Well, no toy line licensing. They did license corporate brand names - Shell oil, Pirelli tires, Blaupunkt, obviously BMW and Porsche. Last couple years NHL. They just didn't do media properties. So that is a change, but lets not pretend they were some ethically pure entity standing athwart worldwide branding and yelling stop. They just had previously made the decision that media licenses cost more than they would bring in extra revenue. Obviously if media licensing didn't work LEGO would be out of business now, and instead they have become bigger than Playmobil especially on the world stage. Playmobil has always been unable to really get a foothold in the US market, as well as many other international ones. Going for media licenses is one way to try to reach into those markets in a new way. I was surprised that the US 2017 catalog doesn't have the licensed lines in it. I assume they are coming out here but maybe not, it may be that Playmobil only has a license for German release and not for international? We will know after US Toy Fair I guess. So if say Ghostbusters and Dreamworks Dragons aren't going to be sold internationally - how many of you collectors would go out of your way to buy some of those licensed sets? If you would do that for even one, then decrying the change is a bit hypocritical.
The one constant in life is change. If Playmobil didn't keep trying to find new ways to reach customers it could well eventually go away entirely. I don't think that's what any of us want. If you look at this year's new catalog there have been some clear shifts in focus, but the majority of it is still the same playworld lines of one sort or another and all of it still is in the same scale and can be used with every bit of Playmobil you already own. For me the far more significant shifts that are of concern are the speeding up of the release and discontinuation schedule and the fact that not all themes are now being released in all markets. As a collector that is a way bigger deal to me than if they add a few lines of media-centric licenses.