Looking for tiny plastic toy shoes

February 26, 2007 7:52 AM

Please help me find lots of tiny plastic toy shoes.

I am looking for approximately one gross (144) of small plastic toy shoes. They should be brown men's dress shoes (or loafers) and sized to fit Ken or G.I. Joe. Monopoly token sized is also good. If they come in other colors, I can spray paint them brown.
For example: link, except cheaper, non-vintage, off-brand, out of package, not on eBay and all brown. I want to get my hands on them within 10 days.
I've tried google, froogle and a few toy importer/distributors (US Toy, Oriental Trading, Kipp Bros) but no one seems to carry them. The closest I've found are baby shower favors shaped like booties, and those are too big and don't look right. I have faith in you, O Hive Mind.

posted by leapfrog to shopping (12 comments total)

This company (they have live chat) makes tiny men's shoes and boots. There are action figure shoes for sale here, although I'm not sure if you can buy them in bulk or just individually. Questions - do the shoes all have to be the same, and do they have to be plastic?
posted by iconomy at 8:12 AM on February 26, 2007

They don't have to be identical, or even matched pairs, nor do they need to be plastic. They do need to be inexpensive (under $.20USD/shoe ) and available within 10-12 days. If they aren't brown, they will need to be some material that can take paint so that I can make them brown.
posted by leapfrog at 8:20 AM on February 26, 2007

Also, if they are mismatched, they do all need to look like men's dress shoes or loafters.
posted by leapfrog at 8:22 AM on February 26, 2007

I'd try Archie McPhee. If you don't see what you're looking for on the web site, give them a call—they just might have a few gross of small plastic brown shoes lying around. Seriously.
posted by king walnut at 8:40 AM on February 26, 2007

If you're still having problems finding what you're looking for, I would make a call to Archie McPhee's in Seattle. They have a very very large assortment of odd things, and a huge collection of tiny (and cheap!) plastic things, more than you can imagine. I can't image they wouldn't have tiny shoes. Also note that most of their stuff isn't shown on the website, so you'd definitely want to talk to a staff member. At the very least, it can't hurt to call, and you might just luck out. Note - their retail store phone # is apparently [phone], which is a completely different # than their online order line.
posted by cgg at 8:41 AM on February 26, 2007

Phone Oriental Trading Company about items not in their catalog. They sell in bulk volumes and are considerably cheaper than Archie McPhee.
posted by ardgedee at 9:11 AM on February 26, 2007

*heh* Although it doesn't tell you where to get them, this reminds me of the now closed F.A.O. Schwartz in San Francisco (and I think there's one in Chicago that's still open) that had these ENORMOUS water towers in the Barbie section of the store filled with Barbie shoes. :) The water flowed through them moving the shoes around in a circular top to bottom motion. It was very neat. You would have been able to get pile of them when the one in SF closed and they tore down the towers.
posted by smallerdemon at 9:35 AM on February 26, 2007

Somewhere that sells those miniatures for Mexican nichos would be perfect. Like this, but they don't have the right shoes.
posted by barometer at 9:53 AM on February 26, 2007

Have you tried googling "shoe charms?" I've seen many, many shoe charms - they'll have a loop on them, not sure if that matters.
posted by agregoli at 12:33 PM on February 26, 2007

Uncle Fun in Chicago has drawers full of small cheap plastic things. Try giving them a call.
posted by hydrophonic at 2:47 PM on February 26, 2007

No answers but really really curious about what you have cookin' here.
posted by Brittanie at 3:16 PM on February 26, 2007

@Brittanie:
The purpose is actually significantly less interesting than you suppose. A relative is giving a talk at an upcoming spiritual retreat and wants to give out little shoes as a reminder of one of the significant points in the talk. So, nothing ground-breaking or earth-shaking here, but it means a lot to the aforementioned relative. After exhaustive googling, I thought, "Maybe MetaFilter knows where I can find some small shoes." Nothing yet, but I have some calls yet to make.
posted by leapfrog at 8:00 AM on February 27, 2007