Customer Reviews

Playmobil Fairy Tale Castle

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 5 year old received a Playmobil Fairy Tale Castle for her birthday that consists of probably a thousand or more parts. Over the last two nights, I have had the unenviable job of putting it together, yet as I carefully followed the well-designed pictorial directions, I came to marvel at this as an excellent example of design experience.

For those of you who don't know, Playmobil is a German company and boy is it ever obvious from the detailed instructions. This toy took me hours upon hours to assemble, but it was easy, satisfying, and a sturdy construction when I finally finished. Compare this to the cheaply made Barbie castle she received last year that also took hours to complete, but kept falling apart as we were assembling it. We are about to throw away the Barbie one in disgust as this well-designed one takes its place.

Overall, a great customer experience and even though I now know other Playmobil products might require hours of installation, at least I know they will not be fruitless ones.

I believe Hudspith covers this design experience the best, with his theory that "designers need to consider the psychological experience needs of the user" (Forlizzi 2005, p. 5). His tripartite description of "utility, ceremony, appeal" certainly applies to the Playmobil castle. The castle "accomplished its intended task" and "appealed" to both me and my daughter as we celebrated its creation. Moreover, she and the others have not stopped playing with it since.

My daughther is 4 years old and loves to play with the castle.
I have not much to add to what previous reviewers said -I mostly concurr. However I wanted to share my experience with putting the castle together: It took 3 adults 2 hours to put it together. The instructions are done well - it is just a lot of work (a lot of small parts: connectors and decorations). Plan ahead if you're buying it. It is a great toy!.

I grew up with the Playmobil Victorian dollhouse, and only recently did I start collecting other Playmobil sets. I bought this Fairy Tale Castle about a month ago and had the greatest time putting it together. The assembly directions include another building variation that seems to be a little more spacious, if you're planning to fit all the furniture sets in. Unlike the victorian dollhouse, this one is totally sturdy. I've moved it several times with no problem. And the accesory sets are incredible.

I recommend getting this item from Amazon.com while they have free shipping in the States. I have had problems finding toys by this company in every toy store I've been to, and having it shipped directly from Europe is extremely pricey!!

The playmobil quality has always been high and the castle is no exception. It takes a good 2 hours to put together (and you must be careful to not invert the directions and build the "building variant" which uses about 95% of the pieces but just isnt as much fun as the normal variant). It only comes with a few people so if you want to do any big "scenes" you will need to buy a few add-ons. Still, my daughter thinks its just about the coolest toy around and has her pirate ship sail up and interact with the fairy castle inhabitants in a variety of ways. Yes we do have too many Playmobil sets at home for any sane parent...but then again if you are seriously considering this item, you probably do too!

My daughter has had the Fairy Tale Castle for over two years now and still loves to play with it. I have purchase other add-ons (knights, dragon, horses, waterfall, scenery, etc.) and gave them to my daughter for Birthdays, Easter baskets, and even for doing well in school. Beside the two designs that Playmobil has shown, you can create your own castle. It is sturdy and is an excellent toy for the imagination.

Playmobils are the best toys, they are sturdy, creative, and keep my girls busy for hours. The Fairy Tale Castle is beautiful, pinks and purple, graceful arches, and stunning cutwork windows. It looks like a castle from the Arabian Knights. The people have delicate decorations on their clothes. The furniture is very realistic and fancy, fit for a castle. We have all the room sets, and a few extras from the other castle, a fairy tale castle needs a Dragon and a Unicorn!

I purchased this for my almost-5-year old daughter this Christmas and she is elated. She was already a fan of Playmobil and had the fairy unicorn set and some fairy tale castle furniture. The castle really is quite large; in fact, our cat has already tried to climb inside, thinking it was a grand cathouse!

The castle comes with directions to make 2 different variations and can also be customized however you'd like to build it. This is a feature most toys today lack. (Remember when Lego could actually be built in different ways?!). A hint: I got all the way through making the "alternate" (not-pictured) version only to find that it didn't use all the pieces. If you set it up as it is shown on the box, it has smaller rooms than the alternate version, so you should be sure which version you want to make before starting. Right now we have it in the version that uses all the pieces, but I predict we will end up with a hybrid version after she receives the rest of the furniture sets for her birthday next month.

As far as the time in setting it up, if you are already familiar with Playmobil, it really doesn't take too long. I spent about 3 hours total and that included trying out both variations of the directions. Once you've built the castle once, it takes much less time to change it around.

I've been searching online for some extension pieces (like Playmobil has for the knight's castle) and have come up short so far. I do hope they make some soon, because I can see that this castle will be a favorite in our house for several years to come.

I am a teacher and frequently use Playmobile products to bring history alive. My students, both boys and girls love to pretend with the Playmobile Fairy Tale castle.

We got this for our almost 5 year old daughter for Christmas and she loves it, but it is like Lego and the pieces to the castle come off very easily. With just a little bit of play, the pieces come off and get lost easily because they are so small. We spent hours putting it together and it is frustrating to have it taken apart so easily. I have been keeping the pieces that she takes off but right now we don't feel like putting it back together just to have it taken apart again. We wish it would be more permanent once it is together.