Tuesday, January 31, 2012

COLLECTION #154: Fisher-Price Toy Fest & Commemorative Toys


When I worked at Fisher-Price in the early 1990s, I began collecting the wonderful reproduction limited edition toys F-P released each year for their annual Toy Fest. Actually, Toy Fest was not a Fisher-Price event, but was put on by the community, through the Toy Town Museum. Fisher-Price has been located in beautiful East Aurora New York for over 80 years. East Aurora has been informally called 'Toy Town', for much of that time.

Me and my four kids at Toy Fest 1992. The theme that year was the Molly Bell cow- notice the kid's T-shirts.
Molly-Bell, 1992
Each year, a special toy, chosen from among Fisher-Price's vast archives of amazing, traditional and colorful wooden toys, was authentically reproduced by Fisher-Price, and was the 'theme' of that year's Toy Fest. Giant floats, gifts, T-shirts, posters and other souvenirs were emblazoned with an image of that toy. The toys were available for sale for a limited amount of time, and then ceased production. Unlike a lot of 'limited and numbered' collectibles of the 80s and 90s, these toys have maintained a fairly high value. I believe this is due to the fact that they are simply awesome!

Snoopy Sniffer 1990

Jingle Elephant 1993

Grand-Pa Frog 1994

Squeaky the Clown 1995

Unfortunately, Toy Fest ceased in 2008. I'm sure there were a lot of reasons for stopping the tradition, but it's still sad. Along with the year's featured toy, there were several other limited edition toys created during the 1990s-2000s. I have the Snoopy Sniffer from 1990, and the Dr. Doodles from 1995. Dr. Doodles came on a lovely wooden stand. Including these two, I have a total of nine Toy Fest toys. I hope you enjoy my collection!

Dr. Doodle 1995

Close-up of the plaque on the wooden base.
Raggedy Ann & Andy 1997
Elsie's Dairy Truck 2000

Woodsy-Wee Zoo 1996

3 comments:

joscelyne cutchens said...

that is pretty cool. How awesome to have a mom who worked for one of the best toy companies out there?!

Jbell said...

My mother has worked for Fisher-Price for 40 years and is still currently working there! What a childhood us kids had! I actually worked there for a few years myself. I also am lucky enough to have quite a toyfest collection spanning all the years thanks to my mother! Nice blog!

Bob said...

Would you like some of the others? I have several here that you don't list. They are yours fro the price of shipping from Ohio.