PlaymoFriends
Getting Started => Welcome! => Topic started by: BowlInJar on December 21, 2013, 21:28:40
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Greetings from St. Louis, Missouri, USA! *stands up* Hello, my name is Matt, and I'm an.... Oh wait, wrong group. Just kidding. 8}
I’m an off and on, long time Playmobil collector. My wife loves Playmobil too, but she’s not as consistently into it as I am. I don’t know if I have a favorite theme or not. It’s sort of like asking a parent to choose their favorite child, right? But, we mostly have Dollhouse, Western, and Knights items. And our kids have Egyptian, Zoo, RC Train, Fairytale Castle, etc as well. And of course, we have all kinds of random other sets mixed in with these. If I had to pick my favorite Playmobil items, I’d have to pick three things… My Western Train set, and the two life-size klickies that I picked up when a local toy store changed ownership and the new owner didn’t want them anymore (a viking and a modern male, see my avatar photo). What do I most regret not buying when I had the chance? The Colorado Springs train station. It’s way too expensive on eBay these days, and I really kick myself for not getting it when I first got that Western train set so many years ago!!!
I’ve been playing with Playmobil toys off and on for over 30 years now, starting with the first klickies that I got in McDonalds Happy Meals as a kid. These days, I go in phases where I get interested in a theme (or one of my kids does) and we purchase a bunch of stuff and play with them for a while, and then I’ll loose interest and move on to some other hobby for a year or two. But I always come back. I don’t think that I’ll ever completely loose interest in Playmobil!!!
Some of my favorite Playmobil memories… Getting my first exposure to Playmobil as a kid when I got a few of them in McDonalds Happy Meals. (I wish they’d do this again some day!) Getting my first Western themed set as a kid from the J.C. Penny Christmas catalog (at least I think that’s where it came from). Buying our first Dollhouse on vacation with my wife, when we were young/poor and should of spent our money on more practical things, but bought it anyway!! Getting some “Parts Play Packages” from Playmobil Direct Service about 10 years ago (About $10 each for a large box full of random klickies and accessories. I wonder if they ever did this again?) Visiting the Playmobil store in Orlando, FL (which has been closed for several years now.) Collecting nearly the entire Dollhouse theme, keeping it a secret from our oldest daughter until she was about six years old, and then setting it all up in front of the tree one night before a Christmas morning surprise. Getting those giant klickies that I mentioned earlier. Building giant RC train layouts with my son. Putting the RC Christmas train up around the tree every year. Etc.
So, it’s been a while since I’ve personally been “into” Playmobil. My kids got them all out and set up a giant land in the basement a year or two ago. They mixed everything together and made a mess of the collection. I wasn’t upset or anything, because they had a LOT of fun doing it. And they still play with them from time to time. But it’s been bugging me enough, that I decided to start the task of sorting everything and re-assembling the castle and various buildings as they should be. This will take hours and hours and hours, but it’s fun remembering where/when/how we got each item as I sort through them. Eventually, I’ll probably bring them all upstairs (our basement is unfinished not my favorite place to hang out) and set up a giant land of my own for a couple weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed that my kids are now old enough that when it’s all said and done, everything doesn’t end up in random piles looking like a massive tornado blew through the Playmobil town again :)
Recent additions to our collection? This past fall, I purchased the Western School House and Water Tower for our Western train collection, and also the Bakery and Museum for our Medieval set. Earlier this week, I purchased the Pop Stars set, as the deal was too good to pass up on Amazon ($35 shipped for the entire set: Stage, Tour Bus, Band, and Keyboard Player. Crazy deal, no joke!!) And what do I have my sights on? The Alpine Chalet and Cable Car that are apparently releasing in the US later this spring. Those are too cool!!
I guess, I’m going to head back down to the basement and continue sorting the collection now :klickygrin: And I plan to read through many of the past posts to see how you all like organizing and storing your stuff.
-Matt
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Hello and :welcome: from Louisiana! Great to have you. I really enjoyed reading your story. Playmobil is a great hobby, and it's even better when you can share it with your family!
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Hello, and welcome from the UK - :wave: - and thanks for the detailed introduction. It's good to have you here.
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Thanks bonniebeth and playmofire. I'm glad to have found a bunch of kindred spirits :)
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Welcome from Portugal!
:picsplz: :)
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Welcome from Pennsylvania, Matt! Great introduction, so much history over the years with Playmobil. Good to have you aboard.
Joe
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Thanks tahra and basilsdad!
