Friends as you know I’m a big fan of Mudpuppy products and have been fortunate to be able to work with them. You might remember my finger puppet princesses and flip-draw ballerinas from a little while ago.
And now they just came out with their new fall line which debuts my I Heart NYC Magnetic figures. I’m a paper doll fanatic (have been all my life) and have loved Mudpuppy’s series of magnetic figures for sometime so I was thrilled to work on these. Oh and not to mention I love fashion and NYC is one of my favorite places on earth (Jon and I lived there the first three years of our marriage) so this was loads of fun.
I had such a fun time coming up with various NYC personalites: uptown, downtown, east side, west side, business, punk rocker, fashionista, art ball, Greenwich village, Brooklyn, etc. and the clothing to go along with.
When these showed up in the mail, I have to admit that I had to sneak away for, oh about a half an hour, to play with these gals. I felt like I was transported back to my own childhood where my sisters and I would draw countless numbers of paper dolls, create lives and personalties for them, and then play with them for hours and hours. I would dream of creating these for other’s to enjoy when I grew up and now that dream has come true!
And if you want the opportunity for your little one (or yourself!) to get lost for hours with these NYC gals you’re in luck! I’m giving away a set to one lucky reader!! Just comment here and mention a favorite childhood toy or activity that you could get lost in for hours on end. And if you want to increase your odds, follow me on Instagram @mer_mag and comment their too! You have until Friday to enter the giveaway and I’ll announce the winner Monday morning.
Can’t wait to hear what childhood toys you loved getting lost in!
Oh Meri, these are so fantastic! I’d love to win these for my daughters AND me! One of my favorite things when i was a little girl was playing “on the little beach” at my grandparents house, they live on a river and when low tide came around i’d be glued to that strip of sand, digging, building castles, and just relishing the quietness.
oh what an amazing calming and relaxing memory of play. I love it!
I was a Barbie freak! Spent hours playing with them, and I didn’t stop until all my friends had and I felt peer pressure to put up the dolls. 🙂 Maybe I’ll go dig them out of the attic, because who cares what anyone thinks now?!? Ha!
I was obsessed with barbies too! my mom didn’t let us have them so when we went to friends houses we made them play with them…forever…and nothing else…
OH MY these are adorable.
I used to have a teddy bear, if you squeezed his paw he was record your speech and repeat it back to you. I absolutely loved that bear.
so sweet. my boys are crazy about their bears.
These remind me of my fashion plates set! I really adored those for a while!
ooh fashion plates! a fav of mine too! those need to come back.
These are so great! They’d be perfect as a quiet toy for church.
I would play barbies for hours! Ironically, As a mom, I won’t let my girls own barbies ever.
I love it! the “double standards” we set as moms ;). Totally our right, right? 🙂
legos where my favorite!
and barbies 🙂
great giveaway!
barbie was my most wanted in the world but in communism in Poland that wasn’t so easy. When we wanted sth we had to draw it or do it by ourselfs:) but nothing is lost:) today I can play with my daughter using so many cute things from shops and diy toys made by us:) love this set my daughter would be crazy about this magnetic set:) me as well:)
love this story Monika. making your own toys as well adds so much, doesn’t it?
sure Marrilee 🙂 during that time we were probably the first DIY community 🙂 because nothing was in shops:) kids were forced to be more creative and used to use more imagination:)
What a great giveaway! Remember spirographs and lite brite? Those were my favorites. And lincoln logs of course. Thank you for the chance!
when I was small, we did not have much money.. luckily I love doodling. so just a piece of paper and pencil and I will stay happily for hours.. and I played this dress up paper doll…similar like your giveaway but not magnetic. I would love to win this for my daughter. she would be very2 happy..
imagination is the best play tool as a child don’t you think? We didn’t have a lot of $ either and make-believe was such a vital and rewarding part of our play.
I loved Fashion Plates. I could play for hours. These look like a modern version:)
weren’t fashion plates the best!?
As a child I absolutely loved the Dover coloring books (especially the gnomes themed book). I would spend hours coloring the detailed drawings.
Dover books are so great!
Dying over these!!! They would be such a great car/church toy!
Oh, and my favorite thing to play with as a girl wasn’t a toy.. It was the empty field next to my house! We would play pirates, hide-and-seek, cats and dogs, you name it! But my favorite toys were my horse figures. I always dreamed of being a cowgirl or Indian girl depending on the day haha
we had an empty field by our house growing up too and I loved it!
I used to love our play kitchen. We would fake chop, stew and bake 🙂
fun!
