We do not currently have any Playmobil toys, and I'm looking for advice from anyone who does. Would these sets make good gifts for twin boys who will be five in a few months? I like that most of their sets seem relatively gender neutral (as opposed to the obnoxious pink in so many playsets) and that they are so open-ended. The age that I've seen in print is 4+, so our guys seem to be on the early side of the intended range - I just wonder if these toys will hold their interest for a good long time.
Some more info about us: We prefer to buy toys for our kids that stimulate their creativity (kitchen set, dress-up clothes, Legos, etc.), so we steer clear of a lot of the (Disney, Pixar, Nickolodean, you name the big name movie studio) toys that either do everything for them or steer them to stay in character. We are expecting our third shortly, but we don't know the gender yet. We like toys that work well for boys and for girls, without stereotyping them too much...
Thanks as always for all the advice. We bought a few new things for Christmas since Toys R Us had decent sales/rewards, but I'm gonna hit eBay to try to find some more at our price range... I'm still looking for suggestions of how to store the stuff, if anyone has them :)
Love love love Playmobil, they have some really neat Pirate themed sets and any that have animals ( the zoo based sets) are awesome too! You really cannot go wrong, my sister had a huge set when we were that age that was cowboys and indians, it had horses and stage coaches and tee pee's, it was really a lot of fun...I do not think you can buy that set anymore, but anything with the playmobil name is quality.
Playmobils are a great investment. Our son turned 5 yesterday and got the big Jet Airplane for a present. His 8 y.o. sister is as excited as he is. All of their playmobil people are taking trips around the house. We have a large bin of playmobils passed down from their college age brother that get lots of regular play.
Our children play differently with them depending on their current age. IMO, age 4 is about the earliest that they really started to enjoy them. I especially like that they never need batteries or make obnoxious sounds.
Last Christmas they received a box of building blocks (just plain wooden blocks - the kind you would see in a nursery school). They almost always get the block out to build new houses/roads/etc for their playmobil people.
Playmobils will be one of the few toys I box up and hang onto when they finally outgrow them.
Playmobil is great.
Boys also like 'building' things... ie: Tinker Toys or blocks
They also like digging in dirt... ie: gardening stuff
They also like balls
They also like cooking. My son and daughter like that.
They also like games. The brand 'Think Fun" is GREAT! It can be played with 1 person or more. Amazon has it as well as Barnes & Noble. My kids LOVE games by Think Fun. It works the creativity/problem solving/thinking outside the box/and is fun. Their game "Rush Hour" and "Chocolate Fix" and MANY of their other games, are what we have. And the whole family and my kids love it. It is for adults or children. My son for example, could play and understand "Rush Hour" at only 2 years old.
good luck,
Susan
YES! My 4.5 year old boy LOVES Playmobil and will be receiving more from Santa. They're wonderful toys that really do get them to be creative in their play. They're great for either gender! My best friend from college and I both love them -and we're 40 year old women!
Yes, sounds like a great gift idea for this age. Both my children, a girl and a boy, LOVED Playmobil - we got more "mileage" out of Playmobil sets than almost any other toy I can think of. Even though my two kids are 4 years apart, they used to play with them together for HOURS at a time :) I've thrown out tons of toys over the years as they've outgrown them, but cannot and will not part with the Playmobil - hanging on to them for the next generation!
My son got Playmobil when he turned 5. He loved them. His absolute favorite we let him pick out himself...it was the skateboarding set. He loved it so much he didn't care anymore about the other ones! He played with it about a year and a half and now at 6 and a half he no longer ever wants to play with it. I think if you are going to get any Playmobile that age 4 is the perfect age.
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Playmobil is excellent. We would always have the problem of the newest baby in the family want to get a hold of the small part toys and pop them in their mouths. You will definitely need to keep an alert eye when baby comes and is mobile enough to get a hold of the beloved candy colored playmobil pieces.
The boys will love their Playmobil playsets my kids love to play with these with their Lego.
