Playmobil Playsets: Making a Child’s Imaginary Play Brilliant for 6 Decades

Review: We were sent two Playmobil Playsets in return for this post.

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I received a Playmobil playset set for Christmas. It featured horses with saddles you could pull on and off and necks that bent up and down so they could eat the grass. The riders had actual riding hats which you could remove and they sat easily on the saddles of the said horses. I would spend hours making up scenarios with them.

Fast forward 44 years and Playmobil and their playsets are bigger, better and more realistic than ever. Grace used to play with them when she was small and it is really lovely to see Rex continuing the trend. So, it felt like I was going back in time a little bit when he got sent not one, but two sets to stimulate his imagination and start some childhood memories of his own.

Who invented Playmobil Playsets?

Horst Brandstätter is the founder of Playmobil and when he first exhibited the figures at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1974 none of the retailers were interested. But, because of his belief in his product and the team behind it, he continued on and achieved a global success with his company. He was determined.

His favourite quote was ‘The sentence I like least: It’s always been that way!’

City Recycling Truck Playset

This fantastic vehicle is full of great features including a removable roof and a lever which lifts up and empties the bins. The back of the truck can also be tilted and emptied. There are two workmen and Rex had great fun getting them to take it in turns to drive the vehicle. One even had to lift up the cab to fix the engine!

One of the things which really adds to the imaginary play for this vehicle is the ability to clamp the rubbish bins onto the holder at the back of the truck, lift the lids and then operating the lever to lift up the bin and flip it upside down and tip all the recycling into the hopper at the back. This recycling includes play fish bones, tins, bottles, and cans!

The set includes two figures with hats, a city recycling truck with flashing lights and removable roof, two rubbish bins, a rubbish container and other extras including rubbish, a fire hydrant and a walkie talkie. It measures 30 x 13 x 18 cm (LxDxH) and even comes with batteries! RRP £24.99

Mars Expedition Playset

Fancy going on an expedition to Mars?! Then you have everything you need with this incredible set!

The Mars Rover features lights and sounds and plenty of different attachments including a drill used to search for minerals in the rocks, a gripper arm to carefully pick up any objects found after drilling, plus, if you need to let fellow astronauts know your location then there is a launcher and 3 signal rockets.

To examine any samples, you can return to the research laboratory and, to help cover shorter distances, the astronauts can use the manoeuvrable Mars trike. There is a loading box at the front of the trike in which to store rock samples. What will the astronauts discover during this expedition? The set also contains two PLAYMOBIL astronauts, a drilling station, a robot and many other extras for exciting Mars missions. Bracers and astronaut helmets are removable. All light and sound mechanisms have automatic power-off functions. ESA name and ESA logotype are registered trademarks of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Dimensions rover: 25.5 x 18 x 20 cm (LxDxH) Dimensions trike: 12.5 x 8 x 6cm (LxDxH) Dimensions research station: 21 x 14.5 x 8 cm (LxDxH). RRP £39.99

Our Thoughts

Playmobil has become bigger and better over the years. It is great to see how brilliantly they have evolved and how detailed their playsets are. I loved the fact that the batteries are included in some of the products and that there are so many little added extras which take you by surprise.

Rex has spent hours playing with these toys and making up stories. The binmen have visited Mars and the astronauts have helped out with the recycling and they have all made friends with each other. Of course, I have joined in too and I have to admit that I have realised that even if you are the eldest in the house, it doesn’t matter if you are the biggest kid too! Any excuse to play with Playmobil.