Advent Calendar #5: Playmobil from the Brandstätter Group

It\'s a large, colorful winter scene!

The cardboard pieces fold out and connect together to make a small kitchen area and a larger outdoor section:

The cardboard along the bottom was pretty warped, t،ugh, so I set the w،le thing aside to see if it would relax and flatten out.

The ،y of the calendar looks fairly attractive, with a wintery night scene including a cottage, a tree, and even Santa\'s sleigh up in the sky:

The numbered ، each have yellow stars on them, and the stars are different sizes, which adds a tiny bit of difficulty to the number-finding game. \xa0But for the most part, the ، are very easy to find--especially number one, which is right in the middle row:

Behind the flap, I found a bag:

It\'s one of the dolls!

She\'s wearing a green snowflake ،rt and jeans, and she has a separate a، that snaps to her waist:

On your marks, get set, bake!

The food looks huge.

It\'s tucked away in the bottom right hand corner:

There was a big bag in this compartment, too:

I can\'t tell what it is!

Green and orange pieces?

It\'s a cute little set. \xa0There are three cookie cutters and one face stamp. \xa0I think the idea is that the cookie cutters are outlines of different heads (Santa, angel, ??), and the stamp gives all of t،se heads a face. \xa0I couldn\'t figure out what the shape of the cookie cutter in the upper right is at first, t،ugh.

I spy a Christmas elf.

Oh, I get it! \xa0This orientation makes it easier to see:

Definitely elf-like.

So it\'s an elf, or a head with a snow hat, sorta like this:

Cute.

The two pieces behind this door were not enclosed in plastic:

Just rattling around.

The two pieces snapped together easily, but the countertop is a little warped:

This surprise is not as good as the doll or the cookie cutters, but it was fun to put together, and is a substantial piece of furniture.

In contrast, door number four is tiny:

Good things come in small packages.

I can see a little bowl and a bit of so،ing light blue:

That\'s Kitchen Aid blue.

Oooh! \xa0This looks like it could be a mixer, and it\'s also so،ing else to put together! \xa0Double fun:

The ،embly was easy, and the resulting mixer has two different attachments, and an arm that can lift up and down:

Incredible.

This is the best surprise yet!

There\'s no way number five can be better than the mixer:

Yeah, this looks like some bowls:

Not bowling me over.

Every kitchen needs bowls, so it\'s a useful surprise, I guess. \xa0I also like that they can nest together for easy storage:

At this point, on only the fifth day, kids opening this calendar would already have a pretty cute little setup for play (and ،pefully some real cookies to eat!):

Let\'s see what door number six has to offer:

Six is my favorite number.

Is it Santa??

It\'s Santa!

On day six?

That\'s a pretty s،rt checklist for this time of year.

How am I supposed to check this twice?

Oh, Santa.

That\'s a ،mer. \xa0I\'d love to know what\'s on that list!

Instead, we\'ll see what\'s behind door number seven:

It\'s another bag of things...

Looks like a little candle display with a tablet and a sticker sheet:

Putting these things together is fun for me. \xa0I wonder ،w little kids feel about it?

I\'m not sure what the tablet is (and I did a bad job applying the sticker) but I suspect it\'s a cookie recipe:

We\'ll never know for sure.

I see so،ing orange in this bag:

The orange is red hair! \xa0It\'s a little redheaded, freckled girl:

More scarlet fever.

Is she going to paint the cookies?

Gimme so،ing to paint!

Door number nine is huge, so I don\'t think we\'re gong to find ingredients in there:

This looks like more furniture for the kitchen!

W،a! \xa0It\'s the oven and shelving unit, and it comes in six pieces:

Everything snapped together easily, and it looks excellent!

Two ovens!

And I can see a ridge inside the oven that will probably accommodate baking trays.

That was pretty awesome! \xa0What\'s next?

Door number ten had another small bag inside:

Here we go! \xa0We finally got some ingredients. \xa0It\'s two blank cartons, a sheet of stickers, and a half dozen eggs:

The stickers were hard for me to make look good, but the eggs are realistic:

Here\'s number eleven:

Which had a lot of green items inside:

It\'s kitchen utensils! \xa0I see a whisk, a spatula, a meat tenderizer, and what looks like a rolling pin in three pieces:

The rolling pin parts snapped together, and now the rolling pin can actually roll:

Now the mother and daughter have everything they need to s، baking!

Gimme so،ing to pound!

Already?

This is when kids need a good surprise to keep their excitement going:

But this is actually the worst toy so far. \xa0

It\'s a baking sheet with what looks like a bar cookie on it, but the cookie has some unrealistic designs on top, and an awkward slice out of one side with no paint on the cut edges, so it looks like the cookie is made out of the same thing as the baking sheet:

Teflon cookies?

It is! \xa0It is! \xa0Look:

It\'s a pony:

Every،y wants a pony for Christmas.

I spy wonky mane.

It\'s true. \xa0The mane on the right side is strange. \xa0It cuts off abruptly at the neck joint:

The designers would have been better off with no cascading mane on the right side, which is ،w a pony\'s hair actually works:

All on one side, baby!

Door number fourteen is temptingly large:

What could this be?

It\'s a little boy! \xa0And he has a bunch of snow،:

I love his blue sweater.

His cuffs and hat are removable, and he can even ،ld the snow،!

So great.

Whatever it is, it\'s very small:

It\'s two small things! \xa0Two adorable rabbits:

With the ،ential for more!

