I often look at my boys and marvel at their differences. Same upbringing, same access to toys and stories, but totally different personalities.
While my seven year old is a book worm, flying through story after story, my five year old wants to immerse himself in small world play.
Enter Playmobil
My mum has kept all of my old Playmobil from when I was young, and it was when we visiting we discovered his love of all things Playmobil. His absolutely favourite toy is Playmobil. He can sit for hours with his Playmobil guys making them reenact various scenes and go on all kinds of adventures.
You can imagine his delight when we were asked to review the new , the Dinos Enemy Quad with Triceratops, the Hidden Temple with T-Rex and the Motorcross with Raptor. An added bonus was that we had an agreement that he had to sleep until the sun came up on his gro-clock for three mornings before we built each set.
Motorcross with Raptor
The smallest of the sets with an RRP of £9, this was the first one we built.
Which is faster, the Playmobil bike or the raptor? Hours of fun have been had as the raptor has chased our valiant hero round and round our house. He’s raced up walls, down the stairs, and even been in the bath. An ideal starter set to get the imagination flowing.
Dinos Enemy Quad with Triceratops
A medium sized set retailing at £33.
With the mum Triceratops and baby triceratops coming already built, I had time to put together the car and cage while he happily set about roaring around the living room.
Then the car was built, complete with net that actually fired in order to entrap the triceratops into the cage. It also served to be fired at Mummy, the baby, the big brother, and a memorable moment when the baby triceratops made a bid for freedom and trapped the poor Playmobil guy who was just trying to do his job.
Hidden Temple with T-Rex
And finally, after 10 days of getting up past 6am, he scored the big one.
The Hidden Temple with T-Rex, king of the dinosaurs, is the ultimate in Playmobil dinos.
With glowing eyes, a flashing laser and psychedelic mushroom with UV torch. With three Playmobil figures to gather information with their miniature binoculars, laptop and trunk the T-Rex can’t go undetected for long.
Once again the T-Rex comes ready built so I was able to build the hidden temple without too much Mummmmmmmmmy is it ready yet going on. Using the specialised tool to push the connectors in, and following the easily numbered instructions, we had it built and ready for action in just under an hour.
And action it has seen.
The Verdict
Playmobil is still my toy of choice. When it comes to sparking their imagination and allowing for small world play, there is nothing better. The Playmobil dino set is perfect for any budding palaeontologists out there, allowing for them to learn through play and develop their skills.
