The Fisher Price Little People have been around since 1959. There were similar models used before 1959 that had a “proto-Little-People” look to them. Fisher Price Little People are simple, small people who used to be made all of wood. In the mid 1960s the Little People had plastic peg-shaped bodies and wooden heads.
The Fisher Price Little People of today look somewhat different, because they have to meet more rigorous safety standards. The original Little People, though they changed over the years, went out of production in 1990.
Since that time, the Fisher Price Little People were made over into chunky little people. While they are about the same height as the older models, they are much bigger around for safety reasons. The Chunky People (as they are often called) have more facial detail than the old ones, in which each head was a sphere with dots for eyes and a line for a mouth.
In 1997, Fisher Price introduced a new kind of Little People: Articulated Little People. They don’t look much like the original Little People (or the Chunky People for that matter) because they are articulated (meaning their arms and legs can be moved at the joints).
The 1959 Fisher Price Safety School Bus was the first official Little People toy. It contained six Little People that could be removed from the bus. The driver had to remain in his seat, however. Since their debut in 1959, Fisher Price has made over 80 different animals to go with the Little People. The Little People Farm from 1968 was one of the must-have toys for that year. It retailed for $9.99. Since 1959, more than 1.5 billion Little People have been made.
While there are countless numbers of little kids who love their modern chunky people, there are also plenty of older folks who collect the wooden and wood/plastic Little People of the 1960s and 1970s.
Check out for some vintage little people: