Honeybear
Honeybear was first released in 2020 by T-entertainment. There are three different types of Honeybear: Mimosa, with a sweet smile, Renge, a classic-looking teddy bear, and Clover, who looks a little startled. They come in all sorts of colors! Honeybear is a very special small flocked figure because their eyes close when they lay down and their feet are magnetic!
Because there is a lot of variety but the base figure is rather plain, there are a lot of custom Honeybears! In fact, I discovered Honeybear through Kinoko Juice!
Sylvanian Families
Sylvanian Families (or Calico Critters in North America) is a toyline by Epoch that started in the 80's. The sets are based around the lives of little animal families and their fictional town. While the these toys are made for young girls, I think it's not too surprising that there are a lot of adult collectors (who sometimes do interesting things), as that seems to be pretty typical for 80's toys.
When I was little, I had the sheep family. They were left at Grandma's one summer and I haven't seen them since, but older-me can appreciate them a lot more now!
Sometimes I like to go on Yahoo!Auctions and see the sorts of sets that didn't seem to have made it to North America. For example, sometimes larger dolls, probably intended for displays, go up for sale. Of course, the older families are quite coveted as well. There's also a lot of dollhouses including a school, a department store, and even a store for smaller versions of the iconic dollhouses. If you wanted, you could really have your own Slyvania!
ミニチュアハウスのお店 from seller on Y!A
3rd Grade Group 2 Friends (Classmates?)
3年2組のなかまたち
This, and Ohisama Kindergarden Dandelion Group (おひさま幼稚園たんぽぽ組), are toylines very similar to Sylvanian Families and almost certainly came up around the same time. Everything appears to be school-themed, but I actually don't know anything about them, I've only seen them on Mandarake (shown below). I don't actually know the relation between Dandelion Group and 3rd Grade Group 2, but they're both by TAKARA and look similar so I'm sure there's a relation! I wish I knew more but they probably never made it out of Japan. It's a shame because they're a different kind of cute from Sylvanian Families!
