That well known symbol of Christmas - er a Unicorn?! (Playmobil 4154: Princess Unicorn Advent Calendar)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Playmobil 4154: Princess Unicorn Advent Calendar
Date:	11/10/09 (150 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice idea

Disadvantages: bit girlie

When I was little we were the envy of our friends as every year, without fail, Dad's childhood German penfriend would send us Chocolate Advent Calendars. At the time the idea hadn't reached the UK, they may be commonplace now but this Advent Calendar goes to show that where preparing for the Festive Season is concerned, a German company like Playmobil still has the edge.

Now excuse the early mention of Christmas, but in my defence if you do want to buy one of these you will need to order early, in my experience if they make it into the shops they are not around for long. In my local "The Entertainer" shop they are snapped up very quickly and long before Christmas, and even online they do sell out suprisingly early or tend to be more highly priced on ebay as the festive season approaches.

Like all the other Playmobil advent calendars, of which this particular one is a very girlie and pink choice, what you get is a hanging calendar with 24 boxes, which are opened each today to build up a playmobil scene. As you can see from the handily zoomable picture above, this set is not particularly Christmassy in feel. It does contain a nice range of suitably princessy and unicorn bits, starting off over the first couple of days with a parrot in his gilded cage, and including some mini-figures and a peacock or two. There are also some flower pots containing rose bushes with little flowers on them and 2 unicorns - one is a bit hidden in the photo. All the animals and people have articulated limbs and the people also have hands that move to hold things. Everything is very well made and robust, as you would tend to expect from this brand.

We bought this calendar having enjoyed "Christmas in the Park" which I have previously reviewed. Having had one before I knew that the boxes and pieces would have to be assembled and that the children would enjoy opening a box to get a piece of playmobil, which they did. I don't think this set is quite as special as the first one we had, though some of the detail on the pieces is nice - the lady has a beautiful detachable dress and parasol that is bound to appeal to girls and the pieces are quite easily transferable for use with other sets.

The booklet made the assembly quite simple - I did have a piece of the fountain missing when assembling everything, and phoned playmobil who sent me a new piece in plenty of time and for free.

The boxes do vary as the days go on, on some days there is a big piece to add on, but a couple of days saw the arrival of some very small birds and half a fountain, which were less exciting. The little boxes were commendered by my children to put their own treasures in and they happily played with them for quite a while - that's children and boxes for you!

This is a nice quality item, like all playmobil, but I would recommend Christmas in the Park above this one, or there is an animal set that looks good too. Here you are getting a fair bit for you money, but I think some of the other sets are better value contents wise and you do seem to pay a bit of a premium for the pink and princess theme.

Overall this set is one to consider for girls, and we did enjoy it and could have re-used it if we wanted to as we opened everything carefully. I would say this is suitable for children from about two and a half and upwards and it is a nice change from or addition to the by-now traditional Chocolate calendars. Recommended, but some of the other sets in this range, which is added to every year are better.

Summary: a nice concept, better sets available