DOLLHOUSE REVIEW

Top Pick

Deluxe Dollhouse

Playmobil

A high-quality dollhouse; excellent for open-ended play. A bit pricey since furniture isn't included.

MSRP: $99.99

Adjusted Price:* $200 (around $100 for the house and another $100 for 5 rooms worth of furniture)

Mfr. Recommended Age: 4 – 10 years

Assembly: 1 – 1.5 hours

Size: Medium (height typically 20 – 30 inches)

Furniture Included: None

Dolls Included: Two

Buying Options:

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Amazon

Jet

Target

Box Front

Box Back

Third Floor

Box Front

1/14

*The adjusted price is our rough calculation of the total cost of this item once you’ve bought any accessories (i.e., furniture, dolls) that aren’t included with the dollhouse.

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THE SCOOP

The Fun

Quality
Lots of rooms

The Frustration

Pricey
Furniture not included

Overview

The Playmobil Deluxe Dollhouse is a quality standout. The pieces are robust and the house sturdy. It’s pricey, especially since it doesn’t come with furniture, but the furniture sets available for purchase are super cute.

Accessories

You get the house, two dolls, and not much else. You’ll have to buy furniture and other accessories separately. Furniture will typically run $15-$20 per room.

We recommend picking up furniture for a kitchen, living room, master bedroom, bathroom, and kids room. You could throw in the baby’s room, too.

Assembly

Assembly time is decent at about an hour and a half. Most of the pieces connect well. And the only items you need that are not included are two AAA batteries and a screwdriver.

That said, there are some definite pain points.

To start, there’s the sheer number of pieces. 348, in case you’re wondering. That’s a lot of components to work with.

Not-so-expert tip #1: Spread the pieces out before you start. It makes the process a lot more manageable.

The directions are okay. In this case, we’re talking 15 pages of picture-based instructions. There is some upside to the fact that they’re entirely visual—that allows any not-yet-reading construction enthusiasts to do some of the building themselves, if so inclined.

But there are several instances where the pictures don’t quite cut it:

There are a few types of pieces that are quite similar to one another, like those pink columns that serve as connectors for various chunks of the wall. In fact, one (and we’re not saying who) might easily grab the wrong type of column, attach it to the wall, and only realize his or her mistake when that person tried to attach the wall chunk to the base of the house. That person might then screech in frustration as they try to uncover their error, realize they have the wrong type of column (or the correct column but have it oriented the wrong way), remove said column, and attach the correct piece.

Not-so-expert tip #2: Familiarize yourself with the different types of columns, flowerbeds, and the like before you start. Then keep an eagle eye on the pictures so you make sure to grab the correct one.

And then there are those little red connectors that join wall panels together or join wall panels to the floor. Evil, evil creations. Sometimes they slot into place easily. Other times they had us sputtering four-letter words. One of us even incurred a minor (okay, barely visible) injury trying to jam one into place.

Not that we’re bitter or anything.

It’s also easy to gloss over information about which side of a wall panel should be facing out versus in (which turns out to matter for all kinds of reasons, including the appearance of the house, which type of window frame you apply, etc.).

Not-so-expert tip #3: Pay close attention to whether the pink wall panels should be facing in or out for each step in the assembly process.

Play Value

The strength of the Deluxe Dollhouse comes in its spacious play spaces. The base model without the expanders includes three spacious floors. Each floor has a divider of some sort, which opens up the possibility of a variety of play spaces. (If you want to spring for the expansion packs, you can widen the house, add a floor, or both if you buy all three pieces).

The room dividers are unobtrusive, so it’s easy to maneuver the dolls around them. One of the dividers (the one on the third floor) even pops out pretty easily in case your kiddo wants the whole attic devoted to one type of space.

There aren’t a whole lot of bells and whistles to the house itself. There’s a working doorbell, but that’s it for sound effects. It didn’t bother us any (in fact we think it’s a plus—it shifts the focus from what the house can do to what the child can do with the house). It also didn’t seem to detract from the way our little testers engaged with the dollhouse. The only complaint our littlest testers had was about the lack of stairs (though a spiral staircase is available as an add-on).

It was also a plus that the furniture and other accessories (not included with the dollhouse) are super cute and very detailed (we’re talking hair brushes and toilet brushes — because what dollhouse doesn’t need a toilet brush?!).

We wouldn’t recommend picking it up by the roof, but if you pick it up by the base, the house is movable.