Sylvanian Familiy - to buy or not to buy??

emmaanddave

Am thinking Christmas main presents for my girls and am torn between a tradition dolls house or to start collecting the Sylvanian family for them. Has anyone bought the SF for their child and has it been worth the money? Do they last?

We didn't want to buy SF and they only play a little with them or lose interest and therefor we could have got them the traditional dolls house.

Any ideas from parents or kids on SF would be appreciated as I think they do look like a lovely collection and as a kid I would have loved to have had something like this. Saying that I was more than happy with my Cindy house that I had!!
x

chickywiggle

emmaanddave wrote: »

Am thinking Christmas main presents for my girls and am torn between a tradition dolls house or to start collecting the Sylvanian family for them. Has anyone bought the SF for their child and has it been worth the money? Do they last?

We didn't want to buy SF and they only play a little with them or lose interest and therefor we could have got them the traditional dolls house.

Any ideas from parents or kids on SF would be appreciated as I think they do look like a lovely collection and as a kid I would have loved to have had something like this. Saying that I was more than happy with my Cindy house that I had!!
x

what's your budget??

i loved my sf as a kid played for years.

however depending on budget could you get joint things? asda have a pink dolls house for £35 ATM so could do both.

emmaanddave

Hi, budget is not a problem so can afford the SF. Just wondering was it worth the price tag as we don't know anyone who has any of the items. It looks a bit more special than the usual dolls house and you can add over xmas/birthdays.

Thanks.x

butler_helen

I LOVED SF when I was little, got sets at 4 and played with them and collected more until I was 11, sold them all at 16 for £50... so not a good rate of return but for 7 years play, they were worth the money. My neice is now playing with them too. ALthough they cost a fortune and she never has enough of the characters.

newleaf

As a Christening present, my 3yo Goddaughter was given a vintage dolls house and several sets of SF which had belonged to her other Godmother as a child. She loves to play with them and they look as good as new. My friend's 9yo also has a large collection of SF, which she still plays with. Would definitely recommend them.

betsie

Beware - SF breed like mad and take over your house. Half my dining room is full of the hotel, various other plastic houses (she got at a boot fair), caravan, bus etc the list is endless. They are very well made but loads of tiny bits and a nightmare to dust. My daughter is 8 and goes through phases sometimes she plays with them non stop then they can sit there for 2 months collecting dust but I think that would be the same with a dolls house. If you go for SF think of looking on ebay for someone nearby selling off a collection - it will work out cheaper and then you wont get so upset if it sits in the corner untouched after a few weeks.

Apricot

I had Sylvanian Families when I was little, I absolutely loved them. I think they are well worth the money as they were played with my me and my sister who is now 18. They are currently in the loft at my mums waiting for my little sister (4) to get them out.
They are such a great thing to have and there are always bringing out new ranges, so if relatives ever ask what to buy your little one for xmas/brithdays you'll never be stuck for ideas.

onebusybee

I had a very large SF collection when I was a child and loved playing with them at every oppertunity! I used to take over the hallway creating my very own little village!
I now have a daughter of my own and have passed my collection on to her and she is just as fond of them as I was. I have bought a couple of new sets but the majority are over 20 years old and still going strong.

THE4WHINGERS

i first got my dd one house and a few characters when she was 4 and she had extras every xmas and birthday . it is lovely and really detailed in the extras each set contains .she would have a big item most years her collection reached a huge amount .she is now 10 and last year i sold some off on ebay and she kept her favourites i made more on some peices than i payed for them as some bits were in v good condition but it all sold for good price.She had years off playing out of it and her friends always wanted to play with it too i found it well worth the money .she did have a dollshouse too but i found sylvanians had more variety and you can add lots of different boats, houses, shops ect to set .it is very often on offer too if you search about

caitlyn22

Like many who've posted, I had SF as a child and loved them. They were extremely expensive then - not sure how they compare to similar toys now - and my family weren't well off so the expense may have been relative to our circumstances. As a result I only had one family set (the beavers!) and after that just got individual figures at Christmas. It made for some fairly inventive play - I had SF story lines where Grey Bear married the infertile Brown Rabbit and adopted a Hedgehog, only to move in with miserly Duck, who tragically lost one of his webbed feet in a milk cart accident.

The only criticism I had (even as a young child) was that the properties (be it shops or houses) never seemed to have the space needed for all of the furniture and accessories. My dad ended up building me a house that was actually just a sheet of MDF for the 'floor' with various bits of skirting boards as 'walls'. The beauty of it was I could play from above, unlike much of the SF designs where you only have access to the front of rooms.

I gave them all to the daughter of a colleague several years ago who I hope got as much pleasure out of them as I did. (I didn't burden her with the MDF house though - like all things my dad built, it was about 8ft too big!)

emmaanddave

aaahh thanks guys! Def made up my mind and will look to get SF. I have 5 yr old twin daugthers and also thought that as there are so many properties to collect they can play seperate as well as together.x

:j