Customer Reviews

Playmobil Advent Calendar: Xmas in Forest

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every year's Playmobil Advent Calendar is a treat. The calendar basically has two parts, both revolving around 24 little playmobile animals, Santas, presents, and other Christmas-oriented toys: (1) a stand-up sheet to which parents attach 24 little boxes, one for each day of December until Christmas, and (2) a little tableau, where the kids can set up the toys as they open them. Each day, the kids get to open a box and place the toy on the tableau, setting up a scene that will be finished by Christmas Eve.

The 2008 calendar, "Christmas in the Forest," is my favorite yet. Santa is bringing presents (mostly food) to the animals of the forest, so the set has a bunch of mother and baby animals, together with Santa, a sled, and plenty of delicious treats. Playmobil did a great job with this year's calendar. If you don't have one yet, go get one and catch up!

We just finished assembling our advent calender for this year, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be. Better than last year's pirate theme, this one has a Christmas theme.

The beginning of December begins with a quiet wood, that over the first four days of December accumulates a few trees, birds, and scenic items. Then animals arrive, one by one each day - sometimes bringing food along with them. First come the deer, a buck, a fawn, and a doe, later mama and baby raccoons, boar, foxes, badgers, and mice. A few fir trees are thrown in on a couple of the days, and the final three days are devoted to: 22. Santa's 'sleigh' (Santa pulls this himself) 23. A whole bunch of food for the animals - presumably that which Santa is delivering on his sleigh, and finally on the 24th, Santa Claus himself.

Our calender has an improvement over the previous years' in that you do not have to assemble 24 boxes. Instead, you only have to assembled a 4-piece divider within a large box. This has a cover that goes over top, with doors which can be punched out to access each days' items. This leaves you instead with a box equal in size to the original box the set came in, which you could stand on a surface or hang via a punch-out hook on the back of the box. The placement of the cubby holes is still in random order, so you have to hunt a bit for each days' numbered door and corresponding items. The plus of all this is that assembly is brief, and consists mostly of locating the correct items and placing them in their slots, which I find to be the fun part anyway.

All in all, this is a very well-thought out set. I know the kids will be as happy as I am as they bring life to this lovely little forest.

For anyone wanting better pictures of this set, google: flickr playmobil advent. Someone actually documented each day as they assembled this calender, and their pictures are actually quite beautiful, fun to look at, and are what ultimately convinced me this was the perfect set for us this year.

My girls, 5 and 8, love this toy. They alternate opening boxes, which teaches them patience.......probably the only educational value of this toy. They love to play with the little figurines and make up stories. It adds excitement as we build up for Christmas. As with all playmobil, the details of the pieces are very realistic. The pieces are small, and my kids love that. You'd probably have to be careful with it around small kids and dogs. The background scene is nice, but probably not really durable. However, having said that, the one from last year is still fine.

Last year we bought a Lego advent calendar. If you read the reviews of that you will see a common theme, that there are a lot of senseless little pieces that are not exciting and it really doesn't make any sense or come together in a really definable scene. This one is SO MUCH BETTER! There are a few days where you get some small items, but there are also a lot of days you get larger items, such as animals. I think that these are a little bit more expensive, but the value is evident as soon as you open the box. There is the added fun of the backdrop that you can use to set the scene against as you open the doors and reveal the pieces. Now, I will say, there is A LOT more set-up involved in these. The calendar is not already set up. You have to punch out the divider tabs and fold the little cubbies, AND, all the little pieces are in plastic baggies all mixed up and you have to separate them out and put them in the calendar. It took me a few minutes of staring at it to process what I was looking at and then it took me about 20 minutes to get it all set up. Actually, I had fun, but some of you might not and so you need to be aware of the work involved, because you HAVE to set it up before you give it to the child or they will know what all the pieces are. Overall, if you are a die-hard Lego fan you probably love the Lego advent calendars despite what I find to be lacking value, because you can add the pieces to a Lego collection. If you love Playmobil, same thing with this one. However, if you are like me and have not decided on a camp, or are really just looking for a GREAT advent calendar, I would definitely recommend this one over the Lego. We also have the Police themed one, and it is also very cute and well worth the money. This one was purchased for our almost 3 year old and the police one was purchased for our almost 5 year old. They are perfect for their respective recipients.

Great Advent Calendar. The only thing I would point out is that it does NOT come assembled, that is, you have to put together the actual boxes where the surprises are stored and fill each one with the surprises. Thus, make sure you do not just hand this Advent Calendar to your child before you have opened the box and assembled it or you kid will be in for a disappointment!

My 7 year old daughter is loving this advent calendar. She couldn't care less that there's no chocolate involved. The mommy and baby animals make for good teaching moments and there's lots of potential for imagination to be involved. Thank goodness for something that's not princesses or barbies or bathed in pink. Yay nature!

We are on Day 10 of this advent calendar. It is the first thing my boys (7 and 6) ask to do in the morning! I love to see what piece comes next. The little scene is getting cuter every day! I was nervous about having to construct the little boxes, so I sat down to do it, and voila, our model was preconstructed and ready to go. Way to go, Playmobil, for improving an already great product that just needed a little tweaking since others had complained about it!

Love this version of the Playmobil Advent Calendar. I think this one came out for Christmas 2008, but Playmobil did a great job. Bought this for my 5 year old niece. We've done the Littlest Pet Shop and Click-It calendars in previous years, but this one is much better.

My favorite things about this calendar are 1. that it stands alone and is ready to go right out of the box. (I think 2 years ago, the calendar required much assembly and I was up for hours snapping toys together, folding boxes and assembling a calendar that had to be mounted on a door and was not very sturdy). So this year, Playmobil really got it right. 2. I love that the contents are displayed on the outside of the box. I know that the contents will be exciting and fun to open.

This calendar contains lots of little woodland animals, as well as vegetables for them to eat, and trees for them to climb. There is also Santa and a sleigh and a reindeer. This is a great Christmas themed kit.

First problem: apparently you have to be familiar with this toy ahead of time (or be psychic) to know that you have to dump everything out of the box, hand-assemble a grid array, then insert the various pieces for the different days, and only THEN give it to the child. If you're used to Lego's advent calendar, don't think you can just give this one to the child like you can with that one!

Second problem: Our box was missing the cute little Christmas tree from day #1, so she had to use the dead tree stump from day #2 in order for the animals to have anything to gather around!
The low rating on "how much fun is this toy" is a combination of the ridiculous amount of work required to get it presentable to the intended recipient (if this is for a gift, you can't give an unopened, "new" box since you have to open it to assemble it first!) combined with how much fun it is to receive a toy with missing pieces (box was sealed, so package came this way).

As for the price, pick it up from Target for the $19.99 mfg. retail price, don't pay double here. And if you don't mind your kids having the exact same calendar, just get the Lego one for each of them. It's ready to go without any extra hoop-jumping on your part, I've never had one missing pieces, and the play value of both is about equal (actually Lego probably wins there, too, because you aren't limited to the existing configuration of the pieces, you can make them into something entirely different, whereas with Playmobile, a tree is a tree is a tree and always will be a tree.

This advent toy is adorable. I use it with a lift the flap board book called "The Animal's Advent". Many of the animals are the same. This toy does have small pieces but most Playmobil toys do. We don't really use it as an advent at our house...we set it up after Thanksgiving and my kids play with it off and on throughout the holiday season. I am also a teacher so I brough it into my classroom and let my kids explore with it for a week. This toy is just another special family tradition in our home during the holidays. I know my kids will each want to take it with them when they 'leave the nest'!