Playmobil 2012

[ObiWan]

Last night a kind MNer directed me to a half price pyramid on Toys R Us. They have a special offer running, you spend £45 on Playmobil, and they throw in a free Playmobil Advent calendar, so I ordered a random sperm whale with boat (£10) thinking it would make a good stocking filler.

After googling, I've discovered the whale is 30cm long , so it has become one of the 'big' presents for my two year old . And you can buy a motor for the boat

I'm sure that last year there was a Playmobil thread, where long suffering people who know all about Playmobil could have their brains picked about things like how long the school takes to build.

So here is this years.

(I think the school took hours by the way.)

Hello!

Has anyone got the Police station? There seem to be at least 3 versions (3165, 3159, 5013...) on Amazon - can anyone recommend? I am buying for my 5 year old son - he and his sister have lots of Playmobile already and he has especially asked for a police station... I am thinking he will want a jail element, but he also wants vehicles... this is going to get expensive (although parts can be from grandparents...) I have not told him he is actually getting what he's been asking for so don't want to show him and let him choose really... anyone got a similar age child who has one of the police stations and loves it and can recommend it?

I'm am back!

My Toys R Us order arrived, but the pyramid box had obviously been opened and returned by another customer, and some pieces were broken.

We managed to get it replaced at the local store without returning the entire order, but it was a lesson in checking that everything is there before stashing stuff away in the Christmas cupboard .

If I hadn't noticed the Playmobil cellotape had been resealed, I'd have been none the wiser 'til Christmas day.'

It is a very cool pyramid though.

I now have the bug, and am trawling eBay for Playmobil from Malta...

We have a police station, but an old one so not really much use to you, sorry!

Police definitely need (IME) vehicles to rush around in, so if it were a tradeoff between a police station and more vehicles I would be tempted to get the police van and let them use that as a base until the next birthday.

Thanks stealth - am thinking 1 set of grandparents could get the van maybe, and I have Father Christmas has a police motorbike for his stocking... No police car in the plan though the American style police station comes with a car, but also a gun rack instead of a jail, so I think I won't be picking that one ... hmmm

ds used to love the safe and the theif set! not sure how ifeel about that tbh, but he loved the coins and locking the baddie up in the police car.

Im till undecided as to what to buy dd, at 6 im still wondering if lego would be more use.

Hello! Just marking my place, as I'm off home from my hols this afternoon on the train, but hopefully I'll be back this evening to offer Playmo advice to anyone who needs it!

Norm xx

The van comes (or used to come) with a dog, which is always a bonus. You definitely want a police station with a jail that you can break out of - the pirates and dragons are always up for helping with a jailbreak in our house. The police have enough guns, IMHO, without giving them a gun rack as well. We also have a couple of police horses, but that may be a reflection of an animal-centric focus...

The safecracking set is also popular here, but could easily be a later add on (Christmas money, maybe?).

We are new to playmobil this year. DS is just away to be 4.
Between birthday & Christmas we have got (some from family) the swimming pool, western city, Indian camp,car & jet ski.
Thought these would be good starter sets??

Stealth he doesn't get to spend his Christmas money, it goes in his bank account for some unspecified later time when he might need to buy something big - thinking along the lines of a computer or driving lessons/ towards a first car (is that mean? He always receives ?50 each from his great Grandmother and from DH's parents (who also buy him large quantities of appealing but short life-span random plastic stuff...), and I just don't want him to spend the ?100 a year on toys, he already has enough of those, especially as if taken to the toy shop to choose with that amount of cash he might come out with any amount of disposable plastic tat - if he were guaranteed only to spend it on Playmobile I would possibly re-think!).

Daisy my 7 year old dd still plays loads with Playmobile, she has friends around specifically to play Playmobile (she has the house, hospital and riding stables - and the pool) and she is still asking for Playmobile - she's getting a shop from her aunt apparently. I have no need to ask questions here about it because I have no input into the choice though, apparently they've arranged it between them... :o I always think Playmobile kids are not Lego kids - Playmobile kids like to play creatively and Lego kids are more engineer types, who like to follow instructions to produce something which they then put on the shelf and admire - my kids have got frustrated with the small amount of Lego they've had as it falls apart if you really play with it, and that interrupts the game. DS does like puzzles so maybe he'll get into the construction side when he's older, but mostly I think the 2 things attract different "types" of child...

