One of the many perks of being one of the “Friends of Sylvanian Families” is that I can visit many events that Epoch & Highlights PR are attending. On Tuesday 24th January I was lucky enough to tag along at The Toy Fair!

The Toy Fair, hosted by the British Toy and Hobby Association, is the only toy fair in Britain designed for companies to exhibit their toys to stockists. This means there is no entry to the general public whilst new toys are being presented, with many still in their development stage, and a ban of children aged between 5 and 15 years old. The event lasted for three days and I got to see many upcoming toys, from various different brands. I also learnt a few things about the upcoming world of Sylvania and the new UK products for 2017.

The big Sylvanian Families displays were amazing! When you arrived at the Epoch Making Toys Ltd. stand, you were greeted by a giant blue saloon car’s front, as seen in my previous blog post A Day Out With Sylvanian Families. A giant house made of cardboard contained the Aquabeads products, whilst 90cm versions of Freya Chocolate, Coco Chocolate, Ralph Walnut and a 58cm Crème Chocolate stood behind a cardboard fence outside!

Next to the house was a giant lighthouse! This model of the new product set for release during the year is super cool! I went inside and you could test the lighthouse’s light! All three filters were available to use. A blimp was also hanging beside it! My photo looks bright however lights were off inside the room to allow testing of the products.

New products for 2017 were displayed! The new products for February are:

• Fruit Wagon
• Candy Wagon
• Cakebread Poodle Family, Twins & Baby
• Nursery Friends
• Village Cake Shop
• Cake Decorating Set

Other products are to be released later in the year. These are the:

• Lighthouse
• Sky Ride Adventure
• Ballet Theatre
• Ballerina Friends
• Ice Skating Friends

Also two other products, originally believed to be exclusive to Japan by most collectors, have been announced...

Most Halloween & Christmas Sets Sylvanian Families releases are exclusive to Japan; previously Christmas sets were either UK-exclusive (those by Tomy and Flair), or several years late to the market. But the new Halloween and Christmas sets (for Japan 2016) will be released in the UK!

On the wall above the new products display, the two maps of Sylvania were displayed. I tried looking at some of the buildings I did not recognise on there. Many of the 1980s and 1990s buildings are present, so I am curious whether other images are foreshadowing future products?

Alongside this was a giant glass case containing a Sylvanian Families diorama. This contained already existing products from the shopping and seaside range, as well as houses such as the Treehouse.

A 30cm Freya Chocolate stood under a TV screen that played Sylvanian Families adverts. This was part of a shop-display shelving unit that is often seen in UK and Japanese stores. It is in the shape of a house and allows for products to be seen from both sides.

One side had all the new products presented neatly! I also noticed a Japanese version of one of the carry cases had snuck its way onto the shelf.

I got to speak to many lovely employees of Epoch and Highlights PR, and saw the CEO of Epoch around for most of the day. I learnt a lot of new things, and had a lot of fun, even if I wasn’t allowed to run away with Ralph and Coco!

Outside of the Sylvanian Families at the Toy Fair, I spoke to representatives of other companies, including Sylvanian Families’ old UK distributor Flair, Iwako who make the world’s leading range in collectible rubbers, Breyer who are famous for making model horses “My Dream Horse” and creative art sets and many others! I also had my photo taken with other famous characters (and ran into Peppa Pig and George, plus many characters from more recent TV shows).

And of course, I couldn’t leave without this photo...

Throughout the day I was also given not one, not two, but three Freya tote bags containing various goodies! I will be giving one of these away, so stay tuned! I was also given samples of Iwako rubbers to review on my new non-Sylvanian Families blog (coming soon) and a Lego Minifigure from the people at Lego!

I hope you had run learning about The Toy Fair 2017! Let me know how you feel about new products and whether you liked the displays!

Hi all! Yesterday I spent some time taking photos of the “Christmas Set”! I was sent this set to review by Highlights PR, as one of their “Friends of Sylvanian Families”. I received the set about a month ago but due to my circumstances I had to delay my review. Please note that although this item was sent for me to review, all opinions given about the product are my own and not official, nor first checked by Epoch.​

My first impressions of the set were very positive: the box is very colourful and would easily stand out in a store against other Sylvanian Families products (this green box is very distinctive against the normal yellow base colour of Epoch’s range), and you can see Freya Chocolate dressed eagerly in her Christmas dress through the plastic window in the box. The back of the box also displayed a list of contents.​

The sides and back of the box have additional photos of the snowy scene, with cartoon details such as drawing pins shaped like Christmas icons holding up the images – a cute and creative touch!

