Can Playmobile toys actually be PLAYED with?

[Samiam]

Lego's can't. You spend hours putting together some really cool sets, and then you are supposed to put them up to stare it, I suppose. DS7 likes Legos, but dislikes that he wants to PLAY with it, and they usually fall apart as he does.

 

I am think he would like the Playmobile stuff. He and DS4 spend alot of time setting up scenes and playing with all of their various "guys', using the Fisher-Price Batman Cave and FP Castle they have had for a few years.

 

I know you have to build the Playmobile sets...but once they are built, can they stand up to gentle play??

[BikeBookBread]

:lurk5: PDG was looking at Playmobil stuff online the other day and I had this same question...

[Snickerdoodle]

Yes, Playmobil get quite the workout here. In fact, I think there may be a battle going on in the other room. I saw the regiments lining up...

[Hockey Mom]

Both Legos and Playmobil get a workout in my house. DS7 makes all kinds of cars, planes, spaceships with Legos and is constantly zooming around the house with them. DS6 has "epic battles" with his Playmobil stuff. We bought him the Egyptian set a few months ago for his birthday, and he manages to have his pirates pillage from the tomb from the Egyptian set, then set sail toward the castle to pillage the gold there. The knights always beat the pirates though. ;)

[FaithManor]

Our playmobil sets have seen serious, boy play....major military engagements, viking raids, and assaults of every kind! When we studied Medieval history the first time around, the boys built huge towns, held jousting tournaments, deposed more than one evil king, and captured Ghengis Kahn. These toys can take a beating.

 

Faith

[NanceXToo]

Oh, I had quite a lot of fun playing with them when we went to a Playmobil fun park while in Florida. But then again, I'm a little weird. hehe.

 

Let me see if it works attaching a picture from when we went.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Our playmobil sets have seen serious, boy play....major military engagements, viking raids, and assaults of every kind! When we studied Medieval history the first time around, the boys built huge towns, held jousting tournaments, deposed more than one evil king, and captured Ghengis Kahn. These toys can take a beating.

 

Faith

 

This sounds like our house!

 

I think that the Playmobil has had more playtime than the lego sets. The larger Duplo was played with at younger ages but with age Playmobil time exceeded small lego time.

[EmilyK]

Both playmobil and Lego get serious workouts here. The key is -- you're right; the giant lego sets don't stay all together. But the fun is the minifigs, and then constantly rebuilding different ships and buildings. If you want them to stay as originally configured, you'll be disappointed.

 

Playmobil have been great for major military engagements here -- but again my boys are constantly reconfiguring them to depict something slightly different.

[Joanne]

Hm. My kids (and my dd and all my former daycare kids) managed to spend HOURS building and then playing with legos. They eventually built cities, homes, community centers, activity centers, churches and schools and played with the lego creations.

[angela in ohio]

Playmobil men can stand up to a lot of play, as can the buildings. They snap together more securely than Legos. My ds and his friends (and sometimes his sisters) play with them for hours, setting up battles. We have the knights and castles.

 

Sometimes a Playmobil man will lose his hair if hit too hard in a duel, though. :D

[Kim in Appalachia]

We have Playmobile, Lego's, and K'nex's. Right now they are into playing chess, so the other stuff has not been out. But they will get back to it. I think they have found the Lego's more frustrating because they don't always know what to do with them, despite plans. My oldest boy is 10, and the other 2 are too young to figure it out themselves. The K'nex are easier. We have tons of plans, and even the 5 year old can do some. The Playmobile are great. We have a ton of sets; pirates (2 ships), 2 large castles plus other stuff for the Middle Ages, the Roman set, and the Fairy Castle (?) which is white. My youngest asked for the police station last Christmas and I held off. We have so much stuff. I know he wants his own, but I think I will try to hold him off.

 

We have a study/playroom where the kids can set it all up and leave it out. I think that makes a difference. If they had to clean it up all the time they would get frustrated.

[Abigail4476]

My son plays endlessly with his Legos, K'nex and Playmobil sets. If we buy a lego set that's supposed to build a spaceship or castle or something, he'll follow the instructions the first time, and then he takes it apart and does whatever he likes with the pieces.

