PLAYMOBIL toys--best sets and best price

amother

Cerulean

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 1:25 pm

My son went to play therapy and they had tons of PLAYMOBIL and now that's all he wants. I splurged and bought one set but he has nothign to do with "just one police car".
Can someone explain the PLAYMOBIL craze to me? I don't get what's fun about it!

Where is the cheapest place to buy PLAYMOBIL?
Which sets are great?
IS it worth it to buy used?

Thanks.

OOTBubby

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 4:21 pm

amother wrote:

Can someone explain the PLAYMOBIL craze to me? I don't get what's fun about it!
Thanks.

I couldn't figure it out either (but I'm a Bubby anyways). My teenaged GD (with many younger siblings) explained it well -- she told me that Playmobil is to boys what a dollhouse is to girls.

mummiedearest

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 6:01 pm

amother wrote:

personally, I love playmobil. I love the design aspect, the details, the fact that you can take it all apart and put it back together. it's like a puzzle, but 3d, detailed, and you can play with it after.

I suggest you go to amazing savings if you're in brooklyn. they have surprise bags of figurines for .99 each. whenever they have these, I buy a whole bunch and use them as prizes. we have a few playsets. those with a whole lot of figurines are perfect. you can never have too many people (until the bin is full, that is...). I've bought sets off of amazon, some of them are more reasonable than others. toys r us sometimes has them on sale. pay attention to the contents of the set. I prefer to get the most pieces to the fewest dollars. some of them are crazy expensive for what they come with based on popularity of theme. princess stuff, fairies, and knights cost more than construction crews.

amother

Vermilion

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 8:52 pm

Chayalle wrote:

I think Toys4u has the best prices on playmobil. My nephew is very into it.

In Boro Park they're on the more expensive side.
I type in a specific set by Google shopping which shows me the cheapest price.

Anon for location

seeker

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 9:41 pm

The amazing savings random figurines are only going to help if you have a set of something to add them to. Mentchies alone don't go very far.

I don't have much basis for comparison but my kids LOOOOVE the playground set that I've seen on sale in the frum circulars at Pesach time a few years in a row. About $20. They do a lot of pretend play with that.

You could find out what he enjoyed at play therapy. I imagine things like police stations or fire stations must be popular with the little boys.

cnc

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 9:48 pm

seeker wrote:

I bought the playground set at Target for $15 because it was the cheapest set. I'm so glad to hear that your kids like it...I'm giving it to my kids at the end of the week.

seeker

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 10:04 pm

cnc wrote:

I bought the playground set at Target for $15 because it was the cheapest set. I'm so glad to hear that your kids like it...I'm giving it to my kids at the end of the week.

It's really cute, I'm sure they will love it. I think it helps kids to pretend play/role play things that realistically pertain to their lives rather than only adult roles (like playing doctor/police/soldier/etc)

sky

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 10:08 pm

I don't love Playmobil.
My kids really wanted a big set so we pooled some gift money they had last year and bought the school house and gym on e-bay.
My biggest issue was that it doesn't stay together. My Kids found that extremely frustrating.
And there are 1000 teeny tiny pieces.

amother

Lemon

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 10:29 pm

the big sets aren't worth it, the buildings don't stay together well

but the mentchies with all the little pieces are great.

I buy the small sets (less than 15) whenever and have built up a nice set.

They do go on sale so keep an eye open and you'll find.

Your son loves them because the people stand. their arms move and they can be "dressed up" to fit that days game

seeker

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 10:34 pm

I think I nearly collapsed from laughing at some side line about playmobil in a recent Mishpacha essay. I forget how it went but it was stuck in my head the whole day I read it and found it funny again each time. Something like "Is that dust on the floor? Wait, no, it's a horse drawn carriage the size of a fruit fly that cost more than my last car." or something like that. I was like RELATE!

But my kids do enjoy it. I have one that is easily frustrated and even she could tolerate the amount of falling apart- it didn't fall apart so much, it's just part of the nature of the thing being able to come apart and back together. You can appreciate this more in the sets that can be configured different ways, more like a lego type of concept where every time you break it apart you can put it together in a new way. The playground set is really not that type, there's not much you can do with it other than use it as intended - but I guess if you have other playmobil you could probably find different ways to combine things. There are houses and stuff where you can really decide how to arrange the components.

amother

Tangerine

Tue, Dec 08 2015, 11:10 pm

Toys 4 u is the most expensive for play mobile. If you look at their catalog and check out their special prices Amazon is still $10 less not on sale.

I just checked out the new store the tree house today and they were $1 cheaper than Amazon on every set that I wanted I was pleasantly surprised.

Toys to discover advertised they will price match any advertised price so google it and then go to them.

amother

Peach

Wed, Dec 09 2015, 1:25 am

I was just kevetching to someone recently about Playmobil. I held out for a long time refusing to get my kids any because of all the millions of tiny pieces and the high prices. But my kids really wanted it and eventually I gave in and of course once you start it really avalanches! They started requesting it whenever grandparents asked what they wanted for a birthday gift, etc., and we bought a few sets for prizes for certain long term charts they were working on. Now we have tons of it. It is every bit as awful as I anticipated in terms of keeping track of the pieces/cleaning up, but honestly my kids get HOURS of play out of it. My 9 year old takes my 6 year old into his room and tells him "stories" using the pieces and can literally entertain him for an hour straight. It's great for his creative thinking and language development, among other things.

I found that the way to get the best prices is to look for sales. Amazon often has good prices but you need to comparison shop a bit. Especially if you are flexible about which exact sets to get you can usually find some on sale somewhere.

amother because I have been discussing this recently IRL.

Tel Tzion Ima

Wed, Dec 09 2015, 2:37 am

My son likes the fire trucks that shoot water and/or have lights and sirens.

I have the playground and camp site sets for my girls, and my son has a fire fighter scene (house on fire with a rescue team. The girls have a lot more people and pieces and they can sort of turn the two into one with lots of pieces people things to do. My son just has the few pieces, so it's not as interesting. Then I discovered that his friends don't just have one set, they have toy bins full of PLAYMOBIL. Now, I've gotten him the fire truck with lights and sounds to add to the set he has.

I would agree it's better to get the smaller sets and just add on by buying complimentary sets. I think more cars, more people, is better than larger sets with more and more assembly required.

You can compare prices online.