When I removed the items from the box Freya was held in place by green plastic whilst all the other items were wrapped in individual plastic bags. The Christmas tree was also held inside the box by a piece of supporting cardboard.

Freya looks gorgeous in her dress and hat! However, when I took her out of the plastic holding her in place I was disappointed to find that the plastic had made indentations in her flocking! In recent years the figures have been made with a much softer flocking than that of original figures; however this has meant that the figures are easily obtaining indents. My Freya has one on the back of her hand, the back of her head, and due to the green plastic not being cut to size accurately, she was pushed against the window of the box and her nose has had its flocking pushed up – this might not be easy to see unless you notice the colour difference between the top and bottom of the nose, which is not by design but instead due to the flocking on the bottom of the nose thinning. However this must have been due to a slight measuring mishap on the packaging, which I have not seen on other copies of this set.

A very cute feature of this set was that the “snowman” was actually a snow-rabbit! This cute item is about the same height as Freya and looks very similar to her! In older Christmas sets the snowmen have been flocked and worn scarves, whilst in this set the snow-bunny is plastic. This does make it easier to keep the snowman dust-free however.  It also has a hole on the front to add an accessory from the Christmas decorations, which I shall talk about below.

The Christmas tree is very different from that in previous sets; the branches are all made out of one simple plastic mould rather than the branches all sticking out of the main trunk (click here to see the old tree style). I do prefer the older tree, however I like that now not all my families will have an identical tree in their living rooms! Again unlike the previous tree, the decorations are pushed into little holes in the tree, compared to previously being attached by tinsel. The star that goes on top is also removable.

The decorations came in a plastic frame and each one had to be twisted out individually. The frame was very soft which makes it much easier to remove the pieces than in older sets. The decorations are in silver and gold, shaped like Santa’s hats, stockings, candy canes, snowflakes, stars, bells and apples.

I added the decorations to the tree, and it definitely looks very cute! I only wish that the holes were more spread out as the two sides of the tree are left bare, whilst the front and back have all the decorations centred around those points.

The toys included as Christmas presents were a toy car, a plush rabbit and a doll’s house! All three of the toys were a new mould compared to all previous sets. I love them all as they vary the toys the figures will receive as gifts too!

A paper sheet containing the present boxes, wall decorations and Christmas cards was also included. I found it very easy to assemble these boxes and fold the cards as the paper was much thicker than usual, an issue I am happy has been resolved! However I would recommend younger children are helped to assemble these pieces as they can be fiddly! Wall decorations would have to be attached to the inside of a house using tape or Blu tac as no double-sided tape was on these pieces.

Overall I really love this set! I know many collectors dislike the abundance of Freya’s but I love her in this outfit! Even if there are a few small flaws, I can forgive them for being part of an amazing set, which I would recommend anyone buys from Sylvanian Store Keepers. Although the RRP is £19.99, I can see that the price is due to the new mouldings of the set, and I would hope any future Christmas set that used these mouldings would be cheaper to reflect the re-use.

Hello again! Today I am writing a review on the “Meerkat Family” and “Grey Cat Baby” figures. I was sent these figures to review by Epoch, Sylvanian Families’ creator and producer, as one of their “Friends of Sylvanian Families”. Please note that although this item was sent for me to review, all opinions given about the product are my own and not official, nor first checked by Epoch.​

Firstly I shall look at the Meerkat Family. Those who have been collecting Sylvanian Families for a while will know that the adorable Meerkat Family was first released a few years ago by the old distributor Flair with the gripping hands feature that was around for a long time in various countries. The family, known as the Spotters, were made up of a family of four, grandparents and baby triplets! Epoch re-released this family with flat hands after repackaging a lot of gripping-handed Meerkats. The triplets were not available in this version, although the grandparents were. The family gained flat hands not too long before being discontinued, whilst the grandparents remained with the gripping hands until their retirement earlier in 2016 (if you are lucky enough you might still be able to find the lovely Spotter family in stores, but be aware they are a retired family).

When I received this family I was very taken by the fact the clothing had changed slightly since the original release. I collect variants where possible so this made me very happy as I already have the Flair version!

The figures’ tails are poking out of the back of the packaging, which prevents them being squished. The figures are held in place with clear elastic which you must be cut to get the figures out without damaging them. This is a good thing however as the figures are so secure they do not move around in the box.

I took comparison photos of the Flair and Epoch family next to each other so that the difference in details can be seen between the figures.

