Traditional Wooden Dolls House vs Playmobil Grande Mansion?

[WoodlandFaerie]

We have the choice of either

Traditional Victorian style house, with a loft room, with all the little furniture that goes with it, it is more of a 'collectors piece' and DD will need to play it semi-supervised for a while as lots of the bits are tiny/loseable/breakable. But it will last a long long time, and she may well get years of life out of it, and can have it when she grows older for her children. Can be re-decorated if it gets chipped/old.

Playmobil Grande Mansion - this will also be completely furnished. It is more robust, the bits in it are still tiny, but it is less breakable, and while she would need to be semi-supervised still, we would not need to remove so many of the items. DS would more likely play with this as he grows up to, it will survive a long time, and need perhaps less tlc than the wooden one. Will not need redecorating.

DD is 4 (will be).

What one would you choose?

Had the same dilemma with DD (now 6). Went for Playmobil in the end mainly because she has older brothers and lots of other playmobil. I often find the binman in the bath or the helicopter on the mansion roof for example.

It is quite fiddly though, and the dormer roofs and balcony rails often fall off.

thank you for that. The additional playmobil is the thing that is swinging it for us, as she has a younger brother, so should think between them there will be a lot of other stuff to go with it.

Does she use it much still?

I haven't got one yet because my just-turned-5 dd is still happy with her ELC Happyland cottage, but though I am a huge Playmobil fan I will probably get her a proper dolls' house some time in the next few years.
The reason is that me & my brothers used to love making stuff for my dolls' house which Playmobil doesn't encourage in quite the same way. Also because the possibilities for dolls' house accessories are more open-ended whereas the Playmobil stuff is more predetermined.
Decorating the dolls' house is brilliant fun too - I see that as a plus rather than a minus.

But I'm sure your dd will have fun whichever you do. Playmobil is great.

We had an incident with the helicopter the other day where dh (who doesn't understand the brilliance of Playmobil) thought ds1 had broken the door off but of course it had just come off and could be clicked back in

Seth - see that is what the other part of me thinks. But DH is thinking, that is our take on it, as adults. He is saying that, as adults, we think the wooden traditional victorian dolls house is the best, because we are adults, like the heirloom aspect of it all etc, but that we need to consider what DD would prefer, and the reality is, given the choice, she would prefer the playmobil one. I am not sure.

but dcs can't think long term and anticipate what they will want when they are older.
DD currently loves her ELC house and her My Little Pony Rainbow Dream House or whatever it is called because she loves pink things. If I got her something she wanted it would be pink and glittery and she would grow out of it in a year or two.
I agree with your dh that it is about what she wants not what we want, but IMO it is about what she wants and will continue to want over time, not just what she likes now. I have adult friends who still have their childhood dollshouse and are very happy they still have it to hand down, and there's no reason to think the next generation won't feel the same.
That's my take on it anyway!
I think it depends what else she has though.... I want my dcs to have a good range of toys which will include the plastic crap that they like (not that Playmobil is crap) as well as more lasting things.

Personally I'd get the playmobil for now (I disagree that it's babyish, it's detailed and fiddly) and then upgrade to the heirloom type one when she gets older (and if she still wants one). A lot of the 'collectors' houses and pieces are very fragile and don't stand up well at all to young children's play. At age 4 they like houses which 'do' things (ringing doorbells, working lights etc- does the Grande Mansion have these features?).
Alternately, you could go for a compromise and buy one of the children's traditional wooden houses from Dolls House Emporium, Pintoy ot Le Toy Van. These can all be kept and handed down later on. The Dolls House Emporium ones you can fit with working lights and you can buy children's chunky furniture. Or go for a Lundby Dolls House which comes with detailed furniture and working lights but depends how dextrous she is as the pieces are very fiddly.

yes, she likes things that make noise etc, but that is not so important to her I think. She has fantastic imagination and prefers to make things up than have them already there. For example, she has some bear (build a bears etc as presents) which make sounds, she is not a jot interested. She is the kind of girl that uses make believe in most of her play, and i think the lack of sounds etc would not bother her that much. Initially she would love it, but eventually she could not care less.

I agree, give her a choice right now, and pink would be her choice. She does get some pink things, and some tat, and she also has some good quality things.

She is clumsy though, or rather, she manhandles things, and if we get her the traditional one, many of the furniture bits will have to be removed for a while, as she will break them. She breaks so many of her toys as she is inquisitive as to what happens when you snap that thing the wrong way, or drop it, or bang it against the wall, or chuck in over the banisters, or fly it in the flyboat, etc! She would most likely actually try to give one of the dolls a bath in the bathroom, with real water .

I think, on balance, yes, the playmobil. If she shows an interest in it, and in more grown up doll's houses when she is older, we can buy her another one and sell this/give it friends/family.

I am not too sure how babyish it is though, really, the bits are quite fiddly, and she will have to learn to be careful with this as she would a traditional one, as DS is only a baby so choking hazard. Maybe a good start for them both.

