Wooden Castles, do they get played with? and which one to buy?

[Marne]

Both dd's would like a castle for christmas, as i have bought most of their presents already it needs to be cheap (if i buy them one). Dd1 is 8 and dd2 6. Dd1 likes the look of the playmobil one but its too many pennys and i dont want to be building it on christmas day. I have found a nice wooden one on Amazon for £20 but it has no knights or dragons with it (would have to buy them).

So, if your dc's have a wooden castle, does it get played with? i'm not sure wether to bother or not.

My ds will be 6 in January. he has a wooden castle and it gets lots of play. It is roughly shoebox sized thougha bit taller and it folds out so it doesn't take up loads of room! We have the playmobil knights with it rather than the figures that you could buy to go with it, that way it fits in nicely with other toys and dd's playmobil princess shite gets put in it a fair bit too. The castle itself came with a trebuchet and stuff for a bit of added play value so the knights regularly get lined up and shot down .

ours is a bit like this but not pink.

this is the one i was looking at, i like the look of the pink one too (though not in pink as dd1 hates pink). We often see the dragons and knights in our local toy shop and dd1 always asks if she can have them.

We have got the Melissa & Doug folding wooden castle, it is fab and as it lives in DS1's bedroom it gets played with every day. Much better than Playmobil castle which fell apart every time you so much as looked at it. It's inhabited by various Playmobil knights/pirates/binmen etc.

Oh yeah we don't do pink either, dd prefers dragons to princesses but sadly this is a fact relatives fasil to grasp so she has shite princess fall apart playmobil take along castle trasure chest stuff but her brother gets a proper castle .

this one is cheaper (and girlier!) than ours.

Dd1 will want knights and dragons (no pink)
dd2 will want princesess and lots of pink.

Have already bought quite a bit for dd2 so it will be more for dd1 so will have to be a 'non-girly' castle.

Our wooden castle get played with a lot. We got a small handful of knights to go with it initially but now DD2 saves her pocket money to buy additions and has quite a collection (we like the Papo knights and mythical figures). It's good to have a suggestion when relatives ask what to buy her too. It's been such a success we're probably getting the wooden pirate ship this Christmas to add to the adventures.

Ooh really interested in this thread my ds age 6 is getting a castle from Santa and that Melissa and Doug looks fantastic! I think I shall make the purchase!

They all look good. Just one thing: check the top edges if you can for rough bits. DD tripped and fell on ours as a small child, needed stitches and still has a scar on her chin

Another here with the Melissa and Doug. It gets played with all the time.

You could use the Playmobil men with a wooden castle. We were given a Playmobil castle and tbh it's a pain to make.

We have this. It's ace! The walls and turrets all come apart and can be put back in different configerations, so it's often just a long wall across the living room floor .

The DSs also like to play with just one turret on occassion, as a tower, and carry it around from room to room. It's become a lighthouse, a fire station, Hadrian's Wall...