Toy Collections: When You Can’t Have Just One

Did you collect a set of toys as a child? Do you collect toys in the same range for your kids?

I am the Queen of Toy Collections.

If I see a toy and one of the kids likes it, I have to have the whole collection. I don’t collect every single, solitary toy out there in ToyLand, of course. My house would be more packed than it already is, but over the years I amassed a couple of toy collections for my children…and for me, too!

McDonald’s released the Cars line of Happy Meal toys a few years ago. I fell in love with them even though my son wasn’t as interested in them. He had only seen the movie once, but by the time I had collected Lightning. Luigi, Mack, Sarge, and all of their friends he was smitten too.

I once drove to 5 McDonalds in one day to find cars from the McDonald’s Cars promotion that we didn’t have. Wasn’t I supposed to be working while the children were in morning preschool? I guess I didn’t work on that particular day! Here’s what I would do…I would go up to the McDonald’s counter and ask the cashier to search the bin for one of the Cars cars that we didn’t have. I would swap one of our duplicates for the new car. I’m nutty…nutty I tell you…but I collected the entire collection for him!

Of course there was that dark day when Lightning could not be found. Not the clean Lightning McQueen, we had him. We were missing the muddy Lightning. Where oh where was he? We…uh…I searched high and low for that car. I gave up and ordered a replacement from ebay only to find muddy Lightning under the oven the next time I cleaned the floor. Oy.

My oldest received the Fisher Price dollhouse for Christmas. She loved it. There was a Mommy, Daddy, little girl, and a baby. Just like our family. She was absolutely smitten with the dollhouse furniture and accessories. She would have been fine with what we had, but I had to buy the seasonal set with a tiny pumpkin and a snowman for outside the house. And a rake! I…uh…we had to have the rake. How would be rake up all the imaginary leaves outside the FP dollhouse?? Over the years, she received a camper, a minivan, a small car, and another couple of moms and dads and babies. Her sister loved the dollhouse too. In fact, whenever we had playdates kids would play with the dollhouse.

While my oldest was the proud owner of the FP dollhouse, I helped my younger daughter amass a collection of the FP Sweet Street houses. Do you remember them? The houses were about 8 inches high. Came with people who were about 2 inches high. The collection had several different homes, a toy store, hospital, hotel, and even a school. The Sweet Streets are no longer available, but this cute Little People Disney Princess Songs Palace is.

What other collections do my kids have? The list goes on…

His grandparents made sure that he had a sizeable collection of wooden Thomas trains and buildings. Even though I am not a “playing on the floor with kids for long periods of time” type of mom, I got a kick out of putting the Thomas wooden tracks together.
My son’s love of Thomas led to a love of all things FP Geo Trax.
Geo Trax was replaced by Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and even an RC car or two.
Finally a real train set that he bought with his grandfather at a train store.
I was just talking to my teen about how particular she was about her American Girl Collection. She had Samantha and Samantha’s best friend, and an AG doll that looked just like her. Seriously, the resemblance of the doll to her was uncanny.

My 2012 Holiday Gift Guide is up and running. What is is on your child’s wish list? Is it…

And don’t forget the two giveaways that end soon.