A Condensed History of Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters.

Sylvanian Families are a line of collectible anthropomorphic plastic flocked figures, created by the Japanese company Epoch in 1985. There have been a number of companies distributing Sylvanian Families worldwide throughout the years, but Epoch is currently at the helm of this toy brand.

Calico Critters are also a line of flocked plastic critters that slightly differ from Sylvanian Families in some instances with clothing and name changes, but are essentially the same products. Sylvanian Families also live in Sylvania, where Calico Critters live in the fictional Cloverleaf Corners. There are a multitude of items and sets in both ranges, including houses, hotels, cars, farm items, shops, stalls, furniture and even a general hospital, nurseries and schools. This makes Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters great for imaginative play, allowing children to act out stories with all of the different buildings and accessories available.

Both Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters figures are grouped into families and feature woodland creatures, such as bears, rabbits, skunks, mice and hedgehogs; domestic animals such as cats, dogs, cows, pigs and sheep as well as exotic animals such as pandas, red pandas, otters, meerkats and elephants. Each Sylvanian Families family has a common last name that fits their species and each member of the family has their own name that fits their personality or species. Most of the families have short biographies for each member of the family on the box that outlines their skills, jobs and personalities, but this is not necessarily the case for all figures produced and in some instances.

In the beginning of 1985, Sylvanian Families were released in Japan and North America with different packaging and slight differences in the figures as well (Calico Critters in the US and Sylvanians in Japan). Their success led to expansion into Western Europe and by 1988 Sylvanian Families had become a great success around the world. There was even an animated television series featuring some of the Sylvanian Families critters.

At the end of the 1990's Sylvanian Families were discontinued in the UK, but they have since been reintroduced by other companies, including Tomy and Flair. Calico Critters are no longer sold by Tomy, but were later sold by International Playthings and more recently, are now distributed by Epoch. 

From 2014 onwards, Epoch is once again distributing the Sylvanian Families brand worldwide and have decided to expand on the Sylvanian village by adding a new line of sea-themed items and sets for 2015. In 2018, a brand new line of Town themed items were released with grand department stores, pretty dresses, many more older sisters and a tram! This new line hints back at the earlier Japanese "Urban Life" range and figures in this series wear a lot of fancy satin clothes, laces and shiny broaches. We also got our very first lion and a new Alpaca family in the Sylvanian Families line in this same year. 

Around 2021, the Sylvanian Families brand saw a totally new direction - going more girly and pink, pastel and purple. Many of the sets in this specific time period got very plasticky and shallow and many nonsensical items were added to appeal to a younger audience. This era left many collectors with a feeling of disconnect from the brand that we all loved, and saw many older collectors put an end to their collections. Luckily, in 2023, although there have been missteps here and there, the brand saw a bit of a revival and sets had more detail and once more felt like they belonged in Sylvania. This trend seems to be going strong into 2024, with a newly announced snow leopard family and hopefully many more fitting items to come!