Of Pinks and Fairy Tales: A Peek Into Maple Town

Thursday, January 30, 2014

A Peek Into Maple Town

A few weeks ago, I was scouring ebay.co.uk for some Sylvanian Families deals and I keep coming across descriptions like "Sylvanian Families/Forest Families". I got curious whether the Sylvanian Families were also called "Forest Families" in another part of the world. I know they are called "Calico Critters" in the US. During my research, I learned that once upon a time, there were 3 kinds of forest creatures: Sylvanian Families by Epoch, Maple Town by Ban Dai, and Forest Families by M. C. Toys.

I was intrigued by Maple Town and Forest Families, and even tried to bid on a few Forest Families vintage toys but the bidding always goes beyond my budget. My, those toys are definitely collectible! However, I hardly found any Maple Town toys.

That is until one of the sets I bid on arrived. And what do you know?

The seller labeled the set as Sylvanian Families, but on closer inspection, they are actually from the Maple Town line! I didn't mind. I was so excited. Here's another look at the Maple Town pieces from the bedroom set:

If these really were from the 80's or 90's then these are old. The plastic is the same texture as the furniture from the Sylvanian Families, which means scratches are not too obvious. However, the cloth sticker/mattress on the beds are discolored.

After this find, I was surfing the surplus toys stores on Facebook and guess what I found?

I can't read Japanese so I'm not really sure if these are from the Maple Town line but they are flocked and they are made by Ban Dai. And they are boxed! However, both were showing signs of discoloration inside so I finally opened them after 2 weeks to check if I can do something about it.