I compared the Epoch Grey Cat Baby with the Flair Liberty Harvey Grey Cat Baby. The two are the same height and same fur colour. The markings on the side of the face are a bit more prominent on the Epoch figure; however the biggest difference is the clothing. The new Epoch babies have a floral fringing around the neck of the clothing, whilst the Flair figure has a zigzag fringing.

I love all of my new figures and they shall be cherished in my collection! If you would like to buy these figures, go visit the Sylvanian Families Shop’s website!

​I would like to also take this chance to thank the Highlights PR team (especially Nicole and Torie), as well as Epoch Making Toys Ltd., for helping me with many queries in the past months. The figures for reviews and blogging help has been a wonderful treat, as well as helping me feel more involved in the Sylvanian Families community. I would like to thank many people in the community for helping to make my collection grow and expand my knowledge. Hayley, Benjamin, Candy, Santie, Jacc, & Dian have been a great help to me this year for different reasons, so thank you all, as well as the staff at SSK, especially Rocky who goes above and beyond to answer my queries. Additionally I'd like to thank a few friends I have made in the last few months, who wish to be referred to by their usernames Sylvanian Memories, Sylvanian Time & Sylvanian Friends, for wishing me on when my website has fallen behind schedule. Thanks to Sylvanako for encouraging my work (which I appreciate from someone who has such an artistic talent!!) in addition to everyone previously mentioned, Courtney, Jonathan, Christina and various Instagram users for allowing me to use some of their photos on my website once it is up and running. I may not speak to everyone in the community or always have the time to talk with everyone as much as I'd like to (personally and about Sylvanians!) but you all have kept me a little bit more positive whilst being kept behind a year in school and watching my friends move on to other things. It may not always be clear, but you are all lovely friends who I hope realise how much I appreciate your company. :)

On the 15th October 2016, Epoch and Highlights PR held an event, exclusive for Sylvanian Families Premium Fan Club Members. As both a "Friends of Sylvanian Families" blogger and a Premium Fan Club Member myself, I attended the event at intu Lakeside Shopping Centre. People from across Britain attended the event, with one family driving all the way from Ireland!

Upon arriving at the event at 9am, I was met with a giant Sylvanian Families car! Freya Chocolate and her little sister Crème were sat ready to have photos with all those who came to visit!

Entering the main event, many Epoch staff asked me about my collection and encouraged my involvement with the products which made me feel welcome. I met a 90cm Ralph Walnut in the queue as I went to sign myself and my friends in for the day.

Each Premium Fan Club Member were given lanyards as a gift. One side had a picture of Freya, Ralph and Tiffany whilst the other side at a check list of what tasks each person had completed in the day. Each guest was also presented with a goody bag which I will show in great detail later on.

First I completed the dress-making, where every Member got given a dress of their choosing and accessories to add to them (as seen on the back of the lanyard). All pieces had double-sided tape on them, making it an easy process to add the individual pieces together, especially for the younger children. Some of the Sylvanian girls were modelling these dresses on the table. The packaging was in Japanese, which as a collector I thought was very cute.

The next activity was...Aquabeads! Each person could create the image of either Freya Chocolate, Ralph Walnut or Tiffany Golightly!

There were various signs and displays located around the event, including a display of recent Sylvanian Families products, a play table and a colouring table with Sylvanian-themed colouring sheets.

As you may have gathered from the sign, there was a model of the Sylvanian Village on display. It was large, however claiming it was a scale model was a bit misleading as there are lots of bigger displays, including the one from the Tokyo Toy Fair in 2014. But still, it was a pretty cute display!

There was three "meet & greet" sessions, in which we watched the Sylvanian Families Live Show before getting to meet the characters for hugs and photos! I have uploaded a video of the Sylvanian Families' song "Every Happiness" performed at the third show of the event for those unlucky to not have attended a show to see!

In between the shows were two games: the first was "Corners" and the second was "Pose and Pause". I won't give the details of the games, but I will say well done to the ten lucky winners! The five winners of "Corners" were lucky enough to each win a 30cm Freya Chocolate with Christmas outfit!!! The five winners of "Pose and Pause" won different prizes: 3rd, 4th and 5th place all won a building, family and medium-sized object such as the Hot Dog Wagon. 2nd place won a building, two families and two medium-sized objects, and 1st place won a building, three families, three medium-sized objects AND a Seasider Cruzer with Freya in her shell dress!

