Aaaarrgh! Playmobil Advent Calendar trauma!!

[Tikkabillajive]

Oh no! Just went to set up our lovely new Playmobil Advent Calendar (which my mum bought in Germany back in October and isn't available in the UK yet!) and there are LOADS of pieces missing - literally 8 days' worth (including Day 1) plus the cardboard backdrop!

Disaster! DD has been so excited about it and has literally been counting the days til Advent Calendar Day for 2 weeks - we almost needed an advent calendar to count down to the advent calendar!

I will phone Playmobil first thing tomorrow obviously but needed to come on here and let off steam - really hope this hasn't happened to anyone else . I'm hoping we can rearrange the pieces slightly, enough to fudge it for the first day or so and hope she doesn't notice absence of backdrop. Bloody well hope they can send replacement parts/ a new one immediately!

oh shit. poor dd. which one was it?

I saw the playmobil advent calendar in Hamleys last monday - it was definitely there out on display £20.

Unless I am going mad.

I've got Christmas in the Forest with a pre-made box so I hope nothing is missing. Which one have you got? If you have other Playmobil pieces you may be able to use those to begin with.

It's the Father Christmas Post Office one - verycherry there are lots available here but this one is only out in Germany so far

verycherry Playmobil do loads of different advent calendars. We had a police one last year - very festive!

The post office one is here - at least it was on Amazon when I looked or are there two post office ones?

Mollie can you open the box to have a check that all the little sections are full? I'm DD is a HUGE Playmobil fan and this is the first time anything we've bought has been incomplete so I would be very surprised if it has happened to others.

I'm sure we can fudge it until they sort it out for us - I've moved the angel into Dec 1st which is the piece that dd is most excited about so hopefully she won't notice that there isn't a little scene to put her in!

Just checked - it is from a German supplier.

Not actually sure where the box is. Ds took it to his bedroom when it arrived last week and put it in a safe place. All I've been allowed to have is the backdrop and that was only because he couldn't assemble it. I reckon ds thinks if I had the box I'd open it before him!

Mollie it's available on Amazon but is way more expensive than the others (just looked and there's one for £13.50 but with £15 shipping from Germany). It's not on the UK Playmobil site, just the German one, so I guess it's not 'officially' out over here. Next year it will prob be more widely available and cheaper but that's too late for dd who is expecting it tomorrow!

DH has picked up some chocolate Christmas puddings so I might have to put those in the empty days... and maybe I could draw a backdrop...

The sweet little elf though, who is supposed to materialise on the 13th, is very absent - DD will definitely notice that!

Are you sure dd has not already got it?

I wouldn't put it past her but it's been at my mum's until we collected it today in grand ceremonial style!

I am so happy , I bought the knights one and it needs no messing about with
It is already all sorted .

Sorry but in my defence everything else about my week has been shite .

I actually missed assembling the box this year. Last year I was up until 2am fighting with it and all the sodding lovely pieces.

That's good TravellingWilbury - I must admit that in the grand scheme of things it's not exactly a disaster but I do wish I had the warm, smug glow of knowing it was all set up for tomorrow!

when you contact playmobil, explain that your dd was particularly looking forward to the elf.

We lost baby jesus from the nativity set a few years ago, and playmobil were great, they sent a new jesus baby AND a donkey and something else!
Then we found the jesus! so we have twins.
Jesus and James.
good luck!

noooooooooooo

I feel you pain, quite quite literally.

advent is the best part of xmas!

Thanks Thatlldo - will definitely do that. I know it's silly but I feel so let down by Playmobil and I really hope they can redeem themselves with amazing customer service tomorrow!

Love the twin Jesuses!

Not in the same league but I have just failed to put together the frigging 3D bit of the Disney Princess advent calendar. Reckon you need a degree in mechanics to get that blasted cardboard thing together. Have kept the stand-up figures but have put the rest (apart from the advent calendar itself) in the recycling. Very frustrating. But definitely not as frustrating as defective German playmobil!

Are you sure the pieces haven't slipped into other drawers or the box. Lots of our drawers were incomplete but all the pieces were there,they'd just slipped in transit.

Hope it goes ok,what a nightmare.

Guitargirl I haven't come across the Disney Princess advent calendar - but from your post it sounds like I had a lucky escape!

Will let you all know how I get on with Playmobil customer service tomorrow. I am wondering if this has happened with lots of other calendars like this, in which case they will also have lots of irate German parents on the phone tomorrow!

MilaMae, nope it's definitely all missing (although some had slipped into different boxes like you say). DH and I conducted a thorough investigation and checked off the components of each day so I now have a list of what's missing.

Where was the cardboard backdrop in yours by the way? In the main box or separate? That was the bit I first noticed was missing, which was why I opened the main box - lucky I did as it would have been awful tomorrow if dd had opened door 1 to find an empty box!

Maybe they'll go back to the old fashioned self-assembly advent calendars next year - I am rather missing putting together all those little boxes this eve!

Is it one of the pre-packed ones [paranoia]?

I can't rem we have the self assembly kind, I hope they sort something out PDQ. They better send a whole colony of elves!!!!