#1035 FOREST FAMILIES – CAT and TIGER FAMILIES (Around 1989)

 

 

Forest Families was the cheap knock-off to Sylvanian Families or Maple Town (La aldea del Arce in Spanish, Les petits Malins in French, a powerful license of the late 80s.) made by MC Toy (May Cheong) from Hong-Kong. At the time this company had already some major success with cheap, but qualitative die-cast cars that were sold worldwide. With the time, this company would change its name to Maisto, and would later purchase Bburago and Polistil among others (just the names, as the production sites in Italy were shut down completely).

In order to diversify their offer, they decided to release these nice-looking anthropomorphic animals with clothes, accessories and even some bigger playsets in the style of the brands mentioned above. They were widely available, and they had good sales in many countries all over the world. In some places they are known by alternative names, such as "Peach Fuzz Village" in the United States (distributed by Mel Appel), or "Bärenwald" in Germany (distributed by Simba). If my memory does not deceive me, I saw these for sale in El Corte Inglés (Spain) in the early 90s.

The collection included mainly boxes of 4 figures (mother, father plus 2 children), but also smaller blisterpacks of 2 or even 1 figure, including some grandparents. The construction of the figures was simpler that those from the competition. What strikes me the most, is that, while Epoch for Sylvanian Families and Bandai/Tonka for Maple Town made animals that live in the forests of Europe or America, M.C. Toy designed and manufactured many exotic (and even dangerous) animals from Asia and Africa too: Tigers, Hippos, Frogs, Elephants, Crocodiles! mixed with the "ordinary" rabbits, bears, cows and so. This eclectic bunch of characters made the line more fantastic and maybe even more attractive for little boys. Today I will show my tiger and cat families, out of a big bunch of figures I bought a few years ago.

Today, Forest Families are very sought-after, more or less as much as the figures in which they were based. There are still some to be found in their original packages, I guess the prices will start rising after these have been sold, as the rarity and scarcity increase. If you are interested in them, always pay attention to the clothes. All figures should wear some kind of clothes and these should be in good shape. The figures have flocked hair, which, at certain spots, may be a bit (or a lot) worn out. This defect completely degrades the figure.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CAT and TIGER FAMILIES
• Toy Line: FOREST FAMILIES / BÄRENLAND
• Year: Around 1989
• Company: MC Toy (Macau/ China)
  
• Size of the figures: Around 7-8 cm