I started bringing up the Knights related stuff today. Been having fun building a new castle and re-assembling trees and landscape stuff ;D
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7362/11504589176_6ab7e98a1a_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11504589176/)
playmo1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11504589176/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
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Welcome, from San Francisco. It was great to read your introduction. I am one of the moms that bought those MacDonald's happy meals for my children, the only time we ever went to "eat" there, and your introduction reminds me of how much we wanted to buy the big Playmobil sets for our children, but how expensive they were here in the states. This is a great forum, and you will enjoy seeing some amazing collections here.
kaethe
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Many thanks for your very nice introduction and the great picture!!!
A very warm welcome to playmofriends!! I'm sure you will have much fun here!!
Greetings from Greece,
George. :wave:
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Kool St. Louis, I too am in St. Louis. I have been collecting Playmobil for about 8 years. My first love has been LEGO, collecting also about 30 years.
The charm in Playmobil is the fun of building armies of knights and soldiers from the Pirate theme. Currently I am organizing my soldiers according to the rule set 'Three Inch Glory'.
After the holidays, maybe we can plan a meet-up. Welcome to Playmofriends!!!
-- Donmobil
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Welcome, from San Francisco. It was great to read your introduction. I am one of the moms that bought those MacDonald's happy meals for my children, the only time we ever went to "eat" there, and your introduction reminds me of how much we wanted to buy the big Playmobil sets for our children, but how expensive they were here in the states. This is a great forum, and you will enjoy seeing some amazing collections here.
kaethe
That's awesome! My mom has always supported my Playmobil collecting activities and has been known to pick up a few sets here and there herself. Playmobil moms are the best!
Many thanks for your very nice introduction and the great picture!!!
A very warm welcome to playmofriends!! I'm sure you will have much fun here!!
Greetings from Greece,
George. :wave:
Thanks George!
Kool St. Louis, I too am in St. Louis. I have been collecting Playmobil for about 8 years. My first love has been LEGO, collecting also about 30 years.
The charm in Playmobil is the fun of building armies of knights and soldiers from the Pirate theme. Currently I am organizing my soldiers according to the rule set 'Three Inch Glory'.
After the holidays, maybe we can plan a meet-up. Welcome to Playmofriends!!!
-- Donmobil
Cool! My son is really into LEGO. He's got a nice LEGO City going in the basement, loves LEGO Trains, and likes building little contraptions with Technics gears and electric motors. His current addiction is Rokenbok though.
Here's a photo of his latest Rokenbok city, with the LEGO city on the pink carpet behind that. And then some stray Playmobil pieces all the way in the back, and more on the shelves in the back right corner. No room for setting up a Playmobil land right now :( But is too many toys a bad thing? LOL
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2832/11566499764_381cbe7544_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11566499764/)
Planning a meet-up for after the holidays sounds like fun :)
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Welcome from Oregon! Great looking castles, love that theme!
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Welcome from Oregon! Great looking castles, love that theme!
Thanks Tiermann!
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Welcome from Amsterdam, the Netherlands! Good to have you here, I'm sure you'll enjoy. Lucky you, having a wife who loves Playmobil too.. mine doesn't, she probably thinks I'm out of my mind. My daughter begins to like it, I bought her the 5985 princess set with Pegasus and she loves it!
I collect mainly knight theme and fantasy, for my comic 'The Story of Randolph'. All the playmobil warriors, the ancient (Romans, Gauls, Egyptians) and the exotic ones, Arabs, African, Asian are my favourites! I even made some chess sets of them.
kind regards,
Lynx
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Welcome! Great Medieval collection in the picture. <*)
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Welcome from Amsterdam, the Netherlands! Good to have you here, I'm sure you'll enjoy. Lucky you, having a wife who loves Playmobil too.. mine doesn't, she probably thinks I'm out of my mind. My daughter begins to like it, I bought her the 5985 princess set with Pegasus and she loves it!
I collect mainly knight theme and fantasy, for my comic 'The Story of Randolph'. All the playmobil warriors, the ancient (Romans, Gauls, Egyptians) and the exotic ones, Arabs, African, Asian are my favourites! I even made some chess sets of them.
kind regards,
Lynx
Thanks Lynx! Yes, I do feel very lucky to have a wife who shares my love of Playmobil. She's into all things Disney and is lucky that I share her love for that too! :) We've both wished that Disney and Playmobil would team up some day and create a Disneyland theme park set. It'll never happen, but we can still dream, can't we? :lol: I recently purchased my 6yr old daughter the same 5985 set. Haven't given it to her yet. But, we did give her the 4250 Magic Castle set last year for Christmas and she loves it too! I'm sure the Pegasus will make a fine addition.
