Playmobil: Dreamworks Dragons

I’m not gonna lie; we’ve been looking forward to the brand-new Dragons line of toys from Playmobil for a while now. I first saw them back at Toy Fair, and once I showed the pictures to my kids, I knew they were destined to have a place of honor in our home. My kids are obsessed with the Dragons franchise. My daughter has read all 12 of the books, they both love the movies, and they adore Dragons: Race to the Edge on Netflix.

(If you’re interested, I chatted with How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell here and the showrunners for Race to the Edge here. Give them a listen!)

Specs:

Berk

Product Number: 9243
Number of Pieces: 145 pieces
Number of figures: 2 – Hiccup, Stoick

Drago’s Ship

Product Number: 9244
Number of Pieces: 45 pieces
Number of figures: 2 – Drago, male crewmember

Gobber with Catapult

Product Number: 9245
Number of Pieces: 28 pieces
Number of figures: 1 – Gobber

Hiccup and Toothless

Product Number: 9246
Number of Pieces: 16 pieces
Number of figures: 1 – Hiccup

Astrid and Stormfly

Product Number: 9247
Number of Pieces: 11 pieces
Number of figures: 1 – Astrid

Drago and Thunderclaw

Product Number: 9248
Number of Pieces: 9 pieces
Number of figures: 1 – Drago

Eret with 4-Shot Fire Ballista

Product Number: 9249
Number of Pieces: 55 pieces
Number of figures: 1 – Eret

Ease of Build:

On a scale of 1-5, the three dragon sets are solid 1s. Basically, all you have to do is snap the wings onto the body. There’s not much more than that. The catapult and ballista clock in at a 2 or 3. More pieces require more assembly, but neither set is particularly difficult. Berk obviously requires the most time to put together, but it’s not an inordinate number of pieces (only 145), so it’s still only about a 3 in terms of difficulty.

Coolest Features:

If you’re a How to Train Your Dragon or Dragons: Race to the Edge fan, then this list is lengthy. Highlights include:

The dragon sculpts are SPOT ON to the character designs from the Netflix show. They’re incredibly well designed, and it’s hard to see how there’d be a cooler Toothless toy on the market.
The figures are obviously Playmobil sculpts, but they bear an incredible likeness to the characters. Hiccup and Astrid, especially, are really well done.
Drago’s Ship is… well, it’s a pirate ship. What’s not cool about that? It’s not as big and complex as the Pirate Raiders’ Ship, but it does have a pretty cool cage for your Playmobil prisoners. And it floats.
Almost every set has firing missiles of some sort, and that’s a surefire win for any kids.
Berk has the most fun features, simply because it’s the biggest. A hidden trapdoor, platform elevator, adorable mini dragons, “carved” statues, and a separate idol with hidden jewels round out its coolest details.

Playability:

Again, if you’re a fan of the films, show, and franchise, it’s endless. The sets all combine together, obviously, and they also work remarkably well with Playmobil’s other (non-licensed) sets, including Knights and Pirates. My kids are HUGE Dragons fans–from the books to the films to the shows–and they’ve been looking forward to these sets since I first saw them at Toy Fair back in February. I thought Playmobil had raised the (already impressively high) bar with their Ghostbusters sets, but these Dragons sets might have nudged the bar even higher. The quality and attention to detail here are staggering.

Our own real complaints are that the dragons’ wings pop off fairly easily. The wings have 360-degree movement, but they also easily become dislodged from the body. Obviously, after several times, this can be incredibly frustrating. It’s now routine to find dismembered, wingless dragons on the floor. Also, the Toothless we opened was faulty–it doesn’t fire the “flame” from its mouth. I don’t know if that’s a wider manufacturing flaw, but it’s something to look out for.

Kid Verdict:

Two enthusiastic thumbs up! They couldn’t be happier. These toys will be around for a while. However, in addition to the manufacturing complaints mentioned above, we’re still frustrating by the lack of diversity and options with the characters. Obviously, female representation in Dragons is a wider problem–Astrid is really the only female character–but why is Drago (the villain) included in two sets? And why only two figures in the expensive Berk set? That would’ve been a good place to include a few more of your major characters.