Price Tag: $19.99
Age Range: 1+
Official URL: Playmobilusa.com
Rating:

My son and I both love this new puzzle toy from Playmobil. At first it looks like any other puzzle, but then you take the pieces off and realize that they are full 3D toys, and that the little Playmobil explorer man has bendable legs like any other Playmobil 1.2.3 character.

THE PARTS

This play puzzle comes with play board that is about the size of a piece of copier paper, and that is about 1″ thick. The board is hollow to keep it lightweight so that your child can carry it around.

The safari scene on the board shows sand, grass, trees, and a little hut town on a lake. In the background are mountains and a blue sky.

There are eight parts: a monkey, a giraffe, a zebra, a lion, an adventurer, a cloud, and a disc that has the sun on one side and a crescent moon on the other. Each piece is made of a lightweight hollow but hard/rugged plastic with details that are either made of a different color of plastic, or painted on. The seams that run along the center of each animal are obvious and somewhat open but are not rough in any way, and do not seem as if they’ll allow the toy to pull apart easily. The seams that run between different colors of plastic are less obvious.

Each piece stands up on its own when taken out of the puzzle, with the exception of the disc that has the sun and the moon. In addition to standing, the little explorer figure bends at the waist and can sit down or stand up. His head rotates so that he can look in different directions, too.

QUALITY & CONSTRUCTION

The whole playset is well made with durable plastic. The construction of the animals is “basic” but is more detailed than the construction of most puzzle pieces, since each animal is also a toy. The puzzle board is hollow, but resists cracking well, even when a decent amount of force is applied (I’ve stepped on it a few times).

BOTTOM LINE

This toy is well made, fun to play with, and adds a unique spin to a classic child’s toy. My son and I both love this toy. He loves to play with the little figures and make animal noises, and when he’s done he loves putting the toys away on their board because they’re a puzzle and he loves puzzles. I love it when a toy incorporates “clean up time” in a fun way.