The thing with playmobil is it's fiddly but the pieces are difficult to permanently break, although it's fairly easy to pull them apart. I think the houses are generally sturdier than say, the pyramid which collapses easily. And if they do collapse you can put it all back together although it's time consuming. With the collectors dolls houses the walls are usually thin MDF and can easily be pushed through, staircases break or pull off easily. So not stuff you can easily replace IYSWIM.
Without wishing to cause more confusion have you looked at Sylvanian families? Their houses often come in one piece, unlike Playmobil, and are also very robust. Maybe more aesthetically pleasing than Playmobil, might hold interest longer (not unusual for 10 year olds to still collect them) and also have good re-sale value. Again, the bigger ones come with working lights. Might be worth asking your daughter to look at all the varieties and see what she prefers. By 4 they often have a very definite idea of what they prefer, lol
Can you tell I'd love a dolls house shop

oh you have gone and done it now spacedog i have just looked at Willow Hall. tut tut. I am in love.

DH said to me 'oh but i am still leaning towards playmobil, sylvanian families stuff is expensive' er, so is playmobil, it is mostly for boys, and you are a boy. You are thinking like a male, and what you think your DD would like from a male point of view. I am thinking from a female point of view, from a girl's place, and she will adore this. Why did I not look at it first? Hmm.

So, what price would you consider reasonable to pay for the house secondhand, plus furniture and one set of family £50? £70? the house is around £50-60 new, with no furniture/family.

Ha, knew you'd like it. Willow Hall has just had a makeover and is now brighter with a hall landing and is called Beechwood Hall. Just available to buy this month. Argos sometimes do good prices for SF but the new version of the house won't be in their catalogue just yet. Other stockists are John Lewis, The Entertainer, Toys R Us, or the Sylvanian Families Shop in London which also has a website. Or just google it and see what deals come up.
Take a look on Ebay for secondhand Willow Hall, but they do hold value quite well. Be aware of bidding over what it's worth and check the condition is good. Have fun, they are lovely, very good quality.

There is a Sylvanian Families shop why was I not informed and where is it.

I still have all my Sylvania stuff, except the red bus the Gerbils ate it.

Shame I didn't have a girl then I'd have an excuse to buy that stuff again in a couple of years

Mind you it's not as good as my stuff, since Tomy sold it the quality and detail isn't as good (my 38 year old sister still collects it).

even more confusion ,but have gone down the sylvanian/playmobil/collectors dollshouse route with dd7. Personally i would go for a childs dollshouse such as le toy van or the toys r us one.

Oh no i lost out on willow hall on ebay, but a skin. I was not prepared to go as high as the other bidder, but my fault, if i had held out to the last second i could have got it for £48 for the lot, but i was not, placed a bid, winning for a bit, then someone went higher at the last moment, i was not prepared to go over £70 although it was probably worth it as it was fully furnished, with the rabbit family.

I love them now. And there is hardly anything else on there.

Buy a Caravan I loved my caravan back in the day it was the first Sylvanian thing I got, used to push it round the floor and play with the mouse family and the horse.

It was (well still is) a gorgeous red and green gypsy style one, I know they have a modern car pulled one now but they had a brown horse drawn one a few years ago you could probably find.

Oh god is it wrong for a 31 year old women to buy herself more Sylvanian Families stuff, all this talk just makes me want to have Sylvania again (I had a town built on the unused dinning table).

I can't find any of my stuff on Ebay except the bakery I wonder if it's worth good money I have tonnes of the stuff (well I had a whole towns worth).

we have the bakery, its great.(well i enjoy setting it all up anyway)

oh god don't do this to me!!!! i love the caravan and DD is akways saying she wants a camper van! But i lost the bid on the other one and now about to bid on the playmobil. For a lot of money.

I shall call DD, as the auction ends in a few minutes.

Oh. My. Goodness. There is a lot of stuff i want.

I am getting the caravan for DD! I lost out on the playmobil shame it went for a lot. And I think DD would love the caravan, so thank you for suggesting it.

I am going to buy it at amazon, they have a deal for buying the caravan + car + tent for a good price. We go camping a lot, been two weeks in a row, and DD loves it, and she also really wants a camper van, so this will be great for her, going modern as although I would prefer the olde wolde one, she would not enjoy it so much i don't think. BIL will buy her a 'family' for it.

DH and I have talked he nodded, yes dear your choice dear and felt, on reflection, spending so much money on a doll's house (with peop;e and furniture) is quite obscene for a 4th birthday, when she might not enjoy it in a year, or play with so much, she knows nothing about sylvanian families, so, we shall introduce her to it like this, and if she still loves it in a year, it will be a big 5th birthday to celebrate, and we will get her the house for that instead, that way she will be super excited as she will know what it is by then, and also have some animals to play with.

Oh, i haven't been this excited in a while about presents! She is going to love the caravan more than the dolls house, i am sure of it!

I Googled for my Caravan the only place I found it was on the V&A's website released in 1984 I feel old now, my toys are museum pieces

caravan is great idea. Mine have an ELC gipsy caravan which came free with the ELC Happyland house and actually they play with the caravan more.

We popped in to toys are us, and DD saw the caravan and said 'oooh look mama, a camper van, i like camper vans' and then we showed her the tent you can buy, just to guage if it is what she would want and she was like 'oh mama look, a pink tent! i would like a pink tent mama' so great idea and I am very excited about her having it! And so it DH too after much persuasion. The car looks a bit crap, but hey ho, can't have a modern caravan without a car!