Littlest Pet Shop is a long-running toy line that began in 1992 featuring miniature animals that children can "adopt." The toyline, which was originally produced by Kenner and later fell under the wing of said company's eventual purchaser Hasbro. It’s a bit of a debate exactly how many generations of pets there are, but the most commonly accepted one is currently five. There was also a Spinoff called Fairies that took the appearance of the generation two pets.
The toys have also spun off four Animated Shows:
- Littlest Pet Shop (1995) (Generation one)
- Littlest Pet Shop Presents (Generation two)
- Littlest Pet Shop (2012) (Generation three)
- Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own (Generation four)
It’s important to note that LPS have formed a subsection on YouTube called “LPSTube.” On there, people (the most popular ones being teenage girls and young adult women) make series, skits, vlogs, and short films with the toys. LPSTube is so big, a con is held annually.
- CSILPS, a Cop Show about a CSI team fighting crime.
- LPS: Popular, a series about two girls in high school striving for popularity.
- Mermaid Memories, a series about a mermaid princess trying to adjust to the "human" world.
This toy line contains examples of:
- Animated Adaptation: It has three animated TV shows, the first of which premiered in 1995. Special mention also goes to the webisodes created right before the second TV show.
- Early Installment Weirdness:
- The first generation was produced by Kenner while all others have been produced by Hasbro.
- The first generation and the start of generation two stuck exclusively to natural animal designs. It wasn’t until Hasbro started running out of ideas that the Amazing Technicolor Population and such started.
- While the toy line’s main audience was always girls, it used to be much more gender neutral. When the toys exploded in popularity with the 2005 relaunch, Hasbro noticed the vast majority of its consumers were female. Pink and purple became more prominent and most of the toys started to have a female appearance. Spinoffs like the mommy and baby, Blythe dolls, glitter, and fairies pretty much drove away any boys from the franchise.
- Hollywood Chameleons: One of the original pets from the 1990's was a chameleon with the ability to change color via temperature sensitivity.
- Improbably Female Cast: Pets with a female appearance far outnumber the male ones.
- Later Installment Weirdness: For the generation two pets. Hasbro started experimenting with the pets in the 2010s. At first it was relatively minor stuff like glitter and fur, but it started to get ridiculous with them adding mechanical pets that could walk, dance, or even light up. The generation was discontinued shortly after that, meaning those types of pets were the last generation two pets ever released.
- Licensed Game: The series has several made for different consoles such as the Nintendo DS and Wii.
- Virtual Pet: In 2007, Hasbro released a line of handheld Littlest Pet Shop digital pets similar to the Tamagotchi toys.
- Worm in an Apple: There's a 2-pack in the G3 collection that contains an inchworm (#1443) and a pigeon (#1442). Included in the 2-pack is a hollow apple for the inchworm to hang out in.
