If the toys available to a child determine his or her interests, my kids will be Laura fans from the get-go. I’m always on a mission, it seems, to figure out how to create Little House related toys.
I’ve got a huge set of Lincoln logs that can be used to recreate Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie… complete with a train set and a tube of grasshoppers so Pa can get his job working on the railroad after the grasshoppers eat up all the crops and the story can continue on into De Smet. (Okay, just kidding about the tube of bugs. But hey, it might not be a bad idea!)
Little girls like dollhouses, right? So I’ve got one of those — a replica of the Wonderful House on Plum Creek (see, they really can act out ALL the stories!), with little Laura and Mary dolls to go with it. Had to buy modern dolls, braid the hair, and make their clothes myself, but it’ll do. What’s that? Laura and Mary didn’t wear pink and purple shoes? Pshaw, it will never be noticed from a trotting horse!
And dolls? Well, American Girl dolls are all the rage, of course, so I had to snatch up my very own Kirsten doll before she went extinct. After all, she’s the closest thing to Laura we’re gonna get.
And then there’s the old-fashioned toys that have been collected from various museum giftshops. It’s funny, as simple a concept as a Jacob’s ladder is, and yet my eight-year-old niece will play with it for hours and not get bored.
And we mustn’t forget the Radio Flyer wagon. With its canvas top to convert it into a prairie schooner, of course.
Yes, my kids are going to be set. But even I draw the line at this Little House converted toy I saw today:
I hope you all got as good a laugh out of that as I did. 
(In all honesty, if it actually LOOKED a little more like Manly, I’d be snapping it right up and would next be in search of a Laura. After all, then we could create Rocky Ridge out of Legos and finish the stories up right! Hmm, this could be my next quest after all!)
How about you? Any regular toys you’ve converted into a Laura-ish kind of toy? I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.
P.S. Okay, so I didn’t notice at first that there are actually six Little House minifigures in that set!! I’m impressed with Pa, though we’d need to paint on a beard! And Laura’s not too shabby!
Too funny!
I can’t really give any ideas for Laura-ish toys, but just want to say that I love your log cabin (as well as the covered wagon and Laura and Mary)!
I’ve asked Jim (my husband) to make me one. I guess he’ll make it when he makes my lapdesk just like Laura had that I’ve been asking for since we went to Rocky Ridge…
How very Han Soloesque Manly looks.
I didn’t have a fancy Radio Flyer, but I had some secondhand wagon with wooden slats that I valiantly attempted to make into a covered wagon whenever possible. My mom was also very game about producing bonnets and pinafores.
But Pa looks just like Michael Landon! No beard required.
I don’t think I had any Little House toys. Right about the time I was getting into LIttle House, I was, also, into She-ra and then Jem. (And one of my current friends is still jealous that I had the waterfall she never knew existed.)
If I ever have kids, they will have to do with the doll house that my mom, aunt, and I grew up playing inside. My grandfather made a scale model of their house.
I used to play dress up with friends when I was little. Had my mother’s old ’50s circle skirts and scarves. Bought a sunbonnet in Central City CO one year and the outfit was complete.
One of my LH programs now is about Pioneer toys from the time of Laura. I use my Jacob’s Ladder, a carved cow that I have, and a variety of dolls. It is a fun program. I weave in LH stories such as how Roxie was changed to Charlotte, Lena taking Laura’s doll, Carrie’s Christmas doll etc.
Laura
If we teach, we collect toys! I, too, have collected pioneer toys and those especially mentioned in the LH books. One of my favorite programs to do around Christmas time are pioneer toys and games, weaving in the story of Charlotte in the Big Woods, Prairie, Plum Creek and lovingly packed into Laura’s trunk when she marries Almanzo. Lincoln Logs and several versions of covered wagons always are fun to use for the setting. Paper dolls and various rag dolls are easy to pack and display. Several of my most popular antique toys that are not mentioned in the books are: a whimmy-diddle, a climbing bear, chopping woodsman, and a jump-rope made with spool handles. All toys are for learning grown-up jobs. Let’s hope that’s still the case!
I have a collection of rag dolls: Charlotte (which was once of the goodies the Scholastic Little House book club sent you), Laura/Ellen, Caroline, and Asha. Three out of the four of them can be seen here on my flickr photo page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/halliejox123/3330151985/
I’m pretty sure I had more rag dolls than Barbie dolls.