Hello everyone
I'm Alison, and I live in the far far south west of the United Kingdom with my husband and our five year old son.
I didn't have any Playmobil as a child because I was probably deemed too old when it was first introduced (yes, I am an older mum for those of you whose maths is as quick as your reading!!). I seem to recall that one of the boys in our road had some little green people with some little road signs, but it was some time before I realised they were Playmobil (on a visit to The Metropolis there was a very large version of one of those little people in the toy department!!).
Back to the present (ish) ...... in 2008 we bought a small camper van (a real one) and as our son likes to recreate all of his life experiences in his play, I thought it would be nice to buy him a toy camper for his third birthday which was just after we took delivery of the van. Although nothing like our van, the Playmobil camper which I found on EBay fitted the bill and the budget and he was absolutely delighted with it and all the bits which came with it. I too was enthralled by the detail, and thus it all began!!!
I went back on EBay to buy a few bits to make up a campsite, and while I was there I just saw a few things that I really had to have, and thus it all continued.
Quite a bit of the stuff that I bought on impulse is up in the loft, from whence it is being gradually introduced, as I don't want my son to think that a new toy is going to be produced every month or so (even if I do tell him that some of the stuff is mine). He's a very “switched on” child and creates all these little scenes and situations with the Playmobil, usually based on what is going on in his life at the moment. He asked for the circus this year, as we went to the circus for the first time back in June. We've got a tour bus because I work as a tour guide, and quite a few other things which he has chosen from the catalogue because they are relevant to him. When he started school in September, one of the first things that happened there was a fire drill, and sure enough, next morning we had all thirty or our Playmobil children and two adults, plus a fire engine and fire crew standing by because they needed to have a fire drill too!! I've learned a lot about what he does when I am not with him from the Playmobil People.
I've just discovered this forum as a result of being given the “Playmobil Collector” book for Christmas, and think that at this stage in my “life with Playmobil” there's probably a place for me here!!! I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as a collector, more of a gatherer. I buy new items of Playmobil for birthday and Christmas, but browse EBay occasionally for inspiration or oddments to fill a gap in our Playmobil world and usually end up with something completely different as well. We aren't collecting whole sets, as a lot of the things I've bought just fit in with what we are doing or seeing in real life. The purists among you will probably shudder but we often use our buildings for a number of purposes – the airport terminal for example doubles as hospital or school or car showroom; the vacation house is usually the campsite reception/cafe and Skull Island is often a family beach and somewhere to swim to from the speedboat. And we bought a Roman to go with the nativity set because the boy was a Roman soldier in his school nativity play. On my own wishlist is a nun for the airport. I don't know what plans Playmobil had for her when they introduced her, but to my mind there are always nuns at airports!!
We occasionally take photos of the scenes we have made, and at Christmas had our first foray into film making. After a trip to Bristol during the half term holiday, where he learned a bit about stop motion animation, the boy decided that Playmobil films would be a great idea and our first film was based on his school Nativity play, and the second on the school Christmas Fete. They weren't bad for first attempts and were made as a present for his teacher and teaching assistant for Christmas. I hadn't realised until now just how many films and still photos of Playmobil scenes exist on the internet. I've found some wonderful things since I discovered the internet Playmobil community a few weeks back.
My husband is less passionate about Playmobil, as it doesn't all get put away every night (there's always a “work in progress” in progress). He's also convinced that our house is getting smaller!!
Hopefully I have managed to attach a photo of us (well, our Playmobil selves
)
This will probably be my longest post, by the way
