Playmobil or Lego - which is best

[MaggieW]

Want to buy DS, 4, something like this to play/build with. Which one is best? How long do they play with Lego Duplo for? Ditto Playmobil - how old will he be before he gets passed it?

ds still loves both and he's 7 1/2 ! With Playmobil the building is incidental to the play value - you don't really want to rebuild the play sets too often as the larger ones can take hours. With the Lego they can create a house or whatever and use different figures to play in it (Bob, Incredibles and Dora are current favourites with my 2!).

I must say, I hate playmobil with a vengeance. We have the barn and the pirate ship, as well as a few motorbikes. The barn is in about 50 000 000 pieces, the pirate ship similar, and they will never be reconstructed. Half the teeny tiny pieces are goodness knows where. The motor bikes - handle bar dropped off & lost, so whole toy useless. I hate play mobile.

Lego & duplo fantastic. again for the playmobile reasons, I'd avoid stuff like car kit (really for older kids, as if one bit gets lost it's knackered,) but basic brics/animals/general construction kits great.

alos have you seen kids knex? We've got the monster set & mine spend ages building various monsters in all sorts of configurations. very good for age 4 ish

they are very different

We have both.

Playmobil is for playing with rather than building and as ernest says comes with hundreds of tiny pieces - i happen to love it and so do the dds.

Lego is for building and creating things with - we all love lego too - we went straight for grown up lego and even my 2.5 year old has no problem with it.

There are also those magnetic things if your ds wants to build (dd, 5, loves that as well)

They are two of our most enduring toys but PERSONALLY i prefer playmobil. Less bits to get lost vacuumed up etc!

Playmobil was my sone birthday present at 3 and at 13 in a month he still loves it (shhhhhh dont let on I told you!)

'sons'

OK, so what are your top tips for avoiding getting everything lost? (apart from a personality transplant to make me an organised tidy person!)
I know ds1 woudl really enjoy something like this now but we are just sooo rubbish at losing bits of toys taht I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet....

Just would say that I'm not sure Duplo will last that long if your son's already 4. Ds (6) and dd (4) faff around with their old Duplo a bit, but it's the "grown-up" Lego that immerses ds for hours.

Dd isn't much bothered with either really. Much prefers a human to chat at (and wings to wear).

Elliott, you need some unlovely but functional sliding containers in a pine rack from Ikea. I just say whatever fails to be put back in "the Lego box" or "the Playmobil box" will get hoovered up. It does work.

Ds, aged 6, still loves both and sometimes we get some prime Star Wars/armed motorbike cop inter-species games developing...

lol Marina we use that tack too and have the same Ikea shelf unit !

Forgot to answer the storage question, which is astonishing. Ds has his lego in one of those huge multi-compartment electrician's toolboxes - practical and exciting.

mine do grown up Lego on the coffee table - we have a lego 'base' to build things on and an Ikea tray - flat plastic rectangle with raised sides - to keep the bits on, then they can get tipped back in the Lego bucket.

playmobil lives in those indispensable Ikea little plastic storage boxes (the ones that come in sets of three) and we also have the multi coloured plastic bins on a wooden rack.

I sort it all out every couple of months, otherwise bits all get chucked in the storage bins at random. And both dds have to help me tidy it all up at the end of the day

ah, but marina, I'd have to do some hoovering then wouldn't I

When DS got a few playmobil things we bought him a biggish toolbox from B&Q to keep it all in. Sections to keep all the tiny pieces in, and a big section for the cars and trucks. It's brill, and easy to tidy up!!!!

WE love LEGO here

DS {10 years} has it in his room in wheely boxes and larger boxes

DEFFO BRILL

thanks for the tips. Feel a bit rubbish as we managed to lose the special lego screw driver, thus rendering expensive toy useless, and are currently experiencing gradual de-population of the farmyard animals....I honestly have no idea where they all disappear to!

Phone up lego direct and ask for another one

here is the contact page hopefully

thanks

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Elliott, you can tell I'm Lego virgin - what's the special screwdriver a part of? Sounds interesting?

You can order any of the playmobil bits from their website, so if you loose some vital bits you can replace them.

We love playmobil BTW. Re lego, we only have Duplo because grown-up lego is still a bit beyond ds1 (he's 3.5) and he doesn't play with Duplo much. But as someone else said, playmobil and lego are very different. Lego is good for children who love to build things. Not sure of play value once it's built because we only have Duplo. Playmobil is more like a very detailed dolls house IYSWIM. We have the firestation and fire engine (bought from ebay - very cheap) and some roadworkers and a portaloo, complete with loo roll .

dd is obsessed with the Playmobil portaloo at the mo. Keeps trying to cram Beanie Babies in there to "go wee-wee".

I think the Lego probably has more lasting value especially for boys. You can get some sets that are suitable for 12+ - they seem really complicated.

Given your childs age, I would go for the normal Lego rather than Duplo - then anything you buy in the coming years will still be compatible. There are not many toys that you can buy for a 4yo that will still be played with when they are 12+.

My son has loved the basic building kits & Harry potter sets best. I like the fact that you can get quite a lot of sets for about £5. Ideal as birthday presents from school friends. You can also get some more expensive sets for special presents from grandparents at Christmas.

Storage can be a pain - we now have 4 huge crates of the stuff, but I just think how much space would be taken up with other toys, if people had not bought him Lego as presents over the years.