Welcome! Great Medieval collection in the picture. <*)
Thanks Pynedor :wave:
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Made some more progress on the Playmobil land today. Got most of the Western sets put back together, and brought up some Pirates, the Zoo, and Egypt. Luckily my wife is OK that I've temporarily taken over the front of the house, and we had fun looking through stuff together tonight. Some photos:
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3764/11658613733_dc3dcabf1c_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658613733/)
PC307213 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658613733/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2884/11659145516_9c9e458832_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11659145516/)
PC307214 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11659145516/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5514/11658724324_1574b77ded_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658724324/)
PC307215 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658724324/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/11659149746_5bbc35e23d_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11659149746/)
PC307216 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11659149746/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
Still need to bring up the trains, princess castle, and victorian stuff. I think I'm going to run out of room. LOL! But, where there's a will, there's a way.
And before I put the camera away, my youngest and I had to sneak in a photo with one of the giant klickies :lol:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7390/11658718444_dc738e0b2f_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658718444/)
PC307222 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11658718444/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
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Great pics, thanks for sharing!
(love those big klickys.... but they're so huge..)
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Cute picture with your youngest daugther :D
Nice fleet! And I love that zoo :love:
I think I can spot the series of landscape baseplates, near the medieval caste, right? I think it's a great addition to any collection. Wish I had ordered it from DS when I had the chance.
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Welcome from Holland. You have a great collection. :love:
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Welcome aboard from Victoria, British Columbia... that was a great story and pics too; thanks for sharing!
David
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Great pics, thanks for sharing!
(love those big klickys.... but they're so huge..)
Yeah, I wish I had the room and money for a whole collection of them!!!
Cute picture with your youngest daugther :D
Nice fleet! And I love that zoo :love:
I think I can spot the series of landscape baseplates, near the medieval caste, right? I think it's a great addition to any collection. Wish I had ordered it from DS when I had the chance.
Thanks! The Zoo is my son's. He doesn't really play much with it any more, but keeps reminding me that it's his as I sort through everything. :)
Yeah, those are landscape baseplates. One large and one small. I thing they are really cool! I have another one that I never removed from the box. I'll probably open it up soon for the project that I'm working on. Seems like you can never have enough trees and stuff!!!!
Welcome from Holland. You have a great collection. :love:
Thanks sunflower! I think that's my second welcome from Holland. I love that we have so many Playmofriends from all over the world!!
Welcome aboard from Victoria, British Columbia... that was a great story and pics too; thanks for sharing!
David
Thanks David!! :wave:
I made some more progress on my Playmobil land tonight. I have most of the sets re-assembled and the various klickies and accessories sorted with them. (I got the rigging strings re-attached as they should be on the pirate ships tonight. That was a little bit more work and I expected.) As I said before, my kids had previously mixed everything up into a giant mess. Even though I gathered parts from several areas of the house, amazingly, I'm only missing a handful of pieces, and nothing really important!!! It's going to be a tight squeeze! I think next, I'm going to set up the two Victorian dollhouses that we have, and then the RC trains (we have significantly more plastic track than brass LGB track, so I have no idea how it's all going to fit!!) Even if it turns out too tight and jumbled up, I've been having a blast over the last week, and luckily my wife is still cool with me taking over the front half of the house for a couple weeks! LOL
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5537/11769050923_29e566af0c_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11769050923/)
P1057377 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11769050923/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
And it's nice to see my sorting piles start to dwindle! It's getting easier and easier to find things!!! 8}
(http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5523/11769807346_1b57630401_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11769807346/)
P1057378 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87292026@N02/11769807346/) by BowlInJar (http://www.flickr.com/people/87292026@N02/), on Flickr
I might share a couple more photos here as I work through the process, but I'll start a new thread in the collections board with lots of photos when I'm finished :)
Cheers!
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Hello and welcome to the forum,
Great intro story, it really is similar to our household. A big set up is created and then the kids imaginations (which from an adults perspective is more like a super storm) takes over and :omg: :lol: I love it ;)
Looking forward to more of your pictures
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What fun you are having!!!
I'm a longtime on and off collector too, and am just getting back into it.
Love all your pics.
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Great photos !!!
Welcome aboard :wave:
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Hello and a belated :welcome: from Ontario, Canada! Very nice collection! :)
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Hello from New York! What a lovely chore to be sorting through Playmobil parts, it's like shopping without spending money.
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A very belated welcome to you from Luxembourg to you dear Matt :wave:
I must say that your introduction through sharing your personal history with Playmobil and these wonderful pictures is arguably the most complete and delightful I have ever seen on all the Playmo forums, and I have seen a few ;)
We all know that some people find it difficult sometimes to introduce themselves to others, but it is truly wonderful when someone builds a bridge towards other members like you did :)
Thank you so much for sharing all this with us and a very warm welcome aboard to you :welcome:
Karim
PS : you are living in an area of the world which I dream to visit one day since I am a huge fan of Mark Twain :love: