You've misunderstood me Tim, as happened the last time Chinese manufacture was discussed, so I'll try to spell it out more clearly.
1) I am not anti-Chinese. I am not anti-Japanese. I am not anti-Korean, or Tibetan. I am not anti-British, Irish, American, or Russian. I am not anti-any nationality on the Earth. OK? I am not stating my personal prejudices, I am looking at matters through the eyes of the toy-buying public worldwide.
2) In the past 2-3 years, a number of toys manufactured in China have, for whatever reason, proven to be of inferior quality, and have been withdrawn from the market. The wrong paint was applied, magnets dropped out. Parents got worried. I am not blaming the Chinese Government, Chinese people, Chinese manufacturing or anything else, I am stating a fact.
3) The fact that over 80% of toys in the world are manufactured in China, and 99.99999% of these are flawless and have never caused any problems, are bought up in their billions by everyone, and played with by children the world over, is barely mentioned.
3) The tiny fraction of poor quality toys coming from China was nonetheless noticed by a lot of people, brought about a lot of bad press, and now any toys manufactured in China may possibly be looked at askance by potential purchasers.
With me so far?
So. We're now in a climate where if someone buys a poor quality toy, and the label says "Made in China", the purchaser might say "Ah, no wonder, I should have expected it", or possibly "I had a hunch, so I checked for the words on the box....sure enough I found them.....MADE IN CHINA."
If the label said "Made in Germany" the buyer might say "Oh, I'm very surprised by this, I've never heard of poor quality toys coming from Germany".
In this market climate, Playmobil, a manufacturer of expensive but high-quality toys in Europe for over three decades, launches onto the US market set 5840 with a new style-dragon, the first seen for years, and naturally every dragon and fantasy fan rushes out to buy one.
But there's a problem. The dragon seems to be of poorer quality than previous Playmobil products, which have almost exclusively been in Europe (as per Richard's recent quote from Wikipedia. Actually the micro sets come from China, but they are outside the regular Playmo line and have been more or less ignored by collectors on this board).
Bad reviews start to appear.
Knightmo didn't like the pop-off wings.
Starhorse didn't like the pop-off wings, or the hollow rock.
Tiermann, a man who loves all Playmobil animals regardless of race, creed or colour, didn't like the pop-off wings.
Timotheos (remember him?) DIDN'T LIKE THE DROP-OFF WINGS. I quote:
Here is where the controversy starts. The dragons limbs are made of a soft rubber (mine also had a strong, somewhat objectionable smell). The legs can be pulled out with gentle force, but otherwise stay in place. The arms, however, for being jointed, don't have much range of motion before they inadvertantly pop out. I'm tempted to prophesize dire portends for the future of playmobil, but I remember having as a kid expensive, yet fall apart, Shogun Warrior toys. So, I doubt this is a reputation killer.
This bring us to the present. Jamie Jo buys a 5840 Dragon Rock set, and wants to like it very much, but is disappointed with the quality. Despite reading a poor reviews over on Playmoboard, and several here, she still hoped she'd like the set. But she doesn't. In fact, and I quote:
I purchased a 5840 Dragon Rock set today. I can't believe I am about to say this, but.........I HATE this set. This is one of the most poorly made Playmobil sets I have ever come across.
Let's just hear that again:
This is one of the most poorly made Playmobil sets I have ever come across.
So we've had five purchasers of this set on this board say they found the quality below par for Playmobil. Jamie Jo was the last reviewer, but the first to point out that it is manufactured in China.
Small aside - remember the line-up of toys shown on Danish TV which were said to be made in China? Playmobil was prominent on the table, despite the fact that not one item of Playmobil on the table had been maufactured in China.
At this point I refer back to the previous problems that have occurred with toys manufactured in China (mostly under license from Mattel I think), which caused much posting here and on other Playmobil sites, (and remember how we were all quick to defend Playmobil's reputation).
I then suggested that Playmobil launching this clearly poorly-produced (I say this to include design, manufacture and anything else that gets the toy from someone's idea into my hands) set, with a label that says made in China, might possibly damage their reputation as a manufacturer of expensive but high-quality and long-lasting toys.
And you suggest it is ME who it turning this into a Nationalist issue?
And you know what?
I'm
STILL going to buy at least one of these if I see it, because I want that dragon, and I want everyone to be wrong, and the set to be GOOD!
I don't care if it was made in China, Germany, Malta, or assembled by the little pixies in Santa's workshop, I want the set to be GOOD!
And when I'm sitting alone in my hotel room at night in Dallas (actually Irving, but who's counting), holding the dragon body in one hand and a loose wing in the other, I'm going to chant
"This is all Timotheos' fault, he made me do it.""This is all Timotheos' fault, he made me do it.""This is all Timotheos' fault, he made me do it."and cry myself to sleep, as thousands of US kids up and down your wonderful country may well be doing tonight.
So there.
Phew. Time for a cuppa and a Rich Tea Biscuit.