Littlest Pet Shop (acronym “LPS”) 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)
Several Video Games have also been made of the toyline as well:
- Littlest Pet Shop Biggest Adventure (Plug n’ Play)
- Littlest Pet Shop (Nintendo DS and Wii, 2008)
- Littlest Pet Shop: Friends (Nintendo DS and Wii, 2009)
- Littlest Pet Shop 3: Biggest Stars (Nintendo DS, 2010)
It’s important to note that LPS have formed a subsection on YouTube called “LPSTube.” On there, people make series, skits, vlogs, and short films with the toys. LPSTube is so big, a con is held annually.
Notable examples of LPSTube are...
- 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:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In 2010–2011, Blythe has various hair colors depending on the dolls that were released, though in the webisodes her hair is blonde for most of them (being red in webisode “Pets on the Go”). In the 2012 show, she is brunette.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: While not technically a sequel, the soft-reboot that was G4 (or G3 depending on who you ask) had a radically different look and plastic quality compared to previous generations, with softer plastics and exaggerated, almost Animesque designs. Funnily enough, there was a series of Limited Edition pets in G2 that were designed after mod styles that bear a striking resemblance to G4 pets.
- Ambiguous Gender: Majority of the G2 (2000s-early 2010s era) LPS are genderless, with some appearing more feminine than others.
- Animal Gender-Bender: The peacocks are all seemingly intended to be female, yet have the fancy, colorful characteristics of males.
- 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.
- Blush Sticker: Almost all of the baby characters released in 2012 incorporate these.
- Canon Immigrant:
Blythe was originally a completely unrelated fashion doll released by Kenner in the early 70s. She only lasted for a year or so, but wound up attaining a following in Japan, leading to Takara releasing new dolls (under license from business partner Hasbro, who'd inherited the rights via Kenner) in the 2000s. Hasbro themselves eventually began releasing collector-oriented dolls in the mid-00s before introducing a modified version into the LPS line. - Early-Installment Weirdness:
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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 feminine appearance. Spinoffs like the mommy and baby, Blythe dolls, glitter, and fairies pretty much drove away any boys from the franchise.
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- Friend to All Living Things: Blythe, both from the pre-show Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop sets and the 2012 show. In the former she is a pet-sitter who takes care of just about any animal, even pets considered wild animals, and the latter depicts her as working at Littlest Pet Shop and taking care of the Day Campers.
- 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 feminine appearance far outnumber the masculine 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.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Every single pet. Absolutely every single one of them is an absolutely adorable critter.
- Talking Animal: In most media, the pets have the ability to talk.
- Technicolor Eyes: A lot of early pets in G1 (or for some people, the early years of G2) had purplish-pinkish irises. (e.g. #84, Huskies #37-39)
- Token Human: The Blythe dolls.
- Tuft of Head Fur: A lot of pets, including longhair cats, bees, “wolf-cats”/Maine Coons, foxes, and the like, incorporate tufts of hair on their heads.
- Virtual Pet: In 2007, Hasbro released a line of handheld Littlest Pet Shop digital pets similar to the Tamagotchi toys.
- Visual Pun: The Dandelion Fairy from the Fairies spinoff is of course based on dandelions, and at the same time resembles a lion.
- 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.
