Littlest Pet Shop, That’s Who
10.06.07By Collin DavidI don’t yet know if my niece has the fabled collecting gene like I have, or if she’s just exhibiting mimicry of the behaviors that she sees in me, but she definitely has collections. Aside from the epic cache of Barbie and Bratz clothing items, she’s also the gleeful recipient of all of my extra Heroclix pieces (and probably has a few hundred by now, about 25% having been rendered limbless by uncareful feet), and most recently, she’s accumulated a wide array of Littlest Pet Shop figurines.
Every year at Christmas, my mom would hunt down a complete (or near complete) set of action figures for me, from some property that I was interested in. I recall full collections of Real Monsters and Earthworm Jim figures under the tree, and it was always a great feeling to get a headstart on a collection of something, Perhaps this is why I take the same approach to my niece’s Christmases. Last year, I imported a fairly expensive collection of dollhouse accessories from Japan, because she was into dollhouses - and the Japanese domestic gashapon scene seemed pretty amazing. This year, I found Littlest Pet Shop.
Knowing my buying habits, the Toys ‘R’ Us lady asked me if I was buying the armload of them for myself, and I quickly corrected her - but I was still excited about getting a wide array of adorable animals for my niece’s Pet Shop display. That she didn’t yet have. All of the animal 2-packs, and packs that consisted of an animal and a display piece, were less that five dollars each, and the selection was impressive… AND their heads bobble. What’s not to love?
So, I found one mini-figure of each major animal group for her. The insects, the bunnies, the dogs, the cats, the birds, the skunks… everyone, except for the damned seahorse. Sure, if trends held true, they’d re-release a different seahorse later, but not by the time Christmas came. My hands were stained pink from digging through those strawberry-scented girlie toy racks, all the while gripped with paranoia that I was being perceived as some kind of toy-scalping creep, stalking the pink aisles for profit and leering. At least the seahorse is now accessible again - even if my niece chose the dragonfly over the seahorse when she was given a choice at the store this weekend.
With a history of over 400 pets and counting, along with countless playsets and accessories, Littlest Pet Shop seems to be something with a lot of endurance for serious collectors and animal lovers alike. I admit to a certain peculiar weakness for setting things up in contained dioramas, and LPS appeals to that also, so I never mind playing with the mega-playhouse that you can buy for them. It probably comes from creating action-filled, organized scenes in the Ghostbusters Firehouse of my youth, and continued on into organizing the insanely cool Muppets Kitchen playset in more recent years (which had enough space, and working cabinets and drawers, to store almost every accessory that came with every figure in the line). Yes, these items are essentially boy dollhouses, and don’t even pretend that your 1979 Death Star playset was anything more than a wicked dollhouse with space lasers. Because, sorry guys, it was.
Recent auction results don’t reveal any extraordinarily expensive pieces - though a certain Littlest Pet Shop artisan is making a small mint on expertly crafted customized figures - usually of breeds of animals or species that have not yet been addressed by the existing 400+ animal collection, and a good handful of unicorns. These one-of-a-kind art pieces have gone up to $150, that price being established for a customized horse. Of course, horse collectors are also a bit intense. Aside from the custom figures, there’s the odd purple iguana or the new giraffe (pet #440) that go for about 40 bucks a pop, and that’s their OOP, or ‘out of package’ price. MIP, or ‘mint in package’ items usually fetch a lot more money.
So, we collect these as a team, my niece and I - and not for profit. It broadens my own toy hunting, also. One can only go to the toy store and leave empty handed so many times before you get jaded and despondent at the lack of re-stocks. There’s the satisfaction of finding the occasional new or rare animal, just as I’d get from finding a rare Two-Face action figure, and ultimately, a little girl being excited about adding a new friend to her pet shop is even more rewarding.
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