Playmobil Storage

[Methenyouplus4]

My eldest DS (now in his teens) had a load of playmobil that he loved, some pieces were even from 80s that belonged to me&DB. Though parts were lost etc, on the whole, stayed in great condition. In my memory, it was just kept in a couple of big plastic boxes.

Our youngest DC got a few great bits last year (lots of bargains from Xmas thread) but it just seems to get broken. I have it stored in a large fabric caddy. The plastic hasn't snapped, but more that small parts come off, walls of buildings unclip etc.

I was planning to add to their collection this year but feel disheartened after recently getting them the play park and it is already in bits. Youngest DC just about to turn 4 so a bit heavy handed but not really rough.

How do you store your playmobil?
What age did you give it to DC?
Do you find (obviously other than tiny parts) that main structures stay together?

We have tended to buy the sets which comes in their own storage - Pirate chest, doll's house, take along castle etc. Mainly because I was worried about them losing all the pieces and we don't have a huge amount of space for them to keep pieces up all the time.
We originally had Playmobil 123 - mainly animal based - which has all survived a lot of play. Of the actual Playmobil we have had a few breakages - some repairable with glue, others like Princess crowns are IMHO not fit for purpose. Plastic too thin for children to manipulate. Our DC had proper Playmobil from age 4.
We've managed to cram most of our pieces into the sets with storage but also have an overflow plastic box. So far the breakages have been either things trodden on or bent and snapped - in case of crown.

Same problem here, we just store it all in one of those jumbo bags but all the little pieces come off and I have to help find them and put them back together every time DC want the playmobil out. Sorry no help here but I'm following with interest...

My boys are obsessed with the playmobil ghostbusters! We have exactly the same problem, too many little pieces that just go missing. We store it in a box. But I'm forever finding random bits of it under the sofa etc.

Yes spend a lot of time matching pieces up but for older DC that seems to be part of the fun.

Interesting to see others have same problem. I expect smaller bits to go missing, but issue is when say a tiny clasp which keeps two walls together goes missing, may be sucked up Hoover/under sofa or whatever, but then (for example) log cabin almost can't be used.

I am almost tempted to get DH to glue main bits together. Mmmmmm.....

DD has my playground set from the 80's and has my Dsis hospital set at her grandma's. I store it in a big clip lock style plastic container and does the job well.

I gave it her when she was 2/3 as she loves make believe stuff. I don't know what newer Playmobil is like but all the bit of the playground set slot together or sit ontop of each other so hard to break iyswim

All in a big storage plastic box but with ziplock sandwich/snack bags for each sets small items. So, for example, the pool and people go in loose but flip flops, balls, bags etc go in a sandwich bag. Same for cafe etc - food and utensils go in a ziplock bag.

Really useful boxes are key here, DS has loads of PM and we keep one of those storage racks that have 12 of the smaller boxes (think mini Tupperware size) that we have labelled according to the set small bit contains, mini crockery, cutlery, food for caravan etc, then the main part goes in a specific box labelled with the name so DS only has to choose a set and the corresponding mini box, but has to put all the bits away before another set can come out (our sets are split into ‘families’ so construction, camping, fire engines etc

We have a stack of small size plastic boxes which have the small playmobil bits by theme (medieval, fairies, vets, farm, dolls house, Egyptian, christmas, school). The big buildings sit on top of kallax storage, and there's a large plastic box on some wide Ikea shelves with medium size things (camper van, swimming pool, fire engine) in.

We have a lot of playmobil!

I have lots of Trofast units from Ikea. We have different sized drawers for different size sets and try to put relevant sets in the same drawer (so all playground together etc). The smaller pieces go in a Tupperware in the drawer.
Means my dc play with it more as they don't have to mend it first. We also have a whole drawer of people/random accessories

One gigantic plastic box.

But we don't have anything huge like a castle or pirate ship.

What's lost is lost.

Nothing has broken so far. DS is 7yo and has some of my stuff and DH's from the 70s/80s. It all gets played with constantly.

A few different really useful boxes from b and q here. Some bits sorted others all mixed in.
My son is very imaginative and will mix sets up for his stories so I’m happy for it all to be mixed in and not kept to sets only.