The Amazing, Wonderful Toy Machine

Family Farm is a game that makes me happy.  I love to plant and harvest Crops and Flower.  I love to watch my Trees mature to bear fruit or nuts.  Although, like Tolkien, there is a part of me that is Luddite in nature, I do enjoy some of the machines.  In particular, I love the machines that make pretty things.  I like the Weaver and the Hat Machine but one of my very favourite Macines is the Toy Maker.

The Toy Maker once was the Teddy Bear Machine and simply made Red Teddy Bears or Blue Teddy Bears using Alpaca Hair and Wool.  It then was revised to embrace a myriad of different yarns and feathers and became the Toy Maker.

It is a single ingredient machine which means that one needs only one Item to produce any product.  The list of items it will produce is quite amazing:

Red Teddy Bear: 77 Coins
  Uses Wool from Sheep
  Feed Sheep Wheat

Blue Teddy Bear: 105 Coins
  Uses Angora Hair
  Feed ordinary Rabbits Carrots to produce Angora Hair

Alpaca Toy: 214 Coins
  Uses Alpaca Hair
  Feed Alpaca Lettuce to produce Alpaca Hair

Rabbit Toy: 119 Coins
  Uses Fuzzy Rabbit Fur
  Feed Fuzzy Rabbit Carrot

Witch Bunny Toy: 180 Coins
  Uses Witch Bunny Fur
  Feed Witch Bunny Enchanted Carrot to produce the Fur

Parrot Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Parrot Feathers
  Feed Parrot Walnut to produce Feathers

Stork Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Stork Feather
  Feed Stork Shrimp to produce Feathers

Scarecrow Toy: 25 Coins
  Uses Rubber from the Rubber Tree

Swan Toy: 65 Coins
  Uses Swan Feather
  Feed Swan Daisy to produce Swan Feathers

Camel Toy: 213 Coins
  Uses Camel Hair
  Feed Camel Nitraria to produce Camel Hair

Silky Chicken Toy: 129 Coins
  Uses Silky Chicken Feather
  Feed Silky Chicken Corn to produce the Feathers

Glow Horse Toy: 120 Coins
  Uses Glow Horse Hair
  Feed Glow Horse Carrot

 Golden Boa Snake Toy: 114 Coins
  Uses Golden Boa Snake Skin
  Feed Golden Boa Snake Bird Eggs

Raccoon Toy: 34 Coins
  Uses Raccoon Fur
  Feed Raccoon Walnut

Penguin Toy: 44 Coins
  Uses Penguin Feather
  Feed Penguin Salmon
  N.B.  This is the Salmon caught in a Bear Habitat when Bears are fed with Honey

Owl Toy: 206 Coins
  Uses Owl Feather
  Feed Owls Mole Meat

Wolf Toy: 175 Coins
  Uses Wolf Fur
  Feed Wolf Rooster Meat


Beaver Toy: 165 Coins
  Uses Beaver Fur


White Raccoon Toy: 34 Coins
  Produced from White Raccoon Fur

Flamingo Toy: 22 Coins
  Uses Flamingo Feather
  Feed Flamingo Blue-Green Algae from Algae Pond

Shelduck Toy: 85 Coins
  Uses Shelduck Feather
  Feed Shelduck Wheat

Cheerleading Poodle Toy: 38 Coins
  Uses Pom Pom
  Feed Cheerleading Poodle Beef

Armadillo Toy: 140 Coins
  Uses Armadillo Armour
  Feed Armadillo Bird Egg

White Parrot Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses White Parrot Feather
  Feed White Parrot Walnut

Zebra Toy: 36 Coins
   Uses Zebra Print
  Feed Zebra Pasture

Puffin Toy: 40 Coins
  Uses Puffin Feather
  Feed Puffin Salmon

Heron Toy: 50 Coins
  Uses Heron Feather
  Feed Heron Firefly




I was prompted to access my Toy Maker and the list of Items it produced by the acquisition of the new Raccoon Habitat as the final Reward for 'Darryl's Pipe Dream'.  I had hoped to find Raccoon Fur had been added to the list to produce little Raccoon Toys.  In fact, as of January 2014, there are three new Toys, including a Raccoon Toy!

The Marzipan Machine and traditions of Yuletide

I personally love the fact that Family Farm incorporates regional traditions in its Quests and Missions.  The most recent time-restricted Quest is that of 'Darryl's Pipe Dream'.  It involves Black Peter in the form of Zwarte Piet and the White Horse Amerigo.  This is not the first Quest to be centred on the White Horse that usually is the property of St. Nicholas himself and not his companion Black Peter.

A very close friend of mine from Germany, now deceased, remembered Black Peter from his childhood and sent me a copy of a book of poems about the character.  He had hunted down a reproduction of a very old, formerly out-of-print book in order to renew his own acquaintance with the tradition.  Both he and I were rather astounded by the actions of Black Peter towards the naughty boys and girls at Yuletide.  One poem involved the consumption of children's fingers!

Cannibalism is not a rare topic in folktales and fairytales.  Every one is familiar with the tale of Hansel and Gretel and the Witch who fattens them in a cage in order to make a feast of them.  Their ultimate revenge is to shut her inside her own oven.  The whole business of cannibalism is related to ancient rites of fertility, of making grand sacrifices in order to bring fertility to the soil.   'The Golden Bough' includes an entire chapter on human sacrifice.  It originally was more of a barter system that anything else.  Crops and Animals were considered to be as valuable as human beings and the sacrifice to the land of the latter was the price paid to gain a good harvest and have good hunting.

In any event, part of the new Quest is the placement, completion and use of a Marzipan Machine.  It is a delightful little machine with the figure of a toy duck upon it.  Almond Flour, added to the list of Flour types that the Mill can grind some months ago, is one of two ingredients that make Marzipan.  It is the second ingredient that determines the type of Marzipan that is produced.

The types of Marzipan are:

Marzipan Pig Candy: 89 Coins
  Made with Lychees
Marzipan Koala Candy: 128 Coins
  Made with Chocolate
Marzipan Cow Candy: 86 Coins
  Made with White Chocolate
Marzipan Frog Candy: 85 Coins
  Made with Lime
Marzipan Duck Candy: 78 Coins
  Made with Pears
Marzipan Hippo Candy: 150 Coins
  Made with Blueberries

Being a Good Neighbour

There is a political controversy of some magnitude with respect to this topic.  Some players believe that a good neighbour is one who regularly sends Gifts, visits the farms of his/her Neighbours and responds to all requests in a timely manner.  There are others, however, who become EXTREMELY CROSS with Neighbours who send unrequested items such as Special Delivery Boxes or even the item that is worth 30 OP if they did not request any such item.

The fact of the matter is that there may be a limit to the number of items any single Neighbour can receive on any given day.  If you send the Neighbour an item he/she did NOT request, any actual request he/she made may not reach you.  This is important usually if a Quest/Mission requires a specific Item that only can be obtained through Neighbour Requests or if the player needs to complete a building project and needs specific materials.

This situation may be determined by the number of Neighbours that a player has.  I have been able to request an Item from a Neighbour and receive not only THAT item but the one he/she sent unrequested on the same day.  Furthermore, I have been able to receive a Special Delivery Box from that player as well.  I have few Neighbours, however, compared to Players with over a thousand.    Initially I had posted that the number of items any signle Neighbour can send to another specific Neighbour on a given day was limited but I changed that to declare there was a limit to the number of Items a Farmer could RECEIVE on any given day.

It is interesting to note that the Players who complain of unrequested Gifts tend to be at very high levels and have significant numbers of Neighbours.  I would be interested in the experiences of other lower level players like me who did not appear to have the same problems.

The game itself may encourage you to send 'free gifts' to all your Neighbours as well as 50 Special Delivery Boxes to a random group of Neighbours.  If you do not know that the Item you send in effect may replace an Item that your Neighbour actually may have requested, you may be considered a less than sterling Neighbour by players who fail to receive the Items they need.

