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]

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.

[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

[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.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

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

[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.

[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

[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?

[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]

thanks. I've warned DH.

[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!