (later known as Little People) product line was introduced and soon overtook the popularity of earlier toys. Herman Fisher retired at the age of 71 in 1969 and the Quaker Oats Company bought Fisher-Price the same year.
In 1991, Fisher-Price regained its independence from The Quaker Oats Company and became a publicly traded company. Two years later, in November 1993, Fisher Price became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel. A new management group set the company’s focus on basic, infant and preschool products and began expansion into international markets. By 1997 Mattel decided to market all of its preschool products under the Fisher-Price name.
Heck yes, and the farm door MOOOOOS when you close it!
Yes! Yes! Gotta have the moooo!!! I was so angry when my mom decided to “donate” all of our Fischer price toys…we had the barn, the house, the parking ramp…now when we go antiquing ( i know not even a word), we see how much those little plastic people are worth and kick ourselves in the heads.
Yes, brings back good memories, I still remember the moo!! I talked to my old next-door-neighbor and one of the few things we mentioned was the barn!!
My parents are in the process of cleaning out their house, and they save EVERYTHING!! Hopefully they still have this, their grandson/my nephew will love it!!!
ah, I’ve still got mine. i’m 19 now, but this one is one of the childhood toys i never got rid of. My door still moos, and when i figured out the trigger to make it moo… well, let’s just say it was hell for my family. XD
Man whats wrong with high school kids. I brought this up Thursday and nobody knew what I was taking about?
I still have the horse!!!! I remember the moos!
OMG! The Little People were my FAVORITE!!!! Too funny how something like the FP Little People toys can spark such happy thoughts from childhood!! I wanna play with mine right now!! lol All of my LP are hidden away someplace in my parents attic. I had the house, the barn, the awesome yellow & red shopping cart… along with the blue boat (that had wheels & a pull string). I can’t believe that I haven’t read about anyone having that yet!! So come on guys, who else had or remembers the boat??
Think I’m gonna search ebay now for my missing pieces!
I had the boat! It was so much fun! I would line up the A-frame house, school house, barn and make my own Little People village. I also added the Weeble Treehouse at the end of the street (I thought of them as chubby Little People) and then I’d push the boat throught the middle of town like it was Venice!
does that make them the “little village people”?
I replied before but it didn’t show up. I had the boat, A-frame, school (with the bell that drove grown-ups nuts), and farm. Loved the moo. I also used the Weeble Treehouse with my FP Little People, but viewed the Weebles as just chubby Little People! I played with these for hours on end. I had the Little People’s little white car, too.
And do you remember having your LP “walk the plank” off the diving board on the boat?!
Hallmark has made a Christmas tree ornament of it! And YES! It moos! They made the farm animals Speak’n'Say last year.
OMG i had that! When I was younger, I liked the way the pieces smelled, for some reason…and the inside of the barn.
OMG! I was just thinking… “how wierd is it that the thing I remember most is the SMELL of it!!!” Too funny!
The first thing I thought when I saw that picture was “OMG the MOO!” I loved that barn. For some reason my friend’s mom called the little FP people “pigs” so that’s what I call them. I have no idea where she got that, but she had strange names for all kinds of things.
Ahhh I had this one! The moo was the best =D
The barn was teh awesum. Also the garage/car park, the house with the doorbell, the A-frame house with BUNK BEDS! (that was always their vacation villa, somehow, in my little mind)…
Fisher-Price lost SOOOO much win when it got rid of the wooden round-peg-bodied Little People–I could even tolerate the plastic peg-shaped ones–but then they ruined it all when they went for those fat plastic bodies…
You had the A-frame? I LOVED that one, but I never owned it. I did have the castle however. Still do!
I think my favorite was the airport and the jet. With the parking garage as a close second place.
My mom-in-law still has this from when hubby was a kid, and now my kids play with it when visiting Grammy’s house! Talk about a classic! It beats out video games and Bratz all day with my kids!
lol. I used to lay with mine in the tub!!! I loved those things.
btw I heard the Bratz dolllz are gonna be discontinued cuz of a lawsuit or something to do with the people that make Barbie
I have pictures of when I got this for my birthday.. think it was my 3rd!! I totally agree that the wooden bodied ones were so much better than the plastic ones..
Mom still has it in her attic-hopfully saving it for grandkids and not an auction*grumble*
i can still hear that barn door MOOOOing .. kids toys just aren’t the same anymore!
That was a sweet barn!
I loved this barn! My mom pulled it (and all my other Fisher Price Little People toys) out of the attic last week for my daughter to play with. I’m pretty sure I had more fun playing with them than she did
I love this thing! I used to push the moo thing on the door so it would moo really loudly. That would crack me up. We still have this on display in our house, my mom kept it. This thing was the bomb.