As one of the activities we had to collect a colouring book containing loads of colouring sheets of Sylvanian scenes from Hamleys, who had a 20% off day in light of the event, so I bought baby Ambrose Walnut in her new Epoch outfit.

I also got to watch the Sylvanians go up in the lift...

Before going home I had to take more photos with Freya and Crème! ;)

For those who do not know what the goody bags look like from Sylvanian Families events, here are some photos! The goody bag is double-sided, one side depicting Freya and the other depicting five Chocolate rabbits. This bag had a lot more included than normal goody bags! Included were three sheets of stickers, two colouring sheets, a notebook that contained a dot-to-dot and image to colour and more stickers, a stencil/ruler, playing cards, a spot the difference and another on-sheet puzzle, a foldable poster with character names on (much like the old Tomy and Flair ones but with modern characters), some adverts for the club and Brick Oven Bakery and a red/pink dress that is otherwise only available on the exclusive shop for the Japanese version of the Premium Fan Club! I also picked up colouring sheets from the table in the morning and some extra dress-making kits with accessories as there were several left spare at the end of the event!

I really enjoyed the event and can't wait for a future one! I hope anyone else who went enjoyed themselves and keep a lookout for future Epoch/Highlights events!

UPDATE: ​I forgot to include images of the dress-making kits I brought home. Two dresses pictured I completed at the event & the other three I shall make in a tutorial later this year.

Hello all! This review is a bit late but I was sent the “Girl’s Bedroom Set” released within the last few years by Epoch. I was sent this item to review by the company as a member of their “Friends of Sylvanian Families”. Please note that although this item was sent for me to review, all opinions given about the product are my own and not official, nor first checked by Epoch.​​

The packaging allows you to see the contents of the cute bedroom set, which will encourage people to buy it, however makes the box bulkier to carry. On the sides of the box there are images of other room sets that can be used to make up the contents of a larger house such as Beechwood Hall. The back of the box has an image of much of the current critter range.​

Overall I really love this adorable set! The pieces are colour coordinated so they will all fit well together; the set is able to fit into many different houses and can mixed and matched with pieces from other sets if you feel other items are needed to finish decorating the room!​

Hello again! Today I am writing a review on the premium fan club membership figures that came as a subscription gift in the 2015 and 2016 subscriptions. I was sent these figures to review by Epoch, Sylvanian Families’ creator and producer, as one of their “Friends of Sylvanian Families”. Please note that although this item was sent for me to review, all opinions given about the product are my own and not official, nor first checked by Epoch.​

Each figure is sent to the fan club subscribers once payment for the year (£9.99 for UK members, £15.00 for other European countries, including the Republic of Ireland, and £20.00 for the rest of the world) is made. Each year the figure is sent in a protective box that has a red pattern and “Sylvanian Families” logo printed on each side of the box. In 2015 the box was glossy white and in 2016 it was a standard brown box colour. I think these boxes are very cute!

When you open the box, you find a letter sent from Sylvania, depicting Freya in her new outfit, with a list of gifts you get with the rest of your subscription.​

The figure is in a brightly coloured box. The 2015 figure, Nautical Freya Chocolate, was in a bright blue box with a boarder containing seashells and fish, whilst the 2016 figure, Party Freya Chocolate, was in a light pink box, the boarder made up of little pearls. My favourite feature of these boxes is the window into the boxes, showing the figure against a very detailed background! When I first received this item, it definitely impressed me how detailed the boxes were.

The back of the boxes have a little image in the centre, the 2015 of the Seaside Cruiser House Boat and the 2016 of the Freya figure in the box. Additionally, the boxes from the angle pictured look like books! A flap curls around the box to hold it shut and tucks in nicely at the back.

When opened, the bottom of the lid has a little story about Freya and her new outfit! This can help younger collectors trigger their imaginations and start their own stories.

The left side of the boxes have the Sylvanian Families logo and the year that the figure was released. This means when you stand them all on end next to each other, the boxes resemble book spines, as if they are volumes of books each year, which is absolutely adorable!​

The outfits are very detailed; the 2015 Nautical Freya’s outfit consists of a sailor’s hat, plus a dress, with cute stripes and a little anchor on the hat’s button and shirt! The 2016 Party Freya’s outfit is a shiny dress with a floral pattern, a flower-shaped button, a pink bow on Freya’s ear and a plastic bag for her to take to the party! Both figures foreshadow the upcoming products available in that year’s Sylvanian range, with Nautical Freya relating to the seaside theme and Party Freya relating to the new Village Boutique (released in the UK as of August 2016).​

I love these figures and cannot fault the products at all! My only suggestion, which Epoch awarded me a prize for in a survey competition earlier in 2016, would be to one day introduce secondary figures of other characters in different clothing to create a varied range of premium fan club membership figures, for example having Ralph Walnut or Tiffany Golightly appear in exclusive outfits, or have members of new families due to be released that year appear as membership figures in different clothing! However as a long-time collector I would always like the UK club to receive the figures that the Japanese club receives, so not to pay a hefty price on eBay for the figures!

