REVIEW – Sylvanian Families Starry Point Lighthouse
Introducing Starry Point Lighthouse…
As a Mum there is no nicer feeling than watching your own child play with toys that are as popular today as they were during your own childhood. I grew up in the 1980’s and Sylvanian Families were on my wishlist just as much as they are now on Erin’s. I have fond memories of acting out scenes with these beloved woodland creatures, taking them on adventures in their beautiful family homes, getting them dressed in their little outfits, rearranging furniture and using my ever increasing imagination to create little stories in the comfort of my bedroom. I used to walk down the Slyvanian Families aisle at Toys R Us and stare in awe at the made up villages in front of me on the shelves. I wanted to take them all home with me, feeling sad that they might get lonely left on the shelves, and Santa saw many a request for a rabbit family or two.
We were recently asked if we wanted to review one of the existing items in the Sylvanian Families range, and when I asked Erin she knew exactly which one was on the top of her wishlist. The Starry Point Lighthouse – we had seen the adverts on TV that showcased a built in light projector, and it wasn’t hard to see the appeal.
About the Product
The Sylvanian Families Starry Point Lighthouse is a Lighthouse and Lodge house combined, and is compatible with other popular Sylvanian Family sets including Beachwood Hall. The adorable house comes with a variety of furniture in the box, including a curved kitchen, sofa chair, whale shaped table, hot air balloon, and a hanging bed in the shape of a pirate ship!
Not only is the set a fantastic way for children to bring their imagination to life, the lighthouse features a projector – with three different slides to project beautiful images of the night sky onto your child’s bedroom ceiling.
Our Experience
As with many of the Sylvanian Family sets, there is a little assembly work required before play, however this was very straight forward, and did not take long for myself and Erin to open up the little bags and put everything together. Most of the pieces simply slot or click into place, with the upper floor simply sliding into place, and the stickers needed adding – in this case over the door frame and on the bedroom ceiling. The trickiest part was adding the string to the boat bed and hot air balloon, as there was a bit of an art to getting them to hang perfectly straight, so Mummy had to do this bit. With a couple of attempts I got there in the end! 🙂
It’s important to note here that no characters come included with the Starry Point Lighthouse, however we were sent a Rabbit Family to accompany the review, and Erin has a few characters already from her existing collection, including the baby bunny which is her absolute favourite.
As with most Sylvanian Families sets, the Starry Point Lighthouse can be played with from the front and back, with an open upper window and working front door for characters to enter and leave. The is a detachable front ‘terrace’ area which can be moved around as the child wishes. Erin happily moved around the Lighthouse from front to back as she acted our little scenes with her rabbit family.
Erin loved the furniture included with the Starry Point Lighthouse, and I loved the fact that there was a good variety of products included, which means you don’t need many additional items to make a really extensive playset. The curved kitchen fitted perfectly into the curve of the lighthouse walls and in Erin’s modern household, she enjoyed helping Daddy Rabbit whip up a storm in the kitchen before he washed the dishes in the shell shaped sink whilst Mummy Rabbit had a snooze on the pirate ship bed. I like her style. 😉
The upper floor of Starry Point Lighthouse can be removed as your child plays, to either split the house into an upper and lower floor or have one large open plan space. The hot air balloon was a lovely feature, with Erin’s favourite Baby Rabbit having the perfect sized bottom to take a comfy seat and hang contently over the world below.
The other furniture included the hanging pirate ship bed – which can hang at two different points in the house – either from the roof (with the upstairs floor removed) or under the ceiling of the upper floor. There are small hooks to thread the string onto which can be a little bit tricky so younger children may need assistance. Once hooked into place, Erin enjoyed rocking her to sleep, which did on occasion result in her being catapulted over the roof! Good job Mr Rabbit hasn’t had a visit from the H&S Executive. 🙂
One of the main desires Erin had in relation to the Starry Point Lighthouse was the included light projector, and she couldn’t wait to see it in action. The set comes with three slides included, each with their own starry scene. Simply slot them in, remove the top of the lighthouse and switch the switch to the on position to see lights projected on to the ceiling. We found that these worked better when the house was somewhere up high or closer to the ceiling as you got a stronger effect, however further away the projection covered a wider area of the ceiling (which is very challenging to photograph!)
Of the three different starry night options, the fireworks one above was Erin’s favourite, but the set also included a starry constellation (above) and a moon with a hot air balloon passing across it. The slides were very easy to swap over as and when required, and Erin could do this unassisted.
Other more subtle parts of the Starry Point Lighthouse included the moveable (rotating) seashell steps which the Rabbit Family could climb to get to the upper floor, or to stand on the balcony of the lighthouse and play lookout.
After all his hard work in the kitchen, Erin thought Daddy Rabbit deserved a bit of chill out time, so he headed off for a rest on his sofa 🙂
I absolutely loved watching Erin’s imagination come to life. She really enjoyed pretending the Rabbit Family were welcoming guests, walking them in through the front door and then giving them a bit of a guided tour around the house (maybe she’s going to be an estate agent?)
Mummy Rabbit also seemed to spend a lot of her day peeping through windows which lead me to believe that she is either
a) a bit of a nosey housewife
b) fearing an unwelcome visitor or
c) trying to keep up with the Cat Family next door.
Quite often Erin would forget I was watching, and would get into full on conversations between her characters, before peeping over the roof and letting out an embarrassed smile when I beamed back at her. I used to do the EXACT same thing, and it is literally like history repeating itself.
Overall, as expected the Sylvanian Families Starry Point Lighthouse was a huge hit with Erin. There really is something special about these little woodland creatures with their soft flocking making them a welcome difference from a regular plastic toy. In terms of imagination building, story creation and role play, for me there is no greater range than the Slyvanian Families. It is easy to see why they are celebrating their 30th birthday this year, and we a super excited to be reviewing items from their brand new Town range very soon.
Pros
- Fantastic sets for bringing children’s imagination to life. I love nothing more than to watch Erin play contently on the carpet, creating the voices of the characters and acting out little scenes. Her teacher from school even made an appearance lol 🙂
- Well made, very easy to assemble and sturdy.
- Despite no characters being included, the set comes with a fair amount of furniture and accessories, meaning only a small additional investment is required to make quite a substantial set to play with.
- The projector is a real added bonus, and I love the fact that children can chose their favourite starry night scene from a choice of three.
Cons
- My only real con would be that the stickers do tend to peel off quite easily, particularly the ones on the inside roof of the house. As such, we do need to keep pressing these back in place, and could end up with us having to remove them altogether, however this would not have a major impact on the desirability of the product.
- Some parts on this particular set are a little fiddly, in particular the hot air balloon and the hanging bed. As such, you can expect to be asked for help on occasion as children move the accessories around, not a major issue, just something to be aware of! 🙂
You can learn more about the Starry Point Lighthouse on the Sylvanian families website
The Sylvanian Family Starry Point Lighthouse is available to purchase on Amazon here.
*Disclosure – we were sent the Sylvanian Family Starry Point Lighthouse free of charge for the purpose of this review, however as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links*
