If it weren't for the beat up box and two dollar price tag on this set chances are I wouldn't have bought it. I have no need for it other than adding another figure to my Playmobil collection but the price on it was too sweet to pass up. This is not in the Special or Pals series but it is a great add-on set that has a lot of uses. Annabelle and I struck a deal on this one; she took the rose bush to use outside her castle and I took the figure to add to the Playmobil figures I have collected so far. This has a suggested retail price of five to seven dollars depending on where you are shopping but I would be hard pressed to pay that much for it. As I said, I bought this for two dollars but the box was pretty beat up but all of the pieces were inside the box.
The gardener figure is well done and looks pretty cool; he has gloves and a red apron as wearable accessories and also has a pair of non-working shear or clippers. There is a small pouch on the front of the apron that you can put the gloves or clippers in but there isn't enough room for all three pieces to be in there at one time. Visually he has some interesting clothing including a white and black cap, yellow sweater and black pants but none of these items are removable but you can customize him if you have accessories from other figures. He doesn't tip over easily but if you have him posed within a scene and he falls over often, add some poster putty to the bottom of his shoes to keep him upright.
When I first opened this set and saw the blue faux wooden gardening box I didn't like it, most of the pieces like this are brown so the blue color looked a little hokey. Annabelle didn't care, she liked the texture of the rose bush and the pink and red flowers that dot the plant as well as the pink flowers in the base. She did modify the red flowers with a permanent marker to make them purple. It was one of her very first modifications and she did a great job with it even if she ended up with purple ink all over her fingers. I told her that the next time she wanted to do something like that it would be easier if she used tweezers to hold the piece. I wish I could have found more of these because having ten or fifteen of them in a row next to the side of her castle would look incredible. Needless to say, the next time I visit the small toy store downtown I will be checking to see if there are any more on clearance because of the beat up boxes.
There is no building needed with this set; everything is packaged inside a plastic bag inside of a box however if you buy this through the Playmobil website you might get it in a poly bag instead of a box. This wasn't listed at the website the last time I was placing an order but it could resurface again in the future. Likewise, it wasn't in the last Playmobil catalog so there is a chance that they might not be making it for a while. As a whole it is a nice add on set that you can use with a variety of themes and the rose bush has a lot of textured detail to it. There are some small pieces to the set so this isn’t something that is recommended for kids under the age of three; the gloves and the clippers are the smallest pieces however the flowers could get yanked off the rose bush and be swallowed. If you are worried about the flowers being yanked off the bush you can add a little bit of Krazy Glue to the base of them to keep them locked in place.
Add on sets like this can really increase the overall visual appeal of a scene or a larger set; most of them are inexpensive and can help with the replay value of Playmobil sets. I am really happy that I didn't pass this up when I had the chance to get it for two dollars. If you are looking for an interesting Playmobil figure and accessories, the RoseGardener is a nice set to check out.
Name: Rose Gardener Set Theme: Add On Theme Set Number: 4487 Piece Count: 14 Age Recommendation: 3 and older
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