It's not Sylvanian related, but might interest Sysy collectors as long as the scale would almost match.
If you don't want to read the "story behind" you can jump to the area after the line of ***, if you want the whole story, you can read it all :-)
For quite a long time I've had my eyes on a miniature serie, that was sold like a weekly publication. My ex husband was a frantic collector of those things, but he just wanted those to pile-up more things everywhere. He never had any interest for those as soon as they were home.
On my side, I did 3 only, one in 1990 when I settled with him. I knew nothing about cooking so I bought a kind of cooking encyclopedia. Then later I bought a part of the dinosaurs ones (yep, I love dinosaurs....), but stopped quickly because he needed this money to get one with DVDs (that he never watched at all). I recently found back my dinosaurs encyclopedia in a box he stored outside home, totally destroyed of course. I cried, really, it broke my heart each time I discovered he filled the house with trash to put the few I had outside without protection. Most of my things are destroyed, mostly pictures.
Well, later I bought the "little kitchen", and same, I found it not long ago, partly destroyed. I've started rebuilding it, not finished but it's not too bad. He let me buy most of the serie, but stopped at some point, to get egyptian sceneries, that of course he never cared about. Not a single minute. So.... I don't have some "important" parts to finish my little old time kitchen. But it's still ok, I'm creative enough. I also discovered he glued most of the things (WHY ???) in MY kitchen. I'm upset.
Then, I think it was in 2006, when I had all that medical stuff to try having a baby (and not knowing he was doing in my back everything for it doesn't work), there was this serie for an old school miniature 1/12 scale. I asked him if I could get at least 10 or 20 of the parts, over 80, to create a tiny school. He said yes. I got the 3 or 4 first, and then... he wanted to have a serie of cars, so I had to stop getting my miniatures. I totally forgot about it. I found back the parts not long ago (pristine condition, woohoo, miracle !), and was planning to sell them. You can't do much with just a teacher, a student, a blackboard, and a desk. But François told me I should create a tiny scene. I really couldn't see a use to "loosing" my time on it. But he insisted too much so... I understood. He had a very complicate and painful relationship with his mother. I know what it is, I've been raised by awful people. His story is not the same, but still heartbreaking. It's like a hate-admirating thing, he can't find a way to deal with it. His mother was a teacher, in the 50/70's. So the miniature was quite matching, and for some reason the teacher is looking close to his mother. I understood he wanted me to do it for him. It sounds like it's so important... I'd do anything to soften/cure his pain. Ask me to go to the other side of the earth crawling, I'd do. So, I started to search on ebay, the bon coin, vinted, whatever... I found a couple of those mags+miniature, but everytime the seller wasn't serious, or refused paypal, etc
Sometime it was awfully expensive. Just to give you an idea of the average price
ouch....21.50 + 8 of shipping for just this... that I already have
Most of the people get only the 5 or 6 first parts of those series, and those who try to get the whole set usually end giving up because the editor is not serious, there are always delay, added numbers (with nothing interesting, just to make you pay more and more and more)...
It turned to nightmare. I totally gave up maybe 3 months ago. I thought I'd simply create a tiny scene with just what I have, maybe a kind of frame ? I had NO motivation at all, but I wanted to do it.
Yesterday evening, between 2 storms, I was wandering on auctions sites when I found a buy it now thing on "le bon coin". Ah ??? Alas very far from home, and on this site people never accept paypal, few accept to send by the PO or Mondial Relay... I asked, without any hope... and the seller said "yes, no problem, it's ok with me to send AND I accept paypal". I bet my face was like
*********************
So, if things turn well, if the seller is serious (I don't actually have much luck, right ?) I am getting 27 numbers over 80, each number was around 10€ and for the total with shipping it's going to cost me 35€...Good deal ! And with 27 numbers, it should be more than enough to create what I expected
I'll have an extra teacher, teacher board and blackboard, but I'm sure I can make something with this, this would make me a total of 4 kids desks, 6 kids, and a part of the building itself. Great ! Ok, I had to spend what I wanted to save for another project, but I don't mind eating pasta and rice only for a couple of months if necessary. When I told François I "might" be able to finally create the little school, I saw tears in his eyes. He even wanted to pay for it, but no.
Just have a look at what the "basic set" could look like
cute, isn't it ? Porcelain head and feet and hands, fabric body
this last one was build following the exact scheme.
Yet, we are talking about something that cost around 750€...
AND
there was a "full coverage subscription" when you paid something like more than the double (someone told me 3.000€... but I have no proof of it), where you got everything to create the whole building, and then it looked like this
stunning, but if they wonder why almost nobody bought it, I should remind them the price is just totally SILLY !
there was a dormitory, toilets on the school playground, outside of the building (something that was usual up to the mid 80's in some schools !)
I'm sticking to a very simple version LOL, mostly because I'm not going to have much to create the scene
If you want close-up pics, you can follow this link, where a women has build the "basic" one
Then I thought about Sylvanian. The size isn't very far, maybe some of you creating a Sysy school might be interested by the accessories (printable things I mean), like wall cards, booklets, notebooks, papers, etc. If so, just let me know, I can scan what I'll get (if I get it, of course)
:-)