MOOOOO… I got the barn for my 4th birthday. Did any of you see the basketball on the back side of the barn? I still laugh to my self that the hoop was actually a basket. Then my brother discovered dry ice bombs… *Sigh*
I still have the sheep and the pig from my family’s set. They’re somewhere in a box, I think. The rest of the little people got donated years ago, I just kept those two because they were special to me. And yes, I remember the ‘MOOOOOO!’ That was the best part of the barn.
I remember the barn! I loved the sliding door on the 2nd level. I always thought the pig looked weird…
I haven’t thought of that in years! My Sunday school play room had that barn, and I loved it, especially the chicken figure.
That…barn…I played with that more that the town, the school bus, the school, and even the house. Must’ve been the hypnotic MOOOOOOOOOO. The house was second, I guess because that one had a working doorbell. Good times…
I *loved* this play set! The mooing barn doors, the little corral fences, the critters… this and the Weeble People Treehouse (the pop-up one) were my favorites as a kid!
Mine didnt moo.. My mom got it from a yard sale. But I still remember the piggy, I loved that thing!
At least I still have my FP schoolhouse, and Bus.
The barn was awesome. Making the sheep jump out of the loft was so much fun.
I still have mine in a box somewhere. This kinda makes me want to go open and close the barn doors…
Oh my god, this was the best thing EVER. I was obsessed with this thing when I was little. Except I was a 90s kid, so it was already old when I got it but it was still one of my favorite toys regardless.
HELL YES. They just don’t make kids toys like this anymore. I don’t care how ancient that makes me sound! The “moo”-ing door just compounds the awesomeness of the barn. Love it!
I loved this toy so much growing up. It was second only to my pound puppies. Why aren’t pound puppies up yet?
So should be! They were the best.
I *loved* this toy! The mooing door was awesome! hehe
My grandma had that for all the grand kids to play with when they visited. I think she still has it. With most of the animals. She even had the wheel where you pull the sting and the arrow in the middle spins around and when it lands on an animal like the cat it goes, “The cat goes Meeeeeeeeaaaaaaaoooooooooooooowwwww!”
it’s called a See n’ Say
I had one of those See & Says, too… except mine was broken, and when it landed on the horse, it said “Do use a horse!” and the horse made a very creepy whinny… I have nightmares to this day!
Omg, I had one! lol
This is SOOOO cute!
Best “barnyard toy” EVAR, in my opinion! ^_^
I feel so bad now. I never knew the barn ‘MOO’ed when the doors closed because it was a hand-me-down from my brother.
Mine made a really sad noise when you closed it…it was also a hand-me-down. It sounded like a cross between a dying animal and the kid from The Grudge…pretty tragic.
I used to close my kitten into this barn and carry him around the house. Yes, I was a horrible person when I was seven.
haha I locked our first cat in the toy box once cos she scratched me, and carried her around by her tail… I’ll never know why she let me do that when I was like 3… not sure why that cat still loved me so much <3
Are you kidding? You were a typicl child. My cat became a part of every toy I owned. She even fit in the school bus for a little while. Then she just had to go grocery shopping in the yellow and orange grocery cart. Why isn’t THAT thing on here? Everyone owned one of those…
OMG, I had that too! And yes, I used to put my poor cats in it. I even have some pics of them with doll bonnets on, stuffed into my toy stroller. I’m not sure why my parents let me torment them so.
We had one of these in my kindergarten class, everyone always fought over it and I always wanted one of my own. Since it was donated and very well loved it never did moo :’( But it was the coolest toy ever (next to the fake food that was life size). Bet there’s some on ebay for sale!!
ZOMG! I LOVE THE MOOING BARN! This is an epic win! Buried somewhere in the garage is that barn, a tub full of people (some of which are wood!) the parking garage (with the elevator!) AND the Airport with jet!! There may be more, but damn its been so long. This is just awesome.
I remember especially liking to play with the sliding doors at the top. Also, the cow was my favorite animal — and I’m getting a distinct feeling that I chewed on it a lot. And of course, the mooing door!
ZOMG the MOOOOing!
I used to kidnap the sheep and bend its little out so it could be SuperSheep and rescue the invisible moocow that was hidden in the barn doors.
I was a weird kid.
My wife shown me this after stumbling upon this site. My goodness.. this was such a great toy. I took that thing everywhere I went when I was younger. Hard to believe that was nearly 40 years ago for me. Thanks for bringing back all those happy memories.
Excellent! I bought this for my son at a garage sale this summer, and he’s getting it for Christmas. It doesn’t have the silo or the animals, but it still moos!
<3 this stuff, busy cleaning my old toys, now bordering on 25+ years up for my 2 year old
She already has the pull along racoon that was my sisters and loves playing with it.
