The Devil is in the Detail

My friend Jon likes Playmobil.

I beg to differ.

We have large amounts of Playmobil in our house. Well, I say in our house – I should also say under our house.

The very detail that Jon applauds means that Playmobil figures have tiny parts – such as cuffs – which my children like to stuff down the cracks between the floorboards. (Yes, it serves me right for still having stripped floorboards).

I spent hours assembling the – admittedly beautiful – Playmobil Pirate Ship, and it took my children minutes to totally trash it, to deconstruct it, to post vital elements under the floor. It was the same with the small boats and fire fighters that my wife brought back from New York.

Occasionally I lever up a floorboard or two and recue a selection of daggers, spears and other tiny plastic pirate paraphanalia.

So Playmobil is banned this Christmas. Lego is in. Even the smallest 1×1 Lego brick won’t go down the largest floorboard gap.