A word of advice for anyone who has bought Playmobil or similar for a Christmas present.

[AdventCaroline]

It will take longer than you think to assemble.

Way, way longer than you think. Way, way longer.

You will be peering in bewilderment at the instructions and scrabbling through innumerable plastic bags (which when opened, will scatter their tiny cargo everywhere) trying to find the exact teeny tiny piece you need, and sticking tiny little stickers, with a hand that is shaking from the effort, for ages.

Don't even think of trying to do it on Christmas day with the eager recipient bouncing around you.

Don't do it while drunk. It will take even longer.

Be aware that if you try to do it with someone else's help (ie your DH) you will probably end up not speaking to one another.

So do it now! Find a quiet three hours hour, put on some relaxing music, and do it now.

You will thank me later

[notadoctor]

I'm so glad I found this thread! DD has got the playmobil castle and it hadn't occurred to me to construct it - that's my Xmas eve accounted for!

[LittleBearPad]

thanks. I've warned DH.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Weve got the Kitchen. It wasnt too bad - took me about 2 hrs on my own. The hardest part was attaching the top unit to the bottome unit. I nearly chopped it into firewood

[LittleBearPad]

Takes notes for the future. DH will be building the toy IKEA kitchen on Christmas Eve ( nowhere to hide it before). Any ideas as to how long it may take?

[RoundRobinSparkles]

Shit! I've got my nephew some playmobil for Christmas. I've wrapped it in the box!

I've never had any playmobil before so I didn't realise that it was difficult to assemble. My sister's going to do her nut! Mwah ha ha

[stylelostneedsfinding]

I remember the Christmas where we built the Playmobil Bastard Castle on Christmas Eve and in my tipsy happy confident self decided after a record hour build time to move it so it was central to the tree for a wow factor... Big mistake I dropped it and it broke into tiny pieces all over the living room floor, we ended up having to do a tag team through the night during the babies night feeds (the castle was for 6 year old) to reassemble which was worse and harder than when we first made it - I'd glue the damn thing to be honest. There is no joy in assembing play mobile but lego id happily sit all christmas building with the kids.

Also I think most people buy play mobile too young we definitely did.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Glueing it? Nooooo! Your kids will want to reassemble it in different creative configurations. Don't even think of glueing it.

[QuicheMama]

I am hoping my playmobil will be easy to assemble this year - police truck, speedboat and motorcycle. The buildings are a bitch, as is the Pirate Ship.

If they are glued, are they not more likely to break? I would rather it need re-assembling than binning.

[CleanHankie]

DH has just commented that the fun of Playmobil is building it. He was impressed 2 years ago that he required a screwdriver for the Pirate ship! Well, this year he has a Grand Mansion to put together (recommended 2.5hrs construction). Although DH only gets about 2 presents to open on the day so I like to think that building Playmobil is his real present

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Well, after a fright at the possibility of spending 8 hours erecting a Playmobil school, I got it all out tonight and did the whole lot in 2.5hrs! Whooopa!

No fucking clue where im going to put it now.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Mary you might be right - will pull it all out Saturday night and see whats what. I can hide it in my bedroom (we have an alcove that I can stash it in behind something).

[toffeelolly]

Oh no have got ds the playmobil trainset did not think they took so long. Anybody done the trainset before if so how long did it take?

[sanfairyanne]

the caravan, car, small items are fun to make together imo
the houses can be a pain though
dont think we played with it when kids were 3 though - they wouldnt have liked waiting, but wouldnt have liked fiddling round with the tiny bits either. for that age, i would put all the tiny bits away til they are older

[MaryWestmacott]

Think - don't do that to yourself, it'll ruin Christmas for you when you get to bed only 30 minutes before the DCs get up

Do it this weekend. Do you have somewhere like a garage you can hide out to construct it? If you dn't have to hide it again if you want to give up half way through, you could do then.

[WhereIsMyHat]

This tales me back two years to the Christmas my kids granddad spent holed up in a bedroom trying to do the playmobil pirate ship. It was a lonely Christmas for him.

[BreakingDad77]

TOOT TOOT Drivers and Stickers! DS got this as a present there are pages of the the things!!!

[scrappydappydoo]

Oh can I ask - I've got the sylvanian families maple manor. I have it hidden away unopened - do I need to haul it out to assemble for the big day?

[dancingwitch]

Another word of warning for Playmobil novices - there is no logic to what is in each individual plastic bag. Oh no. Instead, you need to rip open all of the plastic bags to get the necessary bits for stage one of the instructions alone.

[Footlight]

Please all check your boxes whatever you're giving this year. I heard of two stories last year of boxes containing something completely different to what they should have. One was a BMX (it had a toddler bike inside) and one was a black drum kit (there was a pink one in the box).

Not much you can do about that at midnight xmas eve.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Right, new plan. Night before Christmas Eve I will open the school, sort all the parrs and make up as much as I can, like stickers on things etc.

Christmas Eve I will assmeble the building and furnish with all the teensy things I prepped the night before. Whilst getting squiffy and crying at Emma Thompson in Love Actually.

[BreakingDad77]

#firstworldproblems

Though may eat my words as do have a walker car to put together for xmas and some people QQing on Amazon that was hard to put together.

[JoyceDivision]

sorry, i thinki went to bed at half 4!

[JoyceDivision]

agree!!!

we got the school 3 years ago.

i remeber dh waving at me as he set off to teh spare room at half 9 at night to commence building while I was reading in bed.

at half 2 he came down saying he was out of his mind with despair at how long it was taking.

I was wide awake then and carried on building the 'features' (2 pieces in seperate bags for microscope taht a playmobil figure can hold?) then had to do all the stickers and put the flowers on the plants.

i think i went to bed at half 2.

it isINSANE!!!

We wrapped the empty box and while DCs were opening theirstuff we moved it into theirbedroom!!

[dancingwitch]

I totally agree with OP. For one thing, it is much harder to disguise which bits are brand new and which bits of them are second hand if some of it is in a nice cardboard box. It also distinguishes (in my gullible 4yo's eyes) from those we looked at in the toy shop in their cardboard boxes and therefore MUST be from Santa's workshop.
DD's face was a picture when she came down on Xmas morning and found the school she had been dreaming off made up in the sitting room. I had made it three days before, finished it at 1am and carried it into the neighbours and left it under her desk where it remained until after the DC were in bed in Xmas Eve. The neighbour had come around at 10.30 to give me a key as she (the mother of university aged children) knew it would take much longer than I had said and wanted to go to bed!
This year, DD's new Playmobil will be constructed, the second hand Playmobil will be dusted down from the top of the wardrobe where it is has lived since I bought it from (another) neighbour over the summer and 2 yo DS's train set will be set up. Obviously DD will play with the people and accessories but she doesn't need to build the walls and bits; DS will obviously destroy the set up and rearrange it to suit him but he will be able to immediately use it.
Equally obviously IMO, I would never build a Lego set as the fun of Lego is building it. Surely you don't regularly take the school or pirate ship or whatever back to just the individual pieces and rebuild it?

[Asleeponasunbeam]

DD and her cousin both got the take along house last year from grandparents who didn't want to tell us what they'd bought beforehand. It's not even a detailed one, but there was an awful lot of assembly! DN wasn't allowed hers so we regretted starting DD's!

This year it's a second hand set, so I need to make sure it's all there. X