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Ships & Vehicles / Re: Sunken Galleon
« Last post by JPSA on Today at 08:33:13 »Hi GrahamB. Thank you. I think so too [ ...though, to be honest, I am having a blast as well, reliving parts of my childhood! Shhh. ☺ ].
The fun forum for Playmobil® fans of all ages!
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Ships & Vehicles / Re: Sunken Galleon
« Last post by GrahamB on Today at 08:22:13 »That's a lovely creation, JPSA. Your nephew is one lucky lad!
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Brainstorming For Playmobil / Re: What's wrong with Playmobil? 2
« Last post by JPSA on Today at 06:07:28 »Given the mostly empty boxes they sell I can see this making a bigger issue with shelf space taken up by air AND not moving quickly.
Hahaha. So true!
P.S. I had an argument with my mother over this once, as I repeatedly instructed her to get rid of the PM boxes, and send me the contents only ( re. sets I had purchased in Germany and France, and had delivered to her house, abroad ). Well, she shipped the boxes anyway — to make a point ( stubborn! ) — which ended up costing a bundle in international shipping... for air. 3/4 of the package was air! Now, I can well imagine how this is bound to be an issue with retailers: the profit per sq. inch of shelf space is rather low, when it comes to PM. Something they should consider working on, for the US retail market, especially ( ...and for the planet they make a big show of being concerned about, as shipping air across the globe can't be an efficient use of resources! ).
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Ships & Vehicles / Re: Sunken Galleon
« Last post by JPSA on Today at 05:20:44 »More photos:
Note: The reason I made a big hole in the front section's underside, is because the playset was missing the compartment trap door, up top, so I cut and fashioned one out of the base. Then, I felt I had to put a smaller hole in the rear section, as well, for balance. ... Some reef, the galleon crashed into! It survived extensive battle damage, over the years, but that did it.
The captain never got over it — literally.
Inspiration:
Note: The reason I made a big hole in the front section's underside, is because the playset was missing the compartment trap door, up top, so I cut and fashioned one out of the base. Then, I felt I had to put a smaller hole in the rear section, as well, for balance. ... Some reef, the galleon crashed into! It survived extensive battle damage, over the years, but that did it.
The captain never got over it — literally.***
Inspiration:
Tintin discovers The UNICORN
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Ships & Vehicles / Sunken Galleon
« Last post by JPSA on Today at 05:14:10 »Just finished this galleon shipwreck:
I ordered an incomplete, used ghost pirate ship — set 4806 — on Ebay, a while ago ( $35 incl. shipping ), and went to town with a dremel, jewelers saw, and acrylic paint. Took about a week, in my spare time.
The acrylic paint held surprisingly well to the unprimed hull. I started with a black wash, which I applied with a couple brushes ( one 1/2 inch, and the other one, small, to re-emphasize select plank lines and cracks ), and then switched to an olive-green wash for the algae, applied via a torn sponge.
I finished by cementing PUA yarn ( which I first sponged with the algae wash, to knock down the shininess ), followed by a few clusters of modelmaking clump-foliage. ...I could have gone with another layer of lighter, apple-green algae wash, here and there, but thought better not risk it; plus, the project's due (birthday).
Note: I was tempted, initially, to use a laser level to make a diagonal cut across the hull, so the ship would be more realistically tilted sideways, partially sunken into the sand, but thought better of it, as that would make standing figures on deck impossible ( in addition to likely hampering the swivel-deck feature ). This is meant as a playset for my nephew, after all.
I ordered an incomplete, used ghost pirate ship — set 4806 — on Ebay, a while ago ( $35 incl. shipping ), and went to town with a dremel, jewelers saw, and acrylic paint. Took about a week, in my spare time.
The acrylic paint held surprisingly well to the unprimed hull. I started with a black wash, which I applied with a couple brushes ( one 1/2 inch, and the other one, small, to re-emphasize select plank lines and cracks ), and then switched to an olive-green wash for the algae, applied via a torn sponge.
I finished by cementing PUA yarn ( which I first sponged with the algae wash, to knock down the shininess ), followed by a few clusters of modelmaking clump-foliage. ...I could have gone with another layer of lighter, apple-green algae wash, here and there, but thought better not risk it; plus, the project's due (birthday).
Note: I was tempted, initially, to use a laser level to make a diagonal cut across the hull, so the ship would be more realistically tilted sideways, partially sunken into the sand, but thought better of it, as that would make standing figures on deck impossible ( in addition to likely hampering the swivel-deck feature ). This is meant as a playset for my nephew, after all.
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Brainstorming For Playmobil / Re: What's wrong with Playmobil? 2
« Last post by Klickteryx on Today at 04:40:20 »Most of the time the rotation was so quick that many sets ended up on clearanceDoes this mean that stores offload lines if they don't sell enough in a given timeframe? Given the mostly empty boxes they sell I can see this making a bigger issue with shelf space taken up by air AND not moving quickly.
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Brainstorming For Playmobil / Re: What's wrong with Playmobil? 2
« Last post by Macruran on Today at 01:50:55 »Several b&ms where I live carried PM but dropped it over the last five years or so. Sales were too slow.
There was even a local grocery chain that carried a few small sets, which is where I caught my adult Playmofever, but they don't seem to have them anymore either
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Brainstorming For Playmobil / Re: What's wrong with Playmobil? 2
« Last post by Rasputin on Today at 01:45:01 »Amazon is the biggest retailer of Playmobil in the US, I suspect they sell more than Playmobil does off their own site. They get exclusive sets, and sometimes early releases of themes not arriving in Playmobil's own store until later. Their influence on the market and the sucking away of sales from local brick and mortar is a huge factor.
They certainly have better sales also
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Direct Service/Parts Queries / Re: Playmobil DE ordering down?
« Last post by Tiermann on Today at 01:37:50 »Problem seems to be fixed. I was able to finally complete my order using PayPal like normal without any extra hoop jumping. I did make sure to not allow my browser to translate the site. I have noticed in the past problems with sites where they dont recognize data submissions from auto translated pages.
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Brainstorming For Playmobil / Re: What's wrong with Playmobil? 2
« Last post by Tiermann on Today at 01:33:15 »Amazon is the biggest retailer of Playmobil in the US, I suspect they sell more than Playmobil does off their own site. They get exclusive sets, and sometimes early releases of themes not arriving in Playmobil's own store until later. Their influence on the market and the sucking away of sales from local brick and mortar is a huge factor.