July 30, 2011 Dana

Day 30: Playmobil Lion Knight’s Castle

Unstructured, imaginative play is loads of fun for kids – plus, it helps them to develop their creativity, and learn social skills. Playmobil sets give kids a setting and some characters to populate a fantasy world and then interact within it, and the Playmobil Lion Knight’s Castle, today’s giveaway, is full of fuel for an active imagination. The enormous castle has a working portcullis, catapult, and cannons, plus foldaway stairs and a breakaway wall to facilitate imaginary invasions. It comes with six figures, and loads of weaponry and other fun medieval accessories.

The question with any toy this elaborate is: how much use will my child get out of it? If the plethora of Playmobil-related material on Youtube is any indication, kids get tons of mileage out of these sets, sometimes even continuing into adulthood. Playmobil-related videos can be as simple as this one, where a charming British child gives you a tour of her Playmobil house, or this one, featuring some primitive stop-motion and the storming of a castle. Some videos made by kids clearly have some help and involvement from parents, like this one, where a French child narrates the adventures of a veterinarian who’s a terrible driver. We especially love this one, where Michael and his Daddy demonstrate proper police procedures.

Tons of grownups are getting into the act too, creating videos depicting events from history or pop culture. We’re not sure if this Spanish video is depicting an actual battle between the Romans and the Egyptians, but we can’t help but admire the effort that went into it. The Spanish Playmobil remake of Titanic is truly amazing, if only because it’s such a thorough re-imagining of the movie (this clip depicts the actual sinking of the ship). Playmobil music videos often look very nearly professional, like these ones featuring The Beatles, Joy Division, and ABBA.