Here are my favorite Playmobil websites. And a couple of books.
PlaymoDB A wonderful website which attempts to give the set contents of every Playmobil set since 1974. Run by Heather Patey, this site will help you identify mystery parts, find alternative parts (e.g. where the original is no longer available), complete part sets, create your own set lists, find which set a klicky or part comes from and much more!
Playmofriends An English-language site with members from many parts of the world. The forum is a great place to show off photos or collections, to ask for help identifying or finding parts, to hear about exhibitions and events, to make friends and much more. It’s a very friendly forum!
Playmobil.de The official website of Playmobil. On this German-language site you can find the Produkt-Arkiv, with high quality pictures of most PM sets from 1974 to a few years ago. There are also downloadable catalogues (showing the latest sets, usually released in Germany before the rest of the world gets to see them) and an online shop selling recent sets as well as end-of-line products and some items only available in Germany, such as the Playmobil Magazines. You may need a German address to purchase from the shop, but Playmobil has web-based shops in other countries.
Playmobil.co.uk The British version of the official website, in English. Here you will find the Find Spare Parts facility (once it is restored, currently, May 2022, it has been disabled) giving prices of parts currently available to buy from the Direct Service department, many of them with names in English and pictures so you can check you are ordering the correct piece. Currently an equivalent service (Ersatzteile finden) with prices in Euros and names in German is available on the official German website (playmobil.de) and the Playmobil websites of European countries (but not the US, Canadian, Australian and some other sites).
There is also the facility on the UK and other European sites to view building instructions for many sets past and present and to download and print them as pdf documents.
There are many other country-specific official Playmobil websites. Scroll down to the bottom of the page on either of the sites above and click the link ‘Select country/ Länderauswahl’ on the right hand side, then choose the country you want.
Animobil Site showing every Playmobil animal ever created (including unicorns, dragons and other mythical beasts!), with information on which sets they can be found in. Also has a Playmobil Shields and Heraldry guide (including Caparisons) and pictures of all the Fi?ures (Mystery Figures) released by Playmobil.
Klickywelt. German language forum site. Membership required, but its not difficult to set up. Use Google Chrome as your browser (or copy and paste into Google Translate or other translation software) if you can’t read German (but some of the contributions are in more colloquial German, so I find myself guessing a bit!). The Datenbank-Setinhalt topic is priceless: members have submitted photographs of sets from the 1974-1990 era (many of which are now rare), showing the set contents laid out. There are some gaps (and a few errors) as well as some sets where only the box is shown, or the contents are hard to see because they are still sealed in their original bags, but this is my go-to resource for all older sets (for which PlaymoDB often has very little information)
Klickypedia A wiki site cataloguing all known Playmobil sets and including reviews, articles and facilities to help members to trade sets. International, with a preponderance of Spanish members perhaps?
Mundobil A site which aims to catalogue every set and part and help to link sellers and buyers. Parts and sets available for sale are flagged up in every list. If you know Lego sites like Bricklink, this site may feel a little familiar. Created in French but much of the site is also available in English, Spanish, German or Italian.
Amclicks. Spanish-language Playmobil forum. Often the first site to have news and pictures of new sets.
Playkingdoms. Run by avid collector Tahra and her sister, much interesting stuff!
Claudia Schott. German language site covering Playmobil and some rival toys.
Collectobil This site is now defunct, but you may come across links and references to it.
I also recommend this couple of generic sites which I have found useful as a collector of Playmobil.
eBay. Perhaps obvious, but check out the German site ebay.de as this is one of the best places to find Playmobil, especially older parts or sets. Recent changes to eBay mean that you can purchase from German sellers using Paypal even if you are not based in Germany. However, not all sellers will ship internationally; look for sellers who will ship to your location, or enlist the help of a friend living in Germany, if you have one. Since the UK left the EU (‘Brexit’), shipping charges to the UK have increased considerably due to VAT and import duties, so shipping to a German friend who can collect a batch and then ship them on to you could be cheaper, but be careful of limits to exemption from import duties. (This section updated May 2022)
Google Translate. If you do want to bid on eBay sites operating in unfamiliar languages, or read and post on non-English forums, or understand the small print in the latest (German) PM catalogues, I recommend this site. It’s not foolproof but it can be a great help. Using Google Chrome as your Web browser can give almost instant translations from German to English.
Playmobil Collector, 3. Edition. Published by Fantasia Verlag GmbH, Dreieich, Germany, 2009. Still available for purchase for £20-30 / €23/ US$60. Author Axel Hennel travelled the length and breadth of Germany and beyond (so the story goes) to catalogue and photograph every known Playmobil set and every package variant, including sets produced under licence by companies around the world. Small paragraphs of explanation- in German and English- are scattered throughout. The resulting 650-page paperback book is a very useful resource, spanning the period 1974 to 2009. For each set (9-12 per page), in order of the year of first release, there is a small picture of the box, the set number, the years it was produced and a ‘rarity rating’ (which seems to be based on the relative scarcity of the set in its original packaging, ie MISB?). It is the most comprehensive listing of PM sets, but apart from what is shown on each box, this book has limited usefulness when it comes to establishing set contents. And it ignores all but one of the DS sets.
Playmobil® The Story of a Smile
Hardback book by Felicitas Bachmann. Pub. Heel, Germany 2006. English translation. Released shortly after Playmobil’s 30th anniversary, this book covers the history of geobra and Playmobil with a detailed timeline and many excellent photographs. Several Playmobil Collectors are featured.
Page updated and revised 20 May 2022