Today on Fisher Price Friday I'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood. The Little People Neighborhood #2551 was made from 1989-1990. It is a rather large playset with many features and accessories, quite a few of them being exclusive to this set. There are two sides to the playset, a red house and a yellow house.
Both house fronts have doors that open, many windows, shrubs, sidewalks and steps molded into the plastic bases.
The two house sides connect together without the tree house, but it connects to pegs on the side for storage. The treehouse, yellow ladder and yellow door (that opens and shuts) are all exclusive to this set and are often missing or damaged (note my treehouse base has a piece missing on the left side).
When opened the set becomes a big neighborhood complete with two houses, a tree house (connects the two pieces during play) and a backyard.
These are all of the neighborhood accessory pieces (not including the pool which is seen later). There could be some differences in the family depending on the year made. Also some variations in the colors of the furniture pieces. Pictured are the 1989 family except for the boy, he is from the 1990 version. In 1989 the boy was orange with brown hair. Another change is that in 1990 the dog Lucky was deleted from the set. The house came with two twin beds and one double, all having imprinted quilt patterns and pillows on them. The blue beds have little teddy bears on them as well. These beds were exclusive to the set.
The neighborhood included a bathroom set and a kitchen set. The bathroom has a toilet seat that flips up and down. The kitchen has lithographs of a salad, a grill with two steaks on it and a sink full of soapy dishes.
The kitchen looks like the kitchen from the #990 Play Family A-Frame house but they are actually quite different upon closer inspection (A-Frame connected on the left, neighborhood kitchen sitting on the right). The A-Frame kitchen is slightly smaller, has a rounded refrigerator, much smaller counter on the right and different lithographs/molded accessories in the back. I had heard before that it was the same piece re-made for the neighborhood set but that is not accurate as you can see!
Now to the outside of the set. The yellow house has an attached backyard complete with in ground pool, basketball court, picnic table and grill. The whole yard slides nicely under the other house when the set is closed. The basketball court has a ball (connected by a string) that can get into the "hoop" via the yellow tab on the base.
The blue pool is another exclusive to this set. It is removable and therefore often missing. You can also see the picnic table and grill in the molded pool deck.
A very fun feature of this set is the automatic door opener. Yes, that's right it opens automatically when the car drives over a little lever (seen right behind the front tire in the photo). My daughters love this garage door!
Another interesting feature is the trashcan on the side of the house. There is a hole in the deck above and a little person (particularly the boy or girl) can slip down the hole and into the can. Then when you push the yellow lever (to the left of the bush) it pops up the can lid and the little person comes out.
Now to the inside of the house. The red house has two floors with lithographs on 3 sides.
The upstairs has a lithograph of a desk with wrapped presents on the top and a kitten reaching for the ribbons. Also a potted plant, wood chair with a sock hanging off it and a wall with flowered wallpaper. Downstairs there is a large stone fireplace with a roaring fire, fireplace tools and a couple potted plants.
The downstairs floor has a large detailed lithograph of a wood floor, two rugs, stone (connected to the fireplace) and wood logs. There is also a cat curled on the floor rug, boots by the door and a book and pillows under the window.
The other side of the room has a entertainment center complete with television set (showing two little people of course), records and stereo equipment. There is a large picture of a beach with umbrellas and another potted plant.
Now to the yellow house. The downstairs has a lithograph of a kitchen hutch complete with china, a fruit basket, stool, lamp and yet another potted plant. This house has lots of plants! The floor is a lithograph of tile.
The other side of the first floor has a lithograph of a laundry room. The laundry room has a ironing board, iron, broom, folded clothes, soap and more cupboards. And of course the front loading washer/dryer. This side of the floor also has a rug on the tile floor.
Upstairs has only one lithograph. This one is of a child's bedroom with a dresser, lamp, toys and paintings. I especially love that there are some familiar vintage Fisher Price toys on the wall including the #627 Rock a Stack, #2581 Express Train and #2017 Pull Along Plane. The floor of the bedroom has wood planks molded into the brown plastic. The roof has a white skylight that opens.
Whew, that was a lot of photos but as you can see there is quite a bit to show! I hope you enjoyed the tour!
