This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PlayWithPlaymobil #CollectiveBias

Here at Rave & Review, we’ve been PLAYMOBIL mega fans for more than two decades. Our collection started so we could have a fun toy for the nieces and nephews to play with when they would visit, and admittedly, we became more than a little enamored with it. Over the years, our collection has grown from a handful of sets and now includes PLAYMOBIL sets that range from everything from realistic city life to fairy and fantasy collections.

{Hover over picture to shop}You see, for the past 7+ years, our massive PLAYMOBIL collection has been the most consistently played with toys in our house, and that goes for all of our kids. From sun up to sundown every day of summer, every day off school, and even when we’re the busiest they fit their PLAYMOBIL playtime into every spare moment. It has consistently been the toy that all of the kids gravitate to, the toy they bond over, and one of the main reasons why my kiddos are as close as they are. This may seem like a lot to attribute to a set of toys, but if you’re familiar with PLAYMOBIL, you get it. These aren’t just *any* sets of toys, these are the epitome of high-quality, classic toys. These are the kind of toys that inspire imaginations, offer fun details kids get excited about, and encourage real and authentic play.

You know how sometimes you buy something for your kid that they really, really, really want and instead of cherishing it or even playing with it, you find it in a pile on their floor in a little over a week? That’s the reason that we stick with PLAYMOBIL when we’re buying presents for the kids. They are a guaranteed hit, the whole family loves unboxing them and seeing all the cool details in each set, and they never, ever get discarded after just a few weeks.

Shopping for the love of PLAYMOBIL

A few weeks ago, I took the girls to Walmart and walked right to the toy section to surprise them with the selection of PLAYMOBIL toys that just hit the shelves. They were in charge of picking out a birthday present for their brother, and they wasted no time selecting the PLAYMOBIL Hidden Temple with T-Rex, the Adventure Copter with Pterodactyl, and the Enemy Airboat with Raptor, all from the new PLAYMOBIL EXPLORERS line. Of course, we had to pick up some of the animal sets as well, because those are always a huge hit at our house. As much as I love road trips to visit the handful of retailers that have PLAYMOBIL in stock in Washington, I was so incredibly excited that they are now available just down the street at our local Walmart. There would be absolutely no way for me to sneak the girls away for a day out a few towns away to surprise their brother, but it worked out perfectly to make a Walmart stop in the middle of our errands and pick up what we knew was going to be “the coolest present ever”.
Want to know how I encourage PLAYMOBIL play? I inspire their creativity by adding in arts and crafts items as well as PLAYMOBIL sets to help create their own PLAYMOBIL playscape that they can return to over and over again for creative and imaginative play.

Create your own PLAYMOBIL playscape

1. Give them some space. To start, you need to give your kids a place to play that doesn’t have to be taken down each day. When your kids take hours to set up their PLAYMOBIL just how they like it only to have to put it away once they perfect it makes kids tear-y eyed after every playtime. I decided to save on the heartache and give them a “PLAY loft” on the top of my son’s bunkbeds. Since we only have him in that room, I had my husband convert the top bunk into a loft area with a large sheet of MDF screwed into the bed frame so the kids can play PLAYMOBIL up there and keep it perpetually set up for play. Other ideas would be a train table or a shelf that would allow them to set up scenes and make the most of their playtime, but really any table, dresser top, or crate would do.
2. Add in artistic touches. Next, you can add in felt pieces so you can really deck out your space and make it as fun or realistic as you would like. I love that felt pieces can be laid out straight for roads, piled up for mountains, or even folded to create a rushing river through your playscape, and it’s super easy to re-imagine your space quickly while playing to create whatever world you desire. Even better, the felt pieces roll up or store flat for easy storage, which makes them my playscape design element of choice.
3. Create a backdrop for play. If you really want to go all-out, you can add in design pieces that enhance play, like this faux board backing that offers a more natural-looking backdrop for play. Since this can fold up for play or lay down flat for storage, it takes up very little room, but it adds a lot of wow to the playspace and makes every kid that comes to visit jealous of our PLAY loft.
4. Let them imagine and create. I admit that I love to set up the PLAYMOBIL scene just the way the box shows. There’s something in me that craves that conformity and seeing if I can get it *just so* and then putting all those pieces together so they will never be separated again. My kids do not share this love, and I have to remind myself that play is never “wrong”. So what if they have rhinos and dinos co-existing? So what if they took the roof off one set and made their own suspension bridge for their play? So what if they make their own DIY and mix-and-match people, houses, and playsets? It’s hard to be upset that they spend hours upon hours playing with one single toy, right? It’s that flexibility and the creativity that it inspires that makes PLAYMOBIL the toy that holds their attention for such great lengths of time.
5. Encourage exploration. Many PLAYMOBIL sets have fun little “extras” built in, like the new UV flashlight that comes with the Hidden Temple set. See how cool the stones look when they are hit with the UV light? Give them a place to store these extras so you aren’t always hunting down the flashlight or building tools that came with each set. 
6. Celebrate their individual interests. Yes, my kids happily play together with PLAYMOBIL for weeks and weeks on end, but they definitely don’t play the same. My son prefers realistic sets like their firefighters and police collection, and my girls gravitate towards their city life or their fairy sets that allow them to create their world around them, although with a fantastic and magical twist thrown in for fun. I try and find sets that fit their individual interests to gift to them for birthdays that can join our family’s massive PLAYMOBIL collection, as well as as many classic sets that round out their play and encourage them to practice social and emotional skills.
7. If they build it, they will come. Resist the urge to set up their PLAYMOBIL for them. Half the fun is in building {and rebuilding} the sets, so let them do as much as they can, or as much as they want to do themselves. 
8. Give them a place to store small items. As much as I love the buildings, landscape pieces, and vehicles from PLAYMOBIL, it’s the small accessories that have my heart. It’s the amazing attention to detail that makes the sets so cool, so I love to give them tools for keeping the details of their sets safe. In our playloft we have a fabric bin for each kid to store their itty bitty pieces that aren’t in active play, as well as a bin in the closet that keeps things from spreading out all over the PLAY loft.
9. Use their imaginations. Let them have input in designing a play space and adding details. You would be surprised what details excite them the most, and it might give you some new ideas for helping them create a playscape your whole family can enjoy.

Just like with PLAYMOBIL playtime, there’s no wrong way to set up your PLAYMOBIL playscape. As long as it encourages creative play, helps with family bonding, and keeps the kiddos imagining, it is the perfect playscape for fun. Create your own and see how it enhances playtime in your house. 

What will your children imagine and build? Get ideas and inspiration here!