Did You Read That Review ? (14 page)

This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room.

10,203 of 10,356 people found the following review helpful

Great lesson for the kids!

By
loosenut
, September 9, 2005

I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5-year-old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said, “That’s the worst security ever!” But it turned out to be OK,
because when the passenger got on the Playmobil B757 and tried to hijack it, she was mobbed by a couple of other heroic passengers, who only sustained minor injuries in the scuffle, which were treated at the Playmobil Hospital. The best thing about this product is that it teaches kids about the realities of living in a high-surveillance society. My son said he wants the Playmobil Neighborhood Surveillance System set for Christmas. I’ve heard that the CC TV cameras on that thing are pretty worthless in terms of quality and motion detection, so I think I’ll get him the Playmobil Abu-Ghraib Interrogation Set instead (it comes with a cute little memo from George Bush).

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

Not compatable with other toys

By
Brian M Smallwood
, February 12, 2013

Playmobil’s proprietary system isn’t very practical. My son loves to play with this system, but his GI Joes won’t go through the opening. Neither will his matchbox cars, nor his transformers. The security guards just won’t allow them through. But does this stop the green army men from passing through? No. How about the nerf darts, essentially tomahawk missiles in Playmobil scale? They pass right through. Whatever deals corporate has brokered with other companies is unfair. Let all toys through, or no toys through.

4,665 of 4,810 people found the following review helpful

Serious Security Breach

By
W. C. Isbell “roxybeast”
, February 29, 2008

My family was planning a vacation to Europe, so I purchased this item to teach my twins about what to expect at the airport and, hopefully, alleviate some of their anxiety. We also downloaded the actual TSA security checklist from the American Airlines website and then proceeded with our demonstration. Well, first we had to round up a Barbie and a few Bratz dolls to play the other family members, so that cost us a few extra bucks at the Dollar General, and it is aggravating that the manufacturer did not make this product “family friendly.” Of course, since the Playmobil dad could not remove his shoes or other clothing items, unlike the Barbie, the Playmobil security agent became suspicious and, after waving her wand wildly a few dozen times, called her supervisor to whisk the dad into a special body-cavity search room, (which incidentally led to quite an embarrassing and interesting discussion with my twin daughters about personal hygiene and a slight adjustment to the rules we had them memorize about touching by strangers). But worst of all, since the suitcase did not actually open, the baggage inspector made a call to the FBI and ATF bomb squads, which then segregated the family’s suitcase (which, btw, was the only suitcase they provided for our educational family experience), and according to the advanced TSA regulations, had to blow it up, (since they could not otherwise mutilate the luggage, break off the locks, and put one of those nice little advisory stickers on it), which we had to simulate out in the backyard with a few M-80s and other fireworks. The girls started crying. They became so hysterical by the whole experience that we could not even get them in the car when the time came to actually take our trip, and so we had to cancel the whole thing at the last minute, losing over $7,000 in airfare and hotel charges that we could not recoup due to the last-minute cancellations. We’ve now spent an additional $3,000 to pay for the girls’ therapy and medication over the past year since this incident occurred, and the psychologists have told us that this will affect them for life; so much for their college fund and our retirement. Then, to top it all off, when we tried to use to the Playmobil phone to call the company to ask for reimbursement, as you might expect, of course the damn thing didn’t even work; neither did our efforts to e-mail them using the computer screen on the baggage checkpoint; and our real-life efforts to contact them to obtain reimbursement have also likewise been ignored. Worse yet, we had the product tested and found out that it was positive for both lead paint and toxic chemicals, having been manufactured in China by workers holding formerly American jobs,
so now we all have cancer and have been given only another year or so to live. My advice—educating your kids about airport security with this toy may actually be more harmful to them than just packing them in the damn luggage with some bottled water & hoping they survive. :)

Customer Questions & Answers

Is this the same play set used for transatlantic flights/customs? Does duty-free over 3 oz. still get confiscated?

It is close to being the same set. On the “International” version, you get the foreign customs officials.

Amazingly, there were no forms to fill out, the process is efficient, and it actually felt like they wanted you to visit their country.

Frank McGhee II
answered on February 6, 2013