Little Tikes Cube and Slide

Someone local had this classic Little Tikes for sale last week:

As you can see that is a screen shot of my phone. I saw it pop up online and quickly sent it to the husband to see if he thought we should snag it because Little Tikes toys tend to go quickly. He said to claim it, so I did. It was in decent condition but the sun faded colors were just not speaking to me. The kiddos and I headed over to Home Depot and grabbed some spray paint made for plastic, including some primer. 

I picked out orange and teal to make it a Miami Dolphins colored theme as I knew that would make the husband happy. Before I could get painting though I sprayed it down and got all of the dirt and grime off of it and dried it off completely. Sanding it would probably have been a good next step but I just went right to primer. I used the Rust-oleum brand. 

In the process of priming

After I finished priming the pieces I moved on to the rest of the painting. I grabbed some really old work towels and threw them on the ground to spray paint the pieces on. I thought I'd just need one can of each, but ended up needing two of each so half way through the project I had to go back to the store only to find out that I had taken the last of the teal color and they needed or order more. 

After finally getting each part painted and dried we put it all back together. This is where it got frustrating. The pieces fit so tightly together that the pieces have no choice but to rub and in the process scrap some of the paint off. We'll have to see if we can see if we can touch it up or if it's even worth it. We will probably let her play in it for a little while and see if the paint naturally chips off and if it does I'm not going to bother touching it up - but if it holds up I'll touch up those spots. 

So my verdict? It wasn't the best project I've done. It took more paint than I thought that it would and because paint and plastic do not mix that well (even though it says it's made for plastic...) It does still look better than the ugly faded colors that it was but it isn't perfect and I completely expect that with use it will eventually look worn. That said, I do like it and it does the job. 
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