Sylvanian Families

[TulipsfromAmsterdam]

Have been thinking about buying a house from the sylvanian families range for dd who is 6 and wonder if anyone knows of good deals. I see they are quite expensive so hoping family will buy furniture sets to help fill it but I could do with a reasonably priced house to start with.

Do you mind secondhand? I've just bought the hotel with loads of accessories for £50 and it looks like it has never been played with.

Thanks for reply. Don't mind second hand if it is in great condition. It's so expensive so probably the best way of buying it if I can get a good deal like you have.

they are very expensive (even second hand on ebay), sometimes you will get deals from toys r us.

However dd started collecting at 3 and is now 6.5 and still plays with them, they are her most used toy.

I would say she plays least with the houses tho, the caravan, school and boat have been the best buys for us.

yes, I heartily second going second hand.:)

my DD (now 17) had loads of Sylvanian houses, post office, school, barge, windmill etc and I think I only bought the very first one brand new, the rest from ebay. If it is wrapped up and exciting on Christmas day, she won't care.

DD made me sell all her Sylvanians when she wanted some ice skates :(:(
But I secretly kept the Weasels and the Hedgehogs.

i could still play Syvanians now, very happily - unless there was some Playmobil in the room as well, then I am all over that

There is one at around £30 atm - Sycamore Cottage? - which is a fair size house and I think includes some additional bits. Lakeside Lodge is another often sold with extras. TheToyshop.com and argos are good for such offers. WH Smith have buy one get one half proice but that is mainly figures and small room sets.

How about buying a normal dolls house and the wooden furniture packs then a few families of sylvanians? I bought my DD the asda house for £35 and two furniture packs for £12.50 (they were bogof) but the dog has got to the f
people that came with them so i am going for Sylvanians to bring it back to life this year. Has actually worked out much cheaper than buying the sylvanian housing which is also tiny in comparison.

We bought DD1 (for her 6th birthday) Applewood cottage which comes with a figure and some furniture. The Sylvanian Families shop in North London often has good deals on its website.

DD's collection only started a year ago and she's been very fortunate to have been given the caravan by grandparents plus various other sets e.g. camping, bridesmaids, a mother and baby one plus another mother with twins set for her birthday/Christmas. Father Christmas gave her the car last year and she spends hours setting everything up in different ways even though the house is quite small (like her bedroom!). As the sets come with all sorts of props and accessories this has been a good way of building her collection without spending lots of money on buildings.

I'd also recommend the SF collectors' club; it's £9.99 for a year which includes 2 figures - they alone would cost that ordinarily but membership means your child is sent a birthday card, 4 magazines, certificate etc. so it's a present that works for a whole year (and rekindles interest in new layouts etc. when the magazine arrives, full of photo stories and SF craft projects).

I have picked up a few bits for dd2 for christmas, i have bought 2nd hand from e-bay (all items are boxed and great condition), we bought a house a few years ago for dd1 and i was not impressed, it was poor quality for the price, bits fell off of it and the plastic cracked . I have got dd2 a windmill which is slightly older and more sturdy, also the caravan (which i got for £3 at a boot sale a few weeks ago) and the canel boat. I just need to find a car for the caravan. Amazon often have offers and keep an eye on play.com as they often have offers running up to christmas.

Get a normal cheap dollshouse! My dd's sylvanians have happily moved in, then you can gather together all the bits as and when. They sometimes have special offers on the sylvanian . com website.

My dd now 8 got het first SF house at 5.
I used to have then when I was little and sadly didn't keep any :(
We got her a house with furniture included from the SF website. Thing it was about £70-£80. Def no more than that. She now has loads of bits and families. This year she'd like the windmill :)

I love them almost as much as dd I think

play.com have got lots of 'bits' just now for a fiver each - mainly families and accessories

I've never seen the Weasels
Ebay for the houses.

Thanks for all the replies. Decided to get one locally through ebay and was so pleased to be getting what I though was a bargain, unfortunately turned out not to be so good. It is a grand hotel but once home realised a door was missing, roof rails also not there and no porch which seems to be on others. But good news is got lots of figures and a couple of room sets and the house will be back for sale soon (described honestly though).
Managed to get some bits from Debenhams as they have a good deal on atm and also agree with posters who mentioned buying a wooden house. The one from Asda looks far more solid in comparison to the hotel I bought.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1295261-Half-Price-Sylvanian-Families-House Don't know if this is any use.

let's post deals we find on here. Last year I got everything half price on Amazon when they had the one night match of a sainsbuys toiy sale that never happened. If i see any offers I will post here.

Also check out toys r us - I think in nov last year it was 3 for 2 so worked out saving a lot on the bigger items.

Hi The Entertainer toy shop has got the larchwood Lodge on sale for £34.99 instead of £69.99 :)

Norks

Weasels. Really?

They are a good investment, I think. Even if you have to buy new. My DD (now 9) played with them for years. She's moved on but I occasionally catch my little boys having a surreptitious play. Sometimes they make up stories with the animals and sometimes they use it for lego people. It's all good.

Expensive but good value. DD is 10 and still plays with hers. My firend's DD is 13 and still had hers which she pretends not to play with

I can recommend the canal boat or caravan/car as then you don't have to get loads of furniture.

my DD has recently got into these- we have bought a couple of families in the WHsmiths offer, and used the 20 % off on top of that, but also have picked up some families in boxes at car boot sales. Some people sell them for a fortune as they are collectors items apprently, some just want to clear out their daughter's things!

My DD (10) has loads of Sylvanian stuff (and still loves and plays with it).

The first Xmas I bought some I did so from the ads in our local newspaper. I bought a house and school with lots of families and furniture for £40.

I had no boxes but got some large cardboard storage boxes from Ikea! and put the school in one and the house in the other.

Since then I have bought a mix of new and secondhand for birthdays and Xmas. She can now tell the difference at age 10 but does not see it as a bad thing as she knows she usually gets lots of extra bits and bobs with second hand stuff.

Amazon have offers from time to time. It is just luck though, so keep checking.

My DD (9yo) has just started collecting these -sigh!

She's got the house, chocolate labs, kitchen set and dress shop.
I've bought her a dining room and conservatory for Christmas.

Today we bought some dolls house things from Hobbycraft.I wouldn't have bought these for a smaller child but she's quite sensible.
Red wine glasses (2), champagne glasses(4) white dinner set and cutlery. Cost in total under £20 but really lovely quality.

When DD had Sylvanians, she used to get things like the canal boat or the caravan or one of the shops for Christmas & birthday, often from the grandparents, and then we used to buy dolls houses from car boot sales for the Sylvanians to live in - this was a few years ago (DD is 21 now) and we could get one of the basic open front houses, usually with a bag of furniture, for 50p -£1.