My very first time ...

[Little Jo]

... in Zirndorf.

Yesterday I made the spontaneous decision for today to go a little bit shopping at the Playmobil Funpark Shop in Zirndorf. I had never been there before, so I was a little bit excited how it will looks like, although you can get a really good impression about the shop (and other parts of the Funpark) on the Playmobil Web site (360° view. Nevertheless knowing this from the trip preparation phase, I was quite impressed to see the very well known figures of normally 7.5 cm height in real-life size standing in a scenery also well known from toys size (the castle gate, i.e. the main entrance) ... this gives somehow a feeling of something very well known but also beoing strange/foreign.
I was also able to convince my wife to join me on this trip. Although she didn't share my faible for Playmobil, it didn't take long to persuade her for participating. Because it is currently not very good weather here in Germany, we decided just to go shopping, and visiting the Funpark itself again within a warmer season with nicer weather. So the timeline was quite simple: 2 hours driving to Zirndorf, 45 minutes shopping, and 2 hours driving back home. I attached a photo of the shop interior, which was very impressive: so many boxes lined up accurately. And nearly every time a box has been removed from the shelf a shop assistent filled it up again. 

I was very enthusiastic about the fact, that every DirectService article can be bought there too. I also attached a photo of the wall with the DS item containers which are labeled with the photos known from the PM homepage and containing the little plastic bags.

Actually I discovered nothing really new from the set perspective: the articles (and prices) are exactly the same as offered at the PM online shop (Germany), apart from the keychains and some (Vedes) specials which can also be pruchased in the shop. Another nice item, was I fabric bag with a Playmobil motive printed on it (cf. photo below). Because it was quite cheap (0.75 EUR) I took two of them; maybe they become handy some day.

Finally I walked out with the items shown in the fourth picture. 

And the biggest surprise was at the end of the shopping round thru the shop when my wife said "Wait! We are not finished, I want also two items." ... Should there be still hope  ...
(BTW, she went for the two zebras and the white tiger family from the DirectService sets.)

[Tim_w]

every DirectService article can be bought there too

I am going to have to plan a trip to Zirndorf this year. It would be amazing to go through all the parts and pick what i need myself !!!

Kindest Regards  Tim

[Robbie]

WOW! Thanks for sharing.

Great price on the canvas bags! I really like the lifesize figures of the angels and santa's sleigh. I haven't seen those before.

Robbie

[playmofire]

Thanks for the account of your trip and the photos, Little Jo.  The DS racks look really impressive.

Clearly, there is hope yet for your wife.

The fence you bought goes very nicely with the red house.

[Tiermann]

Very cool Jo. I see they had the new type of squirrel in the "llife size" already. Sounds like a very fun trip.

[Sylvia]

Thanks for sharing your Fun Park adventure with everyone! I hope to visit there too one day.

And the biggest surprise was at the end of the shopping round thru the shop when my wife said "Wait! We are not finished, I want also two items." ... Should there be still hope  ...

She's on the 'slippery slope' to becoming a fully fledged Playmofan, for sure.
Really nice to hear that Kay has taken an interest, as long as you don't have to split the Playmo-fund between both of you now.

[Little Jo]

Very cool Jo. I see they had the new type of squirrel in the "llife size" already. Sounds like a very fun trip.

  That's funny. Seems that you looked closer to my pictures then myself. (Asked me first: "Where are some squirrels on my photos?!?") Maybe I was too overwhelmed from all the impressions and the live-sized figures that I didn't recognized the details ( hm, very untypical for me ...)

[Little Jo]

The DS racks look really impressive.

Yes. I already have spotted them on the 360° view on the Playmobil homepage (Germany), but didn't noticed that these are the DS articles. I just was wondering what this will be, because it was only visible very small and unsharp on those photos and had an unusual shape in relation to the boxes. So I also was quite impressed.

The fence you bought goes very nicely with the red house.

Yes, I also recognized this. But this is more by coincidence. I just bought the reddish fence because I already have the green one. I was a little bit surprised, because on the PM HP it looks like more red than in real-live (but maybe there has actually been a real red one in the past); it is more a red-brown like known from the squirrels or foxes.

Clearly, there is hope yet for your wife.

She's on the 'slippery slope' to becoming a fully fledged Playmofan, for sure.

I'm not sure. When she reads this here (she looked over my should this morning, wondering what I'm again doing there  ), she laughed and said "Never" ... but maybe this just takes some time 

Really nice to hear that Kay has taken an interest, as long as you don't have to split the Playmo-fund between both of you now.

There I remember the words of the registrar on our wedding: "From now on it is no longer 'You' and 'I', there will be only a 'We'" ...   

[deadeye dick]

Thanks Jo for these nice pictures... I just checked www.mappy.com and I found that it's a 6 hour drive from where I live  Hopefully some day I'll get there... But, isn't there a fun park in Malta either? Maybe it's easier to plan a trip overthere during the summer holidays (without the wife knowing that it's all because of the fun park  )
Wouldn't that be fun 

[Meg]

DD,
There is a nice fun park in Malta
Playmofire has visited it at least once

The DS sets would be my downfall.

Jo,
The green fence used to be hard to get, then recently PM released it as on addon.
The red fence is slowly disappearing (in the US, at least)

You were very retrained in your shopping.
You deserve a Kudo for that

M