Barbie, playmobil or sylvanians?

[Fredthefish]

I’ve got a 4 year old girl (loves pink, sparkle and dollies if relevant!)
Which of these would you go with for Christmas? Or any other suggestions? I plan to coordinate with grandparents etc so need to make a decision soon.
Thank you!

Price wise it's best to shop around. The playmobil website often has good discounts but sometimes you find specific sets in argos or amazon half price. I would suggest looking on the playmobil website to find what set you want and then shopping around for the best price

I tend to get Playmobil from a variety of places. Their own website has some good deals - sign up to their mail list (first order voucher) and wait for special discounts.
Amazon has some excellent prices - I tend to price watch over time for specific sets.
Often great prices on smaller sets at the supermarkets (I’ve seen in aldi, sainsburys and Lidl but I’m sure most will have them) from time to time but will be on random sets.

We have a 5 and 3 year old and Playmobil is very loved here. We have a huge range including horses, zoo, house and dragons. Makes for lots of play options.

My mum also has Playmobil from when I was a child which is still loved by my 2 now!

My 8 year old only plays with Barbie and sylvanians, but that is because they have much more scope for change than playmobil. We have made a “apartment” for Barbie and she spends ages rearranging it and making outfits for her. I recommend getting the fully articulated Barbie as it is much easier to dress and undress. Dd loves sylvanians because there are so many accessories.
I would say it all depends on the way your dd plays. As pp says show her the different toys and see which she seems excited about.

I would go for a nice wooden, furnished dollhouse and some size appropriate dolls to go with.
My dd is 7 and she changed her opinions for toys and characters so often in the past few years.

If she's closer to 5 than to 4 I'd go for Sylvanians. They are really cute and have longevity. We had cousins visiting and had a 5yo, 8yo, 10yo and 13yo all playing with them.

My DDs just love them, including 5yo DD. Just pick sets that have less of the tiny pieces, or put the tiny pieces away for later.

I'd recommend the nursery, caravan, lighthouse, wedding chapel, tree house, any of the houses. Smaller bits such as the ferris wheel and camping set too. The town series stuff is probably for 5/6y and older. If you want a bit of sparkle the Ballet Theatre would be ideal but it isnt as flexible as other items in terms of play value.

Playmobil as a second choice.

For my own reasons I encouraged my dds to play with unisex toys so I would say while you have a choice, go for Sylvanians or Playmobil. It didn't stop the pink sparkly crap from hitting the house at a later stage though .

Also because I'm a snob for aesthetics I would choose Sylvanians because they and their houses etc look so lovely with their gorgeous muted colours and cute faces. Love Sylvanians, and so did my dds . They're the one set of toys we've held onto.

@SylvanianFrenemies wait... there's a lighthouse? (off to Google)

@Fredthefish I've just ordered on the playmobil website and got 15% and free postage...they also do 'set bundles'
Last year in the Black Friday week of offers I got the fairytale palace and 5 other sets for £110 (the palace on its own is usually £120)

So it might be worth waiting a little bit until Black Friday.

Not sylvanians DD loved these but we were forever finding figures and clothes all through the house.

I have three year old and five year old daughters and they love sylvanian and playmobil. We don't have barbies but do have some Lottie dolls but they don't play with them as much.

We have the playmobil school which has given hours of entertainment and a lot
Of the fairy and mermaid stuff. As for sylvanian we have the Campervan, a restaurant and car and they really enjoy all of it. The clothes on sylvanian are tricky for them to put on so I have to help but they love that they can get them dressed and changed.

With the sylvanian The five year old loves setting up the scenes, setting the table with all the food etc and the three year old is more focussed on putting the figures into the cars etc so it works wel for both ages.

Playmobil is a bit more sturdy so three year old can set up scenes inside the school.

NRTFT

Smyths catalogue. Let her choose.

I’m breaking a golden rule and getting my 4yo a couple of Barbie things. I’ve always refused to spend money on barbie. But my dd loves Barbie, she’s very into Barbies little sister Chelsea, it might be because she is also the youngest sister. She loves watching Barbies dream house and the Barbie and her sister treasure hunt movie. I’ve bought her a Barbie car and play set from Aldi recently and getting her the Barbie advent calendar. She bought herself a Chelsea colour reveal doll with her birthday money. She has cheap versions of dolls that look like Barbie and Chelsea, she has no idea they arnt real Barbie, I still call them Barbie and Chelsea.

I have 3 DDs, none got into the Sylvanian family stuff, thankfully. Also same with play mobile, I did get a couple of sets a couple of years ago for one but ended up exchanging them on Boxing Day. My DDs really love their Lego though. I wouldn’t waste your money unless she’s shown a real interest in it though.

At 4yo you can have lots of fun trying new things. They don’t tend to have their hearts set on things like they do when they are older. You can also get away with changing things to suit your budget because come Xmas morning they won’t care as long as they have new toys. My dd wants Minnie Mouse, she just says I want Minnie Mouse… we’ve got all sorts of Minnie Mouse stuff already so I’ve got her some clothes with Minnie Mouse on. She will just be excited to get new clothes with Minnie Mouse on. Last year it was Elsa and Anna so she got new lunch box’s with frozen on ✔️

There is also polly pocket, that is a firm favourite in our house. My 4yo loves them. There are some really cool play sets. If I wasn’t going Barbie I would definitely have gone down the more polly pocket route.

My dd (now 19) played with both but I think Playmobil is easier when they’re younger as Sylvanians are not easy to manipulate. When she was older she combined the Sylvanian figures with Playmobil sets, and was still playing with and buying Sylvanians at age 14 ish so good value.
If you do decide to buy a large Playmobil building set I would advise building it prior to Christmas as it takes soooo long. We had both the school and the hospital and they took ages to build - and at 4 there is no way she could do it herself.

Thanks @bangonthedoorgroovychick . Good idea to wait a bit as she hast got her heart set on anything really. I wonder if a mixture of barbie and Playmobil will go down well for different levels of playing. She has a birthday early in the year (expensive time of yesr!!) But means I can get a bit more of what she really likes.

Don't mean to be rude or anything but why are you asking us?? Ask her. Ask her which of those she'd like from santa for Christmas and she'll choose herself. Obviously don't tell her which ones you intend to buy and let it be a surprise when she opens her Christmas presents!

The playmobile campervan is IMO the best toy

@Fredthefrog yeah my daughter loves both barbies and playmobil!
She's a December baby so has a barbie house for her birthday this year, she had the plane last year. Loves it all.
All of the playmobil sets are fab! There's new fairy sets that have been released this week too that look great so it's worth a look

Personally I've not known many girls to be massive fans of playmobil. I am looking forward to when my dd gets into barbie and sylvanians. There's loads of half price toy offers with club card in tesco throughout the year and in their toy offers atm, they're great for sylvanians and barbie x