I recommend anyone who isn’t a member of the premium fan club signs up here to get magazines full of stories, photos from other collectors and to see new products before they are released!

Recently I contacted Epoch to become one of their “Friends of Sylvanian Families”, and they sent me my first parcel to review for free! I received several items in this parcel, including the “Pizza Delivery Set” that was released earlier this year. Please note that although this item was sent for me to review, all opinions given about the product are my own and not official, nor first checked by Epoch.​

​When I first opened the packaging, I was pleased to see that everything is packed neatly, with all small items in plastic bags or held in place with card, with the figure in plastic that’s shaped around the hedgehog perfectly.

Firstly out of the box were the pizzas and pizza cutter. Each pizza is fixed in a plastic frame within the plastic bags. I then removed the sandwich board, bike and a bag containing sheets of stickers, the flattened paper that needs to be folded into pizza boxes and the leaflet of the current range. I then removed Mortimer, and he is very cute! I love the detail on his outfit, which is very different to his original outfit.

What I was very happy to find was that it is very easy to twist the pizzas out of the plastic frames. Some older Sylvanian Families items I have found the plastic to be very stiff, which can make removing the items from the frames difficult. What also impressed me was that each slice of each pizza was different; the attention to detail was magnificently realistic compared with real life food, in that no two slices had used the same plastic mould, meaning that pizza toppings look naturally scattered across the pizza! I thought this was a very cute new feature as most items usually have identical plastic moulds to make production cheaper. What I would personally improve is to make the pizza cutter’s wheel have the ability to turn like an actual wheel, however this is not essential.

Next I tried folding all the boxes for the pizzas. I am an adult, yet I personally still found the assembling of these boxes a little tricky. There were fold lines, which are easy to fold along, however I found the slits in some of the flaps hard to slide together. What is equally as hard is the double folding of edges of the boxes. It is hard to show this in the photos, but it took me at least 10 attempts with each box flap to fold, as you have to push/flatten the flaps quite tightly so that they stay at the side of the box. I found that the only sure way to keep the boxes in shape was to put a pizza in them. Hopefully after a while the pressure from the pizzas will cause the boxes to remain in shape if the pizza in the box is swapped with another.

​I felt a three-year-old would not be able to assemble these boxes, even if the age is 3+, as I remember always getting my mum to assemble such boxes when I was little. After one or two attempts at assembling the boxes, I found the thin paper started to get a crease in it on one side of one of the boxes. Without patience, I think many people who buy this product may accidentally rip the paper, again reinforcing why an adult should assemble these. What worries me is that over time the boxes may rip in play, so children should be advised to be careful with them.

The sticker sheet has the stickers numbered 1-4, however, I did not see a diagram stating where they should be placed on the item, yet this can be seen on the contents list on the box. The stickers are easy to place, however, so they are placed correctly on the product, I would recommend an adult do this for a young child.

​The two pizza boxes with pizzas inside can be placed into the back of the delivery bike, in the storage compartment, which I think is a lovely feature of the product.  Another great feature of the bike is that the wheels do move and the handle can be twisted to be steered in either direction! The rest of the items that don’t fit inside the bike’s storage compartment can be stored inside the Brick Oven Bakery, a companion to this set which includes Mortimer Bramble’s wife, Eleanor.​

Overall, I really like this product! I thought it was a rather adorable set and had a much greater attention to detail than I expected when compared to other pizza sets released over the years by Epoch. I would highly recommend this set, and I think the age guideline of 3+ is appropriate, provided that an adult or someone with good dexterity assembles the fiddly boxes and places the stickers for children receiving the item. At recommended retail price of £16.99, this set is very good value for money considering you get a lovely figure, a bike that Mortimer can drive, along with plenty of accessories! As an adult collector, I love this set and still find it endearing!

Here I will be posting any new information about my collection. People can request a post on a certain product if they so wish.
If there are any questions you wish to ask me, if they are relevant to a specific post then do ask here, if not then send me a message on the forum at SylvanianLover.