PlaymoFriends

Getting Started => Welcome! => Topic started by: Nyreth on February 09, 2016, 04:29:54

Title: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on February 09, 2016, 04:29:54
Hello Everyone!
My real name is Katherine and I've been playing with Playmobil for as long as I can remember. I have a brother who is three years older than me and he introduced me to the brand as soon as he was sure I was old enough not to eat them! My parents spent a year in Germany while my Dad was doing research for his dissertation. As a result, my brother and I started out hooked on a lot of the German and Swiss toys brands such as Playmobil, Steiff and Brio. (I don't have anything against the more popular brands here in the US, but they just haven't had the same appeal as the European stuff.)

Now I'm older, but definitely not claiming to be grown up, and my husband and I have a 2.5 year old daughter. Most of my family's Playmobil collection stayed with my brother, but I just stumbled into an incredible opportunity to start a new collection! We didn't have the castles as kids, but I can remember wanting them desperately. Naturally, I am over the moon about being able to start my collection with the following sets:
Medieval Castle 3666
Castle Defenders 3888
Dragon/Rock Castle 3269
Siege Tower 3887 (I'm actually getting two of these sets, but one is for my niece from that same big brother)
Super Set Knights 3125
Battering Ram 3153 (also going to my niece)
Nessie Sea Dragon 3155
(please feel free to correct me if I have some of the names wrong)

All of the sets are NIB, have never been opened and are in excellent condition! Some good friends of mine bought a local, independent toy store that has been largely closed for about a decade. It literally is the toy store equivalent of a time capsule. Unfortunately, after two or three years of giving it their best go, they just aren't doing enough business to stay open. So I have the opportunity to buy all of this stuff at an extremely good price. (I'd honestly rather they just could stay open, but since they can't I'm buying everything castle related that they have left.) I'm probably picking everything up tomorrow. They have more inventory but I don't think any of the remaining stuff is castle/Viking/etc. I am going to try my best not to start collecting another theme too. I'll post pictures once I get everything home and situated.

I discovered this website while I was researching the three castle sets and I was really impressed with how friendly everyone is, how active the boards are and the incredible wealth of information! I've already learned a ton and am going to be doing some more research about the different systems and how to recognize additional parts that I can use. Customizing also looks extremely appealing and I can't wait to learn more about that as well!

Now the biggest dilemma is going to be do I save the sets until my daughter is old enough that we can have the fun of assembling them together? Or do I go ahead and start playing with them now? I will probably try to wait, because I want her to have the experience of building and I want to share that with her. But I may try to buy some secondhand lots of pieces and try it out myself a bit first. Afterall, I've never had the chance to build one of the castles, so I need to do a test run before I can know for certain when she is ready for them, right?  :lol:

Thanks and I look forward to getting to know y'all better!
Katherine
aka Nyreth




Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Tiermann on February 09, 2016, 04:43:54
Welcome from Oregon!

That sounds like a dream. Maybe you should get two of each castle so you can put one together now and saveone for later? You ccan't ever have enough castle parts it seems like, and this is definitely not the place to be getting any help restraining your shopping.  ;)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on February 09, 2016, 04:51:57
Thanks for the welcome Tiermann!

Unfortunately (maybe fortunately for our bank account?), they only have one of each of those sets. Well, except for the Siege Tower, and I am buying both of the ones they have.

They had one of the larger dollhouses, but I can't remember which one and I think it has already sold. Thank goodness, or I'd probably get it too.
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: leefert on February 09, 2016, 06:55:51
Welcome from Tennessee!
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: tahra on February 09, 2016, 11:15:14
Welcome from Portugal!

I say open them and play. You can reassemble them later with her.. and by then you will have a lot more. Like Tiermann said, there is never enough castle parts ( = Steck)!

:)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Birdie on February 09, 2016, 11:19:45
Helloooo Nyreth  :wave: Welcome from Antwerp, Belgium. I have a three-months-old girl and I have no restraint - I even opened the 1-2-3 sets that I bought for her  :lol:  When I was 4 years old I got a Fisher Price house with little dolls and furniture, but it wasn't new in a box, so my older sisters had set it up for me in the living room (a sort of diorama!). I intend to do the same with my daughter's stuff when she's old enough.

Oh boy, that time capsule store sounds like an absolute dream. If they have any difficulty selling some of the other Playmobil boxes, just have them make pictures and share them on the Internet, I'm pretty sure they will be sold in a heartbeat  :lol:
It makes me sad too, hearing about the store closing.

I wish you a ton of fun on the forum!
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: playmofire on February 09, 2016, 16:01:11
A warm welcome from the UK,  :wave:!

Our great-niece was playing with Playmobil (large pony farm amongst others) from three and a half, so you've not long to wait  to build them together. 
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Pynedor on February 10, 2016, 22:12:22
Welcome! :) I definitely look forward to seeing the haul. And I'm quite jealous. :lol:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on February 11, 2016, 04:27:08
Thank you for all of the greetings! I brought everything home today!

My husband is in favor of waiting to open them. That might help. Maybe.

playmofire, you may be correct! When I brought the boxes in tonight, my daughter saw them and immediately started saying, "Cast-uh! Cast-uh!" (We're still working on "L" sounds.)

The store ended up having two of the battering ram 3153, siege tower 3887 and Nessie Sea Dragon 3155. So my niece is getting one of each of those.
The only real impulse buy that I just couldn't resist was the little Devil 4561. The expression in his face made me literally laugh out loud.

