Sylvanian Families Frustration

[Ragamuffin]

I'm American, I'm stuck with Calico Critters. And I just want to say: I hate all the houses we get. All we get are the same old red-and-white houses and add-ons to said houses. The layouts are all so boring. I know that's what everyone is getting right now but that's what I'm stuck with since all the sellers aren't American and shipping is expensive.

I've been looking at vintage/retired houses that were UK/Japan-exclusive and WOW they are so much better. Variety in colour, layout, shapes, you name it. All different kinds. They're also... much more expensive. I really wanted the Hillcrest house but it doesn't look like it would fit a lot of furniture in it. My current loves are the Larchwood Lodge and the Woodland Lodge (but I don't love it enough to spend $300+ on it...).

I guess I'm just ranting into the void right now because a lot of people here don't collect Sylvanian Families, and it might seem useless to ask, but does anyone know of anything that can fit Sylvanians? I don't like Woodzeez either. I know that there's dollhouse kits on Amazon and such but they never seem to be the right scale.

Results on Google say they're 1:16 but I can NEVER seem to find kits/houses that are actually that scale. Searching "1:16 dollhouse" on eBay is more successful, but Amazon only wants to show me 1:12 scale things. Ugh.

[Carrehz]

If it helps, SF houses seem to be starting to go the same way here in the UK, too.

I miss the good old days of SF, before Epoch took over the line worldwide. Back when Flair were handling the UK side and International Playthings were handling the US, we seemed to get more variety.. whereas Epoch... I dunno, I get the feeling they don't "get" what a lot of western collectors like about the line.

[Ragamuffin]

If it helps, SF houses seem to be starting to go the same way here in the UK, too.

I miss the good old days of SF, before Epoch took over the line worldwide. Back when Flair were handling the UK side and International Playthings were handling the US, we seemed to get more variety.. whereas Epoch... I dunno, I get the feeling they don't "get" what a lot of western collectors like about the line.

I'm a new collector so I don't know about the "good old days" first-hand. But something I'd like to see again that they used to do is to make the animals look like what they're supposed to be! Right now everything has a "teddy bear" face, and it all looks boring. The Splashy Otters will never have anything on the original otters/ermines. And don't get me started on the deer. They're cute, yes. Do they look like deer? They look like dogs. The old reindeer though? Amazing. The dad is so handsome and he's so high on my want list.

Poodles are some of my favourite dogs, but the toy poodles look more like King Charles spaniels. I love dogs with long, pointy noses, and they got rid of that in favour of a teddy bear face.

I guess that's one of the reasons why I'm primarily a cat collector. My cat lady-ness aside, you can't really get a cat wrong. You can get pigs wrong, though. You can get a dog mold and paint nostrils on them...

Forest Families have good variety. I'd LOVE to see more animals in the mix that aren't just rabbits and cats and dogs. It took SF so long to bring in a lion... why not a tiger family? We have monkeys and elephants, it's not like they're too exotic or anything. And horses, since we have pigs and cows? That might be "too weird" because of the horse riding playsets they released but come on!

[Carrehz]

Yes, that's my problem, too! They're too "kawaii" these days. And don't get me wrong, I like kawaii stuff... but that's not what I liked about SFs, you know? I preferred when they had more of that rustic/country/old-fashioned feel to them.

I guess maybe the cutesy/stylized stuff sells better in Japan, and that's fair enough, but that's where I think the different distributors for different countries worked well. Sometimes things would get adjusted for the different releases. Like the kangaroos, the JP release was very stylized whereas the Flair release were totally different, less cutesy. (Although I admit I actually prefer the JP release... But that's what I mean, I liked having the different options, that way there was something for everyone.)

I'm a cat collector, too ^^ and oooh, do NOT get me started on the Pigglywinks...!

I remember hearing that they were considering a horse family a few years ago... IIRC they gave out a poll with a list of species at a Japanese toy fair a few years ago, and horses were one of them (the only other one I can recall is Shiba Inu dogs, which they did make this year). So hopefully we'll get them eventually. I agree, it'd be nice for them to branch out more. Epoch seem to be kind of resistant to going past the same few species... remember the monkeys were originally just exchange students, I think it was Flair that first released them as a proper family (ditto the elephants, I think?) and then Epoch just followed suit. I get that they probably want to stick mostly to forest animals, but something different every now and then would be nice!

[Broken Irishwoman]

I don't have anything useful to say about the houses as I don't collect those, but I do agree with the teddybear/kawaii thing, very much.

I'm also a new collector, and while I love many of the animals that are out now, there are some that I just don't understand. The mice, especially! I really really really don't like the Marshmallow family, they look awfully fake to me. Now and then I stare at pictures of older mice with pain in my heart because they are so much lovelier. I mean these for example:

Spoiler

Not my picture, I saved it from Google so I'm not sure where it comes from, I'm sorry!

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I do have the Marshmallow triplets because I do love those, but it's not the same. I also managed to get my hands on a "new face" brown mouse family, and while they are not the same as the old mice, at least they look like mice!

[Ragamuffin]

Almost looks like one of the dormice, which are my favourite SF mice probably... I love their ears!

[Broken Irishwoman]

Yes, they are adorable! I'm not sure what family or line this mouse belongs too, I don't know that much yet about the older families. I don't have any older animals yet either. I have fallen in love with them though, I spotted some adorable moles and ducks... If only they would make those again!

[Carrehz]

That's the Meadows harvest mouse dad I love that family. The mice are so cute, especially the older ones. The new ones are nice (the Marshmallow triplets have to be some of my all-time favourite SFs), but they're just not the same.

[Broken Irishwoman]

Ah thanks for the name, that's nice to know! Makes it easier to look for them.