which playmobil sets would you reccommend for 3.5yr boy?

[unfitmummy]

his sister has a carry along house(which she never really liked) which he has started to play with alot. so i was thinking that when family ask what to buy him i might suggest some playmobil sets. so what gets played with alot? he loves his brio train set and hot wheels cars and anything toy story as well as his collection of animals in case that helps!

ChaoticBoy has played a hell of a lot with the Recycling Truck since he was about 3.

Dinosaurs are great - nice big chunky bits without too many fiddly little peices? And the TRex has Toy Story links?

Cauldrons I was going to recommend the recycling truck too. Ds has it and loved it when he was smaller. He is not so in love with it now but he is nearly 7 now.

He now loves his pirate treasure chest which stores quite well but folds out into a cave and jetty for pirate adventures.

The recyling truck and the pirate stuff. Playmobil is great :-)

Popular with my boys:

Recycling truck (much loved)
The fire engine
Delivery lorry
Camper van
The castle

My dd has the campervan and it is fab. I would warn that it has many, many tiny pieces though so if your ds likes to spray toys around rooms or mouth them you would have to remove a few bits and bobs til when they are older.

The castles all seem to be great, with hidden trap doors and stuff like that.

Ds2 loves the Safari animals and truck. He likes the castle and knight too but they tend to fall apart. The animals at least stay in once piece!

DS 3.5y loooooves his Playmobil fire engine and recycling truck. Have you looked at Bruder stuff? Sturdy scale models of trucks and farm vehicles. They do a fire engine crane which seems to combine all DS's favourite things.

Has he got the Brio big red engine? Battery driven and has added a whole new dimension to the wooden railway stuff.

Yep, recycling truck. Ambulance also very popular.

Any of the fire rescue sets would be good. Also the recycling truck, camper van and police sets. If he is into transport I think any of these would be good.

I would recommend you get several items in a related theme if you are able to (e.g. several fire sets) as then they can all be played with together, which gives you more options. Maybe different family members could buy a set each.

I was going to suggest the recycling truck lol. Remove all the small bits and keep in a safe place until later.

Btw Barbecue Dad is a compulsory item in any mumsnet playmobil collection. To provide on-site catering at any playmobil gathering.

We have barbecue man. He does a good sausage......

Ds will be 2.5 at Xmas and is getting the children's zoo, campervan ( will remove knives and forks etc for now) police motorbike and several small sets as stocking fillers. At the moment he only has the child on the motorbike and mum and baby in a pushchair but he LOVES them and now I want to go on a massive playmobil buying spree! :)

I'd recommend the campervan too. DS2 had the yellow version for his 3rd birthday and they go on all sorts of adventures. I'd also say anything vehicle-like has been popular in our house; I just took the little bits away till they were a bit older (so my OCD didn't get the better of me and I had to put all the bits back in the right place!)

Another vote for the recycling truck here. Also the fire engine with the extending ladder has been a big hit (but not so much the regular fire engine).

DS got the children's zoo and the dolphin basin set for his 3rd birthday this year and enjoys playing with them both. He got the meerkat set to go with the zoo too and he loves playing with that.

Fire engine recycling truck police car

The aeroplane was recently massively reduced at ELC so bought for Christmas

Although I have never bought this specific one Microblocks tub of 500 from amazon seems to be a bargain is compatible with Lego. I don't buy any because at school they have so many construction materials.

DC 3.11 got the ambulance in the summer as a gift and has loved it, friends also gave him a car and a house type building with some furniture.

Seeing as he enjoys these we have now purchased; the recycle truck, the airplane, a camper van to be given by various people for birthday/christmas and also managed to find some little people in Tesco a couple of weeks ago reduced to £2.50 for 2 people so these will be good little stocking fillers or for first day at pre-school etc.

My DS (3y 10m) never plays with the fire engine we bought.

The dinosaur sets are constantly played with. Great big dinosaurs and volcano/rocks to set the scene. Brilliant.

The areoplane has 30% off at ELC just now.

we got ds the big castle & gp's got him rock castle and extra bits at age 4.6 and he never really played with them. too fiddly. the men kept falling over whenever he bumped the castle walls so he lost interest quickly. he never really took to it and it sat out gathering dust (is still upstairs in a box somewhere - need to put it on ebay!).

the chunky looking dumper truckers and dinosaurs that others have recommended look/sound much better.

All the current Playmobil safari sets (ELC sell them) are great - they join up to make a big watercourse and there's an ostrich set, hyenas and bones, various animals inc hipps, crocs (which also float so are good bath toys) - my 4yo ds loves his. He also loves his castle - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLAYMOBIL-4294-Pirates-Soldier-Fortress-Lighthouse-/330619109726?pt=UK_Toys_Creative_Educational_RL&hash=item4cfa6f415e which I love too!

The camper van is a great first set IMO.

I also love the look of the swimming pool one here

Can someone tell me more about the castles with trapdoors and stuff, I am eyeing up the christmas preent for CBoy.

And wtaf is Barbeque dad so expensive?