Hello from Alabama, USA!

[Nyreth]

Hello Everyone!
My real name is Katherine and I've been playing with Playmobil for as long as I can remember. I have a brother who is three years older than me and he introduced me to the brand as soon as he was sure I was old enough not to eat them! My parents spent a year in Germany while my Dad was doing research for his dissertation. As a result, my brother and I started out hooked on a lot of the German and Swiss toys brands such as Playmobil, Steiff and Brio. (I don't have anything against the more popular brands here in the US, but they just haven't had the same appeal as the European stuff.)

Now I'm older, but definitely not claiming to be grown up, and my husband and I have a 2.5 year old daughter. Most of my family's Playmobil collection stayed with my brother, but I just stumbled into an incredible opportunity to start a new collection! We didn't have the castles as kids, but I can remember wanting them desperately. Naturally, I am over the moon about being able to start my collection with the following sets:
Medieval Castle 3666
Castle Defenders 3888
Dragon/Rock Castle 3269
Siege Tower 3887 (I'm actually getting two of these sets, but one is for my niece from that same big brother)
Super Set Knights 3125
Battering Ram 3153 (also going to my niece)
Nessie Sea Dragon 3155
(please feel free to correct me if I have some of the names wrong)

All of the sets are NIB, have never been opened and are in excellent condition! Some good friends of mine bought a local, independent toy store that has been largely closed for about a decade. It literally is the toy store equivalent of a time capsule. Unfortunately, after two or three years of giving it their best go, they just aren't doing enough business to stay open. So I have the opportunity to buy all of this stuff at an extremely good price. (I'd honestly rather they just could stay open, but since they can't I'm buying everything castle related that they have left.) I'm probably picking everything up tomorrow. They have more inventory but I don't think any of the remaining stuff is castle/Viking/etc. I am going to try my best not to start collecting another theme too. I'll post pictures once I get everything home and situated.

I discovered this website while I was researching the three castle sets and I was really impressed with how friendly everyone is, how active the boards are and the incredible wealth of information! I've already learned a ton and am going to be doing some more research about the different systems and how to recognize additional parts that I can use. Customizing also looks extremely appealing and I can't wait to learn more about that as well!

Now the biggest dilemma is going to be do I save the sets until my daughter is old enough that we can have the fun of assembling them together? Or do I go ahead and start playing with them now? I will probably try to wait, because I want her to have the experience of building and I want to share that with her. But I may try to buy some secondhand lots of pieces and try it out myself a bit first. Afterall, I've never had the chance to build one of the castles, so I need to do a test run before I can know for certain when she is ready for them, right? 

Thanks and I look forward to getting to know y'all better!
Katherine
aka Nyreth

[Tiermann]

Welcome from Oregon!

That sounds like a dream. Maybe you should get two of each castle so you can put one together now and saveone for later? You ccan't ever have enough castle parts it seems like, and this is definitely not the place to be getting any help restraining your shopping. 

[Nyreth]

Thanks for the welcome Tiermann!

Unfortunately (maybe fortunately for our bank account?), they only have one of each of those sets. Well, except for the Siege Tower, and I am buying both of the ones they have.

They had one of the larger dollhouses, but I can't remember which one and I think it has already sold. Thank goodness, or I'd probably get it too.

[leefert]

Welcome from Tennessee!

[tahra]

Welcome from Portugal!

I say open them and play. You can reassemble them later with her.. and by then you will have a lot more. Like Tiermann said, there is never enough castle parts ( = Steck)!

[Birdie]

Helloooo Nyreth  Welcome from Antwerp, Belgium. I have a three-months-old girl and I have no restraint - I even opened the 1-2-3 sets that I bought for her    When I was 4 years old I got a Fisher Price house with little dolls and furniture, but it wasn't new in a box, so my older sisters had set it up for me in the living room (a sort of diorama!). I intend to do the same with my daughter's stuff when she's old enough.

Oh boy, that time capsule store sounds like an absolute dream. If they have any difficulty selling some of the other Playmobil boxes, just have them make pictures and share them on the Internet, I'm pretty sure they will be sold in a heartbeat 
It makes me sad too, hearing about the store closing.

I wish you a ton of fun on the forum!

[playmofire]

A warm welcome from the UK,  !

Our great-niece was playing with Playmobil (large pony farm amongst others) from three and a half, so you've not long to wait  to build them together. 

[Pynedor]

Welcome! I definitely look forward to seeing the haul. And I'm quite jealous.

[Nyreth]

Thank you for all of the greetings! I brought everything home today!

My husband is in favor of waiting to open them. That might help. Maybe.

playmofire, you may be correct! When I brought the boxes in tonight, my daughter saw them and immediately started saying, "Cast-uh! Cast-uh!" (We're still working on "L" sounds.)

The store ended up having two of the battering ram 3153, siege tower 3887 and Nessie Sea Dragon 3155. So my niece is getting one of each of those.
The only real impulse buy that I just couldn't resist was the little Devil 4561. The expression in his face made me literally laugh out loud.

I love the idea of having the 3666/3888 combined as a true medieval lifestyle set up and not just focused only on the martial aspects. Of course, we are still going to have epic battles, but I'd like for her to be able to play with it both ways. So I may try to talk my husband into going back for the cow family 3077 and chicken set 3078, so that I will have some livestock.

[Raven]

Welcome, Katherine!

What a wonderful lot of sets.  Wow!

Oh yes, you need livestock too.