On the other hand, as previously indicated, the Players who shun and avoid Neighbours who send gifts to every one usually are those at very high levels with over one thousand Neighbours.  Most of us are not at those elevated heights and the number of Players who will delete you as a Friend simply because you sent an unrequested Gift are in the minority!

Soutions with Respect to lack of Space on your Farm

Any farming game I ever played on Facebook presented ongoing problems with respect to the amount of space allotted to the player.  Essentially, one of the goals of the producers of any 'free' game is to persuade players to invest real money in the game at every possible opportunity.  Special items that can be obtained only with 'premium' cash are one method by which players are induced to spend money.   A more subtle method is to offer new free options in the form of buildings, decorations and other items.  Invariably, there is insufficient space on the original farm to place all of these.  The player then either must sell or otherwise rid himself/herself of some of the existing items on the farm or EXPAND the farm.  The need to make Farm Expansions in order to accommodate new options probably is the most successful marketing ploy in any farming simulation game. 

Family Farm is no exception in this respect.  Although it is one of the few farming simulation games that actually GIVES players premium cash on a regular basis as a reward for logging into the game daily, the constant release of new animals, machines and crafting buildings, not to mention decorations, make it very difficult for any serious player to resist the lure of a farm expansion or two... or three.

Farm expansions can be purchased with Coins as well as premium cash in the form of RC but the ability to do so is limited by the player's own experience Level.  As his/her experience Level increases, the ability to pay for more Farm Expansions with coins will be unlocked but of course, the amount of Coins required will increase with each expansion as does the amount of RC required for the same expansion.

Veteran players avidly watch for sales on farm expansions.  One usually can see an announcement of a reduction in the price of any expansion on the margin of the Farm itself.  20% reductions in price are the usual sale that is offered and it usually will last for two days.  Reductions in the price of premium cash are offered at least once every month as well.  Again, the veteran player will purchase his/her premium cash at the sale price, then wait for the land expansion sale before expanding his/her Farm.

Apart from Farm expansions, however, there are some ways to conserve space within the game itself.  The Warehouse, the Tree Storehouse and the Animal House are different ways by which space can be made on the Farm.

The Warehouse is purely a storage building, but it can house Animals, Buildings, Machines and Decorations.  It will not accommodate Trees.  The Tree Storehouse is another storage option that is restricted to Trees.  Obviously both buildings must be placed on the Farm but ultimately, they do free space on the Farm.  In particular, the Warehouse can be upgraded to house more Items.  At Level 13, for example, it can house a total of 140 Items

The Animal House is a fairly new option in Family Farm and it differs from the Warehouse and Tree Storehouse insofar as it is an 'active' building where Animals can be housed and yet used at the same time.  In fact, it is a very useful option as it allows automatic collection of products from the Animals placed within its precinct.  The essential difference between automatic collections from an
Animal housed in the Animal House and the same Animal placed on the Farm is the requirement of Gasoline to trade for 'Time Points' for the Animal House collection and OP for any Animal on the Farm.  Another difference is the ability to choose the price number of products one wishes to collect from any Animal in the Animal House.  If one chooses the automatic option for any Animal or Machine on the Farm, the mechanism will continue until one shuts it off manually, one exhausts all OP or one exhausts the material or materials required to produce the product.  In this sense, the Animal House is far superior, provided always that one has sufficient Gasoline to trade for 'Time Points' to use for the production.

OP or Operation Points sometimes are confusing to a new player.  One acquires them in a number of different ways.  OP can be given as a Reward for completing a Quest.  One can trade Items from the Gift Box for OP as well.  Materials that are used to build Machines as well as unused Items requested from neighbours for Quests can be traded for OP.  One of the most profitable trades is that of the Sail, a material used to complete construction of a Brick Mill.  Often Farmers will request Sails from their Neighbours because one Sail can be traded for 30 OP while all other materials or items can be traded for a maximum of 10 OP.