Here is a wonderful, Vintage Fisher Price #501 Barn Pick Up 'N Peek Puzzle for your inspection. This puzzle consists of 13 pieces, 11 of whom are equipped with a yellow peg. The pegs on each puzzle piece are designed to help little fingers easily remove the pieces from the puzzle. The puzzle was designed for a 3-6 year old child.
Manufactured between 1972-84, the puzzle resembles one of Fisher Price's Vintage classic #915 Barn play sets. The detail is AMAZING. All of the pieces, when removed, has an underlying litho showing what occurs inside each corresponding area of the barn and which items or animals are commonly associated with that particular room. The puzzle also whimsically depicts the night and day operations on a farm. In addition, the puzzle features the printed name of the animals and some of the food products housed in the barn or in the silo. This alerts the child that print has meaning and fosters his/her emergent literacy skills. The latter is a skill necessary for beginning kindergarten success.
This is an EXCEPTIONAL puzzle for beginning language learners. The puzzle provides loads of opportunities to highlight assorted vocabulary (e.g. silo, hay loft, milking parlor, stalls, pitchfork, milk bucket etc.), language-based concepts (e.g. day/night, up/down, inside/outside, on/off), Wh-questions (e.g. "Where are the birds?" "Where is Daddy?" "What is the boy doing in the hayloft?" "Who says 'moo?'" etc.,), categorization (e.g. "Tell me some things you might find in a barn.") and matching or early memory activities. The lithos are captivating and spark a lot of conversational attempts. In my opinion, this puzzle warrants a solid VG++--EXC rating. The only "flaws" I can detect on the surface of the puzzle are:
1. One small chip off the wood surface at the very bottom, left-hand side of the puzzle; it took me some time to notice this;
2. A tiny indentation on the wooden surface near the apple tree; and
3. Three, tiny "dings" on the wooden surface above and to the right of the farmer on his tractor.
The underlying lithos are in GOOD--EXC++ condition. Specifically, the lithos underneath the silo are intact but exhibit marked "rippling." I would consider them to be in GOOD-VG condition. The remaining lithos are smoothly adhered to their underlying surface and are brightly colored. I would rate them as being in EXC--EXC++- condition. Identified "imperfections" consist of the following:
1. A couple of pin-head size rubs on top of the cat litho and above the cat's head on the wooden frame of the barn;
2. Some soiling, punctuated by a few light, brown stains on the sky and grass lithos to the right of the barn; while I may be able to alleviate some of the soiling, the three, small stains appear to be here to stay; one of these stains is to the left of the apple tree and the other two are near the farmer's hand that is driving the tractor; and
3. Several light brown stains on the underlying apple tree litho; I doubt whether these will come off during the cleaning process; the same litho also shows a few horizontal bubbles.
The back of the puzzle has printed on it: Made in Holland for Fisher-Price Toys copyright 1971-1972 The Quaker Oats Co. The back of the puzzle is free of any marks, "dings," or chips. There are, however, a few, faint scratches and a couple of pin-head size "spots" on the back of the puzzle.
This is a durable puzzle and one that would delight a beginning FP collector or some lucky child.
This puzzle weighs 14 oz. UNWRAPPED. My location is Lafayette, IN 47905. I will be swaddling this puzzle in bubble wrap and shipping it inside a protective box.
