Family Waddle

The duckfamily had to abandon their homepound because of noise pollution from waterscooters. Whole family including parents, granny, granfather and triplets moved to an old sewing machine which they found from the old shed in Gardenville. When they also found some strings and fabrics, they decided to open up a fabulous boutique.

Mrs Waddle has just gave birth to those darling triplets, Fifi, Gigi and Henry. Triplets follow their mother everywhere and Mrs Waddle doesn't like to let them from her eyes for a moment.

Mr Waddle is a really busy duck. He takes care the boutique with Mrs Waddle but has to do most of the job because triplets keep their mother busy.

Granny Waddle's memory isn't the same it was back when she was young. When she is babysitting the triplets, she keeps forgetting and mixing up thier names. Fifi is Gigi, Henry is Fifi and Gigi is Henry. Sometimes she even forgets her husband's name. ;)

Granfather Waddle spends his days reading newspapers at his favorite armchair. He isn't that excited about triplets because their noise gives him headache. Though he tells them stories more than eagerly when they sit front of him quietly.

Triplets means a triple trouble. Henry in blue, Gigi in green and Fifi in white are still all babies and sleep a lot. And when they are not sleeping they keep getting in wrong places and messing up their parents boutique... :) Mother is happy.

The sewing machine -playset includes:
Figures:

• Mrs. Waddle
• Mr. Waddle
• Granfather Waddle

Accessories:

• Sewing Machine which opens up to reveal the house and boutique, the wheel moves the stairs up and down and the clock spins.
  
• Black sewing machine with a brown bench
  
• A lot of stamp clothes
• Grey scissors
• Newspaper

I'll note my missing pieces with red.

Triplets and Granny Waddle comes with the smaller playset with a train toy, a pink parasol, a small dresser and a triplet's bed. In US, it is called Hiding Place (shaped like a Coinpurse), unfortunately I haven't ever seen it for real... In Europe we only had the ducks and the accessories in a pack. No hiding place... :( Check out this site to see the hiding places from US.

I like the family a lot, though Fifi isn't my favourite from the triplets.. As you can see from the pictures, I wasn't that good at putting the stamps to the walls.. :D Then I came up with an idea to put some of the clothes on a paper and cut them out... If you use this same idea, try thicker paper.. :D mine were too thin so it doesn't fit their hands well.. The sewing machine house is a big one, but not many furnitures go well there because of the shape.. I like the wheel and the swing because there aren't many houses with moving parts.. :) Not sure when I bought this house but I remember buying it before I bought the little playset including the rest of the family.

Family Splash

Before Family Splash moved to Gardenville, they lived on a beach but because there was an oil release from the tankers, their beautiful beach was destroyed. Family tried long and hard to find a perfect place to live happily and then they came across Gardenville. From Garden's shed they found an old watering can which they turned into their new summervilla. Family loves to organize fabulous summerparties next to their pool.



Family contains parents and four children. Father is a swimteacher who has magical color changing swimming pants (changes color in different water temperature). Mother loves to cook and organize parties. The second youngest girl Sandy is eager to help her mother with cooking but most of the times she eats the treats faster than makes them. Oldest child is Sam. He's the only boy and now a teenager. He spends most of the time throwing frisbee at the park. The oldest girl is Suzie. She loves sunpathing even though his father wants her to learn to swim more than anything. Suzie is a bit lazy and just wants to lay by the pool. The youngster, Cindy, is passionated by her toycar. She would even sleep in it if her parents would let her. She only needs to learn how to control the car better, speeding she already does know.



The watering can-playset and additional barbeque set comes with figures and accessories listed below:

Figures:

• Father Jack Splash
• Mother Sylvia Splash (with chef hat and afron)
• Suzie Splash (girl with sunglasses)
• Sam Splash (boy with the red cap)
  
• Sandy Splash (with lila dress)
  
• Cindy Splash (baby)

Accessories:

• Watering can and pool (roof)
• White Sunshade
• Yellow springboard
• Yellow shower
• White ladder
• Barbeque
• Blue barbeque stick
• Two pieces of barbeque food
• Small car
• Two tennis rackets
• Frisbee
• Red swimming bed
• Yellow jug
• Red coctail glass

I'll note my missing pieces with red.

Only Father and Suzie comes with the watering can house set (plus accessories) but you get everything else in the barbeque set.. I don't remember much about this set (no clue when I bought it). Most I loved to play with Cindy and her car, others aren't that important to me. The house itself is a bit boring, if I may say so. Sam hangs around with Brown's kids, they are the same age after all.. I would like to think that Sam and Brown's daughter are a couple... :) Suzie has been always a bit problem, she's a snob, not really a friend with anybody in the garden. When the second generation of families came to the garden, there were a couple of interesting families that worked better with Suzie (same interests and all)...
When I was taking these pictures, first time I realised that Jack's trousers changes color. :D Always thought that they were green for purpose.. xD

Major

Major is a pony whose very important mission is to look after an old rattling schoolbus. He loves children and when his bus is full of laughter, he is very happy.

Emily Hoppit and her friend Tara Purbright are Major's best friends. They both love the old schoolbus and everyday girls take turns to sit at front. Sometimes Major lets the girls to ride on his back too.