Oh, sweet memories! Growing up in a socialist country in the 70s, there weren’t many toys, and most were home made. Jusr like my Kojak – a plain wooden doll my grandpa made for me.
my favorite thing to play with as a kid was my cousins. we were always together when we were young and never needed toys to have the best of times.
i would love to play with these NY magnets with my girls. they are crazy for all things paper/magnet dolls! thanks for considering us!!
oh cousins are the best aren’t they?! My boys now live close to their and I can tell that they’ve really lit up ever since we’ve been here.
I always loved dressing up my Barbie dolls so this is right up my alley.
such a great giveaway! these actually remind me a bit of the fashion plates i used to play with as a little girl. i know my daughter would love them, especially after our trip to nyc at the end of the month!
Oh have so much fun in NYC! what a fun memory for you both. Stop by Serendipity for a frozen hot chocolate. Great mother/daughter place to lunch and chat. xo Mer
My girls would live these! Growing up I loved my Lite Brite, etch-a-sketch, and Legos!
oh lite brite…such a great one
I meant my girls would *love* these. Can’t type on this phone. 🙂
Glad I’m not the only Barbie girl here! Loved playing Strawberry short cake at my friends house and Barbies at mine.
oh Strawberry Short Cake!!! A big favorite of mine too.
You are so talented! These are adorable! My daughter who is 5 dreams about going to NY to meet her pen pal Ella!!
I forgot to mention a fav child hood toy. When I was young my grandparents lived in Seattle and would burn blocks in their fireplace. They always had a basket full of them for us to play with. We would sit for hours building all sorts of things. We also didn’t have a lot I toys. We lived by a Forrest and I remember playing outside all day exploring , building forts and looking for treasures… Fun memories.
nothing can compete with playing outdoors in a forrest. so magical.
p.s today we made the geometric stamps for Imogen’s pen-pal in NY. We had a blast making all sorts of in pictures. Thank you!
how fun!
My favorites were Barbie, Liddle Kiddles & Julia dolls. As I got older it was riding my bike! Thanks for the giveaway!
oh i want them so much and wish i can order a set! but they don’t ship internationally!!!!
Your dolls are really fabulous!!! So fashionable!!! When I was a child I loved paper dolls, I still do!!! And my doughter Aurora too! Thank you for this post and for this great opportunity!!!
Love, Katia.
Those are so cute! My sister & I would play barbies for hours on end, but I perfered to play GI Joes or Ninja Turtles with my brother.
I loved playing GI Joes and Ninja Turtles with my brothers too!
I was always a sucker for Barbies, my mom used to sew clothes for them, which I enjoyed dressing them up. I also loved fashion plates, choosing different designs to see how they looked. But the one thing I could get lost in the most was playing outdoors! Oh my these magnetic dolls and the outfits look so amazing, I don’t blame you for taking time out to “play” with them 😉 You are one talented Momma!! Thanks for the chance to win;)
paper dolls, lego, mecanoo, a scandanavian wooden car, cabbage patch doll, puzzles, spirograph!
I love your cute paperdolls!
My sister and I built houses and landscapes all over the floor in our room to our barbies. We also made houses and put out blankets for the fairies we believed lived in our garden 😉
INSANELY love these little magnetic figurines! My daughter would go bananas for these! I remember how much I loved my paper dolls circa 1980’s. These are so much cutier and fancier!!!! Lovely work as usual!
Thanks Rachel! 1980’s paper dolls were pretty awesome too :).
I have to say it is split between Barbies inside my room and GI Joes in the dirt and plants outside.
it’s so fun to read how many others loved GI joe’s too! It was always a highlight when I would play with these with my brother. We’d dig trenches and fill them with water and put our guys in them. It was the best.
So cute!
I don’t know if anyone else posting here remembers the Woodsey playset by Fisher Price, but that was by far my favorite. I also was a huge fan of Strawberry Shortcake.
Thanks for the giveaway!!
I had a Cabbage Patch doll that looked similar to me & my mom used to make her clothes so we would match. I took her everywhere with me. <3
Playdoh was a huge hit with my little brother and I!
My mom made it homemade and we could request colors- which ended up being used to create outfits for our plastic animal toys while she was cooking dinner. Three cheers for parents who let their kids make messes!
oh the smell of homemade playdoh!! And I will confess that I need to let my kiddos make messes more…good reminder Maggie :).
