This review looks at the Wildlife Water Hole (4827), Zebra & Buffalo (4828), Hyenas (4829), Lion Pride (4830), Ostrich Nest (4831)
I was very excited to see Playmobil’s African Theme at Toy Fair this past February, as you may know, I recently won a trip to South Africa, and took tons of pics and video. I won the video contest by running away from playmobil animals via green screen. So to see playmobil re-addressing their African line was pretty thrilling. The centerpiece of this revamped theme is the African Watering Hole, comprised of several sets that fit together. Check out all of my pics and review below.
The main hub of this huge playset is the central watering hole, set 4827. In this you get a playset with a large body of water, and a large tree with a wooden platform. On that platform you can perch the Park Ranger girl with a pair of binoculars so she can survey the land, looking out for poachers or falling Coke bottles . You get a ton of animals in this set. You get a mother and baby giraffe, a pelican, a small red bird, a butterfly, a bald eagle, and a small alligator, but then you also get two gazelles and two flamingos who are brand new to the world of playmobil.
I kind of wish the large tree would snap onto the base, but now that we’ve played with it for a bit, it’s nice to easily take it off and move it a little further away from the watering hole. The free-form edge of the base on this set (and the other sets) kind of spills the world onto the floor or wherever you’re playing, so the animals aren’t necessarily restricted to just playmobil turf. They’re free to come and go… and I like how playmobil kept kids’ imagination in account with these sets. In the past, they said they disliked featuring “landscape” to foster imagination with their pieces, but when they do use landscape, they do it well. The tree is nice and large, and there is no definitive “front.” (kind of like your mom) The platform is large enough for two figures, as many of the other sets also come with rangers. (Though none of them are as cool as our tour guide Mohammed Ali, from our trip to South Africa) There’s also a little red bird that sits on any of the leaf clusters’ pegs.
I’m fairly pleased with the new animals included (but they’re not my absolute favorite, more on that in a minute), the flamingos are graceful, and come with a nickel sized translucent plastic base (it’s kind of flexible). I like how it lets the color of whatever it’s on show through, and you can easily pop the base on and off if you’d like to just play with the flamingos. Thinking ahead, you could order some of these for the yard of the Grandma’s House playset. They clearly fit into the playmobil design mentality.
The gazelles (or we call them impalas in our house) have rubbery horns to keep them safe and look great. Well, I actually prefer the older playmobil style of horses that were very streamlined and designy. (sure, that’s a word) I kind of wish these gazelles featured a bit less paint, but from what we’re lead to believe, kids prefer a bit more realism. I like how the neck goes up and down and the legs are posable. (I kind of wish the legs would pop off like the ostriches, so to feed the carnivores, ah well.)
I like the Lion Pride (4830), you get a mother, father, and cub. The adults have posable legs, tails, necks and jaws. You can actually balance one of the bones in the lion’s mouth. That’s right you get the remains of their last meal, random bones. It’s true to life in Africa, animals do gotta eat, but not gory (the bones are picked clean). There’s a shady tree like the type that lions like to nap under, and one of the newer styles of monkeys. Looking like a spider monkey, she has a rubber tail hooked at the end that makes it easy for her to dangle from a branch, and there’s a baby rubber monkey that can clip to the front. This set is nice, but other than the landscape, there really isn’t anything new that hasn’t been released before, so if you’re an older collector like me, you may already have these animals (but, they’re in that classic playmobil style I like). If you want to complete the full river set though, you’ll need this portion. I will take the time to mention that this set would be great for kids all by itself, as you don’t need any of the other sets to have fun. I like how you can purchase sets one at a time as your collection affords (or your kids seem interested.)
The Hyenas (4829) are awesome! They too come with a carcass, and I like how they have a stretch of river, and a log to hide behind, rather than a tree. The hyenas themselves also have a posable jaw, that even allows for them to look like they’re laughing. They have just the slightest paint application, so even though they are brand new animals to the playmobil world, they look great. You get two hyenas, the spread wing vulture, and a snake with this set. This is a great buy.
The Ostrich Nest (4831) is a fun set, it does not plug into the main playset, but displays beautifully with it on your shelf. You get a male and female ostrich and a nest of eggs. I’m not a huge fan of how you have to completely remove the legs to get the female to sit on the nest, but they come off and go back on fairly easily. (And then you can use the legs in the lion playset as an appetizer) These two are brand new additions to the playmobil universe, and feature classic styling. They have posable necks and legs.
The Zebra and Buffalo (4828) feature my favorite animal, the water buffalo. It’s a brand new addition, but it really looks like it could have popped out of the 1974 line up. It’s two solid color pieces of plastic fit together. The sculptors embraced the natural look of the animals horns but streamlined it and made it into art. Simply beautiful. You also get parent and child zebras. The zebras stripes are actually molded into the plastic. The adult features movable head and legs while the child, just the head. Pairing these animals makes sense to us because we saw the zebras hanging out with all the other herbivore animals on our safari. You also get a substantial pool of water, and a shady tree. All of these sets’ water is made of a translucent plastic with ripples that really fits well with the look and the feel of the animals.
Let’s take a better look at that water buffalo. Awesome, I could almost take this into work and put it on my desk. He only features a moving neck, but this one is absolutely perfect. Maybe its more the lack of articulation that more recalls the classic style than lack of paint? Either way, I’m in love with this one.
All together, this is quite a massive spread. I kind of wish the individual set pieces snapped together or otherwise attached, but if that then compromised the look of the sets in their individual states, I understand the decision they made. It’s really quite substantial, and the top panel of each of the boxes show you which other sets you’d need to attach. I’m still anxious to get the Rhino and the Warthog, and the Ranger Lodge looks great. I do wish however that one of these sets featured hippos or elephants. The adult elephant figure is simply perfect (and hefty) and was most recently featured in their circus set. You can pick up the Mother/Baby elephant combo (and the hippo mother/baby combo) from the playmobil Africa page like I did.
I had a lot of fun playing with these sets, and my son really got into it too. It was fun re-enacting moments from our tour with him. I like the safari jeep they’re brought back (I have an earlier version in the photos below), but I’d love for playmobil to make a safari tour truck. We sat on these trucks that were literally the cab of a truck attached to a canvas sided box. There were five or six rows of seating, and a simple roof on top. (Which didn’t offer too much protection when that elephant attacked us). This new jeep does have a row of seating, unlike the old 2-seater jeep, so that’s a step in the right direction.
If you or your kids love animals, or safari, these sets are great. Start with one and build on slowly, or take all the boxes up to the counter at once like I did. There are more sets I’m looking to pick up, and I have this whole set up proudly on display. I divided the gallery into two chunks. The first section features only animals from these reviewed sets, but the second group feature playmobil pieces (such as the hippos, elephants and additional animals) that are not originally included in the sets reviewed.
I recommend hitting up the Africa page on the Playmobil website to order some of these pieces, like I did. Stay tuned to MillionairePlayboy.com for loads more playmobil coverage. Also, check out the (now completed) blog from our trip, I have tons of HD video of animals from our trip, and the account of our wacky adventures. (Seriously, an elephant did attack our truck)
And then with the extras…
In the interest of full disclosure, playmobil provided the large playset for review purposes, I purchased all the other sets featured.
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