I love the idea of having the 3666/3888 combined as a true medieval lifestyle set up and not just focused only on the martial aspects. Of course, we are still going to have epic battles, but I'd like for her to be able to play with it both ways. So I may try to talk my husband into going back for the cow family 3077 and chicken set 3078, so that I will have some livestock.

(http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac207/Nyreth/image1_zpsof3aqphu.jpg) (http://s900.photobucket.com/user/Nyreth/media/image1_zpsof3aqphu.jpg.html)

(http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac207/Nyreth/image2_zpsklxkijhw.jpg) (http://s900.photobucket.com/user/Nyreth/media/image2_zpsklxkijhw.jpg.html)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Raven on February 11, 2016, 05:35:08
Welcome, Katherine!

What a wonderful lot of sets.  Wow!

Oh yes, you need livestock too.   :)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Husker on February 11, 2016, 05:54:24
Welcome from Canada!  ;D My husband would LOVE that 3666 castle set. So cool!!
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Macruran on February 11, 2016, 06:03:39
Don't open those. Put them in climate controlled storage and sell them to fund your retirement.
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Pynedor on February 19, 2016, 19:29:26
That is an excellent haul! :D
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Lynx on February 25, 2016, 09:22:09
Great sets! BTW, welcome from the Netherlands!  :wave:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Hadoque on February 26, 2016, 08:22:21
Welcome from Belgium!  :)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: davidnbun on February 26, 2016, 19:58:11
Hello!  From Brooklyn New York!  :wave:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Basie10 on March 25, 2016, 05:14:17
Kia Ora mate from NZ 8}
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on March 29, 2016, 04:02:33
Thanks for all of the welcomes!
Sorry I haven't been around for so long. February and March really have not been the best of months for us. It's truly just been one thing after another and I'm still kind of reeling from everything. However, here's to hoping that April will be better!

I ended up going back for the cow and chicken sets. I also stumbled across an ad on craigslist for what looked like quite a few parts of another 3666 castle for a really good price. It was out of town, but the seller ended up being about 30 minutes away from a good friend of mine who was moving back this way in a couple weeks. She graciously picked it up and brought it back for me. Well, it turned out to be an almost complete 3666, a catapult, battering ram, two dragons, lots of people (including some Civil War soldiers, red coats, 2 or 3 Vikings and a Roman soldier). All for the huge investment of $35! Needless to say, I was thrilled. But the best part was yet to come! I couldn't resist setting this one up, and as I was unpacking it all my daughter came over and said, "This is for me?" She immediately started playing with the knights and "djha-gons".

It's always gratifying to see your kiddo enjoying something you were excited about getting for them. Our daughter is 2.5 and she has a fairly significant delay in communication and speech. So needless to say, hearing her ask about something and use a complete sentence took everything to a whole different level. (She has come a long way since she had tubes put in her ears back in late November and we're confident that with time she is going to catch up to her peers.)

It's been up for a few days now and she loves it! She calls it her "cassul" and it has already gotten tons of play time.
(http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac207/Nyreth/12903586_10154679595777678_679377827_o_zpskz7zs2tr.jpg)
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Macruran on March 29, 2016, 04:31:15
 :yippee:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Birdie on March 29, 2016, 07:29:29
She looks absolutely adorable  :love:

Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on March 30, 2016, 00:20:28
Thank you! She is our heart and has been such a little trooper lately. She had RSV and pneumonia a couple weeks ago. Now the poor little kiddo has another cold. But she always tries so hard to be happy and playful.
 
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Birdie on April 05, 2016, 09:45:27
Poor little thing  :( I hope she feels better soon  :wave:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Nyreth on April 12, 2016, 03:08:51
Thanks Birdie! I'm starting to think that maybe I need to push to get her checked for allergies.

Meanwhile, I need a Playmobil intervention! Since I posted last, I've added 3 more castles, Pirates (3 ships with one more on the way, and Adventure Island), Ancient Egypt (Great Pyramid, Pharaoh's Temple, soldiers and grave robbers), the Great Asian Castle (my brother sent that one to my daughter), and some City Life vehicles. The City Life stuff was part of a lot I picked up last night and I originally was planning on selling it. However, I gave the Rescue Ladder Truck to my daughter this morning and she adores it. So, we'll see how that works out.

Actually, I made a deal with my husband to stop shopping for Playmobil until my birthday (end of July), if he let me buy the collection with the pirates and city life stuff since it was nearby. He's threatening to find a Playmobil Collector's Anonymous group for me. ;)


Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: tahra on April 12, 2016, 07:20:12
 Way to go!  ;D
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Birdie on April 12, 2016, 17:39:20
Ah yes, I sometimes feel I've bought too much, but then I have months in a row when I don't buy anything.
There are more expensive hobbies out there  8-) That's what I tell myself anyway!
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Iclaudius on April 17, 2016, 09:15:12
Hi Nyreth, what lovely photos of your daughter! It is great that she is having so much fun with your new sets.
 I have a three year old grandson who is loving the canons from my pirate ships, his speech is slow but play helps enormously as you have found. Show her the latest Playmo catalogue, she can pick what she likes for her next birthday!
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: Klickteryx on April 20, 2016, 03:26:32
Hàlo à Sealainn Nuadh.  :wave:
Title: Re: Hello from Alabama, USA!
Post by: MauraDog on November 05, 2016, 04:47:13
If you find a Playmobil Collectors Anonymous Group let us know. I have the Playmobil buying bug too :)

Also I got goosebumps when I read that you got the 3666 and all of those accessories for $35! That is insane. Maybe it was meant to be that you keep the other one sealed and sell it for millions someday. 

Also hello from Iowa City! http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/Smileys/classic/wave.gif