Anonymous wrote:Got a couple sets as hand-me-downs for DC, these would be our first. Are Playmobil something that if I give to DC, he'll want to expand on and collect? A la Calico Critters, LEGO, Hatchimals and so on? I'm not looking to start DC on a new collecting habit since he already has several. He also has a ton of LEGO sets, which seem similar to Playmobil. Otherwise, I don't mind giving him a new toy to play with.
I think it really depends on your kid. I don't think of Playmobil as particularly collectible in the sense of acquiring particular sets for the purpose of having the sets to display or something; however, they are the kind of toys that, like Legos, lend themselves to a kind of play where having significant amount makes them much more fun. As a child, I had a friend that had a huge set of Playmobil that had been built up as it passed between families. We spent hours and hours playing with that, but I barely played with the set that I received for a birthday, because it was just a single knight and his accessories. As I recall, Playmobil was fun because it had fairly detailed sets with lots of bits. I remember it as being more expensive and not readily available in our area; you had to catalog order it. The other thing that made it less fun was that it didn't have the building aspect of Legos. So, the Knights, Cowboys, and Pirates all had better looking stuff, but it was what it was. Whereas, in Lego, everything could be repurposed, and for us that meant, building the set as intended playing with it for awhile, then cannibalizing it into a giant spaceship.