Okay, I take back everything I said about Playmo's current island offerings. The 4294 is pure redemption in a box, and goes a long way toward making up for for all their little mini-island sets.
Granted, I'm fairly new to the Playmobil universe, but I don't think I'll ever get used to the loose packaging of their sets. It seems to work okay, but it really seems like a sure way to guarantee breakage.
Other than that, assembly was typically PM straightforward, with good quality plastics. System-X connections are limited to the dock, with everything else snapping into place. I understand a lot of people look for the expandability of the Steck and System-X systems, but as a stand-alone fort/lighthouse, this works great.
The completed set looks fantastic, is very sturdy, and attracted my twins right away like moths to a flame. They also thought it was cool that it was the same fort that they saw at the end of the Playmobil Pirates game for the Nintendo DS. Needless to say, before bedtime many cannon attacks were rebuffed, numerous pirates were jailed, and countless ships saved from dangerous shoals by the beacon.
This set renewed my faith in the current and future PM pirate lineups, and leads me to believe I didn't necessarily miss
all the good stuff.
