Does anyone like Calico Critters or Sylvanian Families?

Post Reply New Topic

I was born some time after the Sylvanian Families came out ( born in '92) but when I learned that they were being re-released as Calico Critters about a year ago, I became interested in them. I bought a pair of two CC baby bunnies a couple years ago.

My therapist has a big collection of Calico Critters (she has the dogs, the cats, and the squirrels) and she gave me the little Fisher Cat doll I carry with me everywhere, Miss Important.

After she gave me Miss Important, I worried that maybe she was lonely, so I bought the Fisher Cat twins, Eddie and Michelle. I bought another baby bunny. This past summer, I also found a couple of Calico Critters plushies - a bunny and a bear. I never expected to find the CC bear I plush where I did; a Tuesday Morning store near my house.

...And tonight, I bought my first family set of Calico Critters dolls: The Caramel Cat family. I think of them as Miss Important's extended family. The family sets are more expensive than the little twin and triplet baby sets, so I held off on buying a family set for awhile. However, I was at the mall tonight where there was a little toy shop that has CC's, and thought to myself, "tonight's the night I'm getting a family set!"



Does anyone else like or collect Calico Critters, or used to collect Sylvanian Families?

Thanks for creating this thread! Lately I have been wanting to start collecting something besides My Little Ponies, and I have also had trouble deciding what I want for my birthday this year. Calico Critters may be just the thing I have been looking for. I will have to do more research on them to know for sure, but this is definitely a great idea!

I don't collect them myself but it may be of some interest to note that shortly after Sylvanian Families launched, a competing toy company came out with Mapletown, you may be able to find those cheaply on Ebay

Holy crap. I've spent the past couple of hours looking at these adorable critters and... they are so precious that I feel like I'm going to start crying!

What's kind of weird is that even though I have never had a desire to have children IRL, I totally want the baby ones. I have this idea brewing in my head about buying a boatload of the baby cats and a couple of nursery sets and having my own kitty nursery!

I love them, they are one of my obsessive interests which comes and goes in intensity but generally I do like them very much. When I was a kid my parents wouldn't let me have them. I guess because I'm a man and I feel I have to be 'grown up' I don't really tell anyone about it but I started collecting recently.

I have to be careful because I get carried away buying stuff online such as eBay. At the moment I just have figures, I'd like to build houses myself but I haven't done that yet. For example I think it would be really cool to make a beaver's lodge that looks like a regular lodge from the outside but is like a cosy cottage on the inside.

My favourites at the moment are the red pandas which I had to get from Japan as they are sold out in the UK. I'd like to make a tree house style home for them. I also like the new model for koalas which I think is only available in Japan. They look much better than before.

I don't like the horses that they make, i think that's kind of inconsistant. Also some of the animals aren't very well done like penguins, deer and some others.

I really want to start collecting Sylvanian Families (They are still known as Sylvanian Families all over the world other than America) but I can't afford to at the moment.

I'm mostly thinking of just collecting the family sets. I think they are all adorable but I've got my eye on the cat families. Like someone has aready said, I'd like to buy a few of each and mix some up. I've also decided that when I start introducing other animal families, that I may pair them up too, but they can't inter-species breed so they'd have to adopt like same-sex families (because a dog can't breed with a cat).

I also love the little bits and pieces like the food stalls and houses and chairs, but I like the idea of making my own little houses for them.

I've been looking them up obsessively for the last couple of days and I'm getting sick of just looking at them, I want to hold them! >.<! ! But like I said, I can't afford them right now... Maybe after Christmas, but that jusst feels too far away!

The families are very expensive really. Luckily I think with a bit of creativity you can make some really nice things and various miniatures and dolls house furniture can be found on eBay and they go quite well with Sylvanians. I like to use wooden objects rather than the plastic objects made especially for Sylvanians.

I even found a bunch of little tartan 'pocket' style christmas decorations at Marks and Spencer which make great sleeping bags/bedding.

I really like 'the Borrowers' too so I make my Sylvanians a bit like Borrowers, using other things for their own purposes.

I dabble in crochet so I can't wait to make some little clothes for them!

And the Borrowers idea is great! I can just imagine the little sylvanians running around the house and stealing things like toothpaste lids for cups and make up their beds in match boxes
I saw someone set up rooms in boxes, they were just adorable!

A full family set seems to usually come just under £30 so I'll probably be able to get a set every 2/3 months without worrying. My partner is NT and has no interest in collecting, he just thinks they're cheap looking and over priced... I think he's just worried I'll get bored of them after spending loads of money on them, which I can understand because I'm pretty hot and cold, but I always come back to an interest.

I don't have any interest one way or the other, but I did see on one of my Barnes & Noble coupons an offer for 20% off on all Calico Critters and instantly thought of you, OP.

I saw a TV commercial and I think Argos have them on special offer now.

EDIT: if you shop online Argos have a seven member cat family for £15.29 as well as others for less than that.