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Christmas

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Curse the sadists that work at Playmobil...

83 replies

JonahB · 25/12/2009 19:46

or my alternative title, "why did none of you warn me????"

...when i carefully choose DS1 the Playmobil Knights tower. We open the box this am and my heart sinks as I realise I am staring at about 1000 teeny tiny pieces. None of which are in the same plastic bags relating to the corresponding instruction number... 2 1/2 hours later, with cuts all over my fingers, I'm still sticking plastic flames into plastic flame holders and attaching them with microscopic black dots to plastic walls. Bless my poor DS, who patiently played with only the knights for what seemed like an eternity, whilst watching me muttering curses and running out of the room sporadically shouting "just got to turn the roasties darling, be back in a minute to build the portcullis (sp?)".

Anyone else heart sink when they opened their LO's presents, as they naively hadn't calculcated into their plans how much time the toy would take to build?

OP posts:
MollieO · 25/12/2009 23:45

I have never seen ds so utterly delighted with his presents even though the police headquarters wasn't constructed before he went to bed. We have had the Playmobil police advent calendar this year - a huge hit.

Ds spent the whole of this afternoon saying thank you. He seemed genuinely stunned to have what he think is such a fab present. The headquarters was from grandma and the boat was from me. He will be even more delighted tomorrow when he receives the police car and jewel thieves that grandma forgot to wrap .

CarmenTinselPalmTreesSanDiego · 25/12/2009 23:50

Am I really odd for not putting things together before giving them to the children? I always thought it was like lego - half the fun is putting the thing together?

MollieO · 25/12/2009 23:58

It wouldn't occur to me either to do it before giving it to ds. Half the fun is seeing what is in the big box and finding the pieces together. Have to say the headquarters is the biggest Playmobil I've undertaken so I continued after ds went to bed. He came down about an hour later and was cross that I was doing it without him. I told him there would still be stuff left to do in the morning!

Clary · 26/12/2009 00:00
Clary · 26/12/2009 00:00
Clary · 26/12/2009 00:00

oh sorry PC being a bit off this evening

StayingSantasGirl · 26/12/2009 00:01

Ladies, I am afraid it doesn't get any better. Ds3 (aged 12) lobbied long and hard for an iPod Touch for Christmas, and contributed about half the cost so he could have one. He's been looking forward to getting it for weeks.

Approximately 7 seconds after unwrapping it, he wanted to start charging it, loading songs onto it, downloadin apps for it, registering it for secondary school, buying it new covers and saving for its dowry.

Dh had to download iTunes for it, and then work out how to use it to put ds3's cds onto the iPod. That took a large chunk of the afternoon, and created a certain level of irritable muttering. Then came the whole downloading apps thing, for which it had to be introduced to our wireless router - dh was going to do it, but ds3 decided he knew what to do, and blithely registered it to the wrong router - the one that is broken. Neither he nor dh can work out how to get it to forget that network so it can be registered on the working one. The manual is no help - it is a little concertina sheet of paper that says nothing about changing networks, so dh starts to download and read all 150+ pages of the proper manual.

At this point, ds3 tries to take back his iPod to have another go at cocking it up completely fixing the problem, and dh loses the plot completely. I had to break up the pair of them and try to talk some sense into them (not that easy a job, I can tell you).

Dh goes back to the pc, whilst I read ds3 a short lecture on delayed gratification and why it is not entirely reasonable to expect dh to give up most of christmas day to making the wretched thing do all its electronic tricks, and how he could, perhaps, have been satisfied with just being able to listen to some music on it today, with more being sorted tomorrow. This gave dh the breathing space he needed to sort out the internet on the iPod, and to calm down from his incipient incandescent rage.

Still - Christmas isn't Christmas without a family fight, is it??

TigerDrivesAgain · 26/12/2009 00:24

Oh dear StayingSantasGirl

You are going to loathe me, but we got DS an ipod, and I picked open the box (nano), charged it up, loaded his favourite songs from itunes, then rewrapped it, to avoid the waaaahhhhh it doesn't work scenario.

Needless to say it worked fine for a few minutes then ran out of battery: cue waaahhhh.

LeninExcelsis · 26/12/2009 09:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Heated · 26/12/2009 09:58

Assembled PM motorcaravan, has excellent reviews and commented on well here, but not one of them mentioned the sodding minuscule cutlery that can only be seen under a microscope.

Flame · 26/12/2009 10:30

Oh I buy playmobil because I like the putting together

Sat there watching Dr Who last night building the vet centre

CremeDeMenthe · 26/12/2009 11:21

I love assembling playmobil. Send it to me .

Didn't have any this year, as I think we may have the entire back catalogue already. .

mistletoemulledwinemoodlum · 26/12/2009 11:58

Right - in a few days I will be able to help with the assembly of the long necked dinosaur moss. I am currently engaged with the ice cream parlour, which is not easy. But quite gratifying. DD started to try and put the stickers on the signs, at which point I shrieked like a banshee and took it from her. She's 5, and slightly OCD but doesn't understand that PM assembly has to be perfect.

Next the dressage arena. This is most definitely not my area of expertise. Then the dino volcano/mossy area. And no doubt some pirate stuff at grandma's...

mistletoemulledwinemoodlum · 26/12/2009 11:59

Obviously I meant to follow my post with a - I do realise that I sound like a PM loon

Katz · 26/12/2009 12:19

We got lots of playmobil here, although we have 3 reef sets!

MerlinsBeard · 26/12/2009 12:32

playmobil is easy compared to LEGO!

we have a few playmobil bits and didn't take long at all. the aeroplane keeps falling apart though so will have to get the superglue on that!

peacocks · 26/12/2009 12:34

I heart Playmobil. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

peacocks · 26/12/2009 12:35

Oh yes Lego is frightful and also more painful.

StayingSantasGirl · 26/12/2009 12:48

The lego Dumbledore's office drove me to drink when we got it for ds2 a few years ago.

MollieO · 26/12/2009 12:50

I like PM as at least once it is assembled it stays together, unlike Lego. Lego also takes longer to put together ime.

What always makes me laugh with PM is the massive boxes it comes in. Ds's police headquarters box was humongous but the assembled building isn't that bit (thank heavens!).

Marne · 26/12/2009 13:24

lol, i was going to start a similar thread only i was too busy trying to construct the playmobil farm set to get to the PC. I started at 6.30pm last night until 10pm and then from 9am-10.30 today, there must have been over 1000,000 pieces , i have told dd1 that i think her playmobil collection is now complete and she will not be getting anymore .

MrsBadger · 26/12/2009 14:14

hah, yes, we bought my niece the lady vet thinking there couldn't be that much assembly for one figure and car

oh no

every wheel is independently driven and must be constructed and attached seperately (tyres first)

this done, we have hidden the rest of the bits (bull bars, vet accessories, stikcers) and she is pushing it happily round the floor. Lucky she is only 2...

LeninExcelsis · 26/12/2009 14:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LeninExcelsis · 26/12/2009 14:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

flossie64 · 26/12/2009 14:53

I have done the clinic ,operating theatre ,vets car and about 4 lots of small box sets to go with that lot , it was a breeze compared to the bloody lovely pink Build a Bear wardrobe ,DH thought was a good idea.
That said DD has not even looked at her playmobil stuff, and has fallen completely in love with her ltd edition Hello Kitty Build a Bear.