A week or so ago Butterfly and I headed to Small Worlds to remove the Christmas window and replace the display with something more suitable for the time of year. Because we are still busy unpacking in the "big world" we needed a fairly quick fix so decided to make use of something that travelled over with me from England during the move - the Sylvanian world.
For once I am writing about something that is actually commercially available in toyshops and online in the Czech Republic so these delightful little animals are easily collectible over here. In fact I have had visitors in Small Worlds who have their own collection of Sylvanian families and houses, and there is an avid adult collectors' world out there to be found in many countries. In some of these the brand is known as Calico Critters. For more information you can take a look here and here or just google for Sylvanian collectors.
Not that I have had my own collection very long. In fact I see that I was very dismissive of them back in 2012 when I wrote a blogpost all about scale because they certainly do not conform to any notion of that. Many of the animals have a hard time fitting into the furniture made for them, and as for the relative sizes of the animals themselves.....! You will find mice taking on bears and rabbits the size of elephants. Meercats and cows mix happily, as do penguins and wild boar.
But a couple of years after I wrote that post I read a detective story in which one of the children collected Sylvanians and the descriptions were so enticing I took a further look at them. As luck would have it, my granddaughter was trawling the internet with me and fell in love with the meercats at the same time as I did with the hedgehogs, And another collection was born of course!
Another fairly comprehensive earlier blogpost about them is here. But now we are in another country and a new setting.
As is usual with me, everything emerged from the packing boxes in a state of total chaos....
Whilst I sat and sorted through the boxes, grouping and brushing up the families, sorting and cleaning the furniture and accessories, Butterfly started to set out the houses and cars in the window and then began to tell herself stories about what was going on there as the families joined in.
Because this is a window display, the items can only face one way of course which is why this is a two part blogpost. At some point in the next few weeks Part Two will reveal life inside the buildings and we hope that you will enjoy both glimpses into this particular Small World.
As usual I end with a stream of assorted photos. And two items of good news. If all goes well we hope to open Small Worlds as usual this summer, after the gap in 2021. Provisional opening date is June 18th. And my good friend Jana Vlckova has found a relatively easy way of translating the blogposts into Czech so Czech readers will once again be able to follow the miniature scene at Cestininy domečky pro panenky because I hope to be able to continue it if she does not have time. Thank you Jana!