Re-read the header: “Epic Win: Fisher-Price Barn”
Oh wow, I had one of these!! There were pretty fun actually, they all bent and stuff
Somethin’ about the sheep was awesome. I never had the other black pig or the pink pig though, or the horse, or hte chicken… I think we got it at the Goodwill store XDDD
Fantastic that the door moo-ed when you closed it eh?
We had this barn! Only there were no black pigs. We had a brown rooster, and a cart and harness for the horse, along with a tractor and two plastic cowboys.
We also had the house that folded out into two houses (and it had a swimming pool, basketball net, and the awesomest treehouse ever), and the big Main Street which I think was the coolest of the three.
Was this from when toys were actually still made in the USA?
The original peg style people and wooden/metal toys were way better than the plastics. Apparently they made the decision to switch to something that:
A. wouldn’t hurt when your little brother chucked them at your head, and
B. were not the perfect size to fit only halfway down a child’s gullet!
Also, when you took a digger and fell on top of the original toys, they banged you up right, and you learned very quickly not to be so clumsy. Now, with all of the smooth, rounded corners, the toy companies are practially encouraging kids to smack their heads against them!
I still HAVE this barn…my dad saved it and stored it for me! And it still moos!
I still have this in my garage! My brother and I used to play with the barn all the time. You could make the little rooster and hen sit on the posts of the corral fence too. We also had the house, the school, the garage and the firehouse. The school had this little merry-go-round that would spin and we would put the little people in there and spin it really fast so they would fly out. We ran a dangerous school. Man I loved those toys!
Fisher-Price rules! I had this barn back in the very early 70’s. It was my favorite toy for lo long, not sure whatever happened to it though. I eventually bought my son one when he was younger. This is the biggest nostaliga-win so far.
mooOOOOOOOOO!
I remember being vaguely disturbed by the chickens with the square holes in their butts for the fence posts, though….
Fisher Price FTW!!!
yes, used to play with my gumby figurines with all the barn stuff, too! Right on up there with wooden train tracks and legos!
Where is Gumby on this list?
I had Gumby and Pokie, but gumby freaked me out so I always shunned him to just play with Pokie. One time Pokie got stuck in the heater grill and my mum had to take it apart to get him out… That was a close call!
I totally still own this toy! Half the animals are missing and/or chewed upon by various pets, however.
OMG! I loved this barn… I so had one, but, other than the chicken, I’m not sure where the other farm animals ended up going… I loved the moos… not sure how my Ghostbusters and Ninja Turtles felt about it when it was kind of a hangout for those guys back in the day, though… we also had the schoolhouse where the roof flipped up and became a chalkboard… anyone remember that?
I remember having a chalkboard on a fold-out stand that we used to PRETEND was a house.
we still have one of these it sucks because nearly all the original animals are gone though
i still have ALLLLL my fisherprice houses, barn, pool, airport, zoo, car garage thing and auto shop…. i think i have other building as well. as long as all the animals and people. i love them!
ooh, i had mine back when the toys were still made of wood! i wonder if mom still has it stashed somewhere…
AHHH! I had this set! I had totally forgotten about it…hahaha
oh my gosh!! i remember playing with this when i was a kid!!! i loved the horseys!
mmoooOOOOOOOO!!
Hallmark is selling an ornament of this toy. And yes, the barn door moos when you open it!
Hooray for large families, we had like a whole F-P town between us: The house, barn, school, garage, airport, school bus, plus various extra vehicles and bits. Just setting up the whole thing took up most of the rainy morning, good thing cause by lunchtime we’d be fighting over somebody knocking something over and have to put it all away again.
OMG, I had the entire whole freaking neighborhood; the barn, the town, the school. The barn door moo’d (always cracked me up).
i remember trying to open the doors in ways to trick the moo into not going off just to try. the horse disappeared early but we never lost the harness for some reason
I had one of these.
So THAT’S where my little sheep and piggy came from!
I had one!
I liked the mooing door and the chicken for some reason the best.
I lost most of the animals inside though :/
The other day my son got the new fisher price barn for his 1st birthday when he opened it I said oh my god, held it up and asked my sister “What does this make you thnk about” She quickly replied all those times playing at our granpa’s house. That was the only toy we kept there. It’s funny how something can bring back a childhood memory I hadn’t thought about that toy for years.
My grandma had one of these in her basement as well as a bunch of Little People toys- best childhood memories. She gave away all of the basement toys when I was about thirteen. I was so mad that she didn’t let me have any of it. I would have given them to my children.
Shopping Plaza Online is the best way to find everthing you needed for your kids.
I loved this thing, with the animals and fence equipment you could put in the silo. I still have the little brown doggie that came with it.
i like real farms better