Sunday, March 10, 2013

Vinyl 1970 Mod Playhouse by Ideal


It is sunny and feeling like spring, so I decided to take a new mini acquisition outdoors. This vintage vinyl playhouse, made by Ideal in 1970, made its way into my collection for $22, purchased on eBay.

I wasn't looking for this type of house, and I don't imagine I will use it that often, but it is a cool piece of history! In terms of scale, I'd say it is closest to 1:24. My Lundby furniture was too large (except I did leave the patio set), so I used my Paul MacAlister pieces.





 











The house was advertised in the 1970 Sears catalog as "Modern House with Fireplace" and sold for $5.99. It came with a set of molded plastic furniture (looking very much like Petite Princess), and a family was sold separately.

Courtesy of wishbookweb, p. 575 of Sears 1970 catalog
Ideal made a range of vinyl houses in the 1960s and 70s, such as the traditional "Colonial Mansion," made for the Petite Princess line of furnishings:
Photo by Gina2424
You can see more Petite Princess eye candy in this Flickr group pool. One contributor to the pool even made a 1:144 scale version of the vinyl house!

Photo by Vixie Vaporous
It looks like Ideal made other versions of the Modern house, like this one currently up for sale on Etsy:


I'd say it's more psychedelic than mine! Do share if you know anything more!

Credits: All the furnishings are by Paul MacAlister, with the exception of the TOMY planter and Lundby patio set. Accessories are Re-ment and dollhouse show finds.

The time it took me: 33 minutes

14 comments:

  1. Oooo the drift wood branch across the fireplace reminds me of my parents house in Southern California. Neat houses. CM

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    1. Cool!! I do like the fireplace element the best.

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  2. I was just reading about the "Ideal" Furniture/Dollhouse in an old issue of Nutshell News :P Very cool, love that hippy vibe!
    Ruth

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    1. Neat, Ruth! What issue? I might be interested to check it out :)

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  3. Huh. Well I'll be. Vinyl playhouse. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought to add that to my collection, but your Paul MacAlister REALLY works well in it. What a cool piece of history! (One of these your going to have turn your collection into a dollhouse museum). :P

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    1. I know, I know, me either! I was captivated by the low price and fireplace. And as soon as I unboxed it, I had a feeling the MacAlister pieces would be the only fit :) I like using them! I finally organized them into their own little storage box too.

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  4. LOVE THIS!!! Hope you don't mind, I'm going to post a link to this on the Retro Renovation facebook page! The crew over there will adore it!! Killer find!!

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    1. Of course, thanks! I wasn't aware of that FB page -- it's terrific! Sorry about the trouble you had with the image...it is a buggy Blogger thing. I added another image :)

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  5. I now want one of these more than life itself. OMG.

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    1. It's sweet and small, too! Easy to store, easy to love ;)

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  6. What a lovely house! I have never seen vinyl houses before. Those outdoor furniture looks like the swedish "Grytthyttan möbler", they fit right in here.

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    1. Hi, Hannah! Yes, the outdoor furniture is made by Lundby, a Swedish company, so it is indeed inspired by the real thing! :)

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  7. I never thought a vinyl dollhouse could look so stinkin' cute!!!! It looks awesome!!

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    1. It is pretty stinkin' cute! And portable! :)

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