Having two children and a few generous relatives who like buying toys come Christmas and Birthdays means, like many families, we have quite an extensive collection of toys. Playmobil is perhaps one of our favourite and most played with items, and this set is the first Playmobil we ever acquired, as with many good toys on the recommendation of a friend who said that her children loved it.

The Playground Set is currently £39.99 at Toysrus, but generally retails at around the £30 mark, which is how much I believe Granny paid for it. Everything came in a nice satisfyingly big box with no assembly as such really required - as our Playmobil collection has grown I've come to realise that that is a good point about this set. Bar adding a few flowers to the plants, putting the carousel and swings together, and adding the wheels to the trike this set is a "get it out of the box and start to play" item.

There are quite a few pieces in the set, and three main play areas - a carousel, swing set and a sandpit. There's also a bumpy slide, a tree and the cute little crocodile rocker you can see in the foreground of the picture above. With eleven people in all - two mums and nine children, there's quite a lot of play value to be had.

I've found that the most played with part of this set is the carousel which even a three year old seems to be able to fill with children and get to go round quite easily, it spins really well though if it were real would provide rather a scary ride I think! The slide is quite good play-wise too - everything is in scale, and the four assorted bikes and scooters get well played with too. It's a varied set that has, in my opinion, been well designed, though it doesn't feel particularly like a British park it's still got universal kid-appeal.

What I like about this particular item is that it all packs down to a relatively small size - think smallish tub - and I think encourages imaginative play. Children can relate to it as the park is probably part of their daily experience, they will be happy to make up different stories with the characters. There are no sound effects or flashy lights, but I honestly don't think the toy needs any.

If you are thinking of buying this one thing to bear in mind is that there are quite a lot of "bits" to the Playground. I would say that under-threes should be carefully supervised with it - there are a couple of buckets and spades that are rather tiny and some miniscule squirrels that fit on the trees that might look bite size to younger children. I found that when my youngest was small I had to remove the little flowers from the swing set for a while as she kept taking them off. I do think you can temporarily remove unsafe parts from this sets and it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment at all.

As with all Playmobil this is a well made and sturdy set, though parts of it have got mixed up with the rest of our collection over time and we may be missing a flower or two, everything has withstood being played with for over 3 years and it all looks as good as new. The people are nicely detailed too - a nice touch is that their hands can rotate to grip onto the bikes, the rocker or the swings.

I am grateful to my friend for recommending this item in the first place as it has been very well used and continues to be played with by both my kids, the eldest of whom is fast approaching 7. This is a great item for anyone starting a collection or to any Playmobil fan - it was a great present - recommended!


Further info:

Picture of the full set here: http://www.ebaycoach.de/ebay/TOYS/playmobil/4070/4 070.jpg

For some reason this item is not sold by playmobil themselves where the different parts are available separately as 7328 (swing etc) and 7359 (carousel), it is, however, widely available elsewhere.