i deem this awesome! my cousin had one of those and loaned it to me the summer i broke a leg in a car accident. perfect hospital gift.

the framed one looks great.

Oh my god!! My sister and I loved this growing up in Taiwan. I never knew the name of them, now I must hunt it down!

those were my favorite toy when i was a kid. i think that's what lead me to being the only kindergartener saying that she wanted to be a fashion designer when she grows up!

Ah I remember those, I had one, too. But this was from the 70's because I was a kid in the 70's when I had one. What a neat idea to frame them. :)

LOL! Me too me too!!!

I still doodle clothes when bored (and increasingly floorplans)

I loved Fashion Plates. I forgot all about them until now! I'm pretty sure that it is still somewhere in my parent's house. Wow.

Oh my gosh, I spent hours making those when I was a kid! I forgot all about it!

I also had a lap "desk" that lit up so you could stencil the barbie figures and give her different outfits and all your supplies tucked into the desk. I wish I could remember more details, I was only 7 or 8.

i loved these when i was little! i think my old set is still stashed away in my parent's basement somewhere. i can't wait to visit my parents again now.

I loved this as a kid! Bring back fashion plates...but not with Bratz style clothes...please

I had also totally forgotten about these! The hours spent with this toy... Thanks for this post. :)

I loved this! I was thinking about this "toy" recently, and I would love to get it back!

oh wow i totally still have one of these in my attic! i would sit for hours as a child and play with it.

Not to date myself, but I was playing these in the late 1970's, so they have been around at least that long. The flared pants and jumpsuits are priceless, along with the hairstyles.

I loved loved loved Fashion Plates! I just e-mailed this post to my sister and girlfriends. Thanks for posting, Heather!

Heather - You just made my day by posting about this. This was one of my favorite childhood toys. Along with the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine.

one of my favorite toys! i just saw it last week going through the attic at my dad's and i almost took it back to my apartment... i'm visiting again this weekend and i think this time i will! i'm also going to go through some of my childhood artwork and find a piece to frame for my new apartment.

I, too, had forgotten how much I loved these as a child. The framed "artwork" looks wonderful!

anne-minh: me too! Fashion plates and the Snoopy Sno Cone machine were two of my favorites!

I still have my set as well; everything I clean out my closet at home, I debate briefly, then pop them back on the shelf! I love the framed version though- it might be time to break out that box...

I didn't have these - but I did have Spiro-Graph, which was a close second in terms of how much paper a child could use up in those days!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro-graph

i had this too and remember LOVING it. wish i still had mine, or at least a remnant of my fashion designs lol. Yours look great framed!

Fashion plates of the 70's RULE.

They make them still, but the newer ones aren't as cool of course.

i can't believe i forgot about these! they were such a fun toy

Oh wow. This brings back memories for me too. I had this toy as a kid and loved it. I'll be definately calling my folks to see if they still have it. My creative girls would love it too.

The plaid jumper was my favorite...I could color some mean crazy plaids back in the day!

Had it and loved it!

I LOVED these too, although I don't remember actually having them ... I think a friend or sister did. I did have and love spirograph, too, as well as my all-time fave: Lite Brite!

They still make the snoopy sno-cone machine, by the way. It takes so much work just to make one cone!

I had that exact set! But I got it in 1978 for my birthday! I loved those things...

classic genius!

What a surreal moment to be browsing AT today and seeing a picture of Fashion Plates. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about this toy I had until all the memories came flooding back. I spent hours "drawing". What great memories!!

and hundreds of at readers dash off to ebay...

i loved those things.

Wow. I had totally forgotten about these things. Very cool.

i completely agree with FC-- the name didn't ring a bell, the shape of the toy didn't ring a bell, but oh lord when i saw that pattern of her skirt and thought, "that is such a huge part of my childhood!"
i wanted to dress like every single one of these girls. i hope you can find vintage ones on ebay...
thank you !!this made my day!

I had this growing up. I wish I still had some of the drwawings, I would frame mine too.

Oh yeah, this was certainly one of my favorite toys growing up (also, in the 70's, when I had it)! I don't think I've spent as much time on the internet as I did dreaming and creating colorful rubbings of "the perfect outfit"!

Interesting how in our earliest years we know exactly what gives us joy, and if we can only use that insight to follow a dream or career path, it leads us to something we can enjoy doing every day while - getting paid!

I, too, doodled fashion concepts as well as design concepts, and am now an interior designer (with a love for fashion). They're so utterly intertwined in my opinion. I had no idea, as a child, that what I did for fun could one day be called "work"

Yay!

i forgot about these too.. i wonder if i still have them somewhere in my parents house. must.seek.out

I'm apparently too young for this but now I'm wondering if my spirograph is still around...

My friend had one of these...I always wanted one!

Great post! I totally forgot about these but loooved them as a child!

Wow, can't believe these prices on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1978-Fashion-Plates-by-Tomy-Ex-Cond_W0QQitemZ230276042162QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230276042162&_trkparms=72%3A552%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318

Apparently I had the 1978 set but played with it in the early 90s. Thank goodness for hand-me-downs!

I totally forgot about this until your post. wow...brings back good memories.

I had a New Kids On The Block set.
Way cooler.

I had one too! I can hear the jingle that went with the commercial for Fashion Plates...

It was a very dandy sounding man singing "fashion plates" in a (what I thought as a kid) very sophisticated tone...

I was in Toys R Us yesterday and a woman in her mid-50s came in and asked the gal in CS if they carry Lite Brite. She said, "Yeah, we do. It's in the games aisle but it doesn't look like the old school Lite Brite." That made me sad.

But then I saw that the new Easy Bake ovens still use a light bulb to "bake." Thank god.

I had one of these! I'd totally forgotten about it. Awesome! Now I want it back. :)

I wonder if my parents still have mine in the basement... this was one of my favorites as a kid!

I loved playing with those when I was like 10. I think the commercial went: "it's got all those fashionable traits and they call it Fashion Plates.." something like that?

I absolutely loved these as a kid.

I think my mom sold them at a garage sale. Her idea. *shakes fist at Mom*

I had mine in the early nineties so I had crappy floofy 80s gowns in mine. You guys were lucky w/ the seventies fashions. lol.

I did love it though. It's probably been given away.

I had that exact set!! Wish I still did. I found a small version online: http://store.pacifieronline.com/sch4669.html