Papo 60101: The Big Farm

Available since 2011, this Papo big farm was developed to be used with the complete animal figure range in mind. Well it looks like a barn, Papo have made sure it can be interpreted as a toy barn or farm playset, whichever the child is after. We have categorized it has a barn despite the name and what a nicely designed and developed barn it is.

The Big Farm/Barn

Classic European designed two-floor big farm playset with an angled roof, doorways, plenty of open windows and enough gaps and hole to reach their hand through when playing from all angles.

The long rectangular shape should provides enough room inside on both levels, well it sit's on a solid baseboard.

Its all secured using screws with only the front and back walls to secure to the smaller side wall panels, then the inner top level floor is laid down.

Opening doors

Bit of a dilemma here, on one hand the double set of doors situated on the front of the barn can be opened and closed as they're on hinges - with small door knobs making it even easier.

But on the other hand just a few inches away, there you have a big open gap for the animals to escape, but don't despair, there's a reason for this as Papo have left your options open during inventive play.

The young farmer can block this entrance by placing a fence panel across the way, on the other hand they could decide to use more toy farm fences to create a sort of pen - where the farm animals can come and go out of the barn has they please.

Open plan barn

You've heard of open plan apartments, well this open plan barn is designed to make sure there's enough area for the animals to play and roam freely.

The option to divide up the barn can be achieved by using toy farm fencing to create animal pens for your cows, sheep, pigs and horses.

The space on the second floor is also open plan, and if there's enough room once they've stored the bales and accessories - the smaller animals will be happy to roam around here.

Working winch with hayloft

There must be a way to get those heavy loads of hay bales and animal feeds to the hayloft on the floor above, and you can do that with a real functioning winch.

This working winch has moving parts so is prone to breaking if not careful. Therefore Papo made it from strong natural wood and rope, and is secured to the side of the building with screws.

The big square flat platform can reach the hayloft window, well you spin the handle as the rope wines around to make the winch work.

Hinged roof panel

Building big farm playset's must have one definite feature, and that's a removable roof panel so access can be made by the child to play with their figures within the barn.

Unlike most designs, Papo have gone another way with this unique hinged roof panel. The whole thing includes MDF, natural wood pine dowel and metal fixings to create a strong hinged panel, well it's all connected through a hole on both sides to keep it secure.

Both roof panels can be lifted over one at a time which should leave enough room for unrestricted access to the hayloft level and the floor beneath that.

Staircase with storage

One feature you would have to agree with on this Papo the Big Farm playset is the big block staircase situated on the right of the barn.

A bonus as you may have noticed is the storage space to be had underneath the stairs, with access made from a hinged swinging door.

On one hand this is marvelous feature for the farm animal to gain access to the hayloft level, but for some reason the doorway - or window - is only big enough for small farm animals to go through.

Painted with detail

This playset is only partially hand painted, with focus on the undercoat and the corners where printing machines can't reach or are not designed for this method.

Instead the whole barn playset would have to have a layer of undercoat before anything else, once dried the process of printing on the brickwork and details can proceed.

Here a big machine will print on the bricks on the walls, tiles on the roof, grass and paving on the ground - its all then protected with a sealer before packing.

Made from tough MDF

Usually a big barn set like this does have hints of natural wood, instead Papo have what we feel is a good job making it all from MDF.

That's with the exception of the winch framework and the long wooden dowel that acts as the roof panel hinge - natural wood has a stronger bond than MDF and is less likely to break.

The bulk of this set is made from thin 9mm MDF, well thicker pieces are used as backing to take the screws when assembled.