Today will definitely rank as one of the kid’s favorite stops on our trip. Playmobil can be found in toy stores all over the world, but for some reason our kids had never discovered it. That was until today. Malta is home to one of four Playmobil factories, responsible for creating all the people, animals, and accessories. Each year they produce 50 million little characters with one shipping container headed to the U.S. each week. We signed up for a factory tour and lucked out in having the tour guide all to ourselves. It was really interesting as we watched all the characters go from plastic pellets to various little people. The kids marveled at the different stations watching them get assembled, painted, and boxed. At one station they got to assemble their own characters and at another they got a set not yet in stores. After final assembly, each little character got his (or her) picture taken, and if they didn’t match specs in the computer, got dropped down the reject shoot. The tour guide stuck her hand in the bucket at almost every station and the kids came away with a whole new set of toys. After the tour we headed to the giant playroom where the kids tried out all the sets and had complimentary sweets. The smiles went from ear to ear.These two look like brothers. 
Ella eyeing up a new princess castle.
One of the characters they received was Santa Claus, so Ella lined everyone up to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
One of the characters they received was Santa Claus, so Ella lined everyone up to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. 
