My mum used to take me second hand shopping as a kid in the mid 90's. Back then it wasn't a cool thing to do but a practical one. And I guess my mum has always had some green values. I don't remember if I asked for them, but we started buying me Forest Families (Pikkarainen) if we found them. I was also gifted a dad-made doll house for my birthday. I wasn't actually much of a figurine kid in my play, I much preferred to roleplay with costumes and props. But I do remember playing with them and organizing their house.
As a child I had 10 of these figures. The 4 big bears would be mum, dad, big sister and big brother. The adult bear was the child protagonist and the child bear was his annoying little sister. The adult dog, cow and elephant were the neighbourhood kids and friends to the bear boy. The sensible leader bear, loyal and laid back dog, strong and short tempered bull and the sweet and smart elephant girl would get up to adventures. The last character was the naked and annoying child gorilla boy that with the little sister bear would bother our main crew.
In my 30's my parents moved house and I needed to start taking my old stuff. I grabbed these figures, thinking I'd give them to my partner since they had an interest on Sylvanian Families. I quickly learned these were not Sylvanian Families and digging lead me to find out more about them and their history.
I might have forgotten all about them if I hadn't bought a tiny crochet hook. Just to try it out I made a little beanie and put it on the dog who was wearing beige dungarees quite resemeling the popular carhartt ones. His entire character just popped into my head and soon I was polling names in my instagram stories, making up new backstories and reationships and styles for the same core 4 toys.
The dog became Petja, a bisexual trans guy with ADHD, a skateboard and a taste for energy drinks.
The bear became his boyfriend, Oula, who likes thrift shopping and doing drag.
The cow became Petja's bestie since childhood, Apila, an anxious butch lesbian who enjoys crafts.
The elephant became Apila's goth gf Eveliina, who does tattoos and likes horror movies.
And with this I started craving a few more critters and eventually ended up wanting to collect at least an adult and a child from as many critters as I can. I really like this for a collecting hobby since it feels more challenging, less consumeristic and more rewarding than some. There's no new special critters dropping. You can't just walk to the nearest supermarket to buy one. There's no blind bags and secret critters. Just browsing the internet occasionally and keeping your eyes open. I'm in no hurry either.
No comments:
Post a Comment