diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py b/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
index b97f5e0b6edf9..40a942c96ea2b 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 from pandas.compat import (
-    PY3, PY36, OrderedDict, is_platform_little_endian, lmap, long, lrange,
+    PY2, PY3, PY36, OrderedDict, is_platform_little_endian, lmap, long, lrange,
     lzip, range, zip)
 
 from pandas.core.dtypes.cast import construct_1d_object_array_from_listlike
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 import pandas as pd
 from pandas import (
     Categorical, DataFrame, Index, MultiIndex, Series, Timedelta, Timestamp,
-    compat, date_range, isna)
+    _np_version_under1p13, compat, date_range, isna)
 from pandas.tests.frame.common import TestData
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
 
@@ -682,6 +682,8 @@ def test_constructor_ndarray(self):
         frame = DataFrame(['foo', 'bar'], index=[0, 1], columns=['A'])
         assert len(frame) == 2
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(PY2 and _np_version_under1p13,
+                        reason="old numpy & py2")
     def test_constructor_maskedarray(self):
         self._check_basic_constructor(ma.masked_all)
 
@@ -698,6 +700,8 @@ def test_constructor_maskedarray(self):
         frame = DataFrame(mat, columns=['A', 'B', 'C'], index=[1, 2])
         assert np.all(~np.asarray(frame == frame))
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(PY2 and _np_version_under1p13,
+                        reason="old numpy & py2")
     def test_constructor_maskedarray_nonfloat(self):
         # masked int promoted to float
         mat = ma.masked_all((2, 3), dtype=int)
@@ -765,6 +769,8 @@ def test_constructor_maskedarray_nonfloat(self):
         assert frame['A'][1] is True
         assert frame['C'][2] is False
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(PY2 and _np_version_under1p13,
+                        reason="old numpy & py2")
     def test_constructor_maskedarray_hardened(self):
         # Check numpy masked arrays with hard masks -- from GH24574
         mat_hard = ma.masked_all((2, 2), dtype=float).harden_mask()
@@ -787,6 +793,8 @@ def test_constructor_maskedarray_hardened(self):
             dtype=float)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(PY2 and _np_version_under1p13,
+                        reason="old numpy & py2")
     def test_constructor_maskedrecarray_dtype(self):
         # Ensure constructor honors dtype
         data = np.ma.array(
@@ -798,6 +806,8 @@ def test_constructor_maskedrecarray_dtype(self):
                                 columns=['date', 'price'])
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(PY2 and _np_version_under1p13,
+                        reason="old numpy & py2")
     def test_constructor_mrecarray(self):
         # Ensure mrecarray produces frame identical to dict of masked arrays
         # from GH3479