Whoneedssleep I loathe the pool, sorry - I declared it an outdoor toy over summer, but it has snuck in again and is confined to the bathroom - DD insists on filling it, and it always results in floods during play, and emptying it again is a nightmare (or perhaps I am incompetent). Thats the one piece of Playmobile I wish we didn't have though!

Ah thanks Englishwoman, going by that explanation dd1 would be a playmobil girl. She is definitely more into paying than building. I think she may get frustrated with Lego buildings send vehicles if they come apart.

I don't think I would let mine spend that sort of amount of Christmas money either, especially if it came from people that they had other stuff from. My DC just get the odd £10 from relations who send cash (or vouchers, which inspite of my heavy hints that Amazon vouchers are easiest when we hardly ever go to a bricks and mortar shop, are generally WHSmith ones which are a bit of a PITA) and I do let them/encourage them to spend those as I think said relatives deserve to hear what the DC have bought and that they like it, IYSWIM. It did grate to pay over the odds for playmobil from WHS last year, though - particularly as £10 is quite a lot of money for the relatives in question, but at least DD got something which she wanted and which would last, instead of yet more art supplies, which was the only other thing WHS had apart from similarly overpriced books.

We have some "bath" playmobil - boats mostly - which works well as long as you get one of those sink drainer things for the plughole unless you enjoy hunting for playmo flippers in the u bend

DS is getting a (home made) castle for his birthday, which is just after Christmas, I have bought these Playmobil knights and bits from Toys r us on half price offer at the moment.

ObiWan! I didn't think to check inside the box when our pyramid came - and was planning to build it on Christmas day with the dcs. I'll have to check it when the kids are in bed - thanks for the heads up!

theenglishwoman I won't tell my DH that about the pool. He has already expressed some concern about water everywhere! [hwink]

For populating a castle, I would be tempted to check out ebay for bundles of used knights - you generally get more "stuff" than people in the new packs.

Evening all! We have a police horse here (he is called PlusForce ) and his rider is called Basil....

All the police sets are very good. We particularly like Michael the Beach police man here he is as you can pull back his quad bike and it shoots forwards.

We would also recommend most of the leisure and harbour sets, also the fire rescue sets and the pirates and knights.

Actually there isn't much we wouldn't recommend....

Oh and the pool is great, but if you want to fill it with water you need to use it either in the garden or in the bath!

Norman I have been meaning to ask - do you have a school? We have just acquired one and it's fab. All the Playmobil children currently working on the farm are going to get sent to school, as soon as we get around to relocating the school up to DD's room.

Ah, the pool.

It is a bit of a ballache I agree. I always stick a handtowel under it and I cut up a few pieces of felt to make towels for the people to dry out on after their swim. Also, only fill with a cm of water. Once it is set up, I find my dds will be happy with it for about 3 hours, so it is definitely worth the hassle.

My Ds has the pool-only had it out again today-it is great! In the summer agree it's an outdoor toy but if in the house I just put a towel underneath and do 't fill as much.when it comes to emptying,remove the paddling pool bot first and empty then empty the main pool.hthx

woopsidaisy we have the smaller of the two castles and IMO it's huge! So glad I went for that and not the large one now.
Regarding police stations- we have the take along one and it's not that great...

We don't have a school, I'm afraid stealth - but only because we don't have room, not because we don't want one! The playroom has recently been encroached by drum kits and xylophones, and the Playmobil is still there but doesn't have much room to expand!

Norman thanks, that quad bike looks like something DS1 will really appreciate so may find a way to add it in :) Just have to decide which police station.

Bedfordshire and Norman you have well behaved DCs clearly - my DD gets the playmobile pool out of the bathroom(without asking as I will say no), takes it into her room, fills it to the brim with water using a bath toy watering can, plays with it with her friends, and then I step in it on her bedroom floor when doing bedtime, not having realised it was there - and then spill it everywhere down the corridor taking it to the bathroom to pour the water out... She does only do it when she has friends over, but as she has friends over most days and having 3 kids I don't hover over her when she goes upstairs to play, it is a pain in the arse :) Agree it has good play value - but it is still a pain!

Ah thank you peachy - didn't even know there was a take along one. Am thinking of something static - DD has the house, hospital and riding stables and DS, though he has lots of vehicles including a plane, and the football stadium (which is just a mat for grass, plus goals and walls a scoreboard and players) doesn't have a building, so that is what I am looking for. Good to know to pay no attention to the take along if I do see it! :)

Ah, I suppose my owner is well behaved but then he is 11 now. Although we never had swimming pool disasters even when he was 8 or so (largely due to keeping the swimming pool nowhere near any sources of water! )