Next morning, we’re late leaving for school as Orla is lost in Sylvania, balancing bunnies on bikes and sending them off to buy popcorn but I’m trying not to mind. Orla is our last child. When one day she drifts behind a screen, closes her bedroom door and declares herself done with Sylvanians, the whole lot will go to Oxfam. For the first time in years, we’ll be able to walk around the house, without the risk of stepping on a small, hard woodland creature. And that’ll be it. Abby, who is due to start secondary school this September, is finding fewer friends willing to engage in Sylvanian play. “Most have grown out of them and I think it’s really sad,” she says. “When I told one friend about this picnic, I thought she’d be excited but she just said, ‘I haven’t been collecting Sylvanians for ages.’ She probably wanted to come but she’s worried it wouldn’t seem cool. Sylvanians are like the last little bit of childhood I have left.”

Cute Critters of "Sylvanian Families" Star in New Short TV Anime". Crunchyroll. 2017-09-06 . Retrieved 2020-01-17.Their ever-expanding infrastructure seems quintessentially English – the Morris Minor, the canal boat and the red telephone box, Sylvania’s only nod to technology. The names are English, too – Hugh Grunt, the brother pig, Emma Dale, the lamb, Beatrix Spotter, the mummy meerkat. Yet, Epoch says Sylvania could be anytime, anywhere – the word sylvan, from which it’s derived, means “of the forest or woods”. By 1988, Sylvanian Families had become a major success around the world, winning the British Association of Toy Retailers award for "Toy of the Year" three years consecutively, in 1987, 1988 and 1989. There are several animated series based on the Sylvanian Families world: Sylvanian Families, a syndicated series that premiered in 1987; Stories of the Sylvanian Families (1988), a British series animated in stop motion; and a 2007 original video animation series also called Sylvanian Families. A new OVA was then produced in 2015 with another in 2017, promoting the Sylvanian Families Town sub-line. Both OVAs were produced by Shogakukan Music and Digital Entertainment and were also released outside Japan through YouTube and Netflix. In 2006, the characters in the toy line were chosen to be the mascots for the National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Cooperativess national mutual aid. By the end of the year, the toys sold a total of 78 million units. [5] News Breaking News! This category is devoted to all of our news articles, with a focus on the biggest breaking stories in the world of show business. We’ve managed to break plenty of viral news stories in the past, from the release of the new Lion King live-action movie to the announcement that Holly Willoughby would be replacing Ant McPartlin on I’m A Celebrity. As well as entertainment news we also feature breaking articles from the most weird and wonderful corners of the internet. If you want to keep up-to-date with fascinating news stories that are slightly off-the-radar, then this is the place to be.

Guardian reader Susan Croft sent us this photograph: her daughter Freya made Guardian Saturday sections for her Sylvanians and their doll’s house. Claire Armitstead; Jonathan Jones (26 September 2015). "Art and design – Artwork showing Sylvanian Families terrorised by Isis banned from free speech exhibition". The Guardian.In 2015, a series of tableaux by the British artist Mimsy featuring Sylvanian Families being threatened by "MICE-IS" terrorists was banned from the Passion for Freedom exhibition. [7] The characters, grouped into families, originally depicted typical woodland creatures such as rabbits, squirrels, bears, beavers, hedgehogs, foxes, deer, owls, raccoons, otters, skunks and mice, and later expanded to other animals such as cats, dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, penguins, monkeys, cows, sheep, pigs, elephants, pandas, kangaroos, koalas and meerkats. Most families consist of a father, mother, sister and brother, and continue to add family members from there on such as grandparents, babies, and older siblings.

My parents let us use all the upstairs space – our room, the landing, even their bedroom – and we’d play for hours. Eventually the whole lot ended up in their loft and I went to find it pretty much as soon as I had Catherine. It has lasted really well.” Samantha Loveday. "Epoch confirms UK distribution of Sylvanian Families" . Retrieved July 10, 2013.In 1993, Tomy, who had been distributing the toys worldwide, lost the rights to the name "Sylvanian Families" in Canada and the US. Tomy reintroduced the line under the new name Calico Critters of Cloverleaf Corners, now simply just called Calico Critters. The Calico Critters line is currently distributed in the US and Canada by Epoch Everlasting Play, LLC. Cayanan, Joanna (June 20, 2023), "Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters Toy Franchise Gets New Full 3DCG Anime on July 6", Anime News Network , retrieved June 20, 2023

Jacc Batch, possibly the world’s largest collector, at the Sylvanian Families 30th birthday picnic. Photograph: David Bebber/GuardianMy older sister and I had a whole Sylvanian empire across the top floor of our house,” she says. “We had the bakery, the windmill, but most of the families were in a big doll’s house and boxes we made with dividers and off-cuts of carpets. We made their food and they even had their own currency from modelling clay. Each family kept their money in little yellow pots from Kinder egg toy containers. Now teenagers, they have entrusted their empire to their sister Orla, nine, and it has become her No 1 obsession. These days, you may walk into the bathroom and discover up to 20 little animals gathered round the sink and balanced by the bath – apparently they are at a waterpark. You may go to close a window only to see outside, on the sill, a bunch of bunnies on a camping trip. Returning a book to the shelf, you might be met by a small bear who has moved into the space and set up a shoe shop. Television The ‘Television’ section contains all of our articles related to the small screen. We have a very wide range of content – there’s a strong 80s focus with trivia on EastEnders and Grange Hill, but you can also find articles on popular contemporary TV programmes such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos. If you fancy something a bit more niche then don’t worry – we’ve also got plenty of content on cult hits such as Twin Peaks, The X-Files and Quantum Leap. Happy hunting!