 

Playmobil toys are very durable. We have yet to break any, with the exception of a few spears whose ends were chewed by the puppy a couple of years ago. :001_smile:

[Joker]

Well, my dds do some serious playing with their Legos. They recently made our local Publix and have been racing the shopping carts they made up and down the aisles. Its been sitting in our living room floor for over week and they've played with it everyday.

[4kids4me]

My older kids create stories with their Playmobil and take photos. They then create comics with them using Mac's Comic Life. There's been some pretty funny stories!

[HollyDay]

absolutely they can be played with. We currently have the Romans fighting the Barbarians and a Vet clinic treating a bunch of penguins that just flew in on their transport jet.

 

Christmas requests include a catapult for the barbarians (since the Romans already have one), small animal petting zoo (for the vet clinic), mermaid (just because), and the ostrich family (I think for the vet too).

[Matryoshka]

Our Playmobil has gotten years and years and years of heavy play. My dds are now 12 and 9.5, and the Playmobil play is still going strong. It's probably gotten more continuous play than any other toys they have.

 

One decision I made that I'm still very happy about is that we never bought any buildings. We have a plain wooden dollhouse from Target, with a bookcase underneath, and that space has been a hospital, a castle, a farm, Hogwarts, and many other things - they aren't limited by what it looks like. And those darned buildings take up so much space!

 

We do have a few rescue vehicles, though...

[Farrar]

You can totally play with them... but I also think you can play with Legos, so...? The Legos fall apart, then get built into something new, then fall apart, then get built into something else... It's all part of the fun from what I can see.

 

The Playmobil people don't fall apart, though you can take them apart and - like our Lego minifigs, I see evidence of missing hairdos and so forth all the time. Also, Playmobil has even more tiny pieces than Lego (if you can believe that!) so we commonly lose Playmobil bits and pieces.

[Starr]

I have teens. Legos are still in Ds's room. I still have a bin of playmobil, and one of duplos. They are great.

[Laurie4b]

Um yeah. For about 10 years.

Playmobil people are more intricate than Lego people. My guys have spent bunches of time making up stories and playing with their Playmobil guys. They mix the sets and create, create, create stories. Unlike Lego, Playmobil is not about building.

[Samiam]

Great..sounds like Playmobile is on the Christmas list then! We got a free catalog at the little local Toy Store today, and he has circled everything that does not have pink in it, lol.

 

Just to clarify, my DS7 doesn't really like to BUILD with the Legos...he likes to play with them...if it is a Star Wars set, he wants it built (which usually means he and DH get it all out, sort the pieces, and then DS7 is gone in about five minutes doing something else, while DH spends at least an hour by himself at the table working on it) and then he wants to incorporate it into his current Star Wars battle that is set-up somewhere. He's not about the building of the Legos, he's about the playing with the creations, oh, and loves the little Lego guys.

 

On a rare occasion, he and DS4 will "build" something, but that's rare, I am talking once a month at most, whereas they play with their "guys" and their elaborate set-ups with Star Wars/Super Heros/Army dudes/Knights and Kings/various creatures on a daily basis. Even the times that I have sat down with them and just started building random things (cuz I think it is kind of fun) he is usually done after five minutes, and just wants to incorporate the things I have built into whatever elaborate scheme he has planned for his "guys".

 

So it IS a "big deal" to him, that the Lego stuff falls apart when he wants to fly the Starship around the room, and pieces tumble off in his hand. I've tried to explain that maybe we should put the creation up, on the shelf, or something, but no, he wants to USE it like it is pictured on the box.

 

He has a few large "themed" Lego sets, and a large bucket of just plain ol'Legos available to use anytime he wants....but they are not something he utilizes often.

 

So that is why I thought maybe Playmobile would be better. It has that appeal of "building it", yet I was hoping to hear that you could actually USE it without pieces contanstly falling off. I think I hear that as a "Yes" from the replies here.

[Matryoshka]

So that is why I thought maybe Playmobile would be better. It has that appeal of "building it", yet I was hoping to hear that you could actually USE it without pieces contanstly falling off. I think I hear that as a "Yes" from the replies here.

