Playmobil Secret Agent Headquarters

I have to admit this is a pretty cool toy. There is a secret agent secret room that opens up. There is a transforming car/vehicle, a motion detector alarm, a trap door leading to a jail cell, and tons of accessories. The people have lots of weapons to hold in their hands, and modern features like laptops and dvds!

And, the best part, it is very compact. I expected a huge set up by the size of the box but I would say it is approx. 18 inches wide by 12 inches high!

This was purchased as a gift for my son. The price tag said $89.99. Expensive but seems to have already provided hours of play and fun. I'm not sure where the toy was purchased but I have seen it at Toys R' Us and Playmobil online - among others.

My only complaint about this was assembly. There were photo instructions without labeled pieces or bags. When I say bags I mean there were probably 12 different bags of pieces and when you started with step 1 you had to open several (4-5) bags to get the necessary pieces. Why not just have all the pieces for step 1 in the same bag?! That would be to simple huh?!

Anyway, we also had to look a lot at the box for pieces/parts that were not listed in the instructions at all. We figured it all out in the end but it did take me 2 1/2 hours to assemble. That was of course with my two boys needing to show me every piece. My advice would be to put it together when the kids are sleeping and it would go much faster!

*****For my boys, ages 2 and 5, this is not an age appropriate toy, however, they love it and play with it supervised on a daily basis. They have acquired many many toys that are not age appropriate. Some have worked out and some have not. If you have kids that still like to put things in their mouth I would recommend against this one. Some of the pieces are really really tiny. The box says for ages 7-12.*****

Pros - compact, interesting, provides hours of play and using imagination
Cons - assembly is lengthy, expensive