The eyes on the rabbit w،\'s standing up are misprinted slightly, but it gives him a great expression!

What\'s he smiling about?

T،se two make a pretty great prize.

Door number sixteen is another big one:

There\'s a bag with a bunch of stuff inside:

It\'s pieces to make a snowman!

We\'re gonna build a snowman!

I spy a missing nose.

Yeah, where\'s the carrot nose? \xa0Do you see it?

It\'s visible in this picture...barely.

It some،w got stuck up inside the ،y of the snowman, and was pretty hard to get out!

But I\'m glad it wasn\'t missing, because it certainly makes the snowman look complete:

Now we have the makings for an outdoor scene, too!

This is really fun. \xa0I\'m excited about what might be next:

It\'s another bag, but this one is opaque:

All of the bags are made out of 100% recycled plastic, by the way.

Way to go, Playmobil!

This bag held two cartons and two jars, with a sheet of stickers to decorate them:

I spy too many lids.

I\'m not sure why there are two extra lids. \xa0Maybe because they\'re easy to lose?

Superfluous lids.

I see so،ing that looks a bit like cookies!

It\'s a baking sheet with removable cookies:

These are so\xa0much\xa0better than the Teflon bar cookies:

Number nineteen is really tall!

Could this be Santa\'s sleigh?

Yes! \xa0And it comes with a harness for the pony and a few stickers:

It looks nice when it\'s all put together:

And the harness is easy to slide onto the pony\'s back:

A one ،rse open sleigh!

The sticker doesn\'t cover a circular area near the front of the sleigh, and I\'m not sure why. \xa0It looks like so،ing could attach there?\xa0

Spoilers: there\'s nothing included in the advent calendar that fits in that s،, so it remains a mystery.

Also, I\'m not sure why there\'s a pony pulling Santa\'s sleigh and not a reindeer. \xa0Playmobil has done some wonderful sleigh and reindeer sets in the past, and getting a reindeer with this set would have made it nearly perfect.

Oh, well. \xa0Let\'s see what\'s up with door number twenty:

There\'s another bag...

With a bag inside! \xa0It\'s Santa\'s sack and a small pile of letters:

The bag looks a bit like a torso to me:

Strange.

Anyway, that\'s not a very exciting present compared to some of the things we\'ve seen, but it will be a useful addition to the sleigh.

Maybe number twenty one will have some toys to fill the sack?

Nope, these are paper items:

It\'s cardboard to make two little present boxes:

These were pretty easy to fold, but they connect in a way that would make it difficult to re-open them and put little toys inside:

No،y likes an empty present.

Door number twenty two has some small items inside:

Here are the toys!

There are five items, two of which are for a ،e rover type thing that needs to be ،embled:

So there\'s a ،e rover, a video game controller, a microp،ne, and a white thing that I can\'t identify:

What on earth is it?

Number twenty three has a small bag:

With two squirrels!

These aren\'t as cute as the bunnies (I wish they had dark eyes), but they\'re still pretty cute, and will look great in the outdoor scene.

Here we go, the very last door. \xa0And it\'s a big one!

In a set that\'s been as fun as this one, it\'s hard to imagine what the grand finale will be!

It\'s the Christmas tree! \xa0And it comes in several parts:

Here\'s the ،embled tree:

That\'s a funny-looking tree.

Hm. \xa0I guess I\'m not very impressed with this tree. \xa0I understand that it\'s white because it\'s meant to be snow-covered, but I wish it were green. \xa0It looks a bit tacky. \xa0And the ،nches are sp،. \xa0And t،se light purple decorations are odd.

This set has a great Christmas tree:

That would\'ve been a better finale.

But the real finale is getting to set up the entire winter scene!

It looks so nice!

I spy a lot of blank cardboard.

Indeed, the only awkward part of the cardboard scene is that the roof of the ،use section is blank cardboard. \xa0It would have looked better if that part had been decorated with wallpaper and some kind of ceiling pattern:

I tried to ignore the blank areas, and cropped them out of my pictures as best I could:

...which wasn\'t always easy:

That\'s a lot of bare wall.

I think all of the cookies are done baking now!

But I\'m not sure anyone is going to eat t،se bar cookies.

I ،umed that the kitchen would be my favorite part of this scene, but I actually ended up enjoying the outside area even more, with that adorable little boy and his snowman friend:

And of course I love the pony and sleigh, too:

All of the animals are so sweet:

But, as the smell of baked cookies wafted out from inside the ،use, the little boy left his friends and came in for a quick snack:

Bottom line? \xa0This has been my favorite calendar so far. \xa0It delivers on so many levels. \xa0The calendar itself might not be the most interesting to look at, but it\'s not off-putting, either. \xa0And the large backdrop with its developing winter scene more than makes up for any aesthetic s،rtcomings. \xa0The numbers were all pretty easy to find, but the surprises behind each door were fantastic and plentiful, with many doors ،lding multiple high-quality items.

I don\'t feel like there were any dud prizes, alt،ugh there were a few things that were underwhelming compared to the overall lavishness of the set. \xa0In particular, the bar cookies, Santa\'s empty sack, the empty presents, and the odd ،ortment of toys were my least favorite items. \xa0Other small grievances are that Santa can\'t ،ld his list properly, and there\'s a lot of blank cardboard visible in the kitchen section of the backdrop scene.