Putting together toys - how long does X take?

[FireflyGirl]

I thought I'd start a thread to give people an idea of how long some (relatively popular) toys take to put together, so we know if it's an 'early hours of Christmas morning' job or 'get Grandad to make it up in his shed 3 weeks in advance'.

This is prompted by spending quite a long time on Christmas Morning last year putting together DS'S Vtech toys, but I've seen on other threads that Playmobil is a culprit for this as well.

So:
Toot Toot Hospital - 15 mins
Toot Toot House - 20 mins
Toot Toot garage - took DH over half an hour, and I then had to stick the stickers on.

Happyland Zoo - can be played with straight from the box!

[Afreshstartplease]

Play mobile zoo - your life

[NoCapes]

I've bought the HappyLand Zoo - your post makes me happy

[dannydyerismydad]

Little Tykes Cosy Coupe - just buy a good quality second hand one. It will make you cry.

[GlitteryFluff]

I agree the little tikes car is ridiculous!

IKEA kitchen took me a few hours....

[Akire]

We also need a how long does it take to get assembled toys out of the bloody box!! Ideally without cutting your hands to shread on sharp plastic, needed to untwist 30 wire ties or find a leathal knife to try cut the cable ties.

[NickyEds]

Glad to hear about the Happy Land zoo as ds has got one coming. We've also got a Happy Land cottage thing for dd, and a elc little cooker thing. The toot toot garage took us ages last year!

[Afreshstartplease]

Cosy coupe needs butter

[Sunnydawn]

If you are buying a bike online, check whether you need to build it from scratch. If so, don't buy it.

Father Christmas also made the mistake of delivering a table tennis table and leaving it in the garage. Legs took about 3 hours to sort. Minus 5° temperatures on Christmas Eve at 11pm.

[TheImprobableGirl]

Plum kitchen takes around 4-5 hours of experienced flat packers- but the toot toot helpful hospital took me 45 minutes (dd2 had hidden the X-ray part)

Anything barbie is a bloody nightmare

[BusStopBetty]

Playmobil school. 19 years.

(At least four hours).

No wonder second hand playmobil has such good resale value. Half the value is the fact that it's already bloody well built.

[Throughgrittedteeth]

Love this thread will try and have a think about the things we've built in the past.

[BusStopBetty]

Another one: mini trampoline - about two hours. Took two of us, a mallet, and me putting my full weight on it to get the bits to connect properly.

[giggly]

Best advice I've ever received on munster is to open and remove all bloody wires in barbies etc before wrapping them. If need be in stick a bit of double sided tape on toys to stop them falling about.
Christmas morning has been a delight ever since. No hunting for glasses or scissors.

[giggly]

Mumsnet obviously.

[AndNowItsSeven]

The kids make the playmobil though, that's the point.

[BestZebbie]

I've spent two hours today building the idea play kitchen - much more complicated than a sideboard if a bookcase!

[BestZebbie]

Argh, IKEA and 'or' a bookcase. Stupid phone autocorrect.

[memyselfandaye]

You're all doing it wrong. What you need is a best friend who keeps all of they toys you have bought your child for Christmas at her house so the little bugger doesnt find them

She and her husband then put them all together and if needed, charges them up. They then drop them off on Christmas Eve.

No flies on me.

[Enidblyton1]

Great thread!

[Fueledwithfairydustandgin]

Where does one find such a friend? Our Christmas Eve tradition is me and SIL2 make a gingerbread house (and drink proseco) and DH and engineer SIL1 make all the toys.

[NapQueen]

Ikea kitchen - 5 hours and a divorce
Playmobil school - 2.5 hours


Anyone know how easy the Ikea easel is to assemble?

Dd will be just 5 this Christmas and, like last year, I will pre build her Lego set (frozen castle this year) as she prefers playing with sets to building. No idea how long it'll take me

[bastedyoungturkey]

Sylvanians nursery and bus - has four million fiddly little stickers and loads of little cardboard building blocks to assemble. Took me and Dad almost an hour to do.

Although it appears that sylvanians do sell for silly money second hand.

[Notso]

Great thread. The worst row DH and I have had was at midnight on Christmas Eve over DC1's first bike. He had to drive to the pub and collect his drunken Dad to put it up for us.

Playmobil takes ages.
I didn't heed the warnings from Mumsnet last year and DH and I had to assemble the big wheel, swing boats, the fire station and fire engine on Christmas Eve. It took me twenty minutes to make a figure out of one of the blind bags!

NapQueen I did the easel quickly about 5 mins, but the IKEA kitchen took me under an hour.

Yes to opening everything in advance. So much easier, everything can be played with and you can get rid of packaging early so no mountains of rubbish hanging around.

[HungryHorace]

Melissa and Doug kitchen: about an hour on the morning of DD's birthday as we'd somehow forgotten it needed doing!

[Equimum]

ELC big retro kitchen took about 1.5 hours with two of us. Big Tip: build it close to where it is going. It's not overly easy or strong to move.

I'm toy fire engine push-along took DH about half an hour and was apparently the most logical thing he had constructed.

I second comment on the cosy coupe.....plan in advance and either a, as suggested, but second hand, or pay someone to do it. There was much swearing here late at night in the eve of DS1s first birthday. But, I can reassure anyone now doubting their purchase, that it is worth it....most played with toy here.