We quite often buy secondhand Playmobil lots on ebay and have had some great bargains as a result. Usually, the Playmobil has mixed in with it a lot of bits of other toys, some clearly not Playmobil. There are usually several bits of Lego, Disney toys, Macdonalds toys plus a wide range of other bits. The Lego goes straight into the children's Lego box, sweet wrappers go in the bin, but most of the other bits I keep. I have been doing this for a couple of years and have a medium-sized cardboard box full now (its about 10cm deep):
This is rather an obsessive thing to do, but I had an inkling when I started this that
one day I might be glad I did it.
That day was today! I thought I'd have a look in our box of 'non-Playmobil' and see if, with the benefit of greater experience of handling Playmobil parts, I would recognise anything which we had put in there in the last two years. Here is what I found:
And for anyone who doesn't recognise these parts (like me, when I dropped them into the box!), they are:
top left and left: top and leg of a tripod (various safari sets etc.)
centre, top: earpiece/ microphone (fits in the 'ear-rings' slot of certain klicky's heads)
centre: two black pieces found in Western Building sets (3422 to 28, 3430, 3431) but I am not sure what they are for- can anyone tell me?
bottom, centre:drum beater handle for one-man band (from circus sets 4061 or 3797)
right: firearm from Arab warrior special (4521)- definitely a 'rare' part
far right: rope from Merry Men's Hideaway (3626)- an even 'rarer' part
I was especially pleased about that last one as I have never seen it come up on ebay and I am trying to get the parts of 3626 together. It doesn't look much like playmobil, but it is!
So- the moral is- don't throw away pieces until you're sure you really don't need them. My words in February last year now seem prophetic....
I make it a rule never to toss away anything I get in a mixed lot, because you can never be sure it might have a use later, or turn out to be some obscure piece of PM anyway. And you can get a LOT of junk mixed in with Playmobil (Sylvanian stuff can work well with PM though)!
The only exceptions to my 'keep don't toss' rule is any part marked:
a) Made in China (definitely won't be Playmobil!)
b) Duplo or L**o (put it in the children's boxes of these toys)
c) Macdonalds
Of course, not all PM parts have a distinctive logo or part number on them, but you can be fairly confident it isn't PM if its made of very poor quality plastic, especially if it has those spare bits of plastic where the mold parts join.