When Major isn't at work, he spends his time at Purbright Paddock's stables. Stables are run by Tara's cousin Paula Purbright. She has another pony at the stables. His name is Brownie and Major and Brownie are dear friends. I will tell about the stables and Paula&Brownie later on the blog.



The schoolbus-playset comes with figures and accessories listed below:
Figures:

• Major
• Tara Purbright (white cat)
  
• Emily Hobbit (white rabbit)

Accessories:

• Old schoobus (rattles when pushed forward, the roof can be taken off)
  
• Pink saddle
  
• Orange reins
• Orange lamp
• Orange Waterflagon
• Orange Bucket
• Orange Ladders
  
• Bell on top of the blue pole

I'll note my missing pieces with red.

This Schoolbus-playset was my first Teeny Weeny -toy. I bought it from a small Grocery store at my hometown. I was visiting my granparents at summer when I saw the schoolbus at the store and was charmed by it. It was sooo cute with tiny figures that I had to buy it. One of the hardest things has been finding Tara's family. Before I finally bought the Ice Cream -store a month ago, I only had two relatives for Tara. Her Paula cousin and her aunt Emma Purbright, who is a supermodel. But neither of them was taking care of little Tara. None of the villagers had enough room for Tara so she was all alone, most of the time hanging at the Hotel or at the stables with Major. But now her mother and her little brother (in the picture below behind Tara) are at the town, so she's fine now (and I'm happy).

Family Tooter

Family Tooter (Owls) lives in a pink boot-shaped house which they transformed to be a school. Mrs Tooter is a teacher and her husband Mr Tooter is a priest/photographer/helper at the school. Mr and Mrs Tooter has two little baby owls, Amy and Ian. If someone has their family booklet still left, I would like to get the background story here. I only remember that they had to leave their home forest because there was a motorway near it and they couldn't get sleep during nights (?). So that's why they came to Gardenville (place where every Teeny Weeny Family lives now)

The playset comes with figures and accessories listed below:
Figures:

• Mrs Tooter (Owl with the black hat)
• Amy Tooter (Baby owl with a teddybear)
  
• Ian Tooter (Baby owl with a red cap and football)

Accessories:

• Boot-shaped schoolhouse (split in half when open)
• Silver Bell
• Yellow Ladder
• Chalkboard
• Brown stick

I'll note my missing pieces with red.

Mr. Tooter y ou can see in the pictures, comes in a Wedding Church playset. All of the furnitures and toys and other figures are from different playsets, I will be covering them later.

I remember I bought this playset from this cute little toyshop near my childhood home. It was snowing when me and my mother were shopping and I already had bought one playset before this (Schoolbus) so this was natural follower.

Amy Tooter is also one of my favorite figures. When I was bringing the playset back home, I accidentanly dropped Amy (I noticed it afterwards) somewhere (I had opened it at car and test played it, bad idea...:S) Well I searched everywhere, cried for hours and blamed myself. I remembered that I had reeled outside our door a bit, so I started searching outside. Outside our door, there was this pile of snow and I knew I would never ever find Amy anymore if it had dropped to snow. Well... a week later the snow had melted away a bit and what did I see!!! Amy was laying in a small puddle. It was a happy reunion!

Introduction

Teeny Weeny Families

Teeny Weeny Families (Love Them * Protect Them * Collect Them) were first created by Vivid Imaginations Ltd at 1996 for girls aged from 4 to 8. They are also known as Home Sweet Homes in USA (or Mini Surprise Families) and Mini Sweety in France. These playsets contains a house (different shapes and sizes) with an animal family and furniture/accessories. Also in USA there were small playsets called Hiding Places (unfortunately these were not sold in Europe...).

My Collection
Teeny Weeny Families were a huge hit in Finland and it was voted to be the toy of the year in 1996. I started collecting them when I was 10 years old, the same year they came to stores here. Some of my friends also collected them, but only had one or two houses. I saved my pocket money and bought most of the playsets during the years they were sold at stores. Unfortunately nowadays you can't find them from stores. That's why, because I was missing a couple of houses and families, I started using eBay to get the missing pieces. And last Friday (31.7.2009) I was finally proud owner of those last houses (except Hiding Places which were sold in USA). Still I have some work to do, because I'm missing 8 figures and some accessories, but I'm gonna get them.... Also more furniture would be good...

Why this blog was created?
This blog is my tribute for my favorite toys! I will be posting images of my collection (one family at a time) and writing the back-stories for them (those I still have left or remember). I hope there are people out there who remember Teeny Weenies and also love and collect them. If you have them but are looking for getting rid of them, I'm more than happy to buy them to complete my collection (especially furnitures and figures... Not that interested of houses, but if you have them in excellent condition, I'm willing to think of buying them also)
When I have covered all the families, I probably will be keeping this blog as an ebay checklist... if I find Teeny Weenies sold on eBay, I will link it here.

Comment if you read my blog and write about your memories of these toys!

Links out
Guide to Littlest Petshop (she has info and pictures of Littlest Petshop toys + Teeny Weeny Families, tho only some)