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.