With the massive success of the Lego movie franchise, it’s not surprising that more toy companies are getting in on the act. Originally buried at the end of the August release schedule but now bumped to December is Playmobil: The Movie, a French animated flick based on the rotund plastic toys invented by Hans Beck in 1971 and brought to the world by Geobra Brandstätter.
Over four decades, Playmobil has released a staggering amount of product, and collectors go nuts to get them all, no matter how weird. If you’ve never dug into Playmobil culture, here are 11 sets to get you started.
Private Jet
Live a life of plastic luxury with this sleek private jet, which is big enough to accommodate a pilot and two passengers as well as luggage and in-flight entertainment. The wheels fold back into the fuselage and the roof comes off for cut-away views. This kit is a pretty great example of how Playmobil’s design philosophy diverges from Lego’s — it’s all smooth lines and gentle curves, with no seams visible, to create a clean plastic world that manages to be both realistically detailed and pleasing to the eye. If you’ve always wanted a private jet, this is the most affordable option.
Pyramid
One of the coolest things about Playmobil is how, despite their white-bread European origins, they try and represent lots of different cultures and world regions. Released in 2008, the Romans and Egyptians Pyramid is one of several pyramids the company has put out, but this one is our favorite. Really interesting design features include stairstepped corner pieces, a sarcophagus with the head of Anubis, a gold capstone with the eye of Horus on it and a bunch of figures, including one of Playmobil’s classic skeletons. Plenty of sweet hidden treasure too.
Satellite Meteorite Laser
While the world of Playmobil is mostly a bucolic one, danger does lurk around every corner. This 2016 kit posits the plastic Earth is under threat of deep impacts from outer space, and the only thing standing between them is a laser-zapping satellite manned by a lone astronaut. Just as Lego has their “flick missiles” for staging action scenes, Playmobil has their own equivalent, and this orbiting death device comes with the ability to launch a quartet of warheads at any meteor that even thinks about entering our atmosphere.
Ghost Whale Skeleton
Playmobil’s supernatural stuff is usually our absolute favorite, because it takes a bizarre, gentle Euro fairy tale approach to the world of darkness. Take this glow-in-the-dark whale skeleton, which isn’t something we would have ever though we needed but totally do. The green-boned skeleton is moored on a clump of rocks that features a built-in cannon, and the whale’s skull is cleverly designed for a ghost pirate to be able to sit in it. The company does glow in the dark like nobody else, and it’s employed to spectacular effect here.
Great Dragon’s Castle
Sure, the smaller Playmobil sets are where all the quirky ideas get worked out, but when the company goes big, they go really big. Case in point, the massive Great Dragon’s Castle, which is a battlefield for fantasy warfare that dwarfs nearly everything else. Consisting of a pair of towers connected by rough-hewn stone bridges, it features a wide assortment of special features and gimmicks, including a fire-launching ballista and a light-up beacon to signal for reinforcements. The castle comes with four armored warriors and, yes, a massive red dragon with fiery breath.
Ghost Pirate Ship
One area that Playmobil really has the advantage over its competitors is boats. I don’t know what the reason is, but the company makes a lot of really cool boats in a lot of different styles, from old-school galleons to modern speedboats and ferries. If you dig a touch of the supernatural like we do, the hot choice is the 2009 Ghost Pirate Ship. With tattered sails and ragged hull, this eldritch vessel has hidden compartments that reveal a firing cannon and a trio of glow-in-the-dark ghost swashbucklers manning the rigging. The company also makes an optional motor kit so the ship can actually sail, which is awesome.
Police Headquarters With Prison
Crime apparently runs rampant in Playmobil world, as they need a militarized police headquarters to deal with all the domino-masked robbers swiping plastic bags with dollar signs on them. The massive Police Headquarters with Prison is a seriously impressive construction set, boasting a three-tiered structure with multiple unique areas. Book crooks into the processing room with fingerprint scanner, march them to their cells in handcuffs and monitor the streets for crime in the control room. There’s even a breakthrough wall in one of the cells for daring prison escapes.
Hazardous Materials Team
The Playmobil world is much like our own, for better or for worse, and there are some dirty jobs out there that have to be done. As part of the company’s bizarre quest for realism, they introduced the Hazardous Materials Team to clean up any toxic waste spills or radioactive leaks that might occur in the midst of your gleeful fantasy play. The weird contrast between grim realism and all-out fantasy is what really characterizes the pro Playmobil collector, so this small set is a must-have.
Playmobil Ghostbusters Firehouse
While Lego has gleefully chased pop culture licenses for a while and made bank with Star Wars and others, Playmobil didn’t go into that game until 2017. They still only have two — How To Train Your Dragon and Ghostbusters — but they’re doing some pretty neat stuff with them. Their take on the iconic firehouse headquarters of New York’s spectral disposal squad stands nearly a foot and a half tall and is replete with cool features like a ghost containment unit in the basement and silicone slime splatters that you can stick to smooth surfaces.
Dwarf Flyer
Playmobil’s fantasy world might not have the depth of lore of something like Middle-Earth, but man is it expansive. The company has made plenty of castles with brave knights and dragons, rampaging malevolent trolls, and — our favorite — a whole civilization of dwarves with fascinating inventions. You wouldn’t imagine that a stocky little humanoid could take to the air, but with the Dwarf Flyer they can zoom over the battlefield zapping rocks from his slingshot on their helpless foes. And who doesn’t like to do that?
Portable Bathroom With Crew
One of the biggest pleasures of Playmobil is the sheer wild diversity that they bring to the product line. Hundreds of sets have hit the market that cover just about every fantasy play category for kids, even the super weird ones. Case in point: kids who love construction play have their choice of backhoes, bulldozers and vehicles, but what if one of those union workers needs to use the toilet? Why, there’s a portable bathroom for that. It even comes with a pair of workmen to keep the plastic poop enclosure clean and move it from place to place. Now that’s attention to detail.
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