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

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Eight hours!?!? No.....please no!

[GoodboyBindleFeatherstone]

My brother has asked for Playmobil for his children for Xmas.

I got some.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha... ... hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Next year he'll be asking for the noisy shit I usually get!

[Deux]

Alright all you preassemblers. Keep your hair on. No need to take it so personally.

We're beyond the Playmobil years now anyway. I guess my DS was one of those children for whom constructing playmobil (with a grown up) was part if the fun.

[AdventCaroline]

nouser 8 hours!

[IrianofWay]

Good lord! If I had the temerity to do this before Christmas two things would happen:

1. DS2 (recipient) would have a meltdown. He would hate anyone to have opened up his new thing before he did. He is quite obsessive about that sort of thing and it would spoil everything for him.
   

1. DH would find it hard to forgive. Whenever anything of this sort arrives in the house he hovers until he can get a chance to 'help' and then hunches over it snarling at anyone getting too close like a lion over a fresh kill. This (thankfully) includes Ikea flat packs.

[serenaserene]

Be aware OP

You will be picking those teeny tiny bits out of your carpet forever. They also have a way of being magically invisible until you step on them!

Best toy ever though

[bilbodog]

I agree about putting together BEFORE the big day - my DH spent all Christmas Day trying to put the pirate ship together a few years ago and DS was bored waiting........... after that we always did it BEFORE Christmas Day. It probably depends on your kids - some may be happy spending ages building from scratch - or may be go half way and just put together some of it so it doesn't take so long?

[MackerelOfFact]

I remember the endless tedium of being 7 years old and waiting for a crap crack team of six tipsy adults to finish assembling the Playmobil mansion and pirate ship I was desperate to play with. It was dark before it was finished. Even now, more than twenty years later, we lament in hushed tones what is now known as the 'Playmobil Christmas.'

[Lilicat1013]

I am so glad we only have very small Playmobil this Christmas (the hotel shuttle bus). It will still be preassembled because my son will want to load it with toy animals straight away and doesn't understand why it doesn't come out the box looking just like the picture.

[bryonyelf]

Definitely build before. Christmas 2012 - 4 hours building the lion knights castle. 2 hours building the pirate ship. This will never be repeated....

[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

[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?

[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!!

[JoyceDivision]

sorry, i thinki went to bed at half 4!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[BreakingDad77]

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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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?

[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).