 

Playmobil really isn't a building toy. Yes, you have to put some pieces together when you get it, but that's more "assembly". Then you play with it - it's not really meant to be "re-built". It's more imaginative play stuff. The interchangeable pieces are mostly people's hair and hats and such - and accessories like little swords or jewelry or garden tools.

 

It sounds like Playmobil will be right up your son's alley.

[Luckymama]

Ds17 and dd10 build/play with Legos weekly. Ds started with real Legos when he was 4 (big box found at a garage sale) and has continued to accumulate. And accumulate. He catalogs his bricks and pieces on a website (can't remember offhand) and has upwards of 50,000 elements.

 

Playmobil: We started him with one piece of the Pirates line when he was 4 or 5. Larger and smaller sets were added for birthdays and Christmases. He has two ships, the big island, the small island and various other pieces. Just last month all 6 cousins (from ds17 to dnephew4) set up all of the Pirates in our family roon, which took a day, then proceeded to have battles and whatnot.

 

Dd15 also gathered Playmobil, in her case the Victorian dollhouse. We were able to get the 2level house on clearance one year, then added a third level a few years later. She was given "rooms" of furniture at birthdays and Christmas until she had the entire house and "yard" filled. The house now lives in dd10's room where both girls play with it all the time.

 

Yes my teens play with their Playmobil still. They have the most fun setting up tableaus, getting the accessories just right. But a good pirate battle or re-enacting Mary Poppins brings out their inner seven-year-old!

[Stacia]

As others have mentioned, Playmobil sounds like a great fit for your ds. They are very sturdy, stand up to lots of play, etc.... Dd has loved Playmobil for years, though my ds has never played w/ them excessively (he's more of a Lego guy).

 

loves the little Lego guys.

 

This is what my ds loves too. One thing I definitely recommend to use w/ them: Wikki Stix. We got a pack (something like a 24-count pack, I think) & ds uses these ALL THE TIME w/ his Lego minifigures. The Wikki Stix are perfect as rapelling ropes for Lego men (I find them hanging all over the place), ways to tie up the Lego guys, can be rolled into a ball shape to use as cannonballs, food, etc....

[Jamee]

Do you think there's an age limit for Playmobil? My kids still want some sets--Egyptians, soldiers, etc, but are getting older--will be 11 and 7. Now the Legos on the other hand. Oh wow! Do we have stories and such going on here. DS just did his rain gutter regatta for scouts and recreated Odysseys' boat, complete with Odysseus tied to the mast and several other lego people with cotton in their ears. (It was really cute.) I'm really sad to see that we missed the Egyptian sets since that's what they've been trying to recreate lately.

[KrissiK]

Oh, you bet. We were given a HUGE set with tons and tons of stuff. It's the Victorian house with gobs of people, furniture, etc. We only use a fraction of it, but my kids love it. It is very durable and they actually haven't broken it. We bought a pretty big piece of plywood and have that in the living room and the house is set up on that. No pieces of the set can go off the board and no other toys may be mixed with the Playmobil stuff. It's worked very well.

[Matryoshka]

Do you think there's an age limit for Playmobil? My kids still want some sets--Egyptians, soldiers, etc, but are getting older--will be 11 and 7. Now the Legos on the other hand. Oh wow! Do we have stories and such going on here. DS just did his rain gutter regatta for scouts and recreated Odysseys' boat, complete with Odysseus tied to the mast and several other lego people with cotton in their ears. (It was really cute.) I'm really sad to see that we missed the Egyptian sets since that's what they've been trying to recreate lately.

 

Heh, mine are even older (12 and 9) and have been begging for the Egyptian stuff...

[EmilyK]

loves the little Lego guys.

 

 

sometimes on the lego website there are ways to just buy the minifigs, sometimes as magnets or keychains and sometimes as a pack of minifigs.

[Mom in High Heels]

Indy LOVES his Playmobil. He's into Legos right now, but still plays with his Playmobil. He has the Egyptian pyramid, sphinx, temple, robbers hide out and ship, the Roman coliseum, fort, catapults, and ship and the Viking fort, and ship and the archeologist add on set (of course) as well as tons and tons of people. He has had some serious gladiator battles in the coliseum, excavated ruins and had epic sea battles and raids. They can stand up to some some major play.