I loved making things as a kid (still do!). If you gave me Popsicle sticks, empty boxes and some paint, I was amused for hours. I remember spending a great deal of time making dollhouse furniture out of things like empty toothpaste boxes. Love the magnetic dolls!
you’re my kind of gal Jen. Stick around here are you’ll see all the treasures we make with household “trash”. so fun! xo Mer
I used to love playing with my dolls house, creating little stories of the lives going on in there!
doll houses will always be so magical, right?!
These magnetic figures are fantastic!
I loved to play with Lego when I was little. I made large houses with colored bricks. I didn’t use the typical Lego puppets, but I rather liked to play with one of pawns of a simple board game. The red pawn was the mommy and the blue pawn the daddy. I could play with them for hours and hours.
oh legos are just the best toy invention ever, aren’t they?
My girl would love these (I would too!). One of my favorites was the activity book that came with the secret ink pen – so awesome. Also, my Charlies Angels colour-in book, my Wonder Woman sliding puzzle, and playing knuckles and elastics. I was never very good at yo-yo.
Charlies Angels, Wonder Woman! Oh the nostalgia!
These are so cute! My girls would love them! Since you posted these, the childhood activity this reminds me of is making paper dolls. My mom and I created a folder to hold the dolls and then we each drew dolls and clothes for them. We would get this project out in the time we had before school- sounds luxurious, huh? I was such an early riser and school didn’t start until 9am. I really don’t remember playing with the dolls. I think I mostly liked the drawing and creating. The fact that my mom worked by my side was pretty great too- a good reminder for me. I loved seeing her creations and was so impressed! 🙂 Thanks for helping me remember!
what a lovely story Heather. Does sound dreamy. We’re are crazy and running out the door in the morning. What a lovely thing for your mom to take some time to sit and play creatively with you. Good reminder to me as well. xo Mer
I loved knitting with my “strickliesel”.
I’ve never tried one of those before. Maybe I’ll have to invest in one for the kiddos.
I always seemed to spend more time reading and practicing piano than playing with toys, but when I did play, my favorite was always making “grocery stores” in the garage with any large cardboard boxes I could find. My mom always let me save food packaging that I could use to stock the shelves. Our 8yo would rather play with dolls and paper dolls, so these would be right up her alley!
wow, I bet you were a dream child for your parents. So great. And aren’t cardboard boxes the universal coolest toy for kids?
I think I more than made up for that earlier “dream child” thing when I hit my teen years. Yikes.
My sisters and I used to spend hours making mosaics from bread clips! You know those little plastic clips on the top of the bread bag? We had a gorgeous 1970’s purple carpet in our bedroom which was the perfect background for any design! In fact…I think my parents still have that bucket of clips….30 (ahem) years later. Might need to go dig it out…
Paper dolls, I loved them.
it’s hard to beat the tried and true paper doll, eh?
These are so cute! I loved creating “plays” and charging my family to come to my “theatre” (aka room) to experience a play which was acted out by my stuffed animals.
love this. My actor husband would appreciate it as well. My boys play “movie” all the time and they have to “pause” the movie to come eat dinner.
I used to spend hours with a pad of graph paper and colored pencils designing dream houses. My favorite was “The Donut House” which featured a round outdoor swimming pool in the circular courtyard of the circular house. Still makes me smile to think of all the hours I spent in the basement, drawing and dreaming.
so great. I’ve dreamed up circular courtyards in circular houses too!! One needs to come to fruition some day :).
I wouldnt say that I had a favorite toy but my sister and I would spend hours building forts in the woods by our house. My girls would love this.
As a child, I could draw for hours. One of my favourite games consisted of a wheel and templates and hundreds of possibilities to draw and colour little dolls with different garments and accessories. Please, count me in if the giveaway is open to Europe. Thank you and happy weekend!
Marta
that toy sounds amazing Marta!
A 5 gallon bucket of Legos! Used tobuild houses out of them. Once I had created my dream house, I’d think of a better idea and build a new one!
office/school supplies! I could play with them for Days!
I know! I still can play with them for days!
I wasn’t much for playing with any specific toy but I could do cartwheels outside on our front lawn for hours…
I think I played with dolls the most and I liked to drew as well. This magnetic set is beyond amazing, my girl would loved to win this! Thanks for the opportunity!
I loved to play with my dolls. They were hand made by my mother. Very simple and nothing special. But they were the ultimate dolls. I made from tissues all kind of dresses by myself. The remembarence are still alive with me like yesterday.
i love this! what a sweet memory.
SO EXCITED TO BE THE WINNERS ON THESE! THANKSx100!!!!!!
These are FAB!!! I used to love playing with beads ( still do!)
Fashion Plates. I loved that thing. Mixing and matching clothes and then making a rubbing of the outfit.