Playmobil vs. Fisher-Price Imaginext

[apfb]

Just an observation about toy quality, design, and engineering.

DD loves animals, dinosaurs, which lead me to notice the big difference between the Playmobil and Fisher-Price Imaginext figures.

We have almost every single Playmobil animal. These animals are beautifully made-- with smooth, moveable joints. Some animals have jaws that open and close (Kodiak bear, elephant, shark, whale). The plastic is beautiful, tough, smooth, and richly colored. The joints on all the movable parts are hidden.

Since there are no dinosaurs sold by Playmobil a la carte, we got DD some Fisher-Price Imaginext dinosaurs. What a disappointment. The FP Imaginext dinos are made of this rough, cheap-looking plastic. The joints move roughly, if at all, and the joint lines look poorly engineered. This was a horrible disappointment and a shock.

Bottom line, Playmobils rule. Good luck trying to catch up, Fisher-Price, because FP has a long, long way to go. Playmobils are a much better value.

Incidentally, the Playmobils and the FP Imaginext pieces seem to be priced about the same.



1st time mom to Maya the Mighty b. 3/2003

[kboyle]

i've got the playmobil dino set and, like you said the quality is great, the joints are sooo nice & smooth as opposed to FP stuff.

i'm a HUGE fan of playmobil and any excuse i have to buy ds playmobil, i do...i think i'm more obsessed than ds :)

is there a way to buy animals a la cart online? i came across ala cart stuff once, but cant find it again on their site.