Angelina Ballerina Sylvanians: origins.

Again, a compilation about a series of blogs I made about this topic, after extensive research, compiled to offer relevant data only, and improved it even a bit. I split all the data over 2 blogs.

I discovered the Angelina series in 2021 after I already collected a lot of Sylvanian Families and fell in love with them instantly.

You can see the likeness to Sylvanian, but they are not real ones. Yet, they do are related indeed, as you will find out! This is blog will deep dive into the origins, the next blog about my crafting.

Flair (UK toy company since 1999) took over the production of Sylvanian Families in the UK in 1999/2000. Up to then, Epoch only produced Sylvanian Families in Japan. In 2013, Flair transferred the rights for the UK toys to Epoch UK. Flair released the Angelina Ballerina sets starting from 2003, yet claims to have no more info on the series, after contacting them. Through the help of some members of the Sylvanian forum, and lots of online research, I gathered more info and pictures.

"Angelina Ballerina" are children's books by author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig about a mouse (Angelina Jeanette Mouseling) who is training to become a ballerina. The first book was published in 1983 and since then there have been over twenty books in the series. The books have been adapted into two animated television series as well.

Flair re-released and reused Sylvanian Families items for the Angelina series, as you will see below.

I will show all the visual info I found online from sales adverts.

In 2005, the last Angelina Ballerina pieces were released.

In 2006, a limited edition Calico Critters Katie Kitty Ballerina was released, wearing an Angelina's Pink Tutu outfit, a spare Angelina's Pink Paw Twins outfit, reusing Angelina's mirror and ballet barre .

In 2009, Calico Critters released Britney's Ballet Recital, in 2 different boxes apparently, yet again using the same design of the pink tutu outfit, barre and mirror.

So, there was indeed an obvious crossover between Sylvanian/Calico Critter items.

Here's the original Angelina Ballerina catalogue.

This is the text that was on one of the sets:

Yet, when you look at the toy theatre, it does not resemble the theatre of the books, it just hints at it. The toy is oval shaped, the illustrations offer a rectangle theatre.

The theatre was sold in a box.

The theatre is a carry-on toy, with doors which can be opened up. The hinges can easily break off during transport or by dropping the toy. The doors close with a pivoting latch shaped as a letter A. There were 2 types of purple theaters with different latches released: One in fuchsia with pink, one in dark and light purple. Unfortunately, the door latches at the top as well, with a very small feature which tends to break off easily by using it.

The doors display 2 balconies.

The background of the balconies is made from cardboard.

There is a reversible cardboard backdrop for the stage.

The stage lights work by pushing the left light. If the lights don't work, chances are big that the cold soldering came loose inside, which unfortunately means a total disassembly to be able to reach the lights from below. 2 AA batteries at the bottom of the theatre are required to power them up.

When the lights don't work, it's because an old soldered connection broke off inside under the theatre. Unfortunately, that means that the entire theatre needs to be dismantled to get to it. You have to get to the bottom part on the left of the picture below.

See the loose end below? This is a resistor.

It needs to be soldered back onto where the orange arrow point to:

The ballerina dolls can be posed in the round circle on the stage, which has 2 foot stands.

This is how the first set was sold.

Turning the gear wheel at the side make the mice twirl around.

The curtains can be pulled up by sliding the leaver with roses at the same side.

If the red wire becomes untangled, which often seemed to happen when kids played with it, it's easy to disconnect its top holder by unscrewing 2 screws. This is how it should be rewired: The loose ends have to be pulled through the eye hook at the top of the slider opening, located on the inside of the theatre. See the slider opening on the outside on the picture above, where the roses go up and down. Then they need to be tied to the eye of the roses leaver on the inside.

The Cheddar Cottage It was sold in this box.

Figurines, furniture and bike were not included.

Cheddar Cottage was also a reuse of Tomy's 1995 Sylvanian Families Meadowcroft Cottage.

The furniture existed out of 2 sets: a bedroom set and a cottage kitchen set. Both sets did not have figurines either. The cottage kitchen used Sylvanian Families molds.

Figurines:

There were 17 different figurines, although this does not mean 17 different characters. Angelina herself has been reissued with different costumes several times.

Angelina Ballerina and Alice with Green Tutu (Angelina's best friend), both came with a Theatre set, see above.

The earlier sets, starting from 2003, have no name indication of the character at the front.

Miss Lilly in Lilac Dress (Angelina's ballet teacher).

Angelina Rose Fairy Princess outfit.

Henry (Angelina's brother).

Angelina 's birthday bike.

Mrs Mouseling & Polly (Angelina's mom and baby sister). The set includes an adult mouse, pram and baby. However, the "baby" is actually a repurposed standing Sylvanian Families Meadows mouse baby.

Here is a Sylvanian Meadows mouse standing baby.

Polly's pram is a reused mold of an original Sylvanian Baby Pram. Compare the Polly pram on the top right below to various Sylvanian ones. They were manufactured in pink, vanilla, wood color, burgundy, green, blue, with various different handles and wheel colors, and varied fabrics as well.

Miss Quaver & Her Piano.

Angelina with winter coat. For some reason, the ones sold after this pic were taken, had a paler hat and scarf. I looked at unfaded items to compare, so either 2 versions exist, or this was a prototype color.