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.)

So excited about our playmobil Christmas plans. Glad you lot,are all feeling the same!

Do you rate the pirate ship? Wondering if it might be overkill as dds already get such a kick out of the cannon that fires little missiles in the mini pirate set. Obviously I would just keep buying sets til we were broke or had to move into the playhouse but I an trying to be sober and judicious.

We have last year's pirate ship (rather than this year's) but my owner loves it, and it gets used a lot! Very, very good set.

EnglishWoman - am sure mine will figure out to do that in the not too distant future! They also have the little paddling pool set which they fill up themselves. Amazing how much water they can get everywhere despite the paddling not holding more than a few ml!

The playground is another set that needs a fair bit of adult help to set up each time when the kids are still little (mine are 4 and 5) but once they get going, they play with it unsupervised for ages.

The take along school and the camper van on the other hand, they can manage without any help.

Lucy my in-laws have the pirate ship at their house for my DC - it gets lots of play so seems to be worth having. The in-laws spend half their lives at car boot sales and found it for a bargain price so it may be an old version, though in very good condition.

Thanks Norman I blame you for starting my playmobil obsession btw. I pulled dh in to watch dds (only 2&3 ) playing fantastic imaginative games with the people yesterday. He rather sarcastically muttered that four months of 'pushing' was bound to pay off don't care! They love it now and I love that they love it!

Anyone got any experience of the zoo or the asian enclosure for the zoo (or seen them on offer anywhere)?

ds1 wants them, he's got a fair bit of playmobil, including the safari lodge thing that has had some animals with it, but it keeps falling to pieces. Most of the time he spends driving cars/diggers/fire engines/boats/etc around (playmobil ones that is!) so I'm not sure how much fun he'll get from the animals...

Pirate ship is great, very big though! Took 2 hours 20 mins exactly for me and a 3 year old to do!

I don't think I'd build Playmobil before the day, it's half the fun! DS is quite patient though

Oops! Sorry Lucy! .........

We got ds Falcon Knights castle for his 4th bday on Sunday. Dh spent about 1.5hrs putting it together Saturday night. Ds loves it, so do we It has a breakthrough wall which is pretty cool, the drawbridge also winds up and makes the winding up sound you'd imagine, there's a trapdoor in the jail etc. The only thing we've found is that if it is all locked together its hard for ds to get into each part (he has my clumsy lack of dexterity) so we've been keeping it in three pieces but kind of placed in the right shape iyswim. It came with 3 knights and a horse. MIL brought him the battering ram that has an additional 3 knights and 1 horse and DM brought him a cool dragon set with gold and two rogue knights.

Playmo is always best if you have a few sets which go together.

LucyBorgia - a definite yes vote for the pirate ship. DS got it for his 4th birthday, and plays with it all the time.

ZipZap - DS has the children's zoo and the dolphin basin set. Of those, the dolphin set is played with the most. He does generally like his zoo stuff, though not quite as much as his pirates.

We also put a towel under the pool and it doesn't make a mess. Ds makes get quite wet though as the people drop onto his knees when he picks them up.

Just been in my local Home & Bargain. They have two small sets of Playmobil in there. One with pirates (sorry, can't remember what) and a treasure hunter set with a snake in it. The treasure hunter set is this one and was £9.99.

There might be other bits of Playmobil in other H&Bs.

20% off all playmobil at John Lewis til the 2nd Nov, and free delivery over £50!!

Ahhhhh the spiritual home of Playmobil fans! Hoping someone can help point me in the right direction, I have brought DS the Playmobil Swat set that is at Tesco for £25 but it doesnt have the car, the sets with the car are much more expensive so I thought I could just buy a car to match this set but I cant source one anywhere :( the set would really make more sense with a car - any ideas how to source one or is it a case of keep an eye out on eBay??

Does anyone have the Pirates Fortress Super Set #4007? Is it a very small set? I've been looking at it for DD's cousin as he's going through a pirate phase at the moment. It's quite hard to tell the size of the set from online pictures. I'm a bit worried it'll be miniscule!

TIA

Purpleprickles do you find that the Falcon Knights castle has enough people/horses? DM has got it for DS1 for Christmas, or should I get more people for his stocking? This is our his first playmobil set, so we have no pirates/policemen/school children to recruit in an army

We had the pirate superset and it's quite cute, think it had a tiny dungeon as well as cannon. It is only small but if he's got a few other piratey things already, it should fit in well

We've got a castle for DCs too, and I've bought some extra knights haven't told DH yet because there are hardly any in the set itself. I didn't stick to the right type of knight (lion or whatever), I got lots of different ones so they can all battle each other :o

More people are always good (in my opinion) especially if they can battle each other (or club together in a Motley Crew sort of way! ).

They arrived today :o loads of knights with an assortment of weapons...

Ooh, they sound great, fuzz! ;-)

I am so glad I saw this thread, I need Playmobil guru's!

DD will be 4 at Christmas, her favourite type of toys are miniature people and figures, she has some happyland, SF, peppa pig and my little pony sets that have buildings that she often makes into a 'village' for her mini people. Given this, I thought Playmobil would be a great toy range for her, but I would like your recommendations on the best introductory or starter set for a 4 year old girl?

She has the Playmobil 123 Zoo, but I feel the time is right for her to move on to 'proper' Playmobil.