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Christmas

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Original poster

Toy castle/fort for a 4 year old boy

32 replies

frazzled74 · 22/10/2015 08:52

Budget £50 max, does anyone have any recommendations? There is a Chad valley one in Argos reduced to £25 but not sure if it will be a bit flimsy.

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IAmAPaleontologist · 22/10/2015 09:00

We have a fold out wooden one, similar to the Melissa and Doug one I think, currently under £30 on Amazon. It is fab as you can shove all the Knights etc inside it to tidy up and why you fold it out you have a great length of battlement to shoot at and defend. We got playmobil Knights to go with it and they are a good size for it, we've quite a collection of them now! Plus the playmobil cannons and things that shoot are great fun.

Original poster
frazzled74 · 22/10/2015 09:04

Thanks, yes I was thinking of wooden fort but adding playmobil Knights, I will look at the Melissa and Doug one.

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attheendoftheday · 22/10/2015 09:08

Melissa and Doug castle is ace (and comes fully assembled as an extra bonus). It's very robust. You may have to wait until it's reduced to get it for under £50, though. It varies quite a lot in price on Amazon, I would put a Camel Camel search on and order when the price is low. We got ours for about £35, but it's often over £50.

attheendoftheday · 22/10/2015 09:08

We have playmobil in our castle too.

Palomb · 22/10/2015 20:11

We've got the imaginex castle.. Bloody brilliant :)

Athrawes · 22/10/2015 20:20

Imaginex. Awesome and you can add more later, like more knights or the dragon!! The dragon is amazing!!

Badders123 · 22/10/2015 20:21

Melissa and Doug

kiwidreamer · 22/10/2015 21:51

Another vote for Melissa and Doug folding castle, four yrs on and still getting played with.

5madthings · 22/10/2015 21:52

We have the imaginext one and it's great you can add to it, it's really robust and kids all love it.

madmotherof2 · 22/10/2015 21:55

Imaginext castle! DS has had his for 2 years and still loves it, it's clever as it folds, so you can have it long, or fold the ends in ( if that makes sense!) and make it more into a fort.

You can buy loads of accessories, so it's handy if anyone wants ideas on what to buy for Christmas. the dragon Is particularly good as it interacts with the castle.

It's really well made too

cocodidit1 · 22/10/2015 21:58

My kids have the Melissa and Doug castle too and its honestly one of the very rare toys which actually gets played with. And as an added bonus its not made out of horrid hard plastic!

madmotherof2 · 22/10/2015 22:02

Bloody hell, just seen the price of the imaginext castle on Amazon! If you go for that one make sure you shop around, I've definitely seen it cheaper!!

WhatWouldTheDoctorDo · 22/10/2015 22:08

We have the imaginext castle. Loads of accessories to go with it and some noisy interactive features. The current model (not the one we have) is is £19.99 in smyths.

winewolfhowls · 22/10/2015 22:51

We got the melissa and doug one roughly this time last year on an Amazon lightning deal so maybe worth keeping an eye out. It had loads off too

madmotherof2 · 22/10/2015 23:09

Is that the lion den one doctordo? I don't think it looks nearly as sturdy as the other one

WhatWouldTheDoctorDo · 23/10/2015 07:26

Yeah. I haven't seen it out of the box. It looks like the regular castle isn't sold any more, hence the crazy price on Amazon.

Original poster
frazzled74 · 23/10/2015 11:22

I'm now thinking of a playmobil one, more money but they seem to prefer plastic to wood.

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INeedACheeseSlicer · 23/10/2015 15:46

If you get a playmobil one, I would go for a smaller, less complicated one - I have it on good authority from my SIL that the bigger ones come apart easily, and are a faff to store and rebuild.
My nephews have got a huge Playmobil castle, but they play more with a playmobil dragon tower that was much cheaper.

I actually think the new playmobil Super 4 castle looks pretty good.

PresidentUnderwood · 23/10/2015 17:13

Melissa and Doug one is often in TK Maxx

IAmAPaleontologist · 23/10/2015 17:34

Noooooooo big playmobil stuff is really annoying, you do NOT want big hunks of plastic to store. Plus all the fiddly bits fall off. I love playmobil, I love the figures, the knights are brilliant and stuff like the camper van is great but the houses and castles and stuff are a nightmare. However something like the fold away melissa and doug fits nicely on expedit/kallax shelves, actually ds1's lives in one of the expedit tubs along with all the rest of his playmobil, it is fabulous.

theonlyoneiknow · 09/11/2015 12:53

The Hawk Knight one is half price on Amazon! I'm also looking for a castle and was totally going for the Melissa and Doug one till I spotted this, however like you I'm fed up with all of the little bits and pieces and it's a big piece of plastic!

5madthings · 09/11/2015 13:31

They had the imaginext castle in my.local tk maxx the other day for £30

Notso · 09/11/2015 13:37

I bought my four year old and three year old the two imaginext castles and the dragon on the recommendation of Mumsnet. Mumsnet was right! They love them and they are hugely popular with visiting children.
The accessories can be picked up cheaply in TKMaxx or from Amazon too.

scarlets · 09/11/2015 15:46

Vote for Melissa and Doug here too. My son had his for three years and used Schleich Knights with it. It was hard wearing; when he grew out of it we were able to sell it on for £20 on Gumtree because it still looked very good.

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