Holly

Hi from me - I'm new too and have found everyone very friendly and helpful - I'm starting to check in every day and finding myself just a little bit addicted already :-/ I'm sure you'll enjoy it here Holly

XWingyoda, Wondered if I could please ask you one more question (yet again)?! Can you tell me roughly how far TRU is from Charles De Gaul Airport? And roughly how long it would take me to travel there by Metro? Will I need to change trains? (Sorry that's THREE questions :-$ ) Holly

I'm working through it with my 9 year old (who is, rather depressingly, far better at it than I am *wacko* )....however, 'cos I've read and used a few of the hints in this thread he now thinks I'm seriously cool X-D So keep 'em coming! Holly

That's very kind of you - the problem is that I will be on holiday at Disneyland with my family and I'm not sure which day I will be free to come into central Paris - although we definitely plan to do it on one of the days. I also don't want to put you to any trouble. I shall have a word with my family and see if we can come up with a free day for Paris sightseeing and then I will drop you a PM to see if you are free. Otherwise I shall have to go to the TRU and hope for the best. Thank you again for your offer *sweet* This is one set we really want - we've even been tempted by ebay prices recently.... Holly

Thanks for the info - hope they are still there when I'm in Paris in a couple of weeks. Holly

Many thanks to all three of you - that is very helpful :-) I wonder if I could ask just one more question - what are official prices in France like in relation to those in the UK? I found prices in Germany to be a fair bit less than England - is France the same? Holly

I wil be visiting Paris in two weeks time and wondered if anyone familliar with the city could advise me on the best Lego stocking toyshops please? I've already checked the Lego site and discovered that, disappointingly, there aren't any actual Lego stores in France (like the excellent one in Cologne I went to last year). I don't suppose there's a Lego store at Disneyland Paris (like the one in Downtown Disney, Orlando)???? Any info appreciated, Holly

Wow! Thanks for all the welcome messages - I'm looking forward to getting involved even more now everyone is so friendly :-) Holly

Yep, it's girls name ( as well as the name of a tree ;-) ) ...I assume there are other girls on this forum??!!!! Thanks for the welcome *sweet* Holly

I thought perhaps I'd better introduce myself (as I've already started posting in the forums). I'm old (well over 30 lets just say), I live in the UK and I've been into Lego seriously for almost 2 years since discovering how cool the HP sets are (though I was lucky enough to have Lego as a child - the not-so-mini figures of the 70's/80's I remember well). I have now found out how cool the Star Wars sets are (having been a SW fan since I was 8) via my 9 year old son and we are collecting/playing with them together (he's sitting next to me playing LSW OT as I write!). We are also both Legoland Windsor annual pass holders so we get to go there a lot which is fun (I'm sure everyone is aware of the current "spend fifty quid in the shop and get a free annual pass" promotion??). Anyway, I shall stop droning on now - I just wanted to say hi and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and participating in the forums. Holly

Thank you for the welcome - I must say it's great to have found a board full of like minded people and where there are such great topics and discussions on my current passion. I miss my time on the Playmobil board - though my loss of interest coincided with a time of nastiness and in-fighting and I don't know what it's like there now. It's funny you should say that - I once started a poll about people's opinions on Lego vs Playmobil on my old board soon after I discovered the HP Lego sets. True, there were a hard core set of "AFOP's who said they hated Lego - but on the whole most people said they had room for both in their lives - and there were even a few who said they were equally into both (one bloke makes movies using customised Lego and Playmobil characters). Perhaps both toy lines appeal to at least some of us for the same reasons. Holly

I'm probably being very annoying - I don't mean to be - but I just had to comment on this as well. Playmobil have several "funparks" scattered around - the main one is in Zirndorf, Germany and is probably closest to what most people think of as a themepark - it's pretty big, has it's own hotel etc - though the attractions are a lot more low-key than Legoland, it's pretty popular. The others (in the USA, Malta and Greece) are more like play areas attached to the Playmobil shop - though I believe the Malta one has been expanded recently. Playmobil have produced clothes and pc games - though in limited numbers - as well as promotional items, keychains, jigsaw puzzles etc. They also release Target and TRU exclusives - largely in the US and Germany - there's a huge market for these on ebay, mostly, I suspect, from "AFOP's. They have never sold licenced products - and the bit about their distrubution system is, in my experience, absolutely correct, sadly. Hope I haven't been too boring - it's just that, I suppose, I used to be a bit of a Playmobil expert! Holly

Speaking as someone who used to be an AFOP (hi, I'm new, have been lurking for awhile) I couldn't resist replying to the above! There are, believe me, many AFOP's out there. I used to be very active (for about 3 years) on a board very like this one - the one difference is that it was dedicated to all things Playmobil - and there are several other boards as well. The members discuss the Playmobil line, new and old, like here - they also customise the figures and build new sets from old...etc, etc. There is also a huge ebay market for Playmobil sets. I even attended the first Playmobil Convention in Zirndorf, Germany in 2003 and also went on many less official "meets" in mainland Europe - simillar to those that AFOL's attend. I don't really know why I've lost my interest - long and very dull story - but I've been into Lego for the past couple of years (mostly Harry Potter and Star Wars but we've also got vikings, city/trains etc - I collect with my nine year old son). But there are AFOP's out there - and they are just as passionate about Playmobil as you all are about Lego!!! Holly PS Playmobil toys are released in Germany/Netherlands one year before everywhere else - which is why the Romans aren't on the UK website yet.