Castle and Playmobil

[Donkeydoodles]

I'm thinking of getting my girls (nearly 3 and 5) some Playmobil for Christmas. It will mostly be for the older one but hopefully the little one will grow into it. They both love playing with little figures (Peppa, Disney etc) so I think they'll love it. It's also a good thing to ask grandparents to buy for them.

What are some good starter sets?

Also my older girl has been asking for a 'princess castle' for ages and I've been reluctant as she already has a dolls house and I don't want more large plastic cr*p kicking around. Since the request isn't going away thought perhaps I'd better look into it.

I could get a Playmobil castle which would go with the other gifts (but the risk is that the little one tears it to pieces).
Or I see there's a wooden one by Melissa and Doug that I assume would fit with Playmobil figures/ furniture.

What are people's thoughts?
Are there any others I'm missing?

Thanks!

We have the Playmobil castle and while we glued some of the smaller decorations on it it stood in DD’s room for several years and nothing broke.

She had lots of fun playing with it, we added knights, soldiers, pirates and fairies to it over the time. It is solid, not flimsy.

The only thing was, we decided to assemble it prior to Christmas and thank god we did. We needed two evenings of 2 hours each time and lots of alcohol to get us through it. We then hid it in the garage and she found it under a large blanket under the tree.

I’d go with something they’re already interested in. If they’ve been to the zoo a lot or loves animals, then the zoo set would be a good one. The zoo is one of the most popular sets but it’s also one of the most expensive We’ve got it and think it’s worth it. We’ve also added onto it with the aquarium and the penguin enclosure.
My DN spent a lot of his early childhood in hospital, so he was obsessed by the playmobil hospital. He also had the cruise ship set after his family went on a cruise! My other DN is very into sci-fi so he preferred the space ship sets.
My Dd played with the nursery school and playground sets for ages and I’d hear her reconstructing